SW Weekend: Star Wars 37th Anniversary

I grew up watching episodes of “Lost in Space” and “Star Trek” on TV (our TV was still in black and white) in the early years of the 70s, but nothing, absolutely nothing I had seen before in the field of Science Fiction had prepared me for the emotion I would feel when in the Brazilian summer, in January 1978, my cousin and I went to the cinema to see a science fiction movie that had just premiered in the city. The emotion I felt when I saw that Imperial cruiser crossing the screen right in the first scene might only be equivalent to the emotion felt by those who first attended the space ballet created by Stanley Kubrick’s “2001 – A Space Odyssey”.

37 years later, here I am, writing about “Star Wars” and remembering the past, and creating expectations for upcoming films, the first, “Episode VII”, having already been announced for December 18, 2015. I hope to be alive when “Episode IX” make its debut in theaters in 2021, and have myself the satisfaction of having watched all the “Star Wars” movies when they were shown in the theaters. I do not know how the cinema will be six years from now, but the thrill of watching a “Star Wars” movie will be the same I felt in January 1978. As the movies magic, the magic of “Star Wars” is eternal . As Master Yoda said, “always in motion is the future.”

May the Force be with you. It’s celebration time!

Portuguese text: Eu cresci vendo episódios de “Perdidos no Espaço” e “Jornada nas Estrelas” na TV (nossa TV ainda era em preto e branco naquela época) nos primeiros anos da década de 70, mas nada, absolutamente nada que eu já tinha visto antes em matéria de ficção científica havia me preparado para a emoção que eu iria sentir quando no verão brasileiro, em janeiro de 1978, eu e meu primo fomos ao cinema para ver um filme de ficção científica que tinha acabado de estrear na cidade. A emoção que eu senti ao ver aquele cruzador imperial atravessar a tela logo na primeira cena talvez só seja equivalente à emoção sentida por quem assistiu pela primeira vez o balé espacial criado por Stanley Kubrick em “2001 – Uma Odisseia no Espaço”.

37 anos depois, aqui estou eu, escrevendo sobre “Guerra nas Estrelas” e lembrando o passado, e ao mesmo tempo criando expectativas para os próximos filmes, sendo o primeiro, “Episode VII”, já tendo sido anunciado para 18 de Dezembro de 2015. Eu espero estar vivo quando “Episódio IX” estrear, em 2021, e ter a satisfação de ter assistido todos os filmes de “Star Wars” quando foram exibidos no cinema. Não sei como serão os cinemas daqui a seis anos, mas a emoção de se assistir um filme de “Star Wars” será a mesma que eu senti lá em janeiro de 1978. Como a magia do cinema, a magia de “Star Wars” é eterna. Como dizia Mestre Yoda, “always in motion is the future”.

Read more: Star Wars 35th Anniversary.

‘Star Wars’ Casting Announcements!

20th Century Fox announced the cast of its new sci-fi production that promises to shake up the galaxy in the summer of 1977! Wait… What??? Yes! Directly from the time tunnel here are some notice press about the pre-production of Episode 4 and others curiosities from the release of the first saga movie that is turning 37 years today.

In July 14th, 1975, the 20th Century Fox announced the start date of the film, which was then called “The Star Wars.”

An early press clipping announcing the production team of “Star Wars”.

Another early announcement for “The Star Wars”:

The casting announcement for Mark Hamill, who was making his feature film debut, called his character “Luke Starkiller”.

Another casting announcement for Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher mentioned that Fisher was the daughter of Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher, and Ford was to play a “starpilot.” 

The headline on the casting announcement for Alec Guinness, who played Obi-Wan Kenobi, shows that his role was expected to be the biggest in the film.

Veteran sci-fi actor Peter Cushing got some love from Variety in 1976. Buried in the announcement was that of the actor playing Darth Vader – “a huge masked villain” – played by David Prowse, who starring as Frankenstein twice.

