If you want to find out just what kind of fan of Star Wars somebody is, ask them what their opinion is of Han Solo shooting the green-skinned pistol packing alien named Greedo in Episode IV: A New Hope.
When George Lucas decided to tinker with Episode IV for the release of its Special Edition back in 1997, among the changes he made was the controversial decision to show Greedo firing his laser pistol at Han at point blank range in the cantina scene and somehow missing, while Han's energy bolt from under the table came a split second later. For purists of Star Wars like myself, the scene looked comedic. Was Lucas really serious about how this classic moment from the original Star Wars should have happened?
Since that revision came back in '97, many Star Wars fans have been wondering why George Lucas decided to have Greedo fire first. Critics of the change say that it alters the character arc of Han Solo from starting off as a scoundrel and rogue to a more traditional hero, thus making Han's change of heart and coming back to help Luke Skywalker destroy the Death Star at the end of the movie not that big of a deal. Now, finally, Lucas has gone on the record about his reasons for changing the cantina confrontation scene -- and well, the answer is pretty consistent with Lucas' propencity for revisioning history.
"Well, it's not a religious event. I hate to tell people that. It’s a movie, just a movie," Lucas said to The Hollywood Reporter of the brouhaha. "The controversy over who shot first, Greedo or Han Solo, in Episode IV, what I did was try to clean up the confusion, but obviously it upset people because they wanted Solo [who seemed to be the one who shot first in the original] to be a cold-blooded killer, but he actually isn’t. It had been done in all close-ups and it was confusing about who did what to whom. I put a little wider shot in there that made it clear that Greedo is the one who shot first, but everyone wanted to think that Han shot first, because they wanted to think that he actually just gunned him down."
What Lucas seems to be ignoring is that for 20 years the audience had no trouble accepting that it was Han Solo that fired his gun first. Not only was the original scene never a problem for audiences (and certainly there was never any confusion that I've ever come across about what had happened in that scene) but the Special Edition version showing us Greedo firing first and wildly missing his target doesn't make a lot of sense.
Lucas is right about one thing: it is just a movie after all. Perhaps the best way to show him how inconsequential Star Wars is would be to not buy a ticket to see it again in theaters.
Lucas is dead to me and he has ruined the greatest cinematic (and playtime and toy box) experiences of my childhood.
It is no surprise that the best movie is the one that had least to do with him. It is also the least fucked with of the Special Editions.
And yet we keep spending money on the crap he puts out.
I haven't bought any version of the blu-ray sets, but I am going to take my boy to see TPM tomorrow, and it's killing me.
Not sure how Lucas, whose entire career has been built by the Star Wars movies, can say it's "just a movie". Dude, are the billions of dollars you made off of them "just some money"?
I seriously think Lucas lost his cool about the whole Star Wars thing. The original trilogy felt serious, human, dark, funny - they were amazing movies & they were a religious event!!! - They gave hope to people without religion - people believed in the force.
However the prequel trilogy is a total cop out - they felt false, over-complicated, confused and cheap. The force left our conciousness - all we could see was rape of childhood dreams. How many people, like myself, imagined what the clone wars were like listening to Alec Guinesses speach? - The Star Wars universe used to seem epic because the original films were very clever in provoking your imagination.
When faced with the task of continuing the saga Lucas had some kind of hissy fit, chickened out and took a big Anakin Skywalker shaped shit. - That's what we're left with and it stinks to high heaven. He did it for was the dirty dollar - no sense of honour to be found.
Han shot first - you knew how it would be denoted in people's eyes mr Lucas. Han's character was made with that blast. Now it looks a mess along with every other change you've made.
Thursty wrote:
It doesn't make Han a cold-blooded killer to shoot first. It makes him a quick draw firing in self defense. Greedo was shaking a gun at him, after all.
Yeah, that's the way I've pretty much always felt, except for the quick draw part. Han doesn't draw quick, he draws slow but inconspicuously. And it's funny that Lucas would say the original version was confusing and he was clearing it up, because I never felt very confused by the old version (except for why Greedo wouldn't make Han keeps his hands where he could see them, but that can be chalked up to how cool Han plays it, I guess, so Greedo never feels like he's in any danger). When I saw the changed version in the movie theater, my reaction was, "What happened?" I bought the special editions on VHS, and the thing I most wanted to do was watch that scene closely, pause, rewind, figure out what happened. I still couldn't figure out what was supposed to be happening. I don't think it was until I started posting on the boards at the original Corona that I came across the accepted fan theory that Lucas changed the scene to make Han less of a killer, or something, and it was so dumb yet I had to accept it because there was no other plausible story.
Quasar wrote:
Not sure how Lucas, whose entire career has been built by the Star Wars movies, can say it's "just a movie". Dude, are the billions of dollars you made off of them "just some money"?
I would agree with Lucas that it's just a movie. Watching nerds freak out over this stuff is pathetic. The special editions have bad stuff in them, but as long as the OT is available then what does it matter? I shouldn't have been surprised when people were acting like it was something tragic when the newest changes were made to the special editions, but I was. Who could possibly care what he does to the special editions, now? I suppose I care, but only because every new change is hilarious. When the story was coming out of the last changes, people, including me, found them difficult to believe, but I held out hope. Nothing is too stupid for Lucas to do to those movies, but I hope he keeps doing it.
Anyway, my reaction to what Lucas is telling us now is mingled between amusement and disbelief. I shouldn't be surprised, because I think I had already become aware of Lucas's disconnect from reality and how he's one of those people that you just can't get the truth out of. I like it when people will tell the truth despite what anybody thinks or wants, and I hate the opposite. Lucas's declaration that Greedo always shot first is hilarious but aggravating. I just wish the interviewer would've responded: "Okay, let me get this straight: fifteen years after the special edition of 'A New Hope' was released, and thirty-four and a half years after the original version of 'A New Hope' was released, and all of the attention these movies have gotten and all the press over the changes in the special editions and the fans' reactions to them, and all of the attention to this one change in particular, and people wanting to know why you made this change, and you are just now revealing that Greedo shot first all along? Was anybody else aware that Greedo shot first? Was Harrison Ford? If he was giving an interview back in the late 70s or early 80s and somebody asked him about that scene in particular or just for anything about the movies that fans didn't know, could Ford have responded, 'Well, fans don't realize this, but Greedo actually shoots first in the showdown with Han in the Cantina, it's just that you can't see or hear the shot.' I mean, could anybody have said this? Production assistans, editors, producers, anybody? Were you the only person aware of this in the world?"
No. Greedo knew.
Another thing that never sat well with me--beyond the unlikelihood of Greedo shooting first at that range and missing--is that Greedo was in mid-gloat. It doesn't make sense that he would fire until his gloating had fully petered out.
It's not even a matter of Han firing first, truth be told. Greedo never even got off a shot in the original. We've allowed the popularity of the "Han Shot First!" meme to implant in our brains the idea that Greedo shot at all.
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The Swollen Goi...
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Posted: 13 years 15 weeks ago
It doesn't make Han a cold-blooded killer to shoot first. It makes him a quick draw firing in self defense. Greedo was shaking a gun at him, after all.
It's not like Han was smacking his lips and cackling maniacally after the showdown.
He keeps a poker face, sure, but I see that face more as a reflection of his keeping cool in a life-or-death situation than as a visual representation of some sort of sociopathic disconnect.