Return of the Jedi (1983)

Hey, it's your old pal Slim and welcome to a special bonus episode of 70mm with me as always is artist Danny Haas. Hello. And our movie insider, Pertilexis. Here we go again. That's the 40th anniversary of Return of the Jedi as we post this episode May 25th. May the 25th be with you. Is there a better way to celebrate than the three of us getting together to talk about return to the Jedi? Danny, what do you think? This is a dream come true for me talking about my favorite Star Wars movie with the two of you. So we're here. Pertile, is this a dream for you? I think I might have caught you removing stars from letterbox entries recently. Is there any truth to this? Did I win this? I don't know about that. What movie did I remove stars for? Return of the Jedi. Was there any kind of secret removal to hide your true feelings from stars on here? No. Maybe I was looking at some other Pertilexis on letterbox. Shadow Band. I will Shadow Band him so fast at the end of this episode. So we've covered Star Wars from the OG trilogy 1977. That's in our feed recently. Podcast feed. We covered Empire Strikes Back years ago. I'm going to hear one. You're one. Podcast. And now we complete the trilogy. This is a big one. Maybe the biggest episode we've ever done. Could be. So where are we? We're the Alliance. Our heroes are. They got their backpedaling a little bit. Got Han Solo. He's frozen in carbonite. They need to get him out of this. So we are back on Tatooine. We are going to Java's Palace. Where he has Han Solo frozen. This team isn't very good at rescues. We get Leia captured immediately. Luke gives up the droids immediately. We get Han out of the carbonite and then Luke comes and we're going to get into this. But what was his plan exactly? He's a Jedi Knight. They get rescued. And the Alliance? They find out about the Bothen spies. Who are these Bothen spies? We'll talk about it. But they have the location of the new Death Star and they're just going to go for it and destroy it again. Round two. So they get the fleet together. It has a shield projector on the surface of Endor. So they got to get down there. They recruit the help of the teddy bears that live there that you watch. And while Luke gives himself up to confront Vader, his father, and try to save him, Han and Leia are down on the planet turning off the shield projector. And then our boy Lando. Doing work in the Millennium Falcon gets in there, blows up the Death Star. Vader redeems himself by throwing the Emperor into a hole. Stop it. And they end the reign of the Empire once and for all and all as well in the galaxy for now. Well said. I can't imagine any better said than that. That's exactly what George's notes look like for this film. The teddy bears explicitly were called out I think. Bad at rescuing. So this is in theaters. It was in theaters leading up to the anniversary. Dan, did you see it in theaters? How was that experience? It was incredible. We saw it was the Disney Plus 4K version. Incredible time. Incredible moments with some Star Wars fans. I don't think I've seen this on the big screen since the rerelease in 97. So this was fun to watch again on the big screen. Were people like at the end were people who had lights there was like holding them up and joining lightsabers in a circle and touching the tips. They should be arrested. But there was no lights. But there was clapping which was fine. Oh good. How did you prepare for this episode? Well, you know, we did a new hope a few weeks ago. And when I watched that, I went through and just watched all three of them, the original trilogy again. But then I wanted it to be fresh so I watched it a couple of days ago as well. So it's fresh in my mind. And of course I saw this a ton as a kid. I've never seen it in theater though. Maybe someday. Really? Oh. 75th anniversary. It's going to be VR by that point. We're a big guy that's helmet probably sold by Apple. I watched the 4K 83. I know you would. The underground, you know, the Star Wars underground. We talked about it in the Star Wars episode. The underground nerds putting together these theatrical versions as it was meant to be seen. None of the BS added in our own bathrooms. Both the nerds spies finding, you know, the real to reels they call them and putting it together and making it available for nerds in the dark web. I'm not going to explain to people how to find it. You can do your own legwork if you so choose. So that's the version I watched and it was amazing. Oh, nice. It looked awesome. I haven't watched it since I started using Letterbox. But I also have visceral memories of seeing theaters, having the VHS and the DVDs. So it was fun to see that version of it. But we'll go around the room, you know, have a little conversation and talk about our final thoughts, everything in between. So Prada, let's start with you. Let's start with Java. So there's a place to start further. There's a Jedi. May one. No one. No one. Oh, God. They Java. No, bad. I always think it's babe. Fortuna. So I'm googling. If you go. Oh my God, you know, there's stuff made for that. Java, man, he is so sexy. Completely nude sitting in his club, you know, everyone in front of him. You know, one thing about this. So they have that whole musical number put into this, you know, with the specialized edition. And I think that's like them because it's hard to remember what versions I watched as a kid. But we definitely had the despecialized because I remember once like sitting down and watching this and being like, wait, what is this scene? You know, this whole musical bit with the full CGI characters in it. And of all the CGI in these three movies that were added, I feel like this is the weirdest, this whole scene. I don't know. What do you guys think of that? Portia? I mean, I completely agree. I think it is odd, especially. I don't actually know his name, the little furry dude that kind of screams at the screen. Yeah. But slice noodles, the singer, she has an amazing animatronic puppet that they built for her, which is I found very interesting that they would remove to be CG for this scene because