Added: Feb 23, 2012
Author: OcpCommunications
Time: 14:51
Part two of my retrospective/review starring Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Billy Dee Williams, Kenny Baker, Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew, David Prowse, Ian McDiarmid, Sebastian Shaw, and Warwick Davis. Directed by Richard Maraquand. TriviaSeveral Ewok lines are in the Filipino (Tagalog) language. Most Ewok lines, however, were inspired by the Kalmuck language, spoken by nomadic tribes living in Central China.The film originally included a sandstorm scene that occurred after Han's rescue. It was cut because it was unnecessary and was hectic to shoot.The dancer that Jabba drops into the Rancor pit loses her top as she falls in.Carrie Fisher's birthmark (near the small of her back) is visible in the desert scene where she turns her back to the camera to swing around a mounted laser gun.It is rumored that a different ending was shot, but discarded later on. It featured the (long awaited) marriage between Leia Organa and Han Solo. In the Star Wars "Expanded Universe" books, they go on to marry and raise a brood.In the familiar theatrical one-sheet poster advertising the film, forearms assumed to belong to Luke Skywalker are shown raising an ignited light-saber upward toward the starry sky. But the unidentified arms pictured are not those of actor Mark Hamill, they belong to George Lucas.According to Anthony Daniels, it only took him less than 10 minutes to put on the C-3P0 outfit, unlike the last two films were it took him two hours.One of the songs that the Ewoks sing sounds like: "Det luktar flingor här", which is Swedish for "It smells of cereal here." (In fact, that line's lyrics are supposedly, "G'noop dock fling oh ah.") Another song sounds identical to a song sung in Caveman.Portions of the partially completed Death Star model resemble the San Francisco skyline.Michael Carter was cast as Bib Fortuna in this movie after casting director Mary Selway saw him appearing in the play "The Streets of London" in 1981. It took over eight hours of make-up to first transform him into Jabba the Hutt's Twi'lek advisor. By the end of his five-week shoot, make-up artist Nick Dudman had streamlined the process down to 58 minutes. Removing the make-up took another 25 minutes.The Millenium Falcons used for this movie were either models or matte paintings. The full-sized mock up used for the other films was only used for the deleted sandstorm scenes and therefore doesn't make an appearance in this movieThe growls and sounds of the Rancor in Jabba's Palace were actually made by a dachsund.Ernie Fosselius, creator of the Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope spoof Hardware Wars, appears as the voices of the rancor's keepers.Caroline Blakiston (Mon Mothma) had to re-record her dialog after it was discovered that her microphone had picked up the sound of pigeons roosting in the set ceiling.Billy Dee Williams's stunt double was Julius LeFlore. LeFlore wears black gloves in the Sarlacc fight. Williams does not.The name Palpatine was based on the name Palantine in the film, Taxi Driver. It was changed to avoid legal problems.One of the words C-3PO uses to communicate with the Ewoks is "naboo" which is the name of Queen Amidala's planet in Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace.Before filming began, it was discovered that all of Darth Vader's lightsaber props had either been lost or stolen. Thus, one of Luke Skywalker's "stunt" saber props from Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back had to be quickly cannibalized into a "Vader-esque" saber for this film.Stuntwoman Tracey Eddon wore a rubber replica of C-3PO for the tumble off of the sail barge. She then donned a metal bikini to swing with Mark Hamill's stunt double onto the escaping skiff.Darth Vader's funeral pyre was added at the very last minute, long after principle photography and pick-ups had wrapped. The scene was thrown together and shot near the hills of Skywalker Ranch.The radiating shafts making up the floor of the second Death Star's reactor core are actually 1,500 fishing rods.Unlike other Star Wars installments, Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi was shot and completed in less than one year. Photography was done within January 1982 - May 1982When preparing to work on the special edition one of the ILM employees was talking to a friend and mentioned in passing that they were extending the musical number in Jabba's palace. The friend happened to be the brother of Femi Taylor, the dancer that played Oola (the slave girl/dancer who is fed to the Rancor) and suggested that they get in contact with her as she was in even better shape than she was when they originally shot the scene. They ended up using her, and the scene is a combination of footage that they already had and the new footage recorded 15 years later. Femi Taylor also has the distinction of being the only cast member from the original movies to reprise her role for the special edition.
Category: Film
Tags: star wars return of the jedi movie review mark hamill harrison ford carrie fisher billy dee williams kenny baker anthony daniels peter mayhew david prowse ian mcdiarmid sebastian shaw warwick davis richard maraquand george lucas 80's science fiction retrospective
Rating: 5.0' max='5' min='1' numRaters='1' rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#overall ( ratings) View Count: 297 Comments: 2
CaseClosedHipHop says:
May 16, 2012 - By the way, RE ewoks. Wouldn't the whole series be much better without ANY of the forced moments of slapstick bullshit?
CaseClosedHipHop says:
May 16, 2012 - Love to hear what you make of 1) Greedo shooting first, 2) Han Solo getting away with standing on a made gang boss in front of all his henchmen and calling him a "human being" (when he's a slug-like hutt), 3) the addition of Audrey 2 from Little Shop of Horrors to the Sarlacc "pit" and the implications of this on Boba Fett's fabled escape later on (he can't escape if he got chewed-up right?), 4) putting the young Annakin ghost in at the end of ROTJ when the others resemble themselves at death.