You can support me directly and get access to my members-only Discord by going to www.patreon.com/CinemaStix On there I’ll also be posting bonus material, supplementary clips, extended interviews, and other stuff to lead discussions. Plus more perks to come. Should be good. Happy Star Wars Day! Danny Boyd
I’m a one-man show. Asking for help is never easy. Nor is depending on others when I’m used to doing so much on my own. But RUclips is also my joy and my livelihood. And it’s only possible because of the help I get from my community.
The only way I can get through Episode 3 is if I watch the badly translated into Chinese and then back into English sub or dub of Backstroke of the West.
Star Wars fans can argue about the dialogue, about characters about CGI and the screenplays. But all Star Wars fans universally love John Williams‘ music.
Well, I remember a little heated discussion on Giacchino's work for Rogue One back when it premiered... But aside from that, yeah, universal agreement.
There is this interview with Harrison Ford where he admits that, in the beginning, he and the others weren't taking Lucas and the movie very seriously... Then there was this music recording, or test screening, the first 20 minutes of the movie with the orchestra "And we understood we were actually part of something great, and we never made fun of George again"
Makes sense though, because Sci-Fi films were mostly kids films or very low budget TV shows back then, and I'd imagine to them it would be like filming for a new Spy Kids movie in 2024. Star Wars was cutting edge for its time thanks to George and his team.
That's what makes the old Lego games so great...following the slimmed down story beats without any dialogue and a touch of slapstick humor make for an iconic and timeless game!
Be careful that you remove the inherent bias just about we all possess for already seeing these movies countless times and preemptively knowing the scenes before they happen. To truly appreciate what a silent SW film is, it is incumbent upon us to beseech someone who has no previous SW film viewing experience
This video reminds me of my dream Star Wars movie from before the Mando era. A film made entirely with Wookies, Droids, and Aliens that don't speak real language. Two and half hours of action and adventure without a single word, truly a perfect Star Wars film.
This is why Genndy Tartakovsky was perfectly chosen to make the original animated Clone Wars. From Samurai Jack (or even from some Dexter episodes) you could already tell he understood Kurosawa-style storytelling.
Tartakovsky made Jedi Council actually feel like it's comprised of the most skilled Jedi masters and who all discuss problems, not just Yoda and Mace Windu.
Hot take this was the superior Clone Wars. It fits so much better between episodes 2 and 3 and doesn’t really retcon anything. Not to mention you can watch it all in one sitting lol
There was a SW Visions episode (called The Duel) on D+ that had the sabers and blaster fire alone in color. It was intentionally made to resemble the visual style of the Kurosawa films. I recommend seeing it!
I was born 1980 - I have an auditory processing disorder so it was years before I saw it with captions and understood even half the dialog. I didn’t realize I loved original Star Wars so much because it was essentially a silent film.
“The dialogue is so badly written I had to change the language to Japanese to get enough cultural distance” - Ben “Yahtzee” Crowshaw, ZP sonic generations
the best scene in all of star wars for me is the moment where Anakin is quietly reflecting on his choice in revenge of the sith when he's sat in the temple looking out towards Padme's estate
Your essay made me realize that I never truly grasped how Star Wars is a Space *Opera*. The way you built things up, demonstrating everything that is told and shown by everything else but dialog, ending on those Japanese-dubbed b&w versions, and dropping the term like the cherry on top... it made it click. Thank you.
It makes so much sense that Gendy Tartakovsky got tapped to direct the 2003 clone wars animated shorts. He’s one of the all time greats as far as directing cartoons with little to no dialogue.
This helps explain why the prequels are so endlessly meme-able. The prequels have a straightforward visual clarity that, even devoid of context - perhaps from the point of view from someone who has never even seen them, is still crystal clear. Then by adding humorous text (not unlike a subtitle or silent movie text card), these memes are able to convey so much information with just one or a few simple images.
In a similar vein, this video compares the dialogue to Lucas' sound effects. "King of Wooden Dialogue" ruclips.net/video/S5E-eSdRjXs/видео.htmlsi=tS7jvPZvAJrgykwi
Huh, I never thought of it like that. It makes sense that you can meme it because you can get the point across so many different ways with just four photos of two people.
I really appreciate Lucas's purity in terms of direction and writing. Naturality is so underrated compared to how pretentious films often are nowadays, like Dune or EEAAO.
I noticed about eight years ago that you can tell A LOT about a movie (which cast members in a movie are getting along, Whether the leads have any chemistry, how good the Cinematography is good or not.) by simply WATCHING THE FILM WITHOUT THE SOUND ON. It has been an educating experience.
I unintentionally realize this every time I am at big get together (Usually some holiday family get together) and the TV has a random movie on, but the sound is muted. There have been countless films that I just can't watch muted. However, there are a few that I can just sit and watch with no sound. If those movies have good scores, you can bet that they are probably fantastic films.
@@blodhthringa Agreed. I recently took a peek at my personal movie collection and found the dualist (1977) and decided to take a peek at it. It was TWENTY MINUTES before I realized how much time had passed. I realized later that even if the sound had been off, THE RESULT WOULD HAVE BEEN THE SAME. that's how good the movie is.
Watching Revenge of the Sith in Japanese really makes it feel like a Samurai movie; I'm majoring Japanese and I recently watched Clones, Sith, and A New Hope in the dub. I love it. Its such a perfect fusion.
Fascinating video, but I would suggest that Ben Burtt's sound design is almost as much a part of the audible legend of Star Wars as John Williams' music. Maybe you could experience the movie without DIALOGUE, but definitely not without SOUND.
Opera is actually an interesting analogy. Similar ideas of minimal dialog, and mostly emotions are expressed through music, often with words in another language.
My grandmother used to play the piano in Louisiana during the silent film days... She always used to exclaim "Weeeeeeeeeeee!" and it was that passion that she used to play the piano. When I was a youth, I accidentally VHS recorded "The Sting" in black and white. I was initially saddened, but 4 minutes into the film, it really went well, so well, that I watched the movie several times in that de-colorization. I have seen the film a couple more times in its original color, and it is NOT the same...
