Star Wars VI: Return of the Jedi
Latest Reflections from the Guild
It's been a while since I've seen this movie so I need to watch it again before I do a plot summary and nitpicking. However, John Latchem sent a list for each of the movies in the trilogy so I thought I'd start a file!
Reflections from the Guild
[Note from Phil: I have not verified these but they sounded good to me!]
John William Latchem: These nits are based on the Star Wars Trilogy Letterboxed Edition VHS Collectors set released in 1992.
This is a great movie. The special effects are top notch and the final battle between Luke and Vader is great. But here is what we want to see. THE NITS!
Jabba is a true sadist. He is even having droids tortured!
It's a good thing that Jabba's men didn't wipe the memories of/or search R2-D2 and C-3PO. Then Luke's plan would be ruined and Jabba would have his lightsaber!
After Luke kills the rancor he is brought before Jabba with Han and Chewbacca. The shot of them from behind Jabba shows Leia struggling and Jabba holding her chain. The next shot is of Leia and Jabba and Leia is perfectly still and Jabba's hand is down.
Han and Luke are talking on the skiff. Luke says he grew up here. Han looks at him and tells him he will die here. Han is still looking at him when the shot changes and Han is suddenly looking away from Luke.
When Luke jumps from the plank, he grabs it with one hand, but when the shot changes he is holding on with both hands.
Luke jumps from one skiff to the other and kicks a guard. Only problem is he misses the guards face by inches. Good thing the guy knows to fall down. (Force kick, perhaps?)
After Leia fires the cannon into the sail barge, Luke motions for her to join him and says "Come On." Only problem is his lips don't move as he says it.
When the Emperor shows up at the Death Star, the scene begins with three groups of TIEs flying from behind the camera towards the Death Star. Watch the second group of TIEs. They just disappear!
What's up with Obi-Wan's ghost? It is able to move plants and even has to sit down! Just making Luke feel comfortable?
In the holographic conference room, the holographic Death Star explodes and holographic debris flies past Admiral Ackbar. Ackbar, however, is standing beyond the holographic projection booth.
Admiral Piett is now wearing the Captain's insignia. In Empire Strikes Back he was a captain and wore the 6 square insignia. He was promoted to Admiral and then wore the 12 square insignia. He may have been demoted for letting the Millennium Falcon get away, but the way he acts in this movie doesn't support this and the novelization still refers to him as Admiral.
After our heroes are trapped in an Ewok net, Artoo makes only one cut and the net falls? I think more cuts are required for the bottom to drop out of the net.
Threepio tells the Ewoks of his adventures. What happened to Threepio not being much of a storyteller as he claimed in the first movie?
Luke tells Vader that Leia is already on the moon but Vader doesn't arrive until later, after Luke surrenders.
Admiral Ackbar tells the fleet to wait for his mark to go into hyperspace. Lando must be in a hurry because he doesn't wait, unless the signal was non verbal as it was in the novel, in which case we can't see the signal.
After an Ewok steals a speeder bike and three Imperials go after him, Leia looks at Threepio and is smiling. The shot changes and suddenly Leia is looking at Han and is not smiling.
The Superlaser of this Death Star and the first one is different. The first one fired many beams which merge into one. This one fires many beams which meet at one point, and then a large beam fires from the superlaser, seemingly independent of the others.
After Leia tells Han that Luke is her brother, they kiss. The Ewok Wicket appears from behind a log. Han and Leia scratch his neck, but in the close up their hands are gone.
Christopher Pope: 1. Leia's Boushh disguise looks AMAZINGLY similar to the outfits worn by the Breen in the DS9 episode "Indiscretion." (Note from Phil: Of course, Star Wars did come first!)
2. As Leia (disguised as Boushh) sneaks around Jabba's Presence Room, she bumps into some wind chimes. Jabba the HUTT has wind chimes?
