Wednesday, September 03, 2008

In case you never heard of it.

Star Wars was on the Spike channel last night. Episode IV, as it were. I get my TV programming via Dish Network, and they usually provide a roughly 25-words-or-less synopsis if you press the "Info" button on the remote. Out of curiosity I decided to check out how they summarized A New Hope:
Robots and other allies help a youth and a space jockey rescue a rebel princess and battle dark forces bent on intergalactic rule.
I like how Artoo and Threepio get top billing.

13 comments:

  1. Anonymous10:15 AM

    well other than Anakin/Vader they are the only characters to appear in every movie right?

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  2. Anonymous10:16 AM

    hmmm, I guess Obi Wan does too, so that's 4 characters who are in all (cough) 6 movies.

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  3. A rebellious young girl travels to a strange land, kills the first person she meets, gathers a band of misfits and goes on to kill again.
    Rated: G. B&W/Color. 1939.

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  4. True...however 3-PO is the only character played by the same actor in all 6...

    Palpatine comes in 2nd with 5 movies...

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  5. My own summary of Star Wars boils down to "Han Solo has space-adventures! Other characters also allegedly included."

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  6. Although Palpatine wasn't played by the same actor in all five of his appearances. At least not originally; I'm sure McDiarmid has been spliced into the most recent revision of Empire...

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  7. Dorothy as a bad guy. Huh. The things I read here.

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  8. Spike TV's blurb writer is weak girlyman. The 25 word blurb for SW *should* read something like:

    "George Lucas' popular 1977 pulp sci-fi homage to Akira Kurosawa's Forbidden Fortress."

    or

    "Have you been living under a rock for the past 30 years? It's STAR WARS."

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  9. Anonymous11:05 AM

    "Although Palpatine wasn't played by the same actor in all five of his appearances. At least not originally; I'm sure McDiarmid has been spliced into the most recent revision of Empire"

    This is one of the things about all the revisiting and remastering that's been done to Star Wars that annoys me. There are so many different versions of each movie. How is there supposed to be an accepted standard for movie trivia???

    I mean in 2055 when a "Movies" category comes up on Jeopardy, Star Wars will be the only movie a cybernetic Alex Trebek will have to specify which edition he's talking about.

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  10. Yep, I watched it, too. Twice, even.

    I miss the days when Lucas had to work under certain constraints.

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  11. When the remastered version of E.T. was back on theaters, a local newspaper offered the following summary.

    "A botanist becomes separated from his starship on a strange world. In order to return home, he recruits an alien child, overcoming communication problems and cultural shock."

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  12. Reminds me of this: http://www.postmodernbarney.com/2009/04/uncomfortable-plot-summaries/

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  13. So silly of me to respond to posts that are over a year old, but I have nothing else to do while I sit at work and there are no customers.

    This write-up, while dubious, is close to the spirit of the original intent of the movies. Which, like Hidden Fortress, was to follow 2 arguing characters of a lower class through their adventures while wars wage around them.

    Lucas originally intended for the first half hour or so to be just the droids, but the studio felt it was too alienating. At least that's the way Lucas tells it now.

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