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History revisionists. I hate them. But not as much as I hate George Lucas for making Han shot last. Now, with Star Wars 3D about to hit the cinema, Lucas has completely lost it. He now says that Han NEVER shot first:
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 [who seemed to be the one who shot first in the original] 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.
Poppycock.
George, how do you have the thermal detonators to try to rewrite history in this way? Do you think we are stupid? Wasn’t it enough to paint that stupid laser blast coming at a stupid angle from Greedo? Do you really think that, if Greedo shot first, he would have missed Han at that distance? Was he the son of two Stormtroopers?
George Lucas, stop saying words. [Hollywood Reporter via AV Club]
Oh dear Mr Diaz – George first said this waaay back in 97 when the special editions came out. He prattles on about it on the DVD commentary – something about the explosives behind Han not going off.
At least he is sticking to his story 15 years later. Are you telling me you know something about the filming of SW that George Lucas doesn’t? WEre you there?
I don’t like Greedo shooting first any more than you do, but I don’t automatically assume that George is lying – why would he? He has absolutely no need to lie about it – he has more money than God and can do and say what he likes!
Once again Mr Diaz has inside knowledge to make comments that no one else possesses, even the creator!
After having read the article, I decided to have a look at the movie again at that particular scene. I am no expert at this sort of thing, however I very familiar with MPC-HC, and it does support a frame-by-frame play mode.
Using this, and with the copy of SW IV that I have on hand (Special Edition DVD from around 2006), at the seen where Greedo confronts Han, it is actually Greedo who shoots first: http://img521.imageshack.us/img521/1192/starwarsepisodeivanewhod.jpg http://img51.imageshack.us/img51/7074/starwarsepisodeivanewhoyg.jpg http://img37.imageshack.us/img37/2315/starwarsepisodeivanewho.jpg
Interestingly enough, Han shoots, and then shoots again….I never noticed that before. The subsequent frames show Greedo dyeing in a flash of light and sparks…
However, being that this is based upon an edit by Lucas, and not the original (or at least the first release of the movie on VHS) it is quite possible that Lucas might have edited this scene as is stated in the article.
I will however try to find my parents copy of SW IV on VHS…it might however be difficult to get a picture of the scene online…lol
It would seem that I was foolishly mistaken, this is not the DVD re-release of SW-IV, it is the Blu-ray re-release….hmmm, let me see if I can find the DVD re-release somewhere here…
“Was he the son of two Stormtroopers?”
Bahahaha!