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You are here: Home / TV & Movies / Movies / PopCult Open Thread: HAN SHOT FIRST

PopCult Open Thread: HAN SHOT FIRST

by Anne Laurie|  June 10, 201510:01 pm| 31 Comments

This post is in: Movies, Open Threads, Popular Culture

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Speaking of stuff you find in libraries, some vindication, via the Washington Post, for Mr. Cole:

… [A] Canadian librarian who’s located a copy of an early “Star Wars” script claims to have confirmed what even George Lucas has denied: Han was the aggressor in a short battle that ended in the death of a bumpy green alien.

“I’ll tell you one thing, right now,” Kristian Brown told CBC News. “Based on the script, I can tell you 100 per cent, Han shot first.”

While digitizing an extensive sci-fi collection at the University of New Brunswick’s library in Saint John, Brown came across the script, which he said was likely acquired in the 1990s and forgotten. There were other oddities about the copy, which was dated from 1976: Luke Skywalker was sometimes referred to as “Luke Starkiller”; the film wasn’t “Episode IV,” but “Saga I”; as per GQ, Princess Leia was Princess Zara…

“Suddenly the slimy alien disappears in a blinding flash of light,” the relevant page of the script, tweeted by CBC reporter Matthew Bingley, reads. “Han pulls his smoking gun from beneath the table as the other patrons look on in bemused amazement. Han: ‘… but it will take a lot more than the likes of you to finish me off.’”

Lucasfilm confirmed that the script appeared to be a copy made by a fan — leading Tech Times to wonder whether “this is really what Lucas initially envisioned for the character, or if it was just a fan wanting to portray Han as a ‘cold-blooded killer.’” But Bingley said the studio confirmed the script’s contents as well.

“Just got an email back from Lucasfilm,” Bingley tweeted. “They say while the script is legit content, it’s likely a copy sold at a convention years ago.”…

I was never a Star Wars fan, largely because the first film convinced me that Lucas had spent too much time alone in the dark watching Hopalong Cassidy re-runs, but I’m happy the fans are finally getting their due.

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Reader Interactions

31Comments

  1. 1.

    Belafon

    June 10, 2015 at 10:16 pm

    I think the movie most like Star Wars is Pirates of the Caribbean, with the exception of who ends up with the girl. Star Wars is a pirate as the good guy movie.

  2. 2.

    srv

    June 10, 2015 at 10:24 pm

    Vaders gotta Vade.

  3. 3.

    Tommy

    June 10, 2015 at 10:27 pm

    Stars Wars was almost a religion for me as a kid. I recall when the first Star Wars came out I saw it once with my Grandmother and then forced her to take me right back in to watch it again (bless her heart!).

    I still have almost a trash bag of figures I really need to find a way to display. I have the Millennium Falcon, AT-AT Walker, X-wing Starfighter, and the Death Star, as we speak, in the room next to where I sit at this minute (where I have all my LEGOs and comic books).

    But I have to admit as much of a geek as I might be, the franchise has not held up as well as I would have liked. I have hope for the “reboot.”

  4. 4.

    cahuenga

    June 10, 2015 at 10:28 pm

    Pretty sure the spiky-head dude forced his hand.

  5. 5.

    Omnes Omnibus

    June 10, 2015 at 10:29 pm

    @efgoldman: Um, Vader is the true lead.

  6. 6.

    jl

    June 10, 2015 at 10:30 pm

    @cahuenga:

    Thank goodness they got it all on film.

    Han Shot First!
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxODU7RK730

  7. 7.

    Tommy

    June 10, 2015 at 10:35 pm

    On a totally non-related Star Wars note I have started to take the stats from my Up 24 fitness bracket and MyFitnessPal (how I monitor what I eat and exercise) seriously and trying to push things.

    Now I am an active person, or so I thought, but trying to do at least 20,000 (average for an adult is 3,750/day) steps a day is harder than you might think. I’ve done it ten days in a row with 32,000 my highpoint.

    I am pretty proud of myself and I would dare say if you need a “push” to be more active getting one of these is a wonderful idea. When your phone is telling you to work harder and helping to monitor things, added with the Bluetooth scale I recently got (measures a ton of stuff other than weight), I am frankly stunned how it is motivating me.

    Now back to our scheduled programming …..

  8. 8.

    cahuenga

    June 10, 2015 at 10:36 pm

    @jl:

    What’s missing from that video is the subtitles of the alien telling Solo he was about to kill him.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-xdepfah98

    Han feels threatened and stands his ground…. Mos Eisley style!

