As Originally Conceived

[thegreyelf]

Since that's the point of this board, let's do it. Let's discuss Star Wars as originally conceived.

That is to say, the sweeping pulp epic about the Kane Starkiller and his two Jedi Bendu trainee twins, Annikin and Deak, attempting to protect the Kaiburr Crystal on Utapau with the help of grizzled middle-aged general Luke Skywalker as they all do battle with the Nazi-esque (and supernatural power-less) general Darth Vader leading the Knights of Sith in the New Empire.

You know...the original Star Wars.

I mean, if we're going to talk about what might have been, let's talk about what might have been. Seems to me there's some pretty great roleplaying fodder in that script.

www.benandgrover.com/scripts.asp

[Finarvyn]

An awesome idea. I'll have to re-read some of the older stuff to get my brain back in "original concept" mode.

[thegreyelf]

What I find interesting is just how much of those early drafts actually did make it into the prequels, thus showing that Lucas did indeed have a lot of those stories in mind all along. We may not like the end execution of them, but it's pretty clear he didn't just make them up as he went along, as many have accused him of doing.

[Falconer]

Hmm. To me there’s a difference between “he had the whole saga mapped out from the beginning” and “every time he wanted to make a new movie, he went back to the imaginative scripts of the original movie to mine for ideas.” It sort of amounts to the same thing, but not quite.

[aldarron]

For those looking for alternatives to Lucas final vision you could look to the earlier treatments and draft scripts to understand "original intent" which seems to be a theme here. There is another site with a lot of that info starwarz.com/starkiller/

[Otto Harkaman]

Oh this is the thread that I was thinking about Finarvyn.

Doing some research I came across a fun youtube video someone had made.

DamWars
youtu.be/_NMfBKrdErY

I didn't realize how close the attack run was to the movie "The Dam Busters". I guess even though he didn't have the whole story in his head from the beginning you have to admire how he was able to take from so many movies and stitch them together.

I just downloaded Akira Kurosawa's "The Hidden Fortress" for my Sunday matinee.

[Otto Harkaman]

Thinking more on the original movie was it released in 1976 or 1977? Some site I have seen list that the movie was released May 25, 1977.

Also thinking of the fascination of "The Force" and "Jedi" I just don't find it all that mystifying anymore. Don't get me wrong I was probably about 13 when the movie came out, a perfect age to see the movie and be absorbed by it. Were we all looking for an alternative to organized religion? Did Scientology get its roots from this?? Its weird to look back on.

[Deleted]

It was 1977 ... I remember it well because I was home from out of state college that summer (eta:) and that was memorable because it was also the only summer I spent at home while in college.

[Otto Harkaman]

Interesting I am a third through "Hidden Fortress" and I think the Star Wars parody "Message from Space" is more like it.

[barrataria]

Aug 19, 2012 12:10:21 GMT -6 Otto Harkaman said:

Also thinking of the fascination of "The Force" and "Jedi" I just don't find it all that mystifying anymore. Don't get me wrong I was probably about 13 when the movie came out, a perfect age to see the movie and be absorbed by it. Were we all looking for an alternative to organized religion? Did Scientology get its roots from this?? Its weird to look back on.

Funny, I've been thinking along the same lines since I started taking yoga classes... and have had the utterly horrible thought that the name "Yoda" is yoga with one letter changed

[Otto Harkaman]

Yoga/Yoda

I am trying to think of all the things going on in 1977. Ford was still president and the presidential election was on with Jimmy Carter. I think we were still collectively reeling from Vietnam. I guess there must have been a lot of visible Vietnam vets still trying to figure out what they had been through. Maybe there was a big fascination with Asian religion as we tried to purge our Karma. The TV series Kung Fu had just been a big hit a couple years before. Seems like a whole other world compared to today when I think back.

I see less and less of the connection to Star Wars the movie as I watch "The Hidden Fortress." I see it when I read the early draft sketches. Again I think its interesting how adaptable Lucas was with the story.

[saveforhalf]

A few observations about the original draft:

It seems that laser swords were the weapon of choice in close combat for everyone, not just jedi/sith. Also, laser pistols and rifles tend to blast their victims "into a million pieces". I wonder if laser guns were originally intended to have an explosive impact when they hit their target. (perhaps to pierce stormtrooper armor?) Maybe that's why they're referred to as "blasters" in subsequent scripts? It would also explain why everyone used swords in close combat: a gun that fired explosive bolts would be dangerous to use in close quarters.

The emperor's name is "Cos Dash-it" (without the hyphen). He's not just the emperor, he's not just the most powerful man in the universe, he's literally "Dash-it". (the board won't even allow the name to be spelled out without the hyphen, it changes it to "Danuts") Funny how George Lucas re-used many of the names from the first draft for other characters, but he dropped "Dash-it" entirely. I guess he used it in the first draft without realizing what it sounded like.

No one has any mystical/magical powers. The jedi are just soliders (albeit elite ones), the bodyguard of the emperor, and seemed to be modeled after the praetorian guard of ancient Rome. The sith are a rival group of soldiers that take over the job when the jedi attempt to overthrow the corrupt emperor.

Instead of "May the Force be with you", people say "May the force of others be with you." I don't know what "of others" is supposed to refer to. The script never explains what this saying means, but it seems to be equivalent to "good luck".