Han Shot First
Going through Mu.Nu, ran into Shoes, Ships, and Sealing Wax. She's got a post asking about Star Wars, and the Han Shot First scene came up, so I answered this: [I watched the movie last week, and thought I have got to get me one of these shirts.] The Han Shot First thing: there's a scene in the original movie that's involved, right after we're first introduced to Han Solo. He's leaving the bar, and runs into a bounty hunter, who will get paid for Han, dead or alive, preferably dead. The bounty hunter's got a blaster pointed, point blank, at Han. They sit back down, chat, the bounty hunter offers to forget he saw Han for a large enough bribe. Han doesn't have the money, is slowly preparing his blaster under the table. The bounty hunter says something like "I've been looking forward to this for a long time," Han counters "I bet you have," and shoots him. The Han goes to the barkeep, flips him a coin, and says "Sorry about the mess." This scene establishes Han as a "does what he needs to do to save his own skin" guy. With the release of the Special Edition, though, the scene was changed. In it, the bounty hunter fires, hits the wall to the side of Han's head, and only then does Han fire. Now, the bounty hunter was close enough that a blind quadraplegic couldn't have missed, and Han, knowing that this guy was going to kill him in the next few seconds, had a reason to fire. So, yes, it's a small point, but it's a good example of Lucas' seeming mistakes/ overwhelming ego.
- posted by owlish @ 5/25/2005 03:43:00 PM