  9. 9.

    Omnes Omnibus

    June 10, 2015 at 10:36 pm

    @Tommy: My phone is not the boss of me!

  10. 10.

    Bonnie

    June 10, 2015 at 10:40 pm

    I had my own personal boycott of Star Wars when it came out because every movie before it and for about a year after it came out, cost $2.50. Star Wars cost $4. I told people if they go and pay the money, all movies will be charging $4 within a year. I was right. I’m still angry about that.

  11. 11.

    Tommy

    June 10, 2015 at 10:41 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: LOL. It does it in a pretty brilliant manner, meaning not rude and kind of “nice” about it all.

    For example I do web sites for a living so often I am in front of my computer for 12-15 hours a day. It will ping me (and my bracelet will vibrate) and say I have basically not moved out of my chair in 2+ hours and include links (within the app) to some basic exercises you can almost do in your office chair in just a few minutes.

    I mean I am not dumb (or at least I don’t think so). I follow sites like Lifehacker and I know I should do this, but reminding me, not a bad thing IMHO.

  12. 12.

    sharl

    June 10, 2015 at 10:46 pm

    Some tweeps – typically the younger crowd, as far as I can tell – are having a field day with Diane Rehm’s weird Q&A with Bernie Sanders today (background).* This is displeasing other tweeps – presumably tote-baggers (h/t DougJ) – who are sad she is being disrespected.

    I wonder if she’s not getting quality staff support these days, for show preparation/research. There are some days where she clearly needs that kind of help. There are some areas where she is quite good, which she and much of her audience relate to well, such as elderly care and end-of-life decision-making (fwiw, she recently lost her husband). In other areas she has trouble keeping up (e.g., science, social media). I’m guessing NPR management is a bit concerned…

    *Example

    Hort 2 U @crushingbort

    REHM: do you see this mountain thing on Mars that looks like a human face
    SANDERS: kinda, it–
    REHM: this is your face, you did this to Mars

  13. 13.

    Tommy

    June 10, 2015 at 10:48 pm

    @efgoldman: A year or two ago all the Stars Wars stuff I mentioned above my mom brought over to me. I assumed she had just thrown it all way ages ago.

    Now I look at it I wonder if that craft business my stay-at-home-mom started about the time Star Wars came out was just to be able to afford all the Star Wars “shit” they bought me :).

    She only has one grandchild. Katie’s birthday is in February. She got more gifts between X-Mas and her B-day than you can shake a stick at.

    My mother joked how spoiled she was.

    I mentioned to her I had some many Star Wars figures and major items (like the Death Star) that I could do an entire stop-motion film of the first two movies.

    She just laughed …..

  14. 14.

    MattR

    June 10, 2015 at 10:59 pm

    @Tommy: You should see the displays my brother in law has. But he is not super anal about it. There are definitely things in his collection that are not for touching, but at the same time the easiest way to distract my two year old niece is to let her play with “Shoe” and “House” (ie. Chewbacca and Millhouse action figures). And we had fun one night playing Run Yourself Ragged after he found it while poking around a recent garage sale.

  15. 15.

    Tree With Water

    June 10, 2015 at 11:03 pm

    When the movie For A Few Dollars More was first released in America, I saw it with some friends. When Clint Eastwood ambled into his first scene, we all excitedly said to each other, “There’s Rowdy!”. As in Rowdy Yates from the TV show, Rawhide. None of us had seen him since Rawhide had been cancelled a few years before. Just a few minutes later, and four men were dead- Red, killed on the barroom floor by a finish shot as he struggled to arm himself, and three of his friends, also shot dead and laying face down in the mud outside the saloon. In that moment we all shared the reaction: “Rowdy- you’ve changed”.

  16. 16.

    Tommy

    June 10, 2015 at 11:10 pm

    Another totally off thread thing, but been working 18+ hours a day on a rush project, not been around here for almost two weeks, and got a few things I’d live to share.

    I am a pet lover of all kinds. Cat person, never owned a dog. But reading the story of the service dog that threw herself in front of a freaking mini-bus to try to help your seeing impaired owner, I then saw this minutes later.

    Denali

    It is tribute to a dog. The owner does the VO from the POV of the dog. It is both funny, uplifting, and make you curl up in a ball and cry type of thing. Only about 8 minutes.

    If it has not been posted here or if you have not seen it, well ….

    https://vimeo.com/122375452

  17. 17.