it's pretty incredible that they have that. It is a bummer that they'd added the CG for this. I didn't really enjoy it. I don't, I don't enjoy it. I'm happy to announce that I don't even think I've ever seen that scene. At least, I mean, maybe I blocked it out, but yeah, definitely not. You can't block it out. I don't have any recollection of this scene whatsoever. Really? I've seen the puppet is in the original version. The Max Rebo band plays in the, yeah, there's like a, well, when they first show the palace, there's like a little, you know, they're doing a little number. There's music playing and stuff. Yeah. And then there's the Twi-Lec and like the one that I'm at. That's actually probably the biggest memory I have is the Twi-Lec. Like you remember that scene where that split second were heard. The nip slip. The nip slip. That's in there. That's still in there. I don't even know how that is. That's in the 4K still. What? Really? Yeah, the nip slip still there. How? I don't. Someone who asleep with the wheel has the scene he keeps in, but he removes the puppets and replaces them all as CGI. Um, but yeah, Java, I was like, even on this year, I was blowing away. Like how awesome Java is. Like just the technical, the technical prowess of the team putting Java together, and that this is the character they created. It's so cool. Like he's so, he's so cool. Look, I wanted the Twi so bad when they did like the reap, the new Kenner stuff around the special editions. I wanted the Java playset. I wanted him to wallow around in his little bed or whatever the hell he had. But yeah, I love Java so much. Is there any explanation as to, and that's, I love it. I said, you don't know anything about Java until this movie other than what they added in and a new hope with the CGI scene. Were he so much smaller too? Right. So like what, what were they thinking with that? And I guess it's because they're using a deleted scene and they're like trying to make it work, but it just doesn't line up because in this, like Java looks like three times the size. He's been indulging. Yeah, maybe he's going into a. Oh, interesting. That's a good point. A slug. But a more select season. Well, remember in Clone Wars, I think there are other jets, right? Don't we don't want their other hot characters? Maybe one is even a Jedi. I feel like I don't remember. But I think they tease him in Empire, right? We only really hear about him. So in the original versions, you only hear about this character job of the hut, the Hut T's and all that stuff. But yeah, I love Java. Great stuff. Yeah, I completely agree. And I think it's really crazy watching the 4K because it's clearly a puppet and a giant thing being controlled by a bunch of couple men. But it feels so real. There's something I feel like that part, that thing that that's giant slug, Java exists, his movements, his eye blinking, the tongue. I mean, even with the mouth open, it looks like someone's hand is using like a normal puppet. It's just something disgusting and gross about it, even leading up to Leia strangling him on the sail barge. I mean, even those reactions, the tongue wagging. Yeah, his eyes bulging. Right, the eyes and then just rolling back and dying. I mean, that's such an incredible animatronic. It's tail wagging. The tail wagging. Yeah, it's incredible. Like, yeah, it just, I mean, Java in this is insane. How bad must he smell? You know, Leia laying on top of him? He's never bathed probably in his entire life. Probably would kill him. Right? He put water on a slug. I don't know how that works. I would love like an illustration where it's like it's showing like Leia sitting in front of him, but then like it's showing the inside of Java and there's like five dudes like controlling and all the way up his head. He's also some of my favorite, favorite, quotable lines is when Leia's in disguise in there. And she's like speaking that language, that bounded, that fake bounty, hunter language, whatever, she's like, yet though, yet. And like every word is somehow yet though. And then the three people three PO line, baby, my all time favorite line is when he yells about the thermal detonator. Because his whole biggest family. That's a later. There's so much exposition in that scene. Everything has to be explained from the beginning of this movie. Yeah, it's so good. I mean, I guess we could drift into my first point, which is Luke, Luke's first entrance. Luke's drip in this black cloak. Are you kidding me? I love that he calls himself a Jedi Knight. But looking back on like the history of what we know of Star Wars and like the training, but like, was he really a Jedi Knight? Like it's a year has passed. He had three weeks with Yoda and he's just been like studying Jedi books for a year. And it's like he's considered a Jedi Knight, which I found hilarious. But I love black outfit Luke. I talked about the toy in a previous episode. I love him throwing his lightsaber around the barge. It's like the clearest usage of lightsaber. Yeah. Action in the movies, I feel like. And it looks the most badass. I feel like in this movie. Yeah. What do you think about Luke in this? Yeah, I agree. Like his look in this with the door. And I put it in my notes is that he doesn't show up for 20 minutes. And I was imagining, when this first came out and people are sitting down the watch it, I think the thing you have to be most excited for is seeing Luke, right? Like you see him fight Vader in Empire Strikes Back and you're sitting down to see Luke. You want to see the Jedi in this. In like 20 minutes, nothing. And then there's like that ominous music. It the door opens and there's the cloaked figure. My gosh, people must have been pumping the screaming at the screen. Yeah, but I always find it just so funny, like what his plan was. So he leaves his lightsaber with R2 and maybe this was like his whole plan to get captured. But like when he goes in there and the mind trick doesn't work on Java and maybe that's what he was banking on. And then he goes to grab the pistol. So it's such like an odd sequence of events to find himself captured that it's like, was