3. Jabba keeps his wind chimes indoors. (Think about it.)
4. How does Leia justify strangling Jabba? Is it OK to just go around killing bad people? As vengeful as Hutts are, is this wise? Jabba might have a family. I don't think you can claim "Kirkinization" on this one.
5. non-nit: Yoda's floating cane. If you look closely at the bottom of the screen (P&S version), you can see Luke's hand moving the cane out of the way so Yoda can lie down.
6. Ben's ghost sits down.
7. Vader's lost hand brings my severed arm/hand count to eight: 3PO, the Aqualish in the cantina, what Wookiees do if they lose at space chess, the Wampa, Vader's (almost) when Luke's saber grazes his shoulder, Luke, the Sarlacc, and Vader.
Bob Canada: "General Solo?" "General Calrissian?" Seems pretty easy to get promoted in this army doesn't it? Granted, they played crucial roles in rebellion victories (Solo sent Vader's ship a'tumblin in SW, and Lando uh...collaborated with the enemy and then had a change of heart and led a rescue mission to rescue one person), but General? "Captain" at the very most.
So a Jedi can't use the Force for attack? A noble philosophy for a scholar, but not very useful for a soldier. No wonder Vader & the Empire were able to hunt them down. The minute they fight back they're consumed by the Dark Side & join the other side.
Brian Lombard: There's a great nit during the battle on Tatooine. Lando has fallen off the skiff and is about to fall into the pit. The skiff is hit again, and Han goes over feet first, holding on with his hands. In the very next shot, he's hanging by his feet, with his arms towards Lando!
Also, when Han goes into carbon freeze in ESB, he has black arm bands on his white shirt. When he thaws out in ROTJ, the bands are gone.
Jason Liu: (Note from Phil: Jason did say that all these came from memory and I might need to verify them but I've had a busy week!)
My favorite dialogue of the entire Trilogy is the one between Darth Vader and Commander Jerjerrod at the beginning of this movie.
I still don't think that it is humanly possibly to pilot a vehicle travelling at, oh, say 60 mph, through a dense forest. Hey, I've played the Return of the Jedi arcade game and Rebel Assault 2, and it's just not possible :)
Those biker scouts really need to learn to keep their heads up when running around. Throughout the movie, they run with their heads down, not seeing what's ahead of them.
When the scout trooper captures Leia and Wicket (temporarily), Wicket creates a distraction and Leia hits him with a log. The trooper is immediately incapacitated. Isn't that armor made to protect against such physical attacks? It would be like hitting someone with a baseball helmet with a 90-mile hour fastball or a bat. The person would be hurting, for sure, but he would be still conscious.
If those are his best troops, the Emperor needs to overhaul his training program. His best troops are beaten by a handful of Rebel commandos and a bunch of walking teddy bears armed with stone weapons (again, I bring up the point about the stormtrooper armor). And then they give up without a fight at the end. No wonder the Empire collapsed!
The shield generator explodes in a very spectacular fashion, yet Han and the others, who are maybe only 200 yards away are not touched by the explosion at all!
You know, if the Empire had put in one 5 mm thick sheet of metal between the outside and the core of the Death Star, the Rebel attack would have failed.
And speaking of failures, if the Emperor had kept his mouth shut at the end, Luke might have just killed Darth Vader without even thinking about it.
Christopher Pope: When the Emperor arrives on the Death Star, he and Vader walk through the bay with Imperials standing at attention (supposedly) on either side. The soldiers in the background during the close-ups match the opening wide shot pretty closely, but as the Emperor says his last line, on his left he has just passed some guys in black uniforms and is just now in front of some officers in olive uniforms. The wide shot that immediately follows shows white-armored stormtroopers and biker scouts lined up on either side of the villains, with no black or olive uniforms among those to the left of the Emperor.
Toni Mattis: I don't know whether this is a nit or just a complaint. This movie returns Luke to his home planet and NEVER mentions the murder of his aunt and uncle, who raised him. If memory serves, their murder was the reason he became a rebel in the first place. He conveniently forgets that Daddy Darth was responsible for their deaths.