One lucky fan got this ticket stub to see a special sneak preview of “Star Wars” on May 24, 1977, which was one day before the release of the film:

This advertisement from 20th Century Fox announces how the film would sound and look.

One of the early newspaper reports on the success of “Star Wars”:

This is a full-page ad that the very collegial Steven Spielberg created for his long-time friend George Lucas applauding him on “Star Wars” beating “Jaws” box office record.

All images credits for The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences/ The Oscars on  Facebook.

SW Weekend: Yodify Your Language

To celebrate the 37th anniversary of Star Wars Saga, and spread their love for Star Wars through the galaxy, the Grammarly Site dissected a few of classic Yoda-style quotes in order to better understand the patterns that #yodify English language.

A Grammar and Style Guide to #Yodify Your Language

INVERTED WORD ORDER:

“Powerful you have become. The dark side I sense in you.”

In Yoda-speak, the position of modifiers (adjectives, adverbs, and modifying clauses) as well as objects are often swapped with the position of subjects and verbs; they come before the subject and verb in the sentence rather than after it. Modifiers, however, must immediately precede the subject-verb phrase as in:

“If into the security recordings you go, only pain will you find.”

Note that “if” is still placed at the very beginning of the sentence, as it would be in proper English.

FLEXIBLE SUBJECT-VERB ORDER:

“Ready are you? What know you of ready? For eight hundred years have I trained Jedi. My own counsel will I keep on who is to be trained.”

In most cases, Yoda gets the subject-verb order right for English—subject then verb. Sometimes, however, he switches the order of verbs and subjects. This tells us that the placement of subjects and verbs in Yoda’s native language is much more fluid than in English.

MISSING AUXILIARY IN NEGATION and LACK OF CONTRACTIONS:

“Size matters not. Look at me. Judge me by my size, do you? Hmm? Hmm. And well you should not.”

When Yoda wants to negate something he does something peculiar—he drops the helping verb ‘to do’ and then places the negation after the verb, unlike in English. “Size does not matter” becomes “Size matters not.” This rule, however, is flexible, particularly with the verb negation “do not,” which is perfectly correct English, i.e. “Do or do not. There is no try.” In fact, one can say that Yoda learned the correct negation of “to do” and “to be” (i.e. “I am not.”) etc. and applied that construction consistently to all verbs.

Additionally, English teachers and lovers of formal writing should be proud that—despite his other mistakes, at least—Yoda never used a contraction. Every “don’t” or “won’t” or “shouldn’t” for Yoda was a do not, will not, or a should not.

DROPPED AUXILIARY IN PRESENT TENSE QUESTIONS:

“Ready are you? What know you of ready?”

Many ESL learners struggle with the added “do” in English questions. As with his removal of “do” in most negations, Yoda often drops the “do” in questions; he forms questions with the interrogative pronoun then the subject and verb (occasionally inverted). “Where do you go?” becomes “Where go you?” and “Why do you say that?” becomes “Why that you say?” For other tenses, the auxiliary “do” remains, but often the word order is inverted.

If to #Yodify something you want, follow these main rules you must:

1. Move your modifiers, modifier phrases, and objects before the subject-verb phrase.
2. Swap your subject-verb order.
3. Drop the auxiliary “do” when negating most verbs and place the negation after the verb.
4. Do not use contractions.
5. Drop the auxiliary “do” in present tense questions.

Check out some of our favorite quotes in literature, #Yodified:

“Across the sky a screaming comes.” (Thomas Pynchon, Gravity’s Rainbow)
“A bright and cold day in April it was, and the clocks thirteen were striking.” (George Orwell, 1984)
“The best of times it was, the worst of times it was.” (Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities)
“You know not about me, without a book by the name of Adventures of Tom Sawyer you have read; but no matter it is.” (Mark Twain, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn)
“The saddest story heard I have is this.” (Ford Madox Ford, The Good Soldier)
“The moment English one learns, set in complications do.” (Felipe Alfau, Chromos)

Source: http://www.grammarly.com.
Recommended reading: Yoda Quotes.

