Best line from the Star Wars DVD documentary came from Carrie Fisher, who said that during the production of Episode IV, all sorts of corporate types were coming in with various concerns and troubles, one of which was, “should Chewbacca have a loin cloth or something?” So far I haven’t had a chance to fully dig into the box set yet, but it’s really an enlightening look at Lucas in the early days, and it shows me his perspective better. I now understand the reason for his constant edits. He didn’t want to make 3 movies or 6 movies, he wanted to make one. So all these edits he makes are just things he would have done if he hadn’t had the restraints of budget and time and studio politics that he had. Plus the documentary is full of screen test, alternate takes and on-set goofing off, which is great.
Last Sunday, I overheard three kids at Allsop Park racing each other. When they arrived at their destination, the boys chimed in thusly:
Boy 1: “Winner!”
Boy 2: “Second!”
Boy 3: “Wait, we tied for second!”
They raced again, and the results were somewhat similar:
Boy 1: “Winner!”
Boy 2: “Second!”
Boy 3: “Look a red leaf!”
Something tells me I’m going to raise a child most resembling Boy 3.