this really your plan? Not yet a Jedi. Right. Yeah. I think even Palpatine kind of scoffed at him calling himself a Jedi Knight. I mean, Yoda says it too with the. Oh, that's right. Yeah. Dying scene. Sustiface's father. I love that the first thing that Luke does is force choke the Gamorian guards. Like he just kills them right away instead of. I thought maybe they didn't die. I thought maybe they just like passed out for a black and breath. But we know how force choking. I mean, that's true. I mean, the guy doesn't die by getting force choke and empire. Right. So the way his hand moves, like side to side is so cool. I don't see him do that. So God, yeah. Oh my God, it's awesome. I mean, let's, I mean, let's drift into the rank or scene. I think it's one of the best scenes in, in, uh, in the original trilogy. I love the stop motion, rank or puppet. And I love the interaction between him and Luke. That whole scene is amazing. The monster design is incredible. Um, I think it's one of the best interactions between puppet and human actor that they have. It's such a, it's such a great moment with Luke. And the idea that he can stop the mouth up with a giant bone also makes me laugh, which it's just, it's great. I love the door trap door falling on him. I love the monster or the rank or trainer coming in, crying over the dead rank or his pet. It's such a great moment. It's such a little moment, but it's good. Wasn't there, um, I feel like in the ILM doc, they talked about how when they were doing the rank or scene that they, they did like more frames than usual with stop motion to give it like a more smooth look or something like that. I think they did it at a higher frame, right? I think they changed from fill, tip it being in a rank or suit to stop motion for that reason. Oh, yeah. Yeah, it still looks pretty good. I mean, I imagine that the 4K is the 4K on Disney is probably more cleaned up than the version that I saw. Like, you can kind of see, I don't know if it's called like compositing, like the composite. I always hear that word. I have no idea what it means. So like composite, they don't look the same, like they're on the same playing field. Like you can kind of see it looks. I see what you mean. Yeah. Um, I'm sure that's probably the 4K looks great. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, Danny, first thing you want to talk about? Uh, I wanted to talk about this first. You mentioned it in your review, Richard Marklawn's direction of this film and how I, I always think about the fact that he doesn't get as much love as Kirschner gets. Uh, and I feel like it's a bit of a shame because I feel like I love the direction of this film. I feel really well done, so many of the, um, action scenes that I can think of. I, I just enjoy them quite a bit. And the most in this film, I love the speeder bike scene on indoor, the forest moon. I mean, that scene looks incredible in 4K. I really have a great time with that. Um, and but for me, it, the direction of the scene where Luke fights Vader, I mean, the whole panning shot of them under the stairs. It gives me the chills every time I watch it, the music, the music swelling, loop losing control. Even the shot of him where his face is half dark, half light where he's having conflicted moments, just brilliant moments in this film. And I don't think Richard gets enough credit for it. We always think of George and Kirschner, but, uh, I mean, Richard even has him say he's, he's in this movie. He's the ATST pilot on indoor. I mean, he puts himself as a cameo in it, and he's the voice of that like torture droid on Jabba Selbarge. A horrible guy. But, um, yeah, I think, I think Richard deserves more credit than he gets. And it's, it's 40 years of talking about this film. And I don't think even many people know the director's name of this movie. Yeah. Yeah. He didn't have like a giant, I mean, he had notable films after this, but this is probably, I mean, this is the most popular one. Yeah. I died so young to 49. She had a stroke. I mean, he could have, I mean, I feel like he would have had a pretty good career post this two movies came out that were after his death, uh, after this film. So it's like that he had been working on, but it's just, it's a bummer. Sorry. I need to cut you off. No, it's okay. I was going to say I didn't listen to the Empire Strikes Back commentary ahead of time. I wanted to kind of hear George talk about him. Maybe we can get some insight onto like someone left a comment on my letterbox review. And I think I saw a little bit in the wiki that George was on set more for this one than maybe Empire. So I don't know how to read into that, but yeah, I mean, this is like the, I talked about the, the one fight scene with Vader and Luke is looking awesome, but like the throne room scene. And I know Richard isn't directly responsible for creating the throne scene, but he's doing some, he's doing work on the set to direct all this stuff and looks awesome. Yeah. Everything looks bad. Yes. Yeah. Well, I also am amazed because when you think of, you can watch certain franchises where it's handed to a different director and a director can really like flub a movie or just change the tone entirely. I would think so the fact that I think what's impressive is that when you think of like the Star Wars, like the, the iconic scenes that and the motifs that are in like the sequel trilogy that are used over and over again, and we recognize it as like Star Wars, that all those things come from like this original trilogy, but that were directed by three different directors, but they all feel very consistent in the way that like they tell the story, which is really amazing. And it's so wild to me looking back that Lucas didn't direct the next two. And maybe just because like the names, Kirschner and Mark Juan aren't major names, like the wiki says that's he Spielberg was approached. David Lynch was approached and David Cronenberg were approached. I correct the return. And then like an alternate universe. How crazy would that be? Um, but I guess it also just shows like how powerful Lucas is like, didn't he like