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Why does Darth Vader look so crappy in ANH?

Plus at the time, Jones would have no idea of the future iconic nature of the character, it was just another job.
 
I was not a fan of Vader losing his temper and shouting in ANH. It felt to me like Jones was still uncertain about how to do the character while the first movie was being made.

But you have to look at this in context, the character you think about now as Darth Vader didn't exist when they made the first film (regardless of Lucas's revisionist history) - he was the henchman of the week who's first name was Darth (rather than it being a title) and rather being the father of Luke and Leia (because they aren't brother and sister at this point) who has a tragic backstory he's just a heavy.

Well, he did have a kind of tragic backstory - he was a fallen Jedi and former student of Obi-Wan, now on life support. I guess being Luke's father somehow makes it more tragic, or something.
 
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This is why HD was only meant for stuff that was made with HD in mind...

Huh? The movie was shown in 35mm (and 70mm!) when it was released, both offering resolutions far beyond the capabilities of HD. Granted, it's far easier to pause a Blu-Ray than it is a film print, but still.

It depends. Are you watching the film as an actual "film" - with that sheen that the movie image provides and which is preserved in HD with plasma TVs - or is the image being viewed by way of the 1080 LCD sets that render the image the same as videotape with that "sheen" (which I believe is called interlacing) removed? If the latter, then you're going to see things that were literally invisible when presented on actual film. You can usually tell when you're watching something deinterlaced on 1080 LCD because films like Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland look like chromakeyed 1970s Doctor Who (which is why I bought a plasma).

Alex

I'm not exactly sure what you're talking about, but I have a plasma television. As Jesse Pinkman would say, "Deeper blacks, yo." ;)
 
Huh? The movie was shown in 35mm (and 70mm!) when it was released, both offering resolutions far beyond the capabilities of HD. Granted, it's far easier to pause a Blu-Ray than it is a film print, but still.

It depends. Are you watching the film as an actual "film" - with that sheen that the movie image provides and which is preserved in HD with plasma TVs - or is the image being viewed by way of the 1080 LCD sets that render the image the same as videotape with that "sheen" (which I believe is called interlacing) removed? If the latter, then you're going to see things that were literally invisible when presented on actual film. You can usually tell when you're watching something deinterlaced on 1080 LCD because films like Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland look like chromakeyed 1970s Doctor Who (which is why I bought a plasma).

Alex

I'm not exactly sure what you're talking about, but I have a plasma television. As Jesse Pinkman would say, "Deeper blacks, yo." ;)

I've had LCD TV's for six years now and have yet to notice this sheen Alex continues to go on about. :shrug:
 
^It might be more down to the contrast ratio on the TV rather than LCD/Plasma. Depending on model/age etc.. black can appear deeper on some sets than others.
 
Well, he did have a kind of tragic backstory - he was a fallen Jedi and former student of Obi-Wan, now on life support. I guess being Luke's father somehow makes it more tragic, or something.


Unless I'm forgetting something that's something that's added in the second film and not mentioned in the first?
 
I don't think it's mentioned outright until the third film, but before that it's represented by the breathing.
 
Plus at the time, Jones would have no idea of the future iconic nature of the character, it was just another job.

And a job that was just a couple of hours of work, not even a full day!

Well, he did have a kind of tragic backstory - he was a fallen Jedi and former student of Obi-Wan, now on life support. I guess being Luke's father somehow makes it more tragic, or something.

Yes, but at the time it seemed more traitorous and evil than tragic. And Vader did seem like he was on the downhill part of his career, kind of a weird, past-his-prime outsider that Tarkin kept around for some reason.

I don't think it's mentioned outright until the third film, but before that it's represented by the breathing.

Yeah that was always the idea, the part-machine-part-man character was something that Lucas stuck with from very early drafts. Which character it was changed quite a bit, it was Kenobi at one point. It was never really articulated in the movie, but the respiration was supposed to be like an iron lung. IIRC the helmet-off scene in ESB was so viewers would know that Vader was neither a robot nor a "regular guy."



Justin
 
This is why HD was only meant for stuff that was made with HD in mind...