Negative space is a major element of art. In film, negative space takes on a very different form than it does in static art like paintings or ceramics. Absence of color, music, sound, or dialogue is negative space in film, and it almost always enhances the impact. Godzilla Minus One is another great example of how a black and white version can be even more effective than full color. It's an excellent movie both ways, but the black and white cut feels so much more impactful because of the character's history.
When they started adding actual voice lines to Lego Games, the magic was lost. For the original Police game, that's fair because it's an original story, but for movie games like Star Wars...I haven't gotten any recently
Switching the dialog to mumble mode doesn't fix the problem though, they changed how they adapt the scenes to include the dialog in order to understand the story, removing it leaves an obvious dialog shaped hole. I remember feeling so disappointed when I played the Skywalker Saga and the story was just so boring compared to my memories of the original games. The dialog existing at all ruins it, whether it's been turned off or not.
@@xipheonj I actually didn't know that, but now that you say it it makes total sense. I picked up Skywalker Saga back when it came out, never actually got around to trying it. I guess the pacing of cutscenes is based around the dialogue being there, and the sheer amount of work required to make the mumble mode a true classic option would be too much. That's really a shame, then. Less time for slapstick jokes and gags!
And the many, MANY out-of-this-world *sound effects* also helped a lot - laser sounds, spaceship and speederbike engine sounds, weird robot voices, R2-D2 beeps and Chewbacca's growls!
Rewatching "The Phantom Menace" in theaters yesterday just made me appreciate William's genius even more. The ending victorious music being a remix of Palatines theme (hinting at who really won), subtly putting in some of Vader's theme in Annie's theme ("The ending credits theme" is a good way to hear annie's theme in full), and of course "Duel of the Fates".
The sound editing in that movie is amazing. I rewatched it with the stereo on, and wow, the amount of detail from podracer uniqueness and foreshadowing melodic memes, makes it a great storytelling. Lucas did a good job story telling seperately in a visual, music (auditory), and dialogue ways.
Darth jar jar being removed from subsequent episodes was the buggest mistake George ever made. That would have been the best "if you go back and look," reveals
@snazzle9764 yea, but there is lots of e idence in episode 1 as well as being palps go to. Jar jar was the reason the senate voted to give Palpatine emergency powers. Jar jar was replaced by doku out of nowhere.
When I was less than 10 years old, we had this DVD with Attack of the Clones at home. We used to watch it over and over with my younger brother and it was one of our favourite movies. We're Polish and the DVD was in English, which we barely spoke or understood at the time.
Same, I'm Scanian Swedish, I didn't understand anything they said in Star wars, Lord of the rings or Titanic lol. But I understood the story, even though I didn't speak english I understood what was happening and I think it affected me. As a result, when I watch movies as an adult, it matters far more to me what the emotions of the characters are, the tone of their voice, the music, the scenery, the expressions, what they say doesn't matter nearly as much. Yet I still fully appreciate the story lol.
Audience: Your dialogue sucks, George George: (*adjusts glasses🤓) Ummm... ACKtuallyy (*nudges John Williams) John Williams: (*sigh) YYYYYEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeee
Whats wrong with that line? Think of the context: Anakin has been taught to be a stoic monk for the past 10 years, then he is reintroduced to his lifetime long crush and theyre in a romantic setting. He is socially awkward with his crush, something alot of us can relate to.
@@sueonia79 His 8 years on Tatooine, his male influences were his slave owner and freighter pilots (space truckers). The very first thing he said to Padme was "Are you an angel?". Socially awkward indeed.
@@sueonia79 "It's coarse and rough and irritating and it gets everywhere. Not like here. Here everything is soft and smooth." *KISS* Yeah, great writing. I wish they'd reused this line in Dune. Since Star Wars basically stole everything from Dune anyway, maybe Dune could steal this idiocy back. Or maybe not. Yeah definitely not. This is silly.
Silence is one of the most powerful tools in cinema. There's a reason why great directors like Dennis Villeneuve favorite other aspects of cinematic communication over dialogue.
Star Wars without dialogue is the main way it DOES work. I mean, look at the scene at sunset where Anakin is in the Jedi Temple staring out across the horizon towards Padme's apartment, wondering if he should betray Palpatine or the Jedi.
Episode 3 is a close second to Empire for the best Star Wars film, and it has the best suite of music by a mile. That one scene (Anakin's Anguish I believe it's officially titled) proves categorically that Hayden Christensen is a good actor and Lucas a good director.
I took German from 7th grade all the way thru my junior year of college. That’s 9 years. It’s been 6 years since then and I lost the vast majority of it. A second language is like a muscle, you NEED to flex it frequently and treat it like exercising. If you don’t, it will wither away in a heartbeat.
When it comes to second languages, use it or lose it. If you don't have anyone to speak that second language to in your daily or at least weekly life, it may be a pointless endeavor to learn in the first place, unless you will keep yourself practiced.
I was just thinking about this exact idea on my last rewatch, I've always loved the "silent" moments in Star Wars like when Leia and Wicket are about to be shot at by a stormtrooper and you just hear the "silence" of the forest. I was wondering if some passionate editor could be paid to edit Star Wars to remove all dialogue but keep the sound design, so thanks for giving me this glimpse.
Actually it'd be super easy, barely an inconvenience. I exaggerate, but there is a (free) program that utilizes deep learning algorithms to separate vocals from music. I haven't tried it to see if it works with sound effects as well, but it probably would. The program is called UVR, btw (Ultimate Vocal Remover).
I have to give it to Lucas. He knew dialogue was his weakest skill in crafting a story, so he worked around it by hiring who would become one of the greatest composers of the century.
Man the OG Lego Star Wars games were *so* good, in fact they were such exceptional games that when they added spoken dialogue to the newer releases I was really sad. I get that they wanted to innovate and stick with the times, and there are lots of great moments in the newer ones too, but the originals were *so* clever and funny and some of the gags to get around zero dialogue were amazing
Adding dialog to move with the times is bs. It just means we want to save time and money by using less nuance and expertise. Probably because the money people are talking louder than the experts.
@@stevecarter8810 Not sure you are making sense. It'd cost a lot more money to hire a bunch of voice actors than a few animators to make silent scenes. The issue IMO is that the budgets for video games is out of control, and everything has to be the "biggest ever" with Hollywood actors, and huge worlds with tons of collectibles, and $40 DLCs. It's hard for a AAA game to be made with any passion when there's shareholders breathing down a studios neck that has 400 plus people, who BTW, all have their own ideas for how a game should be made.
Many children watch videos over and over. I listened to the Star Wars score LPs over and over as a child. On my parents' four-channel hi-fi. I had it memorized. ...This is also what made the Lucasfilm video games of the 80s so great. X-Wing shifted the themes around as the battles shifted. You knew you were doing well when the Rebel theme rushed through your Soundblaster and announced your relief ships arriving.
I have always felt that the dialogue was almost an afterthought and genuinely didn't notice that some of the lines were absurd until pointed out, because I sort of phased it out of my mind a little.
4:03 unrelated but I just realized this is mirroring Padme taking care of kid Anakin when he left Tatooine (or more like that scene was mirroring this, but because it's a prequel it's really the siblings having echoes of their parents and... forget it)
The first Star Wars was not "saved" in the edit, that theory was long debunked. Even Marcia herself said that was not the case . The story was more that Fox had a editor on the movie that started to work on the movie while Lucas and Crew were not even done shooting the thing. While Lucas was in London shooting the Tantive IV stuff, John Jympson was doing a cut of the movie without the directors feedback, since he was on the other side of the planet. There was no music, no vfx and placeholders were used. That was the notorious cut that shooked everybody, including Lucas directors friends. Lucas fired that man and brought in his wife and two pals from his old USC buddy Walter Murch. They started working on that movie (with Lucas as a uncredited editor) and the whole editing process took them (including the time of the previous editor) 14 months. Empire Strikes Back was also edited for 14 months. Not my words these are from Paul Hirsch, who worked on Star Wars and Empire, himself. But nobody said it was saved in the edit. I recommend the Making of Book by JW Rinzler from each of the OT movies. They are incredible, with so much details about how these movies got made.
That's interesting and makes more sense to be honest. Better than "he made two good movies but was fucking up his passion project until...." story that was being told over and over.
Yeah, see I had remembered that story getting debunked, too. But then when I was working on this video I couldn’t find where I’d seen that, so I thought I must’ve been making it up that it’d been. Guess I should’ve gone with my gut.
@@thegoodgeneral I was making a comment about this, but deleted it now seeing this thread here. For anyone reading and not wanting the watch the video: _How "How Star Wars was saved in the edit" was saved in the edit (sort of, but not really),_ by Nerdonymous, the biggest fabrication in it was the claim that the Death Star sequence at the end didn't have a time limit of the Death Star blowing up the rebel base until the edit (which is debunked by shooting scripts), and RocketJump try to place Marcia on a pedestal for her editing while also shitting on the deleted Tatooine scenes of Luke and friends, which she had edited and liked, and Lucas didn't even want to film in the first place (only doing so because the studio didn't have confidence to not introduce the main character a.s.a.p.). On the other hand, Nerdonymous' video is great and filled with info pulled from Making of Star Wars books and gives a lot of behind the scenes insights. Also has a pair of videos Star Wars Apocrypha that cover some lore and behind the scenes of sequels production and is great nerd juice.
Ah, brilliant! Well, it seems my curse that there always seems to be one error in every video that could’ve been avoided by the change of a single line. I was dealing in outdated intel-very bad practice :) I’ll fix it in next year’s compilation and find a way to redirect people accordingly on this one-or hopefully this thread will just rise to the top naturally.
and thats why unironically the best scene in the prequels is the lightsaber fight in Phantom Menace because the characters stop barfing out George's nonsense dialogue and they let John Williams do his thing
Coming from seeing the movie, I agree, but a lot of the political dialogue makes sense, especially because of the situation in my country, economical blockades by the US.
I’m opening it from the RUclips app on my phone, are you doing the same? I’ve never seen a RUclips video with pop out play on the phone, but think it would be amazing if it was the norm.
This made me realize, I'd actually like to see a modern movie made with no dialogue, as a sort of challenge to the director to see how much story they can still get across. And none of these old time pauses for slides with text either, just no words anywhere in the film.
I am the biggest Star Wars fan/nerd/lover and I always learn something new whether from watching one of the shows or movies again, or seeing a video like this. Super insightful and enlightening, thank you very much. This just helped me understand Star Wars more deeply as well as appreciate it even more. It genuinely is the greatest franchise of all time and I think George Lucas’ movies should be watched by all forever!
Tbh, a lot of the dialogue sounds better in the mexican/latin american dub of the movies, especially for the prequels, even Darth Vader's voice sounds pretty idéntical to James Earl Jones. As you say, maybe that's why the dialogue never bothered me.
Sometimes I like to _mess_ a little with saturation while watching in my laptop, and let me tell you... No one is ready for B&W Blade Runner 2049 Many more transform amazingly well too
The X-Wing / TIE Fighter games also had dynamic midi music during the missions which changed based on the events happening (enemy ship destroyed, mission goals achieved, etc.).
Machete order is the best way to watch Star Wars. Watch in this order: A New Hope - sets the scene that we are exploring Empire - we continue following Luke and the other main characters up to a major climax point Attack of the Clones - we flash back to the start of the Clone wars and learn about how we got here. Revenge of the sith - we continue our flash back Jedi - we come back to “the present” and have a small time skip after the “major climax point” in Empire. This is ideal because 1) episode 1 adds nothing to the series from a story standpoint 2) it minimizes spoilers. This could be someone’s first time watching the series, and if you watch in order, there is no shock in the “climax” in Empire. In this order, someone could watch the series for the first time and not be spoiled by the story of the prequels.
The clip of Williams conducting the main title is so captivating: the couple dozen faces in the background, all rapt, all revealing some different-visceral!-reaction to hearing that brass fanfare. Some swept away in it, others resting deep within themselves, in the place where they first heard it, others reveling in the almost ironic mimesis the theme has taken on in the last five decades. Fifty different reactions, all recognizable, all relatable.
@@jesustovar2549 I don't know where you live, but if you can make it to Los Angeles, John Williams does a live show at the Hollywood Bowl every summer.
I heard the Toronto symphony orchestra perform the main title once and tears were instantly streaming down my face, it felt like my heart was in my throat and I couldn't wipe the smile from my face, it was incredible.
In Empire Strikes Back in the Vader v Luke Duel there's no music, it completely cuts out and you just hear Vader's breathing and the hum of the light sabers
This... made me respect the films and their impact in a whole new way. IF I could do my life over, I would have focused on music. Part of the reason is because of the subtle way that Lucas used music in this--has impacted why I gravitated towards music at all, in the first place.
One of my childhood friends got his hands on a copy of A New Hope with just the score back in the early 2000s and I was amazed at how easy and entertaining it was to watch.
It's odd because I agree the dialogue is very clunky, yet, it was some amazing lines. "Who's more the fool, the fool or the fool who follows him?" is a great "wise man" type line. Then there's the obvious catchphrases, so I can't say I'd want it as a silent film, but can't say it's a flowing film as far as dialogue.
holy, I left the tab open and got 3 different title lol "Why star wars dialogue was mid" or smth along the line "Do you agree with George Lucas?" or smth along the line And now "he said it's basically a silent movie" I'm not complaining, just glad I managed to witness it (EDIT) : "no wonder the dialogue in star wars is so mid", there is it, it's back
You can support me directly and get access to my members-only Discord by going to www.patreon.com/CinemaStix
On there I’ll also be posting bonus material, supplementary clips, extended interviews, and other stuff to lead discussions. Plus more perks to come. Should be good.
Happy Star Wars Day!
Danny Boyd
Stop begging
I’m a one-man show. Asking for help is never easy. Nor is depending on others when I’m used to doing so much on my own. But RUclips is also my joy and my livelihood. And it’s only possible because of the help I get from my community.
"no wonder star wars dialogue is so mid" please keep this title. it made me chuckle and click the video!
@@Venzynt stop negging.
@@thegoodgeneralagreed. DB is the best.
"you say you're a Star Wars fan but you don't even watch it in the original Japanese dub."
Have you seen the Italian version
The only way I can get through Episode 3 is if I watch the badly translated into Chinese and then back into English sub or dub of Backstroke of the West.
I view it as it's meant to be seen, in the original Klingon.
@@KameronJ7 I see you are a man of culture as well.
It' s somehow dry.....and coarse. I don't like it.
Star Wars fans can argue about the dialogue, about characters about CGI and the screenplays. But all Star Wars fans universally love John Williams‘ music.
Absolutely. Even the worse movies like prequals or the ones he did in the sequal trilogy the music is still top notch
yes. thank the Maker they didn't go for a 70's disco track
Well, I remember a little heated discussion on Giacchino's work for Rogue One back when it premiered... But aside from that, yeah, universal agreement.
Except the people who say he's just a very clever ripoff artist, for writing too close to his influences.
@@babababad No “ripoff-artist” would ever be allowed near the Vienna philharmonic orchestra let alone conduct them, playing his own music.
There is this interview with Harrison Ford where he admits that, in the beginning, he and the others weren't taking Lucas and the movie very seriously... Then there was this music recording, or test screening, the first 20 minutes of the movie with the orchestra
"And we understood we were actually part of something great, and we never made fun of George again"
"And we understood we were actually part of something great, and we never made fun of George again"
Why not both? :D
Makes sense though, because Sci-Fi films were mostly kids films or very low budget TV shows back then, and I'd imagine to them it would be like filming for a new Spy Kids movie in 2024. Star Wars was cutting edge for its time thanks to George and his team.
Ford and Hamill have been making fun of George for years. Although I think affectionately.
@@Simpson17866 because they understood its value? what do you mean
@@ZeroShaneBob Star Wars is still cutting edge. None of the modern special effects beat it.
8:44 Mustafar has never looked so cold. Kinda neat.
That's what makes the old Lego games so great...following the slimmed down story beats without any dialogue and a touch of slapstick humor make for an iconic and timeless game!
Be careful that you remove the inherent bias just about we all possess for already seeing these movies countless times and preemptively knowing the scenes before they happen. To truly appreciate what a silent SW film is, it is incumbent upon us to beseech someone who has no previous SW film viewing experience
I actually liked to say the dialogue from the movies when playing the Lego games, I immited each character's voice, including females.
@@TactileTherapy did you just learn what a thesaurus is
@@Jeremy-ot6pb Definitely a bot
can you shush? @@TactileTherapy
7:48 Without colour, Anakin looks like a dark spot surrounded by light
The whole movie should be Black and White But the Lightsabers being Red and Blue. That would be amazing
i personally love the dialouge in the prequels
This video reminds me of my dream Star Wars movie from before the Mando era. A film made entirely with Wookies, Droids, and Aliens that don't speak real language. Two and half hours of action and adventure without a single word, truly a perfect Star Wars film.
7:44 *anime star wars INTENSIFIES !*
HE'S TOO POWERFUL TO BE LEFT ALIVE !!
"Star Wars isn't about the dialogue."
Yeah, we noticed George.
😂 for real though the only movie with great dialogue is ep 5
Accurate 😂
@@hylianrowhich George had almost nothing to do with.
@@russianoverkill3715 exactly that's why I said that
Episode IV had tons of memorable lines. Episode V too. Ep I II III VII are just pathetic.
Stars Wars music is legendary
This
This is why Genndy Tartakovsky was perfectly chosen to make the original animated Clone Wars. From Samurai Jack (or even from some Dexter episodes) you could already tell he understood Kurosawa-style storytelling.
Tartakovsky made Jedi Council actually feel like it's comprised of the most skilled Jedi masters and who all discuss problems, not just Yoda and Mace Windu.
Makes sense. His newer series Primal is done completely without dialogue, save the occasional grunts and roars.
@@Christian-ri2uf but when it does have dialogue it's still great, loved that modern day episode about those scientists.