foot the bill for all these, the second and third movies himself, like totally self finance based on the success of Star Wars. And how much like control he could exert really over the rest of the trilogy. And I think we talked about this in the Phantom Menace or one of those three, but I kind of wish that he did that on the prequels. Maybe do the first one and let two other people come on to direct the next two in the same way that this happened. Just because I don't know, maybe he maybe would have been different somehow. I mean, I completely agree. I feel like George's power is being a visionary and a creator and someone who can be on the back end of, you know, coming up with these ideas and concepts and, and I mean, we joke about his writing, but he created Nina Jones and he has that power of, of just being this massive visionary and to be able for him to let control go to like Richard or urban for him to have done that in the prequels. I feel like we'd be having different conversations about the prequels if he had other people direct these films besides himself, because I don't think his, I don't think his strength is directing. And I think we've seen that. We know that now. Yeah, I mean, talk about the right, but like you to speech on his like deathbed. I just bring that up. Like what I love about that scene watching it now is how we can directly connect that to the last Jedi so much. Like I feel like this is a big moment in Luke's. Lore that when he talks about pass on what you've learned in these moments and we can, we can connect that to what Ryan Johnson was doing in last Jedi, which I think is why I love last Jedi so much is and also just I'm a big Luke fan, but it's just there's so much in this in that moment. Soon will I rest? Yes. Forever sleep. I think I have. Master Yoda, you can't die. Strong, am I with a force? But not that strong. Pride is upon me and soon, I must fall. Right, just the way of things. It's the way of the force. Like, I don't even remember that scene like at all until I watched it this last week and I was like, holy shit, this is awesome. I didn't remember to. I think I watched the new Hope Audio commentary or Empire after we recorded and Lucas says that for the OVA for Empire, he submitted. He tried to get Frank Oz nominated. For an Academy Award for Yoda and I'm not sure if it's at the time or even still today, but they don't do like puppetry. It's like you can't, like he's not going to get nominated for. Which is madness. Yeah, Frank Oz is incredible in this movie and the other ones too. There's a moment I always, I always make sure I'm paying attention at this moment because it always blows my mind when Yoda is getting into bed. Yes. I can't get over the puppetry. And the way it looks so fucking real, his feet shuffling to get the blanket above his feet and just settling in. Like, that is masterful and I always want to be very aware in that moment that what Frank was doing is stupid good and it deserves some sort of recognition in any sort of awards moment. Pertile, what's next on your list? Well, I'm going to steal Slim's his normal point at some point. Yeah. The Luke point. So, and Danny, you mentioned it or Slim, when Yoda says pass on what you have learned, which Yoda is basically saying like rebuild the Jedi Order. Thank you. Like, why aren't we doing that? Like, you come out of this movie, like you come out of this movie and it's like, all right, here's the Clear Road plan, right? We have this whole runway of this character who just, this is like the original trilogy is like Luke's origin story to becoming a Jedi Knight. And there is nothing, there is nothing out there after this. I mean, of course, there's, you know, there's the books and the comic books and some of you are sharing some of that. But the fact that we don't have any of that, and that's like what everyone coming out of this is salivating for. I mean, we're still salivating for it. Yeah. 30 years. So episode one, and we don't have another Luke movie in between there. What is going on? There needs to be, we need to get some answers. There needs to be, I just say it. There needs to be an investigation into this. George, come on the show. UN conducting investigation into one. There's no Luke stories. Oh, God, it's so frustrating. And I'm hopeful that the Ray thing, I'm not even sure if she's the star of the movie. Maybe she's like the elder state's person constructing the new Jedi order. And maybe that'll be what we get, hopefully. But like, there's gotta be things in motion at this point. Please recast him. I don't want freaking Mark Hamill on set anymore in these poses in full costume. Okay, who is asking for this? Give me a freaking series. Give me a freaking theatrical movie in theaters. Mark, your time's over. My number. I don't even have to ever add it this way. I'm on number two. I want to talk about Palpatine. What's his guys name? Ian McDermott. 37 years old as this disgusting. What? Oh, yeah. He is young, baby. Like, maybe it was, maybe it was, I just Google Palpatine, how old Jedi? And it says 37, but I don't know if that counts as Empire or not, but but even so, like, how cool is it that you, like the movie starts out, the Emperor is coming here. And like, I'm starting to poop myself, like, oh, it's going down. The Emperor is in this movie because you only get that little shady thing in the hologram in the last movie. And just the character design, the character himself, this could have been really lame, but I love the Emperor in this. And like, so much has happened with the Emperor after this movie. Like, everything went right in design, casting, writing this character so well, even though he, quote, dies in this movie. But I love it. And crazy to cast such a young person to play this character too. I would think you would cast an older one, but wild. I love Palpatine. Prudel, what do you think? Yeah, I mean, I love, I love Palpatine as well. His voice, his, his, his pronunciation of words, he's, he's menacing. And I mean, the talk about, I mean, another series you could do, but all the Palpatine stuff in Clone Wars, I love that. That was