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Episode 1584 Talkback - Top 5 Star Wars Movie Moments
Adam_Murdough
Posts: 506
As the Force awakens across the nation, the Geeks submit their favorite scenes from the first six films in the (once again ongoing!!) Star Wars saga. Strap yourself into the cockpit of your X-Wing (or TIE Fighter) and feel 1.75 hours of reminiscence about Jedi knights, droids, princesses, smugglers, alien creatures, Imperial officers, etc. flowing through you! This episode is strong with the nostalgic side of the Force! (1:45:31)
Listen here--or listen not. There is no "try."
Listen here--or listen not. There is no "try."
Comments
@Adam_Murdough -- your choice of Luke staring off wistfully at the double sunset on Tattooine brought a smile to my face. As long as I can remember, that has been one of my all-time favorite moments in Star Wars. It made it as #3 on my own list, which I posted two days ago over at the Warrior27 blog.
My top 5:
5. the space battle in Return of the Jedi
4. the lightsaber battle from Empire Strikes Back
3. the scene referenced above, Luke staring off at the two suns setting on Tattooine
2. the Millennium Falcon's escape through the asteroid field in Empire
1. the opening scene of Star Wars --- that Star Destroyer went on forever......
I go into a bit more detail about my choices here.
Thanks for the episode, gentlemen. I appreciate all the work you do to bring my enjoyment to my ears.
chris
5. Failure in the cave. Luke fighting Vader and seeing his face in the helmet freaked me out. I loved it.
4. Escape from the Death Star. I just love the character moments between Han, Luke, Leia and Chewbacca. You can see them forming a bond even if it's not right away but there are just too many moments that I love to write it all out here.
3. Millenium Falcon being chased in Empire. I love the music and the interaction between the characters and even now when I'm in a crowded area like Port Authority or just in New York City in general, I always hear the asteroid music in my head.
2. The Battle of Hoth. I just loved this battle.
1. Luke vs Darth in Empire. I've always loved that scene. Everything about it is awesome. How it builds over time and how you see Vader get more serious as the fight goes on until the end where he's really swinging for the fences and Luke realizes that he's in over his head. Also, the revelations of all revelations made me scream "NO" in the theaters right with Luke. I couldn't believe it and what was worse, I had to wait three years to get a resolution. It was terrible and awesome.
4. The Battle of Yavin-Still thrilling to this day.
3. The Asteroid Field-Again exciting, funny, you're not sure if our heroes are going to make it. And Williams finest piece of Star Wars music.
2. "No, I am your father."-What more can be said about the most iconic moment in Cinema. Normally I abhor the You Tube reaction videos to trailers because the come across as forced and artificial. But there are videos of kids watching Empire for the first time. The looks they give are absolutely priceless.
1. Han gets frozen-I recently brought the scene up on You Tube and just listened to it. Han telling Chewie he has to take care of Leia. Also listen to Chewie in tha scene, the wailing he does is heartbreaking. And then of course
"I love you."
"I know."
It's the greatest declaration of love in movie history.
History (I think I'm close on most of these dates.)
I'm the same age as Shane and Chris. As people of that age we are as young as you can be and still have a memory of seeing the very first film either first or second run in a theater. Now I'm pretty sure that the first home video release of Star Wars was 1982. Of course this was time when not every home had a VCR or (better yet) a 12" Laserdisc player. So even though the first home video was 1982 that may or may not be when you first got it.
So what does one do to fill that Star Wars hunger until you got that first home video? Well in 1981 there was the airing of the NPR radio drama. My father got wind of it and actually recorded it off the radio onto audio cassettes for me when it first aired. These tapes would give me hours and hours of joy until our family got our first home video circa 1984. We listened to those tapes over and over and over and over again. They provided entertainment on extended family road trips. I typically fell asleep every night listening to an episode of that radio drama.
How much did I listen to those? Let me put it to you this way. To this day, whenever I read a Star Wars book I don't hear the voices of Harrison Ford, Carrie Fischer, Sir Alec Guiness or James Earl Jones in my head. Instead I hear the voices of Perry King, Ann Sachs, Bernard Berrans and Brock Peters. I listened to Star Wars and Empire so many times (Jedi wouldn't be released until 1996 so I never heard it as much) I can actually quote thoses two radio dramas equally as well as the movies themselves.