There's very little dialog in that series.
Hot take this was the superior Clone Wars. It fits so much better between episodes 2 and 3 and doesn’t really retcon anything. Not to mention you can watch it all in one sitting lol
Star Wars in black and white with Japanese dub hits way different, I love it
On silent films: I remember once reading about the international popularity of Mr Bean, as language just isn't relevant to the gags.
You know, once Charles Chaplin met and praised Benny Hill.
Can confirm, most people here might not know a single word in english and still recognize him inmediately
When the teddy bear lost its head, I felt that
When I was in Nepal, I found a Mr. Bean video game at a stall that sold pirated games. Didn't even know Mr. Bean had a video game.
@@DivineEternalOne I hope you bought it.
You can't talk about "Star Wars" as if everything "Star Wars" is one cohesive whole. There is A New Hope and then there is... everything else.
Imagine a black and white edit of Star Wars, but the light sabers are in colour
I watch that.
There was a SW Visions episode (called The Duel) on D+ that had the sabers and blaster fire alone in color. It was intentionally made to resemble the visual style of the Kurosawa films. I recommend seeing it!
Ah yes... The Schindler List approach
@@AstralLass469 I just watched the Japanese dub of this after reading your comment and it's one of the sickest things I've ever seen, thank you
Ooh that'd be cool
Lmao holy shit the Obi vs Ani japanese VO fuckin got me 😂
I was born 1980 - I have an auditory processing disorder so it was years before I saw it with captions and understood even half the dialog. I didn’t realize I loved original Star Wars so much because it was essentially a silent film.
This reminded me of Metropolis by Fritz Lang, the robot in which, was the inspiration for c-3po
“The dialogue is so badly written I had to change the language to Japanese to get enough cultural distance” - Ben “Yahtzee” Crowshaw, ZP sonic generations
the best scene in all of star wars for me is the moment where Anakin is quietly reflecting on his choice in revenge of the sith when he's sat in the temple looking out towards Padme's estate
Your essay made me realize that I never truly grasped how Star Wars is a Space *Opera*. The way you built things up, demonstrating everything that is told and shown by everything else but dialog, ending on those Japanese-dubbed b&w versions, and dropping the term like the cherry on top... it made it click. Thank you.
It makes so much sense that Gendy Tartakovsky got tapped to direct the 2003 clone wars animated shorts. He’s one of the all time greats as far as directing cartoons with little to no dialogue.
This helps explain why the prequels are so endlessly meme-able. The prequels have a straightforward visual clarity that, even devoid of context - perhaps from the point of view from someone who has never even seen them, is still crystal clear. Then by adding humorous text (not unlike a subtitle or silent movie text card), these memes are able to convey so much information with just one or a few simple images.
In a similar vein, this video compares the dialogue to Lucas' sound effects. "King of Wooden Dialogue" ruclips.net/video/S5E-eSdRjXs/видео.htmlsi=tS7jvPZvAJrgykwi
You could argue that too with Sam Raimi 'Spider-Man trilogy, it's so memeable, it's a contemporary of the prequels.
Huh, I never thought of it like that. It makes sense that you can meme it because you can get the point across so many different ways with just four photos of two people.
I really appreciate Lucas's purity in terms of direction and writing. Naturality is so underrated compared to how pretentious films often are nowadays, like Dune or EEAAO.
It’s memable because they have stupid dialogue and are bad films not because they’re good
It's not really "silent" if music is playing amirite!?
Yep
I noticed about eight years ago that you can tell A LOT about a movie (which cast members in a movie are getting along, Whether the leads have any chemistry, how good the Cinematography is good or not.) by simply WATCHING THE FILM WITHOUT THE SOUND ON.
It has been an educating experience.
I unintentionally realize this every time I am at big get together (Usually some holiday family get together) and the TV has a random movie on, but the sound is muted. There have been countless films that I just can't watch muted. However, there are a few that I can just sit and watch with no sound. If those movies have good scores, you can bet that they are probably fantastic films.
@@blodhthringa Agreed.
I recently took a peek at my personal movie collection and found the dualist (1977) and decided to take a peek at it.
It was TWENTY MINUTES before I realized how much time had passed.
I realized later that even if the sound had been off, THE RESULT WOULD HAVE BEEN THE SAME.
that's how good the movie is.
Ron Howard the director says he does this with scenes to see if they make sense on even the most basic visual level
@@matthewsawczyn6592
He's a wise man. I'm glad he's out there making movies.
Watching Revenge of the Sith in Japanese really makes it feel like a Samurai movie; I'm majoring Japanese and I recently watched Clones, Sith, and A New Hope in the dub. I love it. Its such a perfect fusion.
Fascinating video, but I would suggest that Ben Burtt's sound design is almost as much a part of the audible legend of Star Wars as John Williams' music. Maybe you could experience the movie without DIALOGUE, but definitely not without SOUND.
Backstroke Of The West is a really funny way of experimenting with this
Opera is actually an interesting analogy. Similar ideas of minimal dialog, and mostly emotions are expressed through music, often with words in another language.
Even Lucas called it a space opera, and a soap opera.
7:04 That guy in the bottom right is low-key grooving
The Kurosawa re-edit of Star Wars is a genius idea...
It really isn’t.
Anyone know where you can watch the whole thing?
So someone made and put it in post on reddit. I just did a web search for kurosawa re-edit of star wars and it came up
@empatheticrambo4890 It's actually insulting to the legacy of Kurosawa.
@@leikeylosh how do you mean?
When there’s more to the story than dialogue
Am I the only one who really likes that purple fuzzy dress that Padme wears in episode 3 when Odi wan reveals Anakin had gone evil?
“Reach out…with your feelings”
My grandmother used to play the piano in Louisiana during the silent film days... She always used to exclaim "Weeeeeeeeeeee!" and it was that passion that she used to play the piano. When I was a youth, I accidentally VHS recorded "The Sting" in black and white. I was initially saddened, but 4 minutes into the film, it really went well, so well, that I watched the movie several times in that de-colorization. I have seen the film a couple more times in its original color, and it is NOT the same...