one of my favorite parts of Clone Wars that I wasn't really expecting, that you'd get this much backstory of the Emperor. But he's really, I mean, of all the, the characters in Star Wars, here's a guy, here's a guy who is, you know, behind the scenes in the Republic, moving everyone, he's playing chess while everyone's playing checkers, you know, getting power while a Sith, you know, being the, the chancellor or whatever, like, such an incredible, like, amount of lore around this, this character and the stuff he does with Maul in Clone Wars is so cool. I know that's outside of this, you know, this movie, of course, but I love that character. And I feel like it is interesting to watch this. And then like after watching the prequels and just how it informs the two, and it kind of like fleshes them out and like it rewards like rewatching the original trilly now that we have the prequels and stuff like Clone Wars. I mean, speaking of pooping yourself, imagine in 83 and you've only seen one and two or three and four, whatever you want to call them. And you hear the Yoda speech that be where the Emperor is powerful, whatever. And we get to see him and he's this frail being and then lightning comes out of his hands. Oh my God. I mean, imagine being a kid in 83 seeing this. I would be terrified of this man. It's such a banging moment when he's like, so be it Jedi and he just lights him up. And it's just such a banging moment and star, because we've, I mean, at this point in our lives, we've seen lightning force being the force being used. But for that to be unveiled like as a thing out of nowhere, it's insane to me to think about. I was jealous of people that got to see that with fresh eyes in 83. I mean, I'm jealous of anyone that gets to see this movie for fresh in 83, but it's a had love the Emperor's live final moments in this movie. So be it Jedi. It's such a great delivery. It's so good. He's good. Even the puppetry moments of him talking to Luke, how he's a hell. He's orchestrated this whole thing. The trap of the rebels getting caught, him wanting to have Luke strike him down in anger in those moments and he even pulls out a saber to do it and Vader stops him. And then you see like it also hit me too of like, I make fun of Lucas Ramin so corny talking about the reprise and poetry, but like that throne room scene, when he has the saber next home, like I thought immediately of last Jedi to the bathroom scene. So good. God, I need to watch last Jedi. When are we? I'm holding off. I mean, I feel like we're getting even closer than ever before to covering the neutrality. I know. I got a four. We're going to put it on cassette. It's only going to be available on a limited edition cassette. That's the only way you'll be able to hear it. Danny, you're number two. Number two, I have, I'm going to bring up something that bugs me and the film, even though I love it. Please. I love Leia a lot, a lot, a lot. And I think she's incredible in this film. There's a moment when Luke, when Luke finally confides in her that he's her brother and she's just kind of taking it all in in the in the in the in the E-walk village. It's a gorgeous scene, beautiful music being played. I wish we got a reaction from when when Luke leaves to go turn himself in the Vader. I wish we got a reaction from Carrie or I mean, as Leia, I've heard realizing that Vader's also her father. There's something I feel like Luke gets that moment, but Leia doesn't. And I feel like I would have loved to have seen Leia wrestling with that idea that this horrible person is also her dad. I don't think we get that kind of we don't get those moments from Leia enough from these movies. I mean, when we we get to see her be awesome, like killing Jabba and kind of just taking command of some moments, but I would have liked little more personal moments with her struggling with that as well. I wanted more from that from her. Yeah, and you're right. I thought about that too in that conversation about how I don't know if I loved her reaction, but she did say like she kind of knew like that was like her her reaction to it. Like I somehow I knew that line that line from Luke is so cool too. But he's like the force is strong in my family. My father has it. I have it. And my sister has it. I thought that was awesome. Like we're bashing Lucas's right. It looks right at her. Yeah, pretty primo scenes in this movie. Yeah. Yeah, that scene is one of my favorites in this movie. I get like chilled up or, you know, I'll start crying at that scene. There's something about that that scene and the scene with Yoda are just so good in terms of like the way they're written. Lucas, really? He did something special at those moments. About a great many things. One thing in my honorable mentions, which I don't know if is in the new version, but there's a scene in the big fight scene in Endor at the end where Chewy does a Tarzan yell. Yes. In the current one too, I couldn't believe what I was hearing when I saw that. I was like, man, that's so bad. They probably cut that out in the new versions. Pardo number three. Well, how about just like the, I mean, the fight, the space battle that's going on outside the Death Star before the reactor comes down. I love that. I think that's probably my favorite space battle in all of Star Wars. All of Star Wars. Oh, nice. It's just so, I don't know. Maybe it's just like mostly the nostalgia, but like watching it is so cool. And just seeing the dude flying his ship into the command center that gets the Star Destroyer exploded. And then you see Admiral Akbar realizing that and just putting his head down. There's so many great little storytelling moments in it. Something that always stands out though is just the explosions look like they're coming out of like a video game. It's like the same explosion, just like a little sprite across the screen. But it's very endearing still. Like I just, I have like a, you know, just a nostalgia for that. Like I love the way it looks, even though if it doesn't look great. One of my favorite bits about this Death Star 2, especially in that scene is when we realize that they've