Eric Lee Cline: Bob Canada said that Jedi cannot use the Force to attack. However, they can use it in defense. Yoda says so. Ben does so in the fight in the cantina in Star Wars: A New Hope.
Darren Bennett of Brisbane, Australia: On the subject of Ewoks v Two (count them) of the Emperor's Best Legions, let's examine the defence capabilities of these teddy bears.
1. Hang Gliders. Okay, could be fun when you live in a big tree.
2. Catapults. Nice rock-slingers. Just what were they firing these against before the Imperials came? Perhaps all is not so civil in the teddy bear kingdom?
3. Log Pile, tripping of bipedal walker for. Could just be a log pile, pressed into necessary military service.
4. Big Swinging Logs, crushing of bipedal walker for. Come on now. These aren't logs, they're TREES!. So what we're expected to believe is that about six generations of ewoks spent their lives hauling these trees up into the other trees, in the hope that:
a) One day they would be invaded by something the right height,
b) That something would kindly walk between the suspended trees, and
c) The ewoks' timing would be spot on to hit it.
Puh-leese!
Also: Ackbar: "We won't last long against those star destroyers" Lando: "We'll last longer than we will against that Death-Star"
So what happened when the DS blew up. Sure, the Executor had been destroyed, but the rest of the fleet was still there. Must have had more of the Emperor's Best Troops in command and they all self destructed!
Ryan Grove of Somerville, TX: At the beginning of the movie when Vader's shuttle arrives at the new Death Star, watch the top of the screen closely as Vader walks down the boarding ramp. Just as the camera begins to pan down at the end of the ramp, Vader's head goes THROUGH a part of the door that is hanging overhead!
At the end, when Han is running frantically away from the shield generator and yelling at everyone to move, look closely just to the left of the actor. You can see his reflection in a plastic blast shield that was used to protect the actors from the pyrotechnics.
When Luke is dragging the dying Vader through the corridors of the Death Star, why doesn't anybody notice that this 'Rebel Scum' is dragging their Lord Vader, the Emperor's right-hand man, behind him on the floor?
When the Rebel A-Wing crashes into the bridge of the Super-Star Destroyer, the shadow that we see breaking through the glass looks very much like a small car for some reason...not like an A-Wing.
Kevin Weiler: Right after Leia fires the gun at the deck of the Sail Barge, she and Luke swing across a rope. Rope?!?! From where?
When the Emporer is falling down the shaft at the end of the movie, he just burns up at the bottom. 1.Why doesn't he just use the Force to prevent the fall? 2.Couldn't he of sensed Vader's intentions to throw him over? 3.He just burns up at the bottom? Why?
David Tayman: Right before Oola (the dancing Twi'lek w/ two prehensile worm-like appendages sticking out of her head) falls into Jabba's Rancor pit, her breasts 'falls out' of her suit. Truely!
Eric Lee Cline: In response to Kevin Weiler's nits . . .
Rope! I thought about it too, watched the movie, and lo and behold, there are actually several ropes lying around there! Why are they there, that's the problem.
Also, The Emperor wasn't expecting Vader to attack,and wasn't able to stop to save himself. Also, he exploded. The novels all say it was a backwash of pent-up Dark Side energy.
And now... my nis from the first half of the film!
Odd, the Empire has switched alphabets! In SW4, they were using plain English on their tractor beam, but all of SW6's computers have weird symbols on them(according to the RPG, it's an "alternate" alphabet called the Aurabesh).
How DOES Artoo record 3-D images with a 2-D camera?
The boxy droid being burned(known as GONK to people on rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc) in the torture chamber clearly has steam jets in his feet.
The droid Threepio looks at when 9D9 says the last protocol droid was disintegrated was being drawn and quartered, not disintegrated.