Negative space is a major element of art. In film, negative space takes on a very different form than it does in static art like paintings or ceramics. Absence of color, music, sound, or dialogue is negative space in film, and it almost always enhances the impact.
Godzilla Minus One is another great example of how a black and white version can be even more effective than full color. It's an excellent movie both ways, but the black and white cut feels so much more impactful because of the character's history.
The Blackened Mantle is one of the better reedits of the prequels I've watched
When they started adding actual voice lines to Lego Games, the magic was lost. For the original Police game, that's fair because it's an original story, but for movie games like Star Wars...I haven't gotten any recently
You can actually turn the dialog off
The latest, Skywalker Saga game, has an option in the menu to turn on mumble mode, which is what they call the old dialogue style.
Switching the dialog to mumble mode doesn't fix the problem though, they changed how they adapt the scenes to include the dialog in order to understand the story, removing it leaves an obvious dialog shaped hole. I remember feeling so disappointed when I played the Skywalker Saga and the story was just so boring compared to my memories of the original games.
The dialog existing at all ruins it, whether it's been turned off or not.
@@xipheonj I actually didn't know that, but now that you say it it makes total sense. I picked up Skywalker Saga back when it came out, never actually got around to trying it. I guess the pacing of cutscenes is based around the dialogue being there, and the sheer amount of work required to make the mumble mode a true classic option would be too much.
That's really a shame, then. Less time for slapstick jokes and gags!
Just be honest and say you outgrew them. It's OK to not be a child anymore.
And the many, MANY out-of-this-world *sound effects* also helped a lot - laser sounds, spaceship and speederbike engine sounds, weird robot voices, R2-D2 beeps and Chewbacca's growls!
Rewatching "The Phantom Menace" in theaters yesterday just made me appreciate William's genius even more. The ending victorious music being a remix of Palatines theme (hinting at who really won), subtly putting in some of Vader's theme in Annie's theme ("The ending credits theme" is a good way to hear annie's theme in full), and of course "Duel of the Fates".
The sound editing in that movie is amazing. I rewatched it with the stereo on, and wow, the amount of detail from podracer uniqueness and foreshadowing melodic memes, makes it a great storytelling. Lucas did a good job story telling seperately in a visual, music (auditory), and dialogue ways.
Darth jar jar being removed from subsequent episodes was the buggest mistake George ever made. That would have been the best "if you go back and look," reveals
@@LethinGabbins The "darth Jar Jar" thing is a myth. George described him as inspired by Goofy
@snazzle9764 yea, but there is lots of e idence in episode 1 as well as being palps go to.
Jar jar was the reason the senate voted to give Palpatine emergency powers.
Jar jar was replaced by doku out of nowhere.
@@LethinGabbins jar jar isn't the reason lol, he's only the one proposing that to the senate..
Actions speak louder than words!
When I was less than 10 years old, we had this DVD with Attack of the Clones at home. We used to watch it over and over with my younger brother and it was one of our favourite movies.
We're Polish and the DVD was in English, which we barely spoke or understood at the time.
Same, I'm Scanian Swedish, I didn't understand anything they said in Star wars, Lord of the rings or Titanic lol. But I understood the story, even though I didn't speak english I understood what was happening and I think it affected me.
As a result, when I watch movies as an adult, it matters far more to me what the emotions of the characters are, the tone of their voice, the music, the scenery, the expressions, what they say doesn't matter nearly as much. Yet I still fully appreciate the story lol.
Meanwhile the Disney movies require many dialogues just to explain a great many things.
Audience: Your dialogue sucks, George
George: (*adjusts glasses🤓) Ummm... ACKtuallyy (*nudges John Williams)
John Williams: (*sigh) YYYYYEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeee
Revenge of the Sith in black and white with Japanese dub is what I never knew I need.
If you watch it silently you'll miss such great lines like:
"I don't like sand..."
Whats wrong with that line?
Think of the context: Anakin has been taught to be a stoic monk for the past 10 years, then he is reintroduced to his lifetime long crush and theyre in a romantic setting. He is socially awkward with his crush, something alot of us can relate to.
@@sueonia79 His 8 years on Tatooine, his male influences were his slave owner and freighter pilots (space truckers). The very first thing he said to Padme was "Are you an angel?". Socially awkward indeed.
@@sueonia79 "It's coarse and rough and irritating and it gets everywhere. Not like here. Here everything is soft and smooth."
*KISS*
Yeah, great writing.
I wish they'd reused this line in Dune.
Since Star Wars basically stole everything from Dune anyway, maybe Dune could steal this idiocy back. Or maybe not. Yeah definitely not.
This is silly.
@@Albtraum_TDDC you have an actual argument or are you just gonna whine?
@@thatHARVguy wasn't he like 9 years old at the time? That's not socially awkward time, that's adorable time.
The Kurosawa version toward the end is my favorite...
Silence is one of the most powerful tools in cinema. There's a reason why great directors like Dennis Villeneuve favorite other aspects of cinematic communication over dialogue.
covert access to the dormant hemisphere for deeper imprints
Star Wars without dialogue is the main way it DOES work. I mean, look at the scene at sunset where Anakin is in the Jedi Temple staring out across the horizon towards Padme's apartment, wondering if he should betray Palpatine or the Jedi.
Episode 3 is a close second to Empire for the best Star Wars film, and it has the best suite of music by a mile. That one scene (Anakin's Anguish I believe it's officially titled) proves categorically that Hayden Christensen is a good actor and Lucas a good director.
The silent/black and white version looks fantastic!
"i don't speak Japanese, i took 3 years of it in High School and remember nothing"
that is me but with Spanish lmao
I'm venezuelan, I could teach you, it's very simple compared to japanese.
lo siento
oh my dear french class... I can barly remember you
I took German from 7th grade all the way thru my junior year of college. That’s 9 years. It’s been 6 years since then and I lost the vast majority of it. A second language is like a muscle, you NEED to flex it frequently and treat it like exercising. If you don’t, it will wither away in a heartbeat.
When it comes to second languages, use it or lose it.