built a bigger Death Star this time. But also instead of an exhaust port where you can shoot a missile down, we've made the port big enough to fly a ship down. I love that that they can destroy it by just flying into it. I know it's under construction, but it always makes me laugh that the whole is big enough now to fly the Falcon into. And it looks amazing. It looks so cool. Like even the in construction Death Star is so badass looking. The that final scene where they finally blow it up, that underground, not like it's, it looked like it was, I think it was in the Death Star, the power regulator or something. Like the design of that, like the background, holy cow. That looks amazing. The matte paintings in general, like even the first scene of the Death Star, where like they're porting to the Death Star and it's the matte painting and the ship is like slowly going in. Like that is insane looking. It looks so amazing. It makes me even more angry that like all that stuff just is not done anymore. And it's all like, you know, CGI backgrounds or whatever you want to call it. I was thinking, because you had said that in your review as well recently about the matte paintings, we get all of these books from Lucasfilm or Star Wars of like, here's all the lightsabers. Here's all, you know, the character breakdowns of every single bits of this. Why don't why is there not a book of just. Matt paintings, just give us a matte painting book of the original trilogy. And I don't care how big it is coffee, table size, just, I would love just a book of all high quality pronounce of all of these matte paintings, because there's more than probably we even realized that we're utilized in these films. The conversation with Han and Lando, but when he's saying take care of the Falcon again, that's a giant matte painting behind them. It's just, I just want to see these things instead of, you know, I don't need a 50 books about every single lightsaber and their colors and their Kyber crystals and the breakdowns and the renderings of how they're made. Give me these matte paintings. I don't even care, just giving me a book of them. Because they know how the million people holding their lightsabers up in Disney Springs, that's going to buy those books. Meanwhile, us losers are at home waiting for the matte painting book, especially if you can see it because like the way that they're constructed. So like they just have like, when you just see the matte painting, you see the blank spaces where like actors are going to be. Yeah. Even just like having those side by side, because when like seeing those in the ILM doc, it kind of like broke my brain. Like, what am I looking at right here? Like this? How do they film this? I think the one matte painting, not even it's not even this film, when they're putting the arc at a covenant in the like warehouse and that entire matte painting is above it, making them grow so huge. Like just those bits, like if it's matte painting books, Lucasfilm, call us. Please. Call us. We'll tell you how to do it. Just tell you how to do it. We'll do a quick meeting. We'll get through this. Okay. What do I want to talk about? My number three, probably my honorable mentions. Oh, actually, no, I'll talk about the stop motion walkers in Endor. That looks amazing today. Like, I can't even tell that it's stop motion pretty much. Like stop motion in live action stuff. We need to maybe we need to come back. Maybe we need to come back because those walkers walking around, they got the guys coming out, they're shooting the stormtroopers when Chewie gets in there. It looked fantastic. I couldn't believe how good it looks still after all 1983 to today. We need more people. No one wants to pay for these artists. They're going to pay the writers. Magic. You're right. That's true. Who they're going to pay stop motion artists to spend how many hours doing a thing, walking across the forest? Not 10 hours for three seconds of film. Maybe that's why they don't do it. Maybe one more round of a bedroom before we go around the room here. Let me just see. I did speaking of bashing Disney. The fight scene needs to be at Disney. What are we doing? Like the entire throne room? Can I not walk into the throne room set at any point in Disney? Can we build that? That needs to be part of the ride or whatever. That entire throne room thing. That's circular dashboard. Yes. I just want to be inside it. Oh my god. Can you imagine what a dream you'd essentially be walking on the set of Return of the Jedi. Like Harry Potter can do it. They got all these life-size shops that you can fit five people in. It's hell walking through there trying to buy anything. Give me the gosh dang throne room. Pest again. Preach. I mean, I would love... That's just always the dream of having these omnimover rides, which is like, you know, Haunted Mansion or even the Great Movie Ride, where we're just slowly going through sets of Star Wars. Like, I don't... I don't need anything super like the Rise of the Resistance anymore. Just slowly take me through Star Wars and see these incredible sets. Let these Imagineers rebuild them, rebuild them. I don't even need animatronics on them anymore. I don't care. No. Danny, any last last point before we go around for our dimensions? I think I'm always amazed on how lucky... I don't know where John Williams was at before Star Wars or even connecting with Spielberg and Lucas and anything, but to have his masterful work in these three films, even in Return of the Jedi, is something that I feel like is as integral of telling these stories as anything. The moments with Luke and Yoda and the Dagobah, his little hut, if you listen behind, the music he's playing is going from theme to theme, from the Force theme when Luke's talking to something ominous for Vader. It even touches a little bit on Yoda's theme when he dies. I'm just always amazed at John's work, but especially in Star Wars. He really helps the thematic moments move forward, and it always... When he gives something a theme like Yoda's theme or the binary sunset or the Force theme or Luke's theme and Leia's theme, when they