The frog-thing Jabba eats is alive when he picks it up, but he clearly swallows a toy frog.
When Boussh(Leia) breaks in, you hear blaster fire. From what? She's carrying a staff.
Leia's suicide plan with the Detonator made no sense. What if Jabba hadn't agreed?
Did Tatooine's suns shrink. They look a lot smaller during the sunset scene in this movie.
More bad strategy by Leia... why not look to see if anyone's awake before thawing Han?
Great Moment #1(of many) - Leia taking off her helmet and revealing herself. Very moving!
Why does Threepio not talk if a hand is over his "mouth." Surely that wouldn't make a bit of differnce.(this happens twice, when Jabba surprises Han and Leia and when they sneak up on the Endor bunker.
Speaking of Jabba surprising them, why was the band back there? They were hired help, not professional goons! (Note from Phil: Gotta watch those musicians, though. They're usually a surly bunch!)
Luke choked the two Gamorrean (green pig) guards. Isn't that using the Force to attack? No, no Luke!
The Rancor was a painfully obvious bluescreen shot at a few points(like where he jabbed the bone in its mouth).
An observation. When Threepio is passing sentence on Luke and Han, Bib Fortuna(the guy with the head tails) is in the back standing in the corner! Was Jabba that mad at him for letting Luke in?
When Artoo fires the lightsaber at Luke, it takes a long time to reach his hand. Plenty of time, in fact, for him to be riddled with blaster bolts.
When Lando is grabbed by the Sarlaac, it begins pulling him down. We see both of his hands free. However, in the next scene he is holding on to the rod Han has for him.
How'd they pick up the droids before the barge blew?
An observation. In the gathering for Emperor Palpatine's arrival, there are Probe and Interrogation droids lined up too!
Don't the Rebels use a standard rank insignia. The Rebels on the Cruiser are wearing different ones than the ones in Echo Base(in ESB) were.
After the briefing, the scene chages to the Death Star. We see two TIEs fly past a large tower. Are we supposed to assume that this is where the Emperor is? (the top has the right shape) This is a horrible place for the most important man in the Empire. According to all of the reference materials, this is the most heavily defended part of the station, but a TOWER!?
From all known pictures, the bridge structures on Super and Imperial-class Star Destroyers are identical. But in Jedi, the Rebel's stolen fighter looks tiny compared to the bridge while in Empire, the Falcon hangs off the ISD(Imperial Star Destroyer) and is HUGE.
During the speeder bike chase scene, Luke and Leia's cloaks aren't whipping around as fast as they should be for their apparent speeds.
Why did Artoo and Threepio accompany the Rebels on the mission to Endor? Artoo I can see(computer hacking) but what good was Threepio? However, if he hadn't gone, the Ewoks would have eaten them...
Also, why weren't R2-D2 and C-3P0 camoflaged(sp?)?
Great Moment: When Wicket and Leia meet for the first time, both do an excellent job in their respective roles.
Why, Chewie, why!? You would think an intelligent creature such as Chewbacca should recognize an obvious trap when he sees one.
Great Moment/Line: "It's against my programming to impersonate a deity." C-3P0
Artoo is not tied up in any scene after Luke and Threepio start talking about getting them free. Look for yourself! Actually, this is the fault of the people who edited the film. Originally, Artoo was freed once they found he wasn't edible, but the editors put it with everyone else's freeing(it works better that way, but a nit's a nit).
While fighting the Imperial AT-STs, the Ewoks try to trip one with a large rope. One of the Ewoks doing the tripping is Logray, their medicine man(the Ewok with the pointy skull on his head). Why send a medicine man, a valued and irreplaceable part of the tribe, to fight?
Great Moment/Lines: Any thing the Emperor says. That man bleeds evil.
Last three great moments: 1. When the Luke looks at his robotic hand and his father's severed one. Great Symbolism! 2. Vader's death. A very touching scene indeed. 3. Vader's funeral. Also, very touching.
