For those who want to lump Return with the former and not the latter I have one word for you...Ewoks. Case closed.
The answer to the Star Wars Why Question is...Producer Gary Kurtz.
Gary Kurtz parted with George on Return over creative differences. In an article/interview by Geoff Boucher; which ran in The La Times, the answer to the Star Wars Why Question is clear. I will, however, leave it to you to draw your own conclusions.
“I could see where things were headed,” Kurtz said. “The toy business began to drive the [Lucasfilm] empire. It’s a shame. They make three times as much on toys as they do on films. It’s natural to make decisions that protect the toy business, but that’s not the best thing for making quality films.”
“The emphasis on the toys, it’s like the cart driving the horse,” Kurtz said. “If it wasn’t for that the films would be done for their own merits. The creative team wouldn’t be looking over their shoulder all the time.”
“The first film and ‘Empire’ were about story and character, but I could see that George’s priorities were changing.”
“We had an outline and George changed everything in it,” Kurtz said. “Instead of bittersweet and poignant he wanted a euphoric ending with everybody happy. The original idea was that they would recover [the kidnapped] Han Solo in the early part of the story and that he would then die in the middle part of the film in a raid on an Imperial base. George then decided he didn’t want any of the principals killed. By that time there were really big toy sales and that was a reason.”
He was especially disdainful of the Lucas idea of a second Death Star, which he felt would be too derivative of the 1977 film. “So we agreed that I should probably leave.”
The discussed ending of the film that Kurtz favored presented the rebel forces in tatters, Leia grappling with her new duties as queen and Luke walking off alone “like Clint Eastwood in the spaghetti westerns,” as Kurtz put it.Kurtz said that ending would have been a more emotionally nuanced finale to an epic adventure than the forest celebration of the Ewoks that essentially ended the trilogy with a teddy bear luau.
Like I said above......Ewoks. Case closed.
Dork Note: Empire Strikes Back was priceless, thank you Gary Kurtz!
4 comments:
"teddy bear luau" that would be an awesome band name.
the end of Return of the Jedi with the 3 battles happening simultaneously is really great..... I can live with Ewoks.
can it just have its own 3rd catagory?..... not as good as the first two, but come on..... not nearly as bad as the prequels.
OK OK - it is not as bad as the Prequels. BUT it is clearly the first step on what would become the Prequel Travesty aka the Death of My Childhood!
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