Irvin Kershner RIP

Dozen Wicked Words

Sorry if posted before (feel free to lock if this is repeat thread) but the director of The Empire Strikes Back died at the age of 87, RIP.

My favourite Star Wars film

Otacon

RIP

First Leslie, now Irvin. Who's next [as they seem to come in threes]?

Basq

Otacon wrote: »

Who's next [as they seem to come in threes]?

We can only hope George Lucas..











.. J/K.. J/K.. J/K.. or am I?

Penn

RIP. Empire was the best Star Wars film in my opinion.

Skerries

will they freeze him in carbonite?

karma_

paddyirishman85 wrote: »

RIP. Empire was the best Star Wars film in my opinion.

Your opinion is not wrong.

Theboinkmaster

karma_ wrote: »

Your opinion is not wrong.

eh no yours is wrong! ESB by far the best SW film - in fact one of the best films EVER.

RIP Kersh

mikhail

And now he's become more powerful than we could possibly imagine. RIP.

karma_

Theboinkmaster wrote: »

eh no yours is wrong! ESB by far the best SW film - in fact one of the best films EVER.

RIP Kersh

I was agreeing with him, ESB was the masterpiece in the trilogy.

Sanjuro

I also am sad to hear that the director of the best Star Wars film has passed on. Sad week for film.

Theboinkmaster

karma_ wrote: »

I was agreeing with him, ESB was the masterpiece in the trilogy.

My apologies - misread your post

Sad Professor

Rest in peace, Kersh.

There's an excellent transcript here of an audio recording taken on the set of TESB. It features Kershner's interactions with the actors and how he and Ford improvised Han's famous "I know" line in the carbonite-freezing scene. It is well worth reading and really makes you appreciate what a (good) director does.

http://secrethistoryofstarwars.com/magicofempire.html

bonerm

By uneasy coincidence I'm currently reading this book
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Making-22Empire-Strikes-Back-22-Definitive/dp/1845135555/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1291074748&sr=8-1

Although Irvin Kershner was only "director for hire" his contribution to Empire cannot be underestimated. Along with Lawrence Kasdan he helped to raise the sequel to Star Wars to a level that could neither be reasonably expected or even imagined.

RIP Kersh.

krudler

Its says volumes that Lucas thinks Empire is the worst SW movie, when its almost universally considered the best, "too serious" apparently is the reason he doesnt like it, yes well the serious one gave us some of the most memorable moments of the series, the "more lighthearted" ones gave us Jar Jar ****ing Binks

Theboinkmaster

bonerm wrote: »

By uneasy coincidence I'm currently reading this book
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Making-22Empire-Strikes-Back-22-Definitive/dp/1845135555/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1291074748&sr=8-1

Although Irvin Kershner was only "director for hire" his contribution to Empire cannot be underestimated. Along with Lawrence Kasdan he helped to raise the sequel to Star Wars to a level that could neither be reasonably expected or even imagined.

RIP Kersh.

I'm reading that too at the moment! €35 well spent, brilliant read

karma_

krudler wrote: »

Its says volumes that Lucas thinks Empire is the worst SW movie, when its almost universally considered the best, "too serious" apparently is the reason he doesnt like it, yes well the serious one gave us some of the most memorable moments of the series, the "more lighthearted" ones gave us Jar Jar ****ing Binks

You have to wonder if Lucas just got incredibly lucky with Star Wars as it was definitely his magnum opus. Kershner took what was created and crafted another masterpiece that surpassed the original. It is incredible to think that Lucas believes this to be the worst movie, however when seeing what came next it's not so hard to believe. Return was OK but the decline had set in and the modern trilogy is just absolutely dire.

Faith+1

How could he go from directing Empire to that piece of siht Robocop 2?

bonerm

karma_ wrote: »

You have to wonder if Lucas just got incredibly lucky with Star Wars as it was definitely his magnum opus. Kershner took what was created and crafted another masterpiece that surpassed the original. It is incredible to think that Lucas believes this to be the worst movie, however when seeing what came next it's not so hard to believe. Return was OK but the decline had set in and the modern trilogy is just absolutely dire.

He defo got lucky with the first movie. IMHO ANH is a perfectly made movie and I think Lucas still had a genuine belief in what he was doing at the time from an artistic and philosophic point of view and whilst it was deliberately crafted to appeal to a wide audience Lucas never expected it to be as well received as it was. However once the money started rolling in Lucas saw this as his opportunity to become a truely indepedent film-maker and since then has basically used the SW franchise to generate capital to finance his other artistic and tecnical pursuits.

WRT to favourites I can actually understand why Lucas might have thought ESB was the worst. It's the one he had the least control over and essentially the one that is the least inline with his vision. That said tho I've heard time and again that ANH was the movie he was least satisfied with. Frightenly today he consistently favours the prequel movies over the original movies. Tho in a way I can also understand that as they are the most recent movies and for better or worse were made by the man Lucas is today rather than the man he was when he was in his 30's.

Sad Professor

Lucas doesn't think Empire was the worst. He said that years ago as a joke which the raving Lucas-raped-my-childhood-fanboys picked up and spread around the internet as if he meant it seriously. If Lucas was as insecure about TESB as many people suggest he never would have handed over the directing reigns to Kershner in the first place. The only reason Lucas was more involved with Jedi was because Kurtz wasn't able to handle Empire's budget, putting Lucas in serious financial hot water as a result.

bonerm

Sad Professor wrote: »

Lucas-rapid-my-childhood

I had a rapid childhood thanks to Star Wars too

Sad Professor

Oops, hehe. Fixed.

Kashkai

TESB was an acquired taste for me as I found it to be very dark after ANH. To my then childish eyes, the good guys were supposed to always win but in TESB, they get their asses kicked and the movie is left hanging at the end with us not knowing what happened to Han (the best character in the franchise btw). However my views have happily matured and I now agree with a lot of people that TESB is the best film of the sixology (?:D). Its probably got the most "grown up" storyline of the entire franchise and I think that if this darker tone had been carried over into Episodes 6, 1, 2 and 3, it would have made the franchise practically immortal in movie making. However, the series rot set in in ROTJ as you could see the tone had been lightened somewhat since TESB and this grew to ridiculous proportions with the Phantom Menace - on God, not Jar Jar Binks, please not him :mad: