star wars

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At this moment Spike TV is broadcasting Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back. It’s leading in to network premiere of Return of the Jedi later tonight.

Okay, I’ve watched The Empire Strikes Back… Lord only knows how many times over the years, all the way back to when it first came out in theaters in 1980. And there is one thing about this movie that has always, always bugged me…

In the “betrayal” scene where Lando is taking Han, Leia and Chewie through Cloud City, the door opens and there’s Darth Vader seated at the far end of a fully-loaded banquet table. Han shoots, Vader deflects the blaster bolts with his hand then forces Han’s gun to fly into his outstretched palm. Then Vader says “We would be honored if you would join us.” Boba Fett enters from stage right behind Vader, Lando says “I’m sorry…” ...

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A high school English teacher and football coach in Alabama is using the first three Star Wars movies in his classroom to teach students about the aspects of epic literature.

Luke Skywalker is not just a character in a series of films to David Golden, an English teacher and football coach at Hazel Green High School. The Jedi knight is an epic hero, whose rise, fall and redemption are part of a story rife with classic archetypes we all know through our collective unconscious as described by the psychologist Carl Jung.

Seriously.

Each semester, Golden’s ninth-grade students watch the original trilogy of the Star Wars movies, with Golden pointing out the situational, character and symbolic archetypes as well as literary elements.

n the cave scene in “Return of the Jedi,” Luke faces off against Darth Vader (which means dark knight in German, Golden told his students).

“It’s foggy, dense,” Golden

...
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Basic cable television network Spike – formerly known as “Spike TV”, formerly known as “The New TNN”, formerly known as “The National Network”, formerly known as “TNN”, formerly known as “The Nashville Network” a Gaylord Production from Opryland USA, “That’s all!” (five hundred points to whoever can tell what that’s a reference to) – starts running ALL SIX MOVIES of the Star Wars saga, in their proper chronological order, beginning tonight at 8 p.m. EST/7 Central with Episode I: The Phantom Menace. Then tomorrow night at the same time will be Episode II: Attack of the Clones followed Sunday night with the world broadcast premiere of Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, and fittingly the cycle repeats next weekend with Episode IV: A New Hope, then Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back and finally Episode VI: Return of the Jedi. Premium channels like HBO have ...

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WGAL in Lancaster, Pennsylvania has a great story about teachers there who have made a series of Star Wars-inspired short films designed to help local students prepare for their state standardized tests. The PSSA Wars videos, offering tips on how to handle the critical exams, feature such characters as “Duke Skywriter” and “Math Solo” and even include the classic Star Wars saga-style scrolling intro. And not since Hardware Wars have there been such glorious special effects in a Star Wars spoof! Seriously though, I watched the episode that WGAL is hosting on its site at the link above, and I thought these teachers did a terrific job! Thanks to TheForce.net for this awesome find 🙂...

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Hot on the heels of the deleted Harrison Ford cameo in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial showing up on YouTube, an anonymous commenter points us to the mental_floss Blog, which discovered that the long-lost and rather legendary “Tosche Station scene” from the first Star Wars movie (now known as Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope is also on YouTube. Here it is…

This is the scene where in the original script we first see Luke talking to his lifelong best friend Biggs Darklighter. In the Special Edition of A New Hope that came out in 1997, Luke and Biggs are reunited just before they fly off along with the other Rebels to take on the Death Star. This deleted scene puts that re-introduced bit into proper context. But otherwise, it does tend to drag the story down… had it made it into the final cut. And it must be said: ...

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One of the niftier gifts that I got for Christmas came from my wife Lisa: a copy of The Star Wars Vault.

If you consider yourself a serious student of the saga’s production lore, this book is a must-have for your shelf. It’s not merely a written tome: it supplements the chronicle of the development and marketing of the Star Wars movies with reproductions of several official documents (including the prospective audience members’ questionnaire for the first screening of Star Wars, George Lucas’s handwritten notes about The Empire Strikes Back and a copy of John Williams’s original composition for the first movie’s ending theme). There are also two CDs with audio material, and among them is what might be the closest thing there will ever be toward acknowledging The Star Wars Holiday Special‘s right to exist: the track of Carrie Fisher singing as Princess Leia!

2007 was ...

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Look, it’s our Christmas tree!

This year, Lisa thought it would be fun to decorate our tree with all the Star Wars ornaments that I’ve been collecting over the years. Which is something that I’ve never done before: until now, they’ve all been in their boxes, never removed except to momentarily oggle and admire. But after how we did up her classroom a few months ago, I guess Lisa had the bug to decorate other things with a Star Wars motif. Here’s a close-up of one part of the tree, re-creating the epic duel between Obi-Wan Kenobi and Darth Vader…

If you’re a longtime, regular reader of this blog, then all three of you know what this post is about…

I’m going to take off for a few days, so that I can spend the Christmas holiday with family and friends. I won’t say there won’t be blogging here ...

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Last week the new Star Wars book Jedi vs. Sith: The Essential Guide to the Force came out. I haven’t bought it yet but might later this afternoon (and I found these images on Wookieepedia). Within it, hauntingly painted by Chris Trevas, there is the first-ever “canon” image (meaning it’s fully approved by Lucasfilm) of Darth Plagueis. If you saw Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith then you already know that Darth Plagueis was the Sith Master who trained Darth Sidious. He was also obsessed with stopping death.

So here it is: Chris Trevas’ portrait of Darth Plagueis (watching a young Sidious spar with a lightsaber):

And here’s a close-up of the face of Plagueis:

Even though that’s just one picture, that’s still an awful lot more about Plagueis than has been released since Episode III. There was going to be a novel about Darth ...

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I saw this on sale yesterday at Radio Shack. If you’ve ever lusted after one of those awesome Force FX lightsabers that Master Replicas makes but have somehow never got one, this may finally make you yield to the Dark Side enough to shell out $99 for it…

With a variety of grips, switches, pommels and whatnot (to say nothing of how you can select from three different colors for the blade) to choose from, the Lightsaber Construction Set boasts that you can create thousands of different combinations of this most elegant of weapons.

Bunch more photos of the thing over at Simply Toys. And no, I did not buy this. But I soon might 🙂...

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It’s a great Star Wars book. I liked it a lot.

Just wanted to let y’all know that if you were thinking of buying it. I’ll recommend it.

Going to leave for awhile. I won’t be back unless it’s either (a) major catastrophe (b) Ron Price does something so cosmically insane that I have to step in again or (c) I’m good and ready to return… which may not be for quite some time.

So ’til then… goodbye goodbye goodbye!

EDIT 4:33 p.m. EST: My sabbatical in no way affects the eBay auction for the copy of Transformers: The Score signed by Steve Jablonsky. I’m just stepping away from the blog for awhile, not the Internet entirely. So I’ll still be monitoring this until Thursday when the auction ends 🙂...

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