    Omnes Omnibus

    June 10, 2015 at 11:15 pm

    @efgoldman: I was thirteen when it came out. Dad played. I have no idea what the price was.

  18. 18.

    Tommy

    June 10, 2015 at 11:25 pm

    About to start watching the first season of Rome (the HBO series) on Netflix DVD. I am interested to see if it is as amazing as I recall watching it on, you know HBO when it first aired.

    I watched Deadwood awhile back via Netflix DVD for a second time, it was one of my favorite shows of all time, and it seemed to be better on the second viewing.

    Starting Rome ….

  19. 19.

    Tree With Water

    June 10, 2015 at 11:27 pm

    @efgoldman: I had never heard of Paint Your Wagon, so when I saw it listed in a TV guide I thought, “Alright, Eastwood and Marvin together in a western”. Which was soon after followed by a, “WTF”? It’s a fun movie, though, if you’re in the mood, and even if your not, the song They Call The Wind Maria alone almost makes it worth watching. That’s such a lovely little tune…

  20. 20.

    RepubAnon

    June 11, 2015 at 12:28 am

    Yeah, Star Wars always fit Isaac Asimov’s definition of Space Opera quite well: take a Western, replace “Indian” with “Alien”, “small town” with “planet”, “stagecoach” with “star ship”, “six-gun” with “blaster”…

    Imagine Han Solo as played by James Garner in his “Maverick” days…

  21. 21.

    EmanG

    June 11, 2015 at 12:51 am

    Star Wars came out when I was 13. Somehow I got a hold of the book (novelization?) long before I saw the movie. I specifically remember thinking to myself as I watched the movie (for the first time, about a year after it first came out (it was a different time)) and thinking, “I liked the book better.” And in the book, there was specific mention of Hans getting his hand unseen under the table and getting the drop on whatisname. Within the context of Jabba being a kill first, work it out later kind of client there was no question that he would shoot first given the chance. And, in the book, he did. Church.

  22. 22.

    JustRuss

    June 11, 2015 at 2:02 am

    @EmanG: That’s how it plays out in the (original) movie. Han is messing around with one hand as a distraction while the other is slowly sliding his gun from its holster. There’s no question that he’s going to unload on Greedo…who is holding him at gunpoint and exhibiting a healthy dislike for Capt. Solo. This is in a bar where Luke has already been attacked and ObiWan left a guy’s arm lying on the floor.

    Why Lucas felt the need later to change how the scene plays out is beyond me.

  23. 23.

    NotMax

    June 11, 2015 at 2:24 am

    As if there ever was any question about Han shooting.

    Still have a bootleg videotape from 1977.

  24. 24.

    Tommy

    June 11, 2015 at 5:55 am

    This happens:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGt_KpgXymU

  25. 25.

    chopper

    June 11, 2015 at 6:58 am

    @efgoldman:

    Gonna paint his wagon/
    Gonna paint it fine/
    Gonna use oil-based paint/
    ‘Cause that wood is pine/

  26. 26.

    Chris

    June 11, 2015 at 7:49 am

    @Belafon:
    @efgoldman:

    Yeah, POTC is basically Star Wars with Han and Luke’s roles reversed.

  27. 27.

    Chris

    June 11, 2015 at 8:00 am

    @Tommy:

    My addiction was always books, not toys, which is why the reboot makes me sad. They’re what made up for the movies’ issues for me. Especially the prequel era, where the movies were… not extraordinary… but “Cloak of Deception,” “Plagueis,” “Shatterpoint,” the ROTS novelization and that stuff made it worthwhile.

  28. 28.

    What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?

    June 11, 2015 at 8:58 am

    Of course Han shot first. Otherwise he’d be dead.

  29. 29.

    Bobby Thomson

    June 11, 2015 at 9:17 am

    WTF? No old script needed. In the original film release, Han fires the first and only shot. That’s kind of the fucking point.

  30. 30.

    LongHairedWeirdo

    June 11, 2015 at 4:53 pm

    Han wasn’t a cold blooded killer, per se. When he said “over my dead body,” Greedo responded something like “that’s the idea.” I had assumed, seeing it as a child, that this mean that Greedo was *going* to kill Han, so shooting him was justified.

    I guess it makes him more violent than “only after attacked” Obi-Wan – but not, you know, murderous.

  31. 31.

    MattR

    June 11, 2015 at 6:21 pm

    @JustRuss: And Ponda Baba was simply trying to tell Luke how much he liked his hair

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