because lucas was well known around episode 1 to have to borrow money of EVERYONE he knew to get the film because it was hideously over budget.

seriously though, its just yet another instance where Lucas has no idea what he has created and just trolls along with the impression that what he says goes, and he can be as full of holes as the bible.

ever wondered why, when describing how fast the falcon was han solo says it made the kessel run in less than 12 parsecs, parsecs being a measure of distance no time. Evidence again that star wars' success was a fluke and lucas just sneezed on a page and hoped for the best.

-arc

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Lucas ... just trolls along with the impression that what he says goes

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But that's actually the way it works, innit? That universe is his baby, ain't no one gonna tell him what to do.

As far as the whole "parsecs" thing goes, you can imagine that the Falcon's speed allowed Han to run a more sraight-line path, closer to the black holes (which are why the run is dangerous in the first place), thereby shaving off both distance and - obviously - time.

@aliens
Unlikely, if that is the case then Solo would have said "the 12 parsecs" or something to that effect but he would make it quite clear he was referring to the distance and not to time.

Alternatively, languages evolve so perhaps the word parsec evolved as well. Maybe people saw parsecs as a unit of time because it seems to be used exclusively for hyperspace. Without proper context "Planet 1 is 12 parsecs away" could be taken to mean "Planet 1 is 12 <units of distance> away" or perhaps "Planet 1 is 12 <units of time> away with my hyperdrive engines".

Personally I think Lucas is sloppy but I'm trying to be objective here.

But you could hardly expect anyone - and Solo in particular - to be so precise in his diction. And we all know that Lucas can't write dialogue to save his life, so it's not all that surprising really.

The evolution of language is possible, I suppose, but we're never faced with the word again so it's hard to say.

Ultimately I agree with your classification of Lucas as sloppy.

i have been thinking about this a lot since the awfulness that was Ep 3 impinged itself on me.

where does a director's *ownership* of his work lie? is this not the territory explored in *Misery* ? who are we to criticise Lucas for inconsistencies in a universe he has crafted himself? it's a fair point.

we're the paying public, that's who. and Lucas is a populist director/producer. however his sole concern seems to be his bank balance, and I really do wonder whther Eps 1, 2 and 3 were more the manufacture of a committee of marketing men based on a loose script of Lucas, rather than him actually doing the work himself, as he would have everyone believe.

fact is he really is very capable, or was, once, now he doesn't have to be. he can put "Star Wars" on any old sh*te and it will sell. Jar-Jar Binks anyone? hey my kids loved him a few years ago!

About 12 parsecs, one of the Han Solo books explained this by the fact that the Maw (a black hole cluster) is right next to Kessel. Han flew so close to the black holes he did a shorter distance than eveyrone else.

A-ha! Stick that in your pipe and smoke it Mr. Evil Man!

Of course this doesn't change the fact that I agree with you.

Another thing about Lucas: He can't be attributed as the actual author of Star Wars. The force, the Jedi, the Roman-like Galactic Empire, were all the concepts of Joseph Cambell, a friend of Lucas's and a professor of English lit. Cambell also edited Lucas's scripts for IV-VI. Lucas's wife, furthermore, was the second author behind star wars, coming up with the plots, characters, etc. Which is why Jedi sucked in comparison to Empire and Star Wars (I refuse to call it a NEw Hope), Lucas's wife left him in the middle of the production.

Lucas just wrote the horrible dialogue, basically.

Edit: He also changed the concept of the force entirely in Phantom Menace. It went from being a Neoplatonian "One"-like unifying power to being a mathematically quantifiable God.

"You have twenty five hundred force points!"

Edited by - Wilde on 5/31/2005 5:55:01 PM

Wilde, if what you say about force points is true, would we not have heard Yoda saying "Level Up!" several times during Ep3?

akshuly Wilde I think you'll find that Lucas himself admits to Star wars being largely based, thematically, upon Akira Kurosawa's samurai films, most specifically Kakushi toride no san akunin - The Hidden Fortress (rebel princess has to be rescued by a knight, a rogue and two idiots) and the samurai pairing Sanjuro and Yojimbo.

as I've mentioned before, Lucas clearly acknowledged his debt, quite literally. following the success of original Star Wars (Ep 4 to you) Lucas worked very hard to revitalise Kurosawa's career, which was in the doldrums in the 70s following Kurosawa's disastrous (for him) involvement in Tora! Tora! Tora!. Along with Coppola, Lucas raised the finance for Kagemusha the Shadow Warrior, which then became the sprongboard for Kurosawa's masterpiece, Ran. This is all very well documented.

Star Wars is of course highly eclectic, but I think you place too much emphasis on the Campbell influence. I'm not saying it's not there, but there were/are more immediate influences than that.

i dont think anyone is under the impression that lucas's saga is a masterstroke of creativity and originality. he constantly says its a simple tale that's been told countless times before and he's just repackaged it for modern audiences. judging by the fact that now every thread on OT is devoted to star wars, its clear that he's succeeded.

-arc

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A-ha! Stick that in your pipe and smoke it Mr. Evil Man!

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I stand corrected then

Thinking about it, that actually does make sense. Clearly one of the later (was it episode 1?) scriptwriters saw (heard?) "in 12 parsecs" and thought, 'Ah! A unit of time' and wrote it as such.

J Dawg--I was talking about the midichlorians.

Just don't make the film in the first place