John Latchem: In response to the nits about the Ewok defenses, I must point out that Endor is not a teddy bear heaven. George Lucas made Endor the focus of two TV movies in 1984 and 1985 and an animated series not long after that. The Ewoks are occassionally menaced by Goraxes (giant humanoids) and in the second TV movie they are attacked by a band of marauders who crashed on Endor a century before and are being helped by a Dark Force Witch! The Ewoks probably have their defenses set up to fight these menaces.
Also, The Imperial Fleet saw the Executer go down, they saw the Death Star explode, so they gave up. Some captains defected and the Rebels got their ships. Others, like Captain Palleon, escaped. This is in the novels.
And when the Emperor died he exploded in a dark force energy cascade (good guys disappear, darksiders explode). The Emperor was seriously weakened by his own energy bolts and maybe he had a heart attack on the way down (he WAS old). Besides, he knew he could inhabit another body, as he does in "Dark Empire" (although I doubt this was what they had in mind when the movie was made).
As for all the energy bolts. Luke takes about 5 minutes worth of energy. Vader takes about 10 seconds worth and dies. Smoke is eminating from Luke and he is okay? "Truce at Bakura" does begin with Luke getting Medical care for this but still. Vader dies? Must be a short circut.
Robert Cook of Anacortes, WA: There's a "even if you DON'T blink you'll miss it" technical nit in ROTJ. I don't claim to be the first one to see it- it was discussed on a TV show about special effects several years. Just after the Rebel fighters turn back from the still-active Death Star defense shield, a wave of TIE fighters come racing over from the lurking Star Destroyers. In a brief shot, we see the Millenium Falcon with TIEs zooming around it on all sides. In this scene, someone got one of the mattes(?) wrong, and a group of far-away TIEs that should have gone "behind" the Falcon go "in front" of it. What you end up seeing is a group of three or four tiny fighters scooting along the underside of the Falcon. You really have to use a good freeze-frame to see it the first time, but after that, it jumps out at you, even at normal speed.
Jason Gaston, San Angelo TX: During the Speeder chase, in one scene you can see the support holding up Luke's speeder.
During the space battle, before Lando Calrissian says, "I wonder what those star destroyers are waiting for" watch the stardestroyer on the right side. It flys up in front of the super-stardestroyer and then drifts down behind it. Bored captain maybe?
Joseph Pintar: How did Lando get to be one of Jabba's guards? Did he replace one of the guards and stole his uniform or did Jabba not do a background check on him?
Luke seems to have a "just the way I planned it" attitude toward Han's rescue. Maybe he could foresee they would be victorious.
Does it strike anybody else as odd that Han would want to rescue Lando? After all, Lando did betray Han to Vader and it is still fresh in Han's mind. Or is it normal for these two to do this to each other?
I think when Yoda tells Luke that he requires no more training, he really said "I'm dying. I don't want to be bothered anymore."
To justify not telling Luke the truth about his father he says many of the truths we cling to depend on our own point of view. While this is true, it is also a bit of a cop out. Face it: Obi Wan Kenobi lied! A Jedi Knight who was once respected for being a guardian of peace and justice lies. Is lying really something a Jedi Knight would do? (Of course, Yoda withheld his identity in the last movie and Luke identified himself as a Jedi Knight in a message to Jabba the Hutt when he really wasn't. So I don't know.)
Where in the world did Luke come up with the idea that there is still good in his father? Yoda just got through telling him that once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny. I know Luke is eventually proven right but it still feels like they shouldn't have wimped out Darth Vader.(One of the problems with this movie is that telegraphed the ending way too far in advance. Maybe if these discussions didn't take place, Vader killing the Emperor would've been more stunning.)
Consider the premise of the original movie with the facts we learn in this movie: Droids who have the plans to The Death Star happen to run into the son of Emperor's right hand man. He see a woman in a message who happens to be his sister. He then runs into his father's old teacher and rival. I'll let you decide for youself whether or not this is one concidence too many.