If you don't have anyone to speak that second language to in your daily or at least weekly life, it may be a pointless endeavor to learn in the first place, unless you will keep yourself practiced.
All the films are silent, except for 'I am your father'.
Now that would be a gut-punch
Take away: Star Wars is one big music video
I acrually remember liking the music already before I even watched the films, also I played Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga and then watched it.
"Space Opera" Lucas says this all the time
That’s a totally different statement. You missed the point of the video
Good one
@@Grant-Shillings the video point is that it’s like silent movie not movie without sound.
the black and white is wonderful looking
I was just thinking about this exact idea on my last rewatch, I've always loved the "silent" moments in Star Wars like when Leia and Wicket are about to be shot at by a stormtrooper and you just hear the "silence" of the forest. I was wondering if some passionate editor could be paid to edit Star Wars to remove all dialogue but keep the sound design, so thanks for giving me this glimpse.
Actually it'd be super easy, barely an inconvenience.
I exaggerate, but there is a (free) program that utilizes deep learning algorithms to separate vocals from music. I haven't tried it to see if it works with sound effects as well, but it probably would.
The program is called UVR, btw (Ultimate Vocal Remover).
Your Geniuses, Yeah it should be a version with our Dialoges, or even Better
Black Boxes like in old movies
I have to give it to Lucas. He knew dialogue was his weakest skill in crafting a story, so he worked around it by hiring who would become one of the greatest composers of the century.
The black and white really helps smooth the cgi background out in reference to the characters. It's not as jarring a transition as the original.
Man the OG Lego Star Wars games were *so* good, in fact they were such exceptional games that when they added spoken dialogue to the newer releases I was really sad. I get that they wanted to innovate and stick with the times, and there are lots of great moments in the newer ones too, but the originals were *so* clever and funny and some of the gags to get around zero dialogue were amazing
Adding dialog to move with the times is bs. It just means we want to save time and money by using less nuance and expertise. Probably because the money people are talking louder than the experts.
@@stevecarter8810 Not sure you are making sense. It'd cost a lot more money to hire a bunch of voice actors than a few animators to make silent scenes. The issue IMO is that the budgets for video games is out of control, and everything has to be the "biggest ever" with Hollywood actors, and huge worlds with tons of collectibles, and $40 DLCs. It's hard for a AAA game to be made with any passion when there's shareholders breathing down a studios neck that has 400 plus people, who BTW, all have their own ideas for how a game should be made.
"The times" don't really have much to do with it. Not like a game full of non-dialogue was "the times" when Lego star wars first came out either.
Imagine "no I am your father" without the dialogue.
"I don't like dialogue" - Denis Villeneuve
"Star Wars films are silent movies, though!!!" - George Lucas
They're literally on the same line.
David Lynch has entered the chat....
@@phillipemery572 ruclips.net/video/PALjbTo1D5U/видео.html
Nice connection. I've watched Dune part one on mute and it was still incredible
Obi-Wan:” “
Anakin:” “
Many children watch videos over and over.
I listened to the Star Wars score LPs over and over as a child. On my parents' four-channel hi-fi. I had it memorized.
...This is also what made the Lucasfilm video games of the 80s so great. X-Wing shifted the themes around as the battles shifted. You knew you were doing well when the Rebel theme rushed through your Soundblaster and announced your relief ships arriving.
In order to work, Williams will have to create an orchestral arrangement of the Cerveza Cristal ad.
I have always felt that the dialogue was almost an afterthought and genuinely didn't notice that some of the lines were absurd until pointed out, because I sort of phased it out of my mind a little.
Yeah, except "I am your father" wouldn't hit as hard without spoken dialogue.
Which is why Lucas doesn’t care if a lot of the time, the dialogue he writes doesn’t resemble how humans talk.
Well Tarantino dosnt know how actual humans talk either, but nobody seems to bother him about it 😂
Hard to argue that the film still makes sense without dialogue when we've all watched them a dozen+ times/
4:03 unrelated but I just realized this is mirroring Padme taking care of kid Anakin when he left Tatooine (or more like that scene was mirroring this, but because it's a prequel it's really the siblings having echoes of their parents and... forget it)
No one has ever said Lucas doesn't know how to set a scene. He just can't write dialogue
I was not prepared for the Japanese dub in the last third lol
I saw Metropolis with a live orchestra, very moving!
The first Star Wars was not "saved" in the edit, that theory was long debunked. Even Marcia herself said that was not the case .
The story was more that Fox had a editor on the movie that started to work on the movie while Lucas and Crew were not even done shooting the thing.
While Lucas was in London shooting the Tantive IV stuff, John Jympson was doing a cut of the movie without the directors feedback, since he was on the other side of the planet.
There was no music, no vfx and placeholders were used.
That was the notorious cut that shooked everybody, including Lucas directors friends. Lucas fired that man and brought in his wife and two pals from his old USC buddy Walter Murch.
They started working on that movie (with Lucas as a uncredited editor) and the whole editing process took them (including the time of the previous editor) 14 months.
Empire Strikes Back was also edited for 14 months. Not my words these are from Paul Hirsch, who worked on Star Wars and Empire, himself.
But nobody said it was saved in the edit.
I recommend the Making of Book by JW Rinzler from each of the OT movies. They are incredible, with so much details about how these movies got made.
That's interesting and makes more sense to be honest. Better than "he made two good movies but was fucking up his passion project until...." story that was being told over and over.
Yeah, see I had remembered that story getting debunked, too. But then when I was working on this video I couldn’t find where I’d seen that, so I thought I must’ve been making it up that it’d been. Guess I should’ve gone with my gut.
@@CinemaStixyour recent community post had many comments arguing this and posting links to the amazing video by Nerdonymous.
@@thegoodgeneral I was making a comment about this, but deleted it now seeing this thread here.
For anyone reading and not wanting the watch the video: _How "How Star Wars was saved in the edit" was saved in the edit (sort of, but not really),_ by Nerdonymous, the biggest fabrication in it was the claim that the Death Star sequence at the end didn't have a time limit of the Death Star blowing up the rebel base until the edit (which is debunked by shooting scripts), and RocketJump try to place Marcia on a pedestal for her editing while also shitting on the deleted Tatooine scenes of Luke and friends, which she had edited and liked, and Lucas didn't even want to film in the first place (only doing so because the studio didn't have confidence to not introduce the main character a.s.a.p.).