Those radio adaptations were so wonderful. Not only did they fill a void but they were the expanded universe long before there was an expanded universe. A New Hope alone clocks in at 5 hours 57 minutes. Now part of that is related to the fact that you need more exposition to make up for the fact that there are no pictures. But that doesn't explain all of it. These things are loaded with so much supplementary and background scenes. Again in the case of A New Hope, the first 2.5 radio episodes (there were 13 for the A New Hope adaptation) take place immediately before the movie begins. There are scenes of Luke's day to day life on Tatooine and Leia's background in the Rebellion. In these scenes we learn much about Luke's friendship with Biggs (so much so that when he dies in the Battle Yavin I actually felt the gravity of that loss) and how Leia acquired the plans to the Death Star from the rebel spies which stole them. And to Shane's point in this CGS episode, yes that torture of Leia on the Death Star was very, very scary and disturbing. I too would skip over that because it was just that well acted and I couldn't take it at that young age. Anyway I could go on and on but sufficed to say, if you have never listens to these things you owe it to yourself to do so. The tag line for the radio dramas sums things up perfectly: You may think you saw the movie, but wait until you hear it.
Five other favourite moments from the prequels were:
1. The discussion between Anakin and Palpatine during the opera in ROTS.
2. The Lightsaber fight between Darth Maul, Qui Gon jinn, and Obi Wan in PM.
3. The face off between Obi Wan and Jango Fett on Kamino in AOTC.
4. The final lightsaber fight between Anakin and Obi Wan in ROTS.
5. A bit of a cheat, but any scene with Coruscant. I loved the design of that planet.
My Top 5 Star Wars Moments:
5) The battle on Hoth is one of my favorite scenes in the trilogy. The AT-AT walkers, the tension, the snow speeders, the snow troopers, the quick glimpse of the AT-ST walkers, and of course, the return of Darth Vader. Best moment: the reveal of the AT-AT walkers.
4) Yoda levitating the X-Wing from the Dagobah. From John Williams' evocative score, to Luke's surprise, and getting to see more power from the Force, and in the end, Yoda basically tells Luke he doesn't have enough faith.
3) The climax to Return of the Jedi, with three battles taking place at once; the forest moon of Endor mission to shut down the shield generator, the battle on the new Death Star between the Emperor & Darth vs Luke, and the space battle, which that opening shot of the tie fighters coming towards the Millennium cockpit was epic. That shot was my favorite moment.
2) The battle between Luke and Darth Vader on Bespin, in the hallway. After Luke escapes the carbonite chamber just as Darth Vader begins flinging parts and debris at him via the Force, the moment is truly frightening, and John Williams' score (again, a character all its own) begins playing these violin swirls that remind me of bees swarming. Very haunting.
1) The entire Cantina scene at Mos Eisley. The creature effects, the introduction of Han and Chewie, Ben using the lightsaber, the droids being told 'their kind' weren't served there, Greedo getting shot (first), the music, etc. So much goodness. In fact, all of Mos Eisley from Star Wars is my favorite scene of the original trilogy, but the intro of the cantina was the best moment of all for me. Lucas's incessant fiddling with that sequence really put him on my bad side for a while.
Thanks @wildpigcomics, @Adam_Murdough & @ShaneKelly - hope you guys enjoyed The Force Awakens!
That it holds up (as so many moments in the original film do) is a massive feat, considering the advancements in moviemaking in the past 40 years, not to mention other filmmakers surely motivated to try and top it.
I love a lot of everyone's choices, and coming up with my own list would be REALLY tough.. But that's my clear #1.
CGS crew: "We know."
5) Luke against the Rancor - much like Adam, I love the monsters and creatures of Star Wars, and the Rancor is my favorite of them all. This whole David vs. Goliath scene really had me in suspense as a kid. I had no idea how Luke was going to escape this creature. Plus finally seeing what was causing the screams from earlier was awesome!
4) Luke's Bespin Battle Against Vader - From the orange glowing beginning on the steps to the reveal of Vader being Luke's father, it was all emotional and brutal. You realize how outmatched Luke is and that Vader is mostly playing with him. Then the emotion and acting from a masked character at the end...well, it was incredible.
3) Luke Flipping then Ignites His New Lightsaber - Like it was mentioned on the show, the entire Jabba section of Return of the Jedi was amazing. But the scene and music that leads and follows Luke receiving his new lightsaber from R2 launching it, well, that will be permanently etched in my memory as one of the coolest moments in film.
2) Luke and Vader Duel in Front of the Emperor - My #1 & #2 flip flop all if the time. The emotion in this scene for me far surpasses what we saw in the Bespin battle. There is so much behind every lightsaber strike. And the Emperor winning in the moment by just sitting there talking shows what a great villain he truly was. Then going back to the scene of Luke and Vader pretty much in silhouette, the lightsabers clashing, and the music crescendoing with a choir. It is epic in every way.
1) Yoda Explains the Force - Yoda is my favorite character. This scene is one of the reasons why. I learned all I ever needed to know about the Force in these 5 minutes. It is a brilliant piece of dialogue and acted out so well. It's just brilliant.
I'm looking forward to hearing the rest of the episode and the other Star Wars episodes you have ahead.
Empire of Dreams is probably one of the best.