slowly drip into every moment's conversation, just behind the scene, it really gives more weight to it. It gives me the chills when stuff kind of chimes in these French horns or even the... It's just beautiful stuff. I mean, John gets all the credit that he deserves for these films, but it just... It always blows my mind how lucky some of these early films got with connecting with him. Can you imagine any other music in this thing? No. I love that music at the end too with the flute. I don't know if it's a flute or a recorder or whatever, but just as they're celebrating and it has the wind instruments. There's a new dance number at the end of the special edition, right? Yeah, because they go to Naboo when you see the Gungans. There's people that always hate all that kind of stuff, but it goes from planet to planet celebrating the fall of the Empire, which I actually love. I really love it. I love the Yabna stuff in the original with the Uwoks and the Village Celebration, but also there's something about them watching the fall of the Empire from every planet that's been touched by. It makes it bigger. It does make it bigger. And there's a great shot of... I guess it's Tatooine where the little model jet that Luke flies around, it flies by in that scene. I love that stuff. But you know how Star Wars nerds get mad about things? I know that's not something. One of my favorite bits that nerds got mad about was in the special editions, or I think maybe it was even for the Blu-ray. It wasn't even special editions. They made the Ywoks blink digitally. I kind of love it that they look more real and it looks very natural to me, but people got mad that the Ywoks were blinking in these films. It just makes me smile every time I see Wicca go blinking. I never noticed what. Do they not know how I... Because they were just masks with puppets. They have animatronic masks that made them blink. I didn't even notice children. But in the Blu-ray thing, I think the Blu-ray release, people feel like, oh my god, the Ywoks are blinking. I hate this. I'm like, well, I kind of love it because I love the Ywoks. Yeah. I love the way the Ywoks walk too, just like the little wattle back and forth. Yeah. Pardo, closing thoughts. Final rating. Return of the Jedi. Let's see. I always think that when Vader arrives on the Death Star and the Commander greets him, I always think it's Linus from Frasier. It looks just like... We shot the letter. Yeah. I love Jabba reaching into that pot of frogs and pouring one down his throat. It's gullet. It's a great look. How about Saboeba being in Jabba's palace? You see him in the background, or maybe it's his son, but it's a Saboeba-like creature. It's poetry. There he is. Celine Tatooine. We didn't really talk too much about the Seameth-Luke Invader, but god. To me, that's like the pinnacle of all of Star Wars. That whole sequence. That's what it all built to. I feel like. The depiction of just the light side and the dark side and that internal conflict, I feel like that is what the whole premise of the Force is and what's best about it. George was able to write these three movies and bring it to a head in that point where Luke was forced with this decision. It just works so well. It's so satisfying. The fact that he never really gives in until his sister is threatened when Vader says, if I can't turn you, perhaps I can turn her. Then that's where, no, he runs out and fights him. It's just so perfect that I feel like with the prequels and then even with the sequel trilogy, I feel like they never really get to that level that moment, which is a shame because I feel like that is what is so compelling. It really isn't the lightsaber battles, but it's the internal conflict with the characters. I think that scene does it the best. Yeah, when he's watching Luke get electrocuted and he does the head turn, that is an amazing... You don't need anything else. You just see him looking and you get it. That's why it was so pissed in my review that they added Vader yelling no twice in that scene. It's just silence in the original version. He just looks over a few times and he finally just picks up Palpatine and throws him at the edge. Even the follow-up to that is amazing with him talking to Luke. He's like, you were right, Luke. You were right. Yeah, you were right. And then that's it. Great stuff. Luke's drive that there's still good in him all the way to the end is deeply inspirational. I love his relentless, no giving up kind of approach to fighting one of the most evil persons in the galaxy that ends up being your father. And there's something about him being the only one at Vader's funeral that I kind of love to. It's just a great moment. But yeah, it's insane. That's less seen. Especially too, because when he talks to Obi-Wan, Obi-Wan has no hope for Vader at all in that moment. And Luke is like, they're still good in him. I know it. And Obi-Wan's like, Luke, you got to give it up. Basically, that's what he's telling him. Which is even so... That wrinkle that it adds to these characters as you consider the prequel movies too is pretty cool. So yeah, I'm at four stars for Return of the Jedi. I think it has some of the best scenes in Star Wars, some of my favorite moments. So it's great. It's really just lowered his glasses. How about Obi-Wan needing to take a seat? His Force Ghost having to sit down on a log? That always makes me giggle. It's also cool to see Force Ghost Anakin, old Anakin, do in the version that I watched. It looks great. It looks right. You know, seeing that actor out there, it makes perfect sense. I don't like that they changed it. I mean, I understand the story. It doesn't make any sense. They also changed his eyes. I don't know if you'd know this. When they take Vader's mask off, they put Hayden's eyes digitally over his eyes. I know they removed his eyebrows. I know that much. It's yeah, they put Hayden's eyes over. And that does bug me too. That's so strange. Why didn't they put Ewyn in it? Why wasn't Ewyn the ghost? That's a very good question. That's a great question. We'll talk to George next time. I don't know what mentions that I