Huh? The movie was shown in 35mm (and 70mm!) when it was released, both offering resolutions far beyond the capabilities of HD. Granted, it's far easier to pause a Blu-Ray than it is a film print, but still.

It depends. Are you watching the film as an actual "film" - with that sheen that the movie image provides and which is preserved in HD with plasma TVs - or is the image being viewed by way of the 1080 LCD sets that render the image the same as videotape with that "sheen" (which I believe is called interlacing) removed? If the latter, then you're going to see things that were literally invisible when presented on actual film. You can usually tell when you're watching something deinterlaced on 1080 LCD because films like Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland look like chromakeyed 1970s Doctor Who (which is why I bought a plasma).

Alex


You need to check your settings. My LCD doesn't have anything like this and it has nothing to do with interlacing.

The most likely culprit is the 120 Hz mode. That's what creates that "soap opera" sheen. It's usually a factory default setting so that stores can pull a unit right out of the box and put it on the showroom floor. The brightness will also be cranked way up so it will stand out underneath the harsh store lighting.

So turn off the 120 Hz mode, and crank the brightness way, way, way down. Like so far down you think you went too far, then over the course of a week's worth of viewing, slowly raise the brightness up till it looks good. I guarantee it will be nowhere near the level it was from the factory.

To recap: HD doesn't even put a dent into the resolution available on 35mm and especially 70mm film. Any flaws people see with HD comes from poor authoring/mastering of the Bluray or HD transfer.



As for Vader's mask, taking the prequels into account, Anakin is presented as a tinkerer from the start, so it's not unlikely that he's constantly tweaking his suit. And even considering the OT only, in ANH*, he flies a ship that doesn't look like anybody else's, it's not hard to think of him designing and building his own custom "hot rod", so it's an easy step to think he also does his own suit.


*Look, I was born in '74 and I knew it as Star Wars, but I've come to accept it as A New Hope because "Star Wars" can encompass so much these days. It's kinda veering into "get off my lawn/give me five bees for a quarter" territory to insist on some sort of naming purity by only referring to it as Star Wars.
 
*Look, I was born in '74 and I knew it as Star Wars, but I've come to accept it as A New Hope because "Star Wars" can encompass so much these days. It's kinda veering into "get off my lawn/give me five bees for a quarter" territory to insist on some sort of naming purity by only referring to it as Star Wars.

Well said! Especially the five bees part! :lol:
 
milo bloom said:
It's kinda veering into "get off my lawn/give me five bees for a quarter" territory to insist on some sort of naming purity by only referring to it as Star Wars.

Welcome to the Internet ( where people still haven't gotten over being disappointed 13 years ago ).
 
*Look, I was born in '74 and I knew it as Star Wars, but I've come to accept it as A New Hope because "Star Wars" can encompass so much these days. It's kinda veering into "get off my lawn/give me five bees for a quarter" territory to insist on some sort of naming purity by only referring to it as Star Wars.

I get that, even though I make a point of not using "A New Hope" I see it can come in handy for something like this board. In regular life, though, I find using "Star Wars" to refer to the first movie is still more useful. Admittedly this is mostly among people who remember going to see the original in '77, but not completely. Saying something like "Remember in 'A New Hope' when..." would get blank stares from pretty much everyone I know.



Justin
 
I hardly think Darth Vader looks "crappy" in the original film, but clearly the series is long overdue for a full 3D/HD remake complete with smell-o-vision as Lucas originally intended. Just be sure to cast Hayden as Vader and replace Jones' voice with a modulated Hayden Christensen in all the films with Vader for continuity.
 
I hardly think Darth Vader looks "crappy" in the original film, but clearly the series is long overdue for a full 3D/HD remake complete with smell-o-vision as Lucas originally intended. Just be sure to cast Hayden as Vader and replace Jones' voice with a modulated Hayden Christensen in all the films with Vader for continuity.


That would make Vader cry...
 
A remake of Episode IV A New Hope (and the whole Original Trilogy) is inevitable. Will they do it before key actors pass away or get too old, by that I mean James Earl Jones and Ian McDiarmid.​
 
77 Vader was a workingman's Sith Lord, not afraid to get his gloves--and helmet--dirty. By Empire Vader was a shiny-headed ponce sending in other to do his dirty work.
 
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