121 Days of Star Wars
Minute 41:00 of 121:00
This minute of Star Wars contains the best performance by skeletons since 1959′s The House on Haunted Hill…
At the beginning of Minute 41:00, Luke returns home to find his house in shambles and his life ruined.
His reaction… is to not have much of a reaction.
Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru are left frying in the sand and the only family Luke’s ever known have been reduced to props from the Poltergeist pool.
I didn’t really give it much thought when I was a kid, but on repeated viewings, I started to wonder why Luke’s only reaction to his foster parents’ mangled bodies is to look downward with an expression that says “this is disappointing.” Mark Hamill had similar feelings.
According to J.W. Rinzler’s epic tome, The Making of Star Wars, on the first several takes, Hamill played the scene with utter despair, wrenching his face to show heightened feelings. It was realistic. But in Lucas’ “faster, more intense” directing style, he pushed Hamill to downplay his performance. By keeping it simple, the order of shots we see influences our interpretation of Luke’s emotions. While it robs Hamill of an Oscar winning moment, it fits within Lucas’ documentarian directing style.
From here, we cut to a new angle of the ever-rotating Death Star, it’s planet-killing superlaser-crater on the dark side of the non-moon.
Vader and two commanders walk down a hexagonal hallway. The cramped windowless corridor conveys that this must be the Death Star’s steerage section, full of low class Irish people looking for work on a potato planet. When the Death Star blows up, they’re the first to go.
Vader opens the door and we see that this is where they’re holding Leia. Just sitting there, probably reminiscing about great senate speeches from years past… how else would she pass the time?
The dark lord wastes no time getting to the point…
Oh, ok. They’re just going to have a quick conversation. We’ll see how this turns out in Minute 42:00.
Rating: 1.8 out of 2 smoking relatives.
Best Performance by an Human: Mark Hamill’s reaction is understated but it follows Lucas’ directive pushes the hero one step closer on his journey.
Best Performance by a Skeleton:
Originally published at mindctrlaltdel.tumblr.com.