On the other hand, Nerdonymous' video is great and filled with info pulled from Making of Star Wars books and gives a lot of behind the scenes insights. Also has a pair of videos Star Wars Apocrypha that cover some lore and behind the scenes of sequels production and is great nerd juice.
Ah, brilliant! Well, it seems my curse that there always seems to be one error in every video that could’ve been avoided by the change of a single line. I was dealing in outdated intel-very bad practice :) I’ll fix it in next year’s compilation and find a way to redirect people accordingly on this one-or hopefully this thread will just rise to the top naturally.
the previous title was interesting
7:44 My favourite Kurosawa film.
😂
Truly one of his finest.
This is the principle of "show, don't tell" in perfection.
and thats why unironically the best scene in the prequels is the lightsaber fight in Phantom Menace because the characters stop barfing out George's nonsense dialogue and they let John Williams do his thing
Coming from seeing the movie, I agree, but a lot of the political dialogue makes sense, especially because of the situation in my country, economical blockades by the US.
the kurosawa dub is fantastic
Why does this video have the ability to play with a pop out player, while every other video on RUclips doesn’t? Is it doing this for anyone else?
Because you opened it from the opera browser maybe?
Pop out player works for me. Copyright music is the only thing that I've found to not allow the pop out.
I’m opening it from the RUclips app on my phone, are you doing the same? I’ve never seen a RUclips video with pop out play on the phone, but think it would be amazing if it was the norm.
This made me realize, I'd actually like to see a modern movie made with no dialogue, as a sort of challenge to the director to see how much story they can still get across. And none of these old time pauses for slides with text either, just no words anywhere in the film.
I am the biggest Star Wars fan/nerd/lover and I always learn something new whether from watching one of the shows or movies again, or seeing a video like this. Super insightful and enlightening, thank you very much. This just helped me understand Star Wars more deeply as well as appreciate it even more. It genuinely is the greatest franchise of all time and I think George Lucas’ movies should be watched by all forever!
This is why Star Wars will never be the same again.
I like the idea of watching them as a black and white film. Also maybe that is why some of the more cheesy dialogue never annoyed me.
Tbh, a lot of the dialogue sounds better in the mexican/latin american dub of the movies, especially for the prequels, even Darth Vader's voice sounds pretty idéntical to James Earl Jones.
As you say, maybe that's why the dialogue never bothered me.
Sometimes I like to _mess_ a little with saturation while watching in my laptop, and let me tell you... No one is ready for B&W Blade Runner 2049
Many more transform amazingly well too
It's a space *opera* after all.
The X-Wing / TIE Fighter games also had dynamic midi music during the missions which changed based on the events happening (enemy ship destroyed, mission goals achieved, etc.).
Oh, yes! Lucasfilm held the *patent* to video games using shifting thematic music matching the pacing of the player and scripted actions.
It's called iMUSE. LucasArts used it in many games, but it was incredibly effective in the X-Wing series.
Machete order is the best way to watch Star Wars. Watch in this order:
A New Hope - sets the scene that we are exploring
Empire - we continue following Luke and the other main characters up to a major climax point
Attack of the Clones - we flash back to the start of the Clone wars and learn about how we got here.
Revenge of the sith - we continue our flash back
Jedi - we come back to “the present” and have a small time skip after the “major climax point” in Empire.
This is ideal because
1) episode 1 adds nothing to the series from a story standpoint
2) it minimizes spoilers. This could be someone’s first time watching the series, and if you watch in order, there is no shock in the “climax” in Empire.
In this order, someone could watch the series for the first time and not be spoiled by the story of the prequels.
The clip of Williams conducting the main title is so captivating: the couple dozen faces in the background, all rapt, all revealing some different-visceral!-reaction to hearing that brass fanfare. Some swept away in it, others resting deep within themselves, in the place where they first heard it, others reveling in the almost ironic mimesis the theme has taken on in the last five decades. Fifty different reactions, all recognizable, all relatable.
the people who can't help but have little grins are my favorite
One of the best concerts I've seen, I wish I saw it live, well, any John Williams concert for that matter.
@@jesustovar2549 I don't know where you live, but if you can make it to Los Angeles, John Williams does a live show at the Hollywood Bowl every summer.
I heard the Toronto symphony orchestra perform the main title once and tears were instantly streaming down my face, it felt like my heart was in my throat and I couldn't wipe the smile from my face, it was incredible.
On Disney+ there is actually a score-only version of The Last Jedi, and it's crazy good to watch it this way
Thanks for not including the sequels.
In Empire Strikes Back in the Vader v Luke Duel there's no music, it completely cuts out and you just hear Vader's breathing and the hum of the light sabers
This... made me respect the films and their impact in a whole new way. IF I could do my life over, I would have focused on music. Part of the reason is because of the subtle way that Lucas used music in this--has impacted why I gravitated towards music at all, in the first place.
One of my childhood friends got his hands on a copy of A New Hope with just the score back in the early 2000s and I was amazed at how easy and entertaining it was to watch.
7:43 It's like switching to Kurosawa Mode in Ghosts of Tsushima
7:07 seeing the joy in the people in the audience is awesome
Smart decision to upload this on may the 4th
Why
@Tonyo-man May the 4th be with you.
It's odd because I agree the dialogue is very clunky, yet, it was some amazing lines. "Who's more the fool, the fool or the fool who follows him?" is a great "wise man" type line. Then there's the obvious catchphrases, so I can't say I'd want it as a silent film, but can't say it's a flowing film as far as dialogue.
holy, I left the tab open and got 3 different title lol
"Why star wars dialogue was mid" or smth along the line
"Do you agree with George Lucas?" or smth along the line
And now "he said it's basically a silent movie"
I'm not complaining, just glad I managed to witness it
(EDIT) : "no wonder the dialogue in star wars is so mid", there is it, it's back