have. What's happening in 99% of the Death Star? What's happening in that thing? A lot of meetings. It's a lot of meetings. Our reports being filed, I guess. It's the little guys. It's Salacious R. Crumb. Is that the little guy that's always laughing? Salacious Crumb, yeah. Oh my god. What a laugh. Amazing laugh. A Boba. Boba's respect, the nod that he gets. The nod to Bob. So cool. Luke and Han are talking. He's like, I used to Luke says to Han, we're on touch. I used to live here. Han's like, yeah, you're going to die here too. Some good lines for Han and this. Oh, back to Boba just for a second. It made me sick thinking that like here we see Boba fall into the pit. And then we're supposed to believe that the book of Boba Fett happens. That's what we have to believe, right? He did come back in the comics too. I was reading, I think I was sending images to you too about reading Dark Empire, the Dark Horse Common Book. Because Boba's in that too. And they specifically asked him, he's like, do you just die in the Sarlacc pit years ago? And I think he's like, the Sarlacc found me indigestible. Certain point of view that line is in here from a certain point of view. A certain point of view. Great many things. Tarzan Chewy. So yeah, I read the Dark Empire comic book. And I thought it was super fun. I mean, the art is the main draw, but like that plot is essentially, I guess you could say like a modern, like the old version of what the Rise of Skywalker came out to be because they stumble upon Luke feels this presence in the section of the universe, Biss. And he goes there to investigate, tells everyone he has to do it alone. And it's the emperor. He's like still alive. And he reveals that he has this clone process, that he has cloned bodies over the years. This isn't the first time he's done it. So he like, Luke, which I think this is an amazing idea for a movie or a storyline, but like Luke thinks based on this, the only way for him to defeat the Emperor and the Dark Side is to join the Dark Side to learn about it, like his father did. And then with that, he'll be able to come out and fix it. Like the writing in the story isn't that deep, but I like that idea. I like the idea of like Luke getting just close enough to the Dark Side or try to learn from it. And then maybe getting too close. And then Leia having to come and pull him out of it. Like that's really like, that is super cool to me. And that essentially happens. Like Leia has been trained over the years, I think from Luke, she has a, she gets a lightsaber from somebody. And then also this plot is them like rebuilding the Jedi Academy. Also like Dark Empire too, they go to a planet that was for thousands of years, the place of like Jedi history and knowledge and everything. So they go back to that planet and they find people living there. They like speak a different language because it's been so long, but they have like four sensitive abilities and Luke starts to build the Academy from there. But all that stuff is so good. Like those ideas, I want those mind, you know, like I want to see Luke get too close to the Dark Side, but I don't feel I'm really good at that. The one thing I thought was funny was, I don't know if Sith or Inquisitors was a concept, I guess Sith was, but like Inquisitors wasn't really a concept. So Palpatine had like underlings where they were called like Dark Side Warriors. And he would just imbue the power of Jedi and Dark Side into them through his knowledge. And he would, they were called Dark Siders, which I thought was awesome. So they look like a motorcycle gang, essentially from the 80s and like Blade Runner extras. So they looked pretty cool. But yeah, we're trying to judge it. It's like the greatest story ever told, in my opinion. Like the finale, the journey between Luke and Vader. Oh my God, it's so good. And it was a pleasure to watch the original version. So I'm five stars, obviously. Same for me, five stars. This is as much as I love New Hope and Empire. I love the finale of the trilogy. Luke is my favorite Star Wars character. So I feel like this is the Luke moments that I wanted to see. Other than that, yeah, I mean, we've talked about so much. I love this film. This is my Star Wars. Remember how exciting it was to see the teaser trailer for Force Awakens and the four trailer? I think I'd see you're blowing it was. And same trailer. Actually, I think all three movies got banging trailers. I agree. And remember the shot of like the Stormtroopers in the truck or whatever, the thing and they're all canceled lights. Yeah, chiffing around. Oh my God, that was nuts. When? Force Awakens. When? Someday. I think 2025 is what is that the that's the 10 year. Oh, it's been 10 years. Oh my God. 2015's right. 2015's when it came out. Shish. We have time. All right. We did it. May 25th. The anniversary return the Jedi. Part of any closing thoughts as we go back into the wilderness. Listen, I'm not four stars now. That can change though. Another viewing. That's what's so great about Letterbox, right? You know, I was at four stars for a New Hope and now I'm at five stars. You're returning the Jedi could get there too. See one day, there's always hope. It's always new hope. We'll see you in the next one. 70 millimeter is a tape deck production featuring original artwork provided by Danny Haas. Spiritual guidance and feature the robot who loves movies provided by Pertilexis, producer at large Dale Underscore. Transcripts provided by Sophie Shin and music composed by Cinematric. Prince and other merch are available on 70mmpod.com. This episode was mixed, edited and produced by me, slim. Support our Patreon for access to our VHS Village Discord to talk movies with new friends, access to our exclusive episodes in the 70 millimeter vault, discounts on merch, uncut episodes, and a physical membership card mailed to you. To check out other tape deck podcasts, find the link in the episode notes. And if you'd like to support our friends at Letterbox and upgrade to pro or patron status, you can do so with a 20% off discount using the links on 70mmpod.com. Dua! This is this is a tape deck podcast.