Wow, I forgot this place existed, it's been so long since I posted...
Glad there's finally some new OT Star Wars goodness to talk about!
The scene where Luke builds his saber was in the rough draft and the revised rough draft of the script.
It also made it into the novelisation and the Radio Drama, although there the focus was more on Luke building his saber and talking with Artoo and Threepio about the mission rather than Vader trying to communicate with Luke.
I'll post the extracts when I get the chance.
The scene wasn't included in the shooting script, but, according to John Phillip Peecher's Making of ROTJ book, Hamill was called back in November 1982 to shoot "the scene where he builds his new lasersword" at the same time he did the pick up shots of new dialogue in the X-Wing (to cover the dialogue now missing as the Sandstorm scene had been cut by this point).
Anthony Daniels has also suggested in interviews that he shot part of this scene with Lucas and a small crew.
On top of this, some storyboards and a matte painting have been around on the net for a while (see below), and John Williams even scored the scene - the music heard on this clip was included on the Special Edition soundtrack album, and the liner notes explain: "After a bold resolution of Vader's theme, the music continues with TATOOINE RENDEZVOUS, most of which accompanies a sequence eliminated from the film. In it, Vader uses the Force to contact his son, Luke Skywalker."
My personal feeling, however, is that the first half of the scene was not shot - hence the recycled Vader dialogue, and what is (possibly) a newly constructed shot of Vader in his meditation chamber.
The shots of Vader striding down the corridor seem more likely to have been tacked on from a scene later in the movie which was also cut - scene 70, where Vader strides down the corridor to the elevator to seek an audiecne with Palpatine and is refused acces by the royal guards...
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Yeah, sure...I'd just like to see them play it out like they did in the novelization. I know why it was cut - Lucas thought it slowed momentum after the explosive escape from Jabba's Sail Barge. Still...
And Luke building the lightsaber did get into the EU, as a scene in Shadows Of The Empire.
I think part of the reason it was cut - which includes Vader trying to contact Luke from his chamber - was because they wanted to leave the parentage question open until they got to Dagobah, and have Yoda give the definitive 'Yes.'
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Last edited by roughrider on Aug 30th, 2010 at 09:02 PM
HGreat post, dude. And good analysis. I do think the Vader shots were leftovers from the ESB shoot.
I wonder then how this scene was meant: just a shot? Or did they really shoot the whole building scene. Now it looks like he is adjusting it or summin...
Aug 27th, 2010 06:50 AM
