Last Jedi Minute 36: Is Today Tomorrow?

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Date

March 22th, 2021

Summary

We pack guest commentators Connor Ratliff, Griffin Newman & Patrick Cotnoir into the briefing room so Larma D’Acy can update us on Leia's status!

Guests

Connor Ratliff, Griffin Newman, and Patrick Cotnoir

Notes

Film

• Starts with Luke, who was originally refusing the call, and is now up for it. Ends with Larma D'Acy announcing that the chain of command is clear.

Podcast

• Out of the context of the internet response to this movie, this week's minutes seem very innocuous on their own, but they turn out to be five of the most controversial minutes in the whole film.
• Mark Hamill really brings it in this movie, especially considering that he didn't really like the direction the character was taken, it's his best-ever on-camera acting work.
  • When it comes to interviews, Mark Hamill has very little of a filter. He talks very openly and during the press cycle for this movie that was weaponized against him.
    • The tension and friction is what makes filmmaking interesting.
  • Mark Hamill is better in this part than he wanted to be; he wanted to be the heroic Luke, but the story was more about trying and failing.
    • His frustration that the character was different than he imagined probably helped his performance, as Luke is also not thrilled about how his life has turned out.
• Your reaction to Star Wars is highly dependent on the age you are and the order you first saw the movies in.
  • People who went decades thinking of Luke as one thing and then seeing him like this meant they had to confront where they were in their own lives. People were looking for a fantasy and were hit with a wake-up call, a splash of reality.
  • Michael Arndt, who originally was going to write Episode 7, tried to write the purely heroic Luke that everyone had imagined but it didn't work from a character or plot perspective. It was a narrative dead-end.
  • Lucas' original outline for Episodes 7–9 (that Disney threw out) still had Luke as a disillusioned "Col Kurtz"-type. Referenced: Apocalypse Now.
• Of the three Jedi that we've seen exile themselves when things got tough, Luke went to the nicest place. But it is very different from where he grew up (though he hated it there). Mentioned: The Departed.
  • If you're a Jedi, eventually you will end up as a crazy old hermit living in a hut.
  • Luke is the third and sets the pattern.
  • Luke's final act vs. Yoda's death (and Obi-Wan's).
• The Last Jedi was ahead of its time because it was a message about the advantages of working remotely.
• People who dislike this movie feel betrayed that Luke doesn't just not want to get involved, but actually thinks it's time for the Jedi to end.
  • Mentioned: Griffin's podcast Blank Check. The text (not even the subtext) of the Prequels is about the arrogance and hubris of the Jedi (and thus their downfall).
    • Though to be fair they had a pretty good run.
• Pete and Connor agree that Oppo Rancisis is the worst.
• Luke says he'll give Rey three lessons tomorrow at dawn. What does that mean from a timing perspective?
  • Does that mean in the morning, or if it's after midnight then do they have to wait a whole day for it to be tomorrow?
  • Pete got in trouble at work over a similar issue.
  • Plus, he woke her up to tell her this and what if she's too groggy to address the question of "is today tomorrow?"
  • And there's no way she's going to be able to go back to sleep now, after getting news like that.
  • Add in the difficulty of this being in space and on different planets etc.
• Boringly, whenever we look up planets on Wookieepedia, they are usually very similar to Earth. It's a missed opportunity.
• Luke is super rude for waking Rey up.
  • The deleted scene where he plays a mean prank on Rey. Yoda pulls it off better.
  • Mark Hamill performing Luke as the Joker.
• What if this movie covered the events of "The Rise of Kylo Ren" instead? It would be a good excuse to put all our main returning cast back together again, and it's something we've heard about but not seen (à la the Clone Wars).
  • But think back to the Prequels where people had years to imagine what that would be like and then were very disappointed when the films didn't match their expectations.
    • One of the chief complaints people have about the Sequel films is that certain things don't feel like they're sufficiently set up, but that's where the OT and PT films have an unfair advantage because we've all lived with them for decades now.
    • The blanks from the Original Trilogy were left as blanks for nearly 40 years, and a big part of the fun of watching the movies is how much they left to your imagination.
      • For example, we have no idea (and it's not explained) what the red laser doors in TPM are or what they're for, and that's great. See also: Luke drinking the green milk, whatever the Ugnaughts' or Lobot's deal is.
• Referenced: an old interview George Lucas did

 He explained that he loved when he was in film school and first saw Kurosawa films because, as they were made for a Japanese audience, the traditions were not explained and were passed off as second nature, leaving a sense of culture shock for an American such as himself. That's the energy he wanted to capture with Star Wars, that you were just seeing an artifact from a real world that was not going to slow down and explain itself to you.

• There is no wrong way to consume Star Wars, apart from attacking others and constantly being furious.
• Patrick, paraphrasing Lucas responding to potential fan ire about Luke's green lightsaber coming out of nowhere in ROTJ: "so we'll get a couple angry letters in Starlog Magazine. Who cares."
  • The weird (and unfortunate) thing is that the modern equivalent of this has been weaponized to Death Star-like proportions.
• The guys will be back tomorrow.
• Plug for the YouTube channel.

Meta Minute

• 38:46 podcast episode length.
• As of the date this episode aired there is no canonical mention of how long the day is on Ahch-To. But apart from that issue, depending on where you land on the planet, the time of year there, and on the planet's tilt (if any), the amount of daylight will vary from season to season just as it does on Earth. All the more reason to think Luke is being a jerk to Rey if he expects her to figure all of this out in time for a pre-morning training session.

Quotes

• Griffin: [Obi-Wan] doesn't even throw in the towel, he turns into a towel, essentially!
• Pete: We're just like Luke, we're basing—like, alright we should throw the whole thing out; just look at Ki-Adi-Mundi.
• Griffin: That guy [Harrison Ford in the late 80s to early 90s, around the time he did Presumed Innocent] would not stay married to the woman from When Harry met Sally! That would not be a good marriage.

Links

Audio only

https://art19.com/shows/star-wars-minute/episodes/60cbcf50-5b0f-49e5-8063-f528be9e17f6

Video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTv_OEc0a6c

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