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The Han/Leia thing A criticism that caught me off gaurd

#1 User is offline   Lord Aquaman Icon

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Posted 10 December 2004 - 08:47 AM

I'm a regular visitor of the Internet Movie Database (www.imdb.com) and I was surprised by a recent review of "The Empire Strikes Back" that bashes the film slightly for having Princess Leia hook up with Han Solo instead of Luke Skywalker -which, as we all know, was followed up with Leia being Luke's long lost sister. The critic complained that Leia should have been Luke's girlfriend because Luke was the film's "emotional focus" and that putting her with Han Solo undermined Luke's position as "the emotional focus".

I always assumed they did it because of the chemistry between Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher.

Well, what do you all think of this?
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#2 User is offline   Just your average movie goer Icon

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Posted 10 December 2004 - 09:18 AM

With the relationships between the three of them in Star Wars, it just seemed natural that Leia would hook up with Han. And honestly, there never was much 'romantic' chemistry between Carrie and Mark.

And how the hell could anyone not like The Empire Strikes Back? That movie did more with two hours than any movie before or since.
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#3 User is offline   Despondent Icon

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Posted 10 December 2004 - 09:36 AM

"She only smiled."
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#4 User is offline   Mad Rabbit Icon

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Posted 10 December 2004 - 11:00 PM

QUOTE
The critic complained that Leia should have been Luke's girlfriend because Luke was the film's "emotional focus" and that putting her with Han Solo undermined Luke's position as "the emotional focus".


This critic is a person who must be smacked upside the head repeatedly. He/She must be under the impression that Luke was the only main character in ESB. I can't see how putting Leia with Luke would add anything emotionally or otherwise. As a matter of fact it would make Leia's character pretty stale. Her character would be reduced to a background role, giving Luke hugs and kisses when his jedi training on Dagoobah got to rough.

Here's how a scene might work if Leia were with Luke:

Luke: "Yoda sure was mean to me today."

Leia: "I'm sorry to hear that Luke. Want to talk about it?"

Luke:"SOB... He doesn't know that what he asks is impossible, I try so hard to be a good little jedi, but he keeps calling me a loser."

Leia: (hugs Luke and kisses him on the forehead) "Shhhh... I'll protect you from the nasty little man."

Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to take anything away from what Luke's trials brought to ESB, but Han and Leia were the emotional center of that movie, bar none!

Pffft... Luke the emotional focus.... MY ASS!! yell.gif
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#5 User is offline   Lord Aquaman Icon

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Posted 10 December 2004 - 11:07 PM

Frodo was allegedly the "emotional focus" of the Lord of the Rings trilogy but he didn't have a love interest... unless you count the ring as a love interest. Aragorn had Arwen, Faramir had Eowyn, Sam got Rosie, but Frodo got none.

I think there have been a few epic journey stories where the romance was played out by characters who were leads but were not THE lead, you know?
I am the Fisher King.

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#6 User is offline   Michel Orla Icon

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Posted 12 December 2004 - 02:45 PM

It worked out perfect (until ROTJ). Luke had the crush on her in Star Wars, but Leia had more chemistry with Han by the time Empire came around. It made for some of Empire's best scenes the romantic tension between Han and Leia.
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#7 User is offline   barend Icon

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Posted 12 December 2004 - 06:39 PM

QUOTE (Just your average movie goer @ Dec 10 2004, 09:18 AM)
And how the hell could anyone not like The Empire Strikes Back?  That movie did more with two hours than any movie before or since.


ESB is my fav of the set...
but FOTR did more in the first 5 minutes then all of SW put together...

i think han and leia worked better than luke...
it would have been lame and predictable...

plus it keeps with GLs ripping off LOTR...
Han is Aragorn... so it pushes my old point a little further... pirate.gif
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#8 User is offline   Just your average movie goer Icon

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Posted 12 December 2004 - 07:09 PM

QUOTE
ESB is my fav of the set...
but FOTR did more in the first 5 minutes then all of SW put together...


You're right. Still, The Empire Strikes Back gave you your money's worth and then some. Most movies give you only one passable scene or a supposedly witty exchange of dialogue and think you're supposed to be content with that.
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#9 User is offline   jariten Icon

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Posted 11 June 2005 - 02:20 AM

QUOTE
And how the hell could anyone not like The Empire Strikes Back? That movie did more with two hours than any movie before or since.


I wonder if Brackett couldnt have come up with anything better then sticking nearly all the characters in an asteroid for half the film until Luke was ready to move on.
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#10 User is offline   Harvey Globetrotter Icon

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Posted 11 June 2005 - 04:50 AM

I wonder if you have a brain.

This post has been edited by Harvey Globetrotter: 11 June 2005 - 04:52 AM

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#11 User is offline   civilian_number_two Icon

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Posted 11 June 2005 - 09:24 AM

QUOTE (jariten @ Jun 11 2005, 02:20 AM)
I wonder if Brackett couldnt have come up with anything better then sticking nearly all the characters in an asteroid for half the film until Luke was ready to move on.


We'll never know what Brackett actually wrote. while her name is in the credits, Lucas rejected her first draft and went more or less with everythign Kasdan had written.

And they were there like 10 minutes tops. Come on.
"I had a lot of different ideas. At one point, Luke, Leia and Ben were all going to be little people, and we did screen tests to see if we could do that." -George Lucas, in STAR WARS: the Annotated Screenplays (p197).
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#12 User is offline   Jordan Icon

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Posted 11 June 2005 - 10:06 AM

Do you think it was Lucas' idea to have Vader as the father? I often wonder if the writers are responsible for that. Or perhaps it was a team effort.

I mean, the emotions that ESB painted are NOTHING like that of the first SW.

I bet it was a team effort, because if Kasdan was responsible for the father story, then he'd sing it from the roof tops "I made starwars special!"

If you really think about it, Lucas' only worthy job was episode IV.

He's 1/5. ESB does not count since he had nothing to do with production.

The odds are against him that he contributed the father story. I wish I could see the original map out he gave to Brackett and Kasdan. I bet it reads something like this

" mak3 spase chips in big with lazzers 'n stuff"
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#13 User is offline   diligent_d Icon

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Posted 11 June 2005 - 12:09 PM

I think it's likely that Lucas wrote the overall treatment and then Kasdan and Brackett fleshed it out with dialogue and other details, with some deviation. It is possible that Lucas didn't know Vader would be Lukes father until maybe even when they were in principal photography. Hell I get from that Rolling Stone interview that Lucas hadn't decided to kill Ben Kenobi until they were half-way through production on ANH.
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Posted 11 June 2005 - 07:06 PM

Lucas made the foundation draft for it - which would have included "I am your father." - Brackett made the first screenplay, but it wasn't rejected - it was yet to be tempered, but Brackett died before the script was fine-tuned... I think the flanneletted one said that Kasdan did the fine tuning.
He made the original draft after SW was made, (original vision - pfft).
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#15 User is offline   Trigormike Icon

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Posted 11 June 2005 - 07:20 PM

In his DVD commentaries he always goes on about how it was all planned from the beginning but that's crap.
A lot of things in the OT had to be changed because of special effects limitations (thank God!), actors having car crashes and temperamental weather among other things.

This post has been edited by Trigormike: 11 June 2005 - 07:22 PM

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