Does it seem right that a smuggler and a gambler become generals? Besides, Han was stuck in carbon freezing for awhile. For this, he becomes a general? (Note from Phil: In war, funny things happen!)
The rebels are either naive, stupid, or desperate. A Death Star is sitting in a remote part of the galaxy with the fleet supposedly far away from it and the Emperor on board. This looks, feels, and smells like a trap! Why didn't any of the rebel leaders suspect a trap? Are the rebels that desperate that they are walking in an obvious trap.
In the scene where the Emperor arrives, it's pretty obvious that some of the Imperial troops are phony (the same way some of the Stormtroopers look like cardboard cutouts in the first movie.) Why didn't the Emperor wait until the Death Star is finished to leak the information to the rebels? It would have been invincible! Why didn't the Empire simply put the shield generator inside the Death Star? It would be much easier to defend and they could anywhere with it.
Was is Han putting the mission on hold to look for Leia. He has a mission to do and speed is of the essence. (Note from Phil: It's love, I tell you!)
Is it really a good time for Luke to dessert his friends and go face Vader? The mission has priority over any personal problems Luke has. Luke sure would be useful against the Imperial troops.
The ewoks really know where to put their primitive weapons. They just happen to be near the shield generator! Glad the Imperial troops never noticed.
Does it seem a little convenient that the rebels find an entrance with only four guards and three are away chasing an ewok? This should have rang alarm bells in the rebels' minds.
Luke says the emperor has failed because he is a Jedi like his father before him. That says nothing because his father turned to the dark side. Also, does anybody else think that Luke use the dark side against Vader? If that's true than Luke already turned to the dark side.
Following up on a question about why Luke lived and Vader dies, Vader has a life support system in his suit. It was disabled by the Emperor's bolts. This is why he died. Luke obviously used the force to make all those Imperial troops ignore that shuttlecraft that was conveniently ready to go. Why did Luke take his father's dead body with him to Endor?
Why didn't the Death Star simply blow up like it did in the first movie? (Obviously to make sure Lando would live. I heard there was another ending where the Millenium Falcon is destroyed by the Death Star blowing up. It was trashed after preview audience didn't like it. Note Han's funny feeling that he wasn't going to see the Millenium Falcon again.)
Zak Kazmierczak: Non-nit: The Emporer wanted to get thrown down the reactor chamber! (after all, why else would there BE a reactor chamber in the Emporer's office?) "Strike me down and I'll become more powerful then you can possibly imagine." If it works for Obi-Wan then it works for Palpatine.
Matthew Chiappardi of Hamilton, NJ: A response to Joseph Pintar's comments on Luke's comments about his father. 'I am a Jedi, like my father before me'. This is not hypocritical. In fact this scene is one of the most beautiful in an otherwise uneven film. It's this moment that Luke becomes a
true Jedi. He relinquises his weapon to not become a destructive monster and places himself at the mercy of the most poweful man in the galaxy based on principle. We learn that being a Jedi is not really about combat and lightsabers, but more intangible things like honor, peace, and love. His comments are an hommage to Anakin Syywalker, the great Jedi who went wrong, but was at one time a great man. Luke would rather stay true to the principles of Jediness (if you will) and die shirtly after than knock off a bunch of guys to live the rest of his life in cowardice. The emperor then proceeds to attempt to kill Luke and Vader looks down and sees that his son did not succumb to the pressure he did, sees that his son is a
better man than he. In that monet he repents his sins and saves his sons. it's such a neat scene.
Murray Leeder: It's a good thing that no one noticed that Boushh was walking rather
femininely. (Note from Phil: Ah, but what do we really know about Boushh? Maybe that's the way he walks!)
If you would like to add some comments,
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Copyright 1996 by Phil Farrand. All Rights Reserved.