So Nathan posted up a video link to our private group. It was some sort of deleted scene from “Return of the Jedi” that, who knows why, has never been released… until now.
Nathan called me and told me about it, “The fans in the audience sound like they’re having a nerd-gasm when the show it. It’s a scene where Luke is making his light saber.”
Being as witty as I am, I said, “Red is positive, black is negative, Luke. Get it straight.”
Then I promptly forgot about it for an hour or so.
I was on Facebook when Miguel popped up and asked if I would be on still in about ten minutes. I said I would. He was doing something involving police brutality, and wanted to chat to keep from being bored.
While I was waiting for him I decided to sign in and watch the deleted scene. Less than two hours since Nathan posted it up, and Lucasfilm had already taken it down. When Miguel came on I asked him if he had seen it, and he said that he hadn’t. I told him it was taken down, but this didn’t stop him. He found it again and sent me the link. I watched it and I was underwhelmed (if that’s a word).
Here’s a description of the scene: Darth Vader roams through a hall and then ends up in his command module, all the while he says, “Luke, join me on the dark side.” Cut to Luke in his Jedi robe in some cave somewhere. He uses some sci-fi looking tool (probably a Jedi conflux) to do something that looks an awful lot like turning a screw, and then he arms the light saber. R2-D2 and C-3PO are then shown looking about as underwhelmed as I was.
Being as witty as I am, I said, “Luke, join me on the dark side. Rightie tightie, leftie loosie.”
Then something occurred to me. Darth Vader is just a suit, and the voice could be stock sound from any number of sessions with James Earl Jones. R2-D2 and C-3PO are also costumes, and they don’t speak. And Luke, who also doesn’t speak, is shrouded in shadow. You see his hands and his chin. It could be anybody really.
I told Miguel I was pretty sure it was a hoax. He pointed out that it would be a Lucas sanctioned hoax, because it was shown officially. His words from the chat box: “It’s a real convincing sham. At the very least it’s an officially sanctioned sham considering that it was videotaped at an official event. Even if this hadn’t been shot in 1982, it’s more than a fan film.”
Being as witty as I am, I said, “Yes Virginia, there is a deleted scene from Jedi.”
Miguel then got all philosophical, “I gotta wonder if Lucas really thinks about how much of a cock tease he really is. Is it deliberate? This scene has been known about since ’83 when it appeared in the novelization. But it wasn’t known if the scene had been scripted and not filmed or what. Then in 1997, 14 years later, they put out the CDs of the complete score and there’s this piece of music that’s described as accompanying this scene, but no scene is released. Now in 2010, 13 years from that point, the scene is finally made public. What the fuck?”
I responded, “Because, it’s not real.” I then got a little philosophical myself, “He’s taking a page from the Beatles. Some woman asked Paul McCartney for a donation to her organization and instead he sent her a payroll receipt from the 1920’s that he’s been holding onto for years with the name E. Rigby on it. It keeps the mystery going.”
This launched a discussion about “Eleanor Rigby,” and I have to say that I knew ver little about it. I knew the gravestone myth. I looked it up, and found a pretty good page on the subject. Oh, and it was 1911 that the wage record was.