SW Picture of the Day: “Star Up”

This cake garnish is a cute crossover with the characters Carl and Ellie from Pixar/Disney animation movie Up dressed as Han and Leia in Episode IV. Have a nice Sunday. May the Force be with you!

SW Weekend: Solo Shot First

“Han shot first” is a phrase used to refer to a controversial change made to a scene in the 1997 “Special Edition” re-release of Star Wars (1977) in which Han Solo (Harrison Ford) is confronted by the bounty hunter Greedo (Paul Blake) inside the Mos Eisley Cantina.

Greedo is an associate of Jabba the Hutt, a Tatooine-based crime lord for whom Han Solo also used to work. Before the events of the film, Jabba has put a bounty on Han, who had been transporting a cargo of spice for the crime lord, but was forced to dump it in order to avoid capture by an Imperial search party. The scene depicts Greedo pulling his blaster on Han as he attempts to leave the Mos Eisley cantina and cornering him to sit down in a booth. Han tells Greedo that he has accumulated enough money to pay Jabba back, but Greedo demands the money immediately, and he grows angrier when Han tells him he does not have it in his possession. As Han quietly begins to ready his own blaster underneath the table, Greedo tells him that Jabba has run out of patience with Han and that he, Greedo, had been “waiting for a long time” to take out his former associate. Han replies, “Yes, I’ll bet you have.” He shoots Greedo to death, through the table, with his still-concealed blaster.

In the original 1977 theatrical release of the film, immediately after Han delivers his retort to Greedo, a cloud of smoke appears and blurs the screen showing Greedo face-on followed by a shot of Greedo’s corpse, from behind, slumping over the table. Director George Lucas expressed his dissatisfaction with the scene’s climax, believing that it depicted Han, who is the film’s supporting protagonist, as a cold-blooded killer. For the film’s 20th-anniversary theatrical re-release in 1997, Lucas altered the scene with an additional second of footage by showing Greedo shooting at Han first from point blank range and missing only to result in Han retaliating by firing back and killing Greedo. Thus, the phrase “Han shot first” is a retort to director George Lucas’s explicit cinematic assertion that “Greedo shot first.”

The alteration of the scene was disagreeable to a number of longtime fans of the series, provoking some to create an online petition demanding that the changes be retracted. The primary objection to the revision is that it alters Han’s initially morally ambiguous character, making his later transition from anti-hero to hero less meaningful. Since the “Special Edition,” there have been two additional DVD releases. In the film’s first official DVD release in 2004, the disputed scene was altered again, this time with Greedo still shooting before Han does and missing at close range, but the timing is altered so the shots are fired at nearly the same time and to depict Han “dodging” the shot. (Digital manipulation is used to “lean” the character to one side.)

Thanks to the Internet, I have the two versions of Episode IV, so I made these two gifs for each one:

The 1977 Star Wars Solo Shot First Version:

The Special Edition 1997 Greedo Shot First Version:

In a 2012 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Lucas altered his previous statements by announcing that Greedo had always shot first, stating that a combination of bad close-up shots and the audiences’s inaccurate perception of the Han Solo character was what actually caused all the confusion. Lucas stated:

“The controversy over who shot first, Greedo or Han Solo, in Episode IV, what I did was try to clean up the confusion, but obviously it upset people because they wanted Solo to be a cold-blooded killer, but he actually isn’t. It had been done in all close-ups and it was confusing about who did what to whom. I put a little wider shot in there that made it clear that Greedo is the one who shot first, but everyone wanted to think that Han shot first, because they wanted to think that he actually just gunned him down.”

But despite this claim from Lucas, drafts of the original shooting script on the Internet make no mention of Greedo shooting at all, only Han. When asked during a 2014 Reddit “Ask Me Anything” feature whether Han Solo or Greedo shot first, Harrison Ford replied:

“I don’t know and I don’t care.”

Source: Wikipedia.

So, I also made this video with the two versions. Take your own conclusions…