Imaginary Worlds - Han Shot Solo

Episode Date: December 16, 2015

In 1997, the Star Wars trilogy was re-released in theaters. Longtime fans were excited to see the new digital effects, while younger fans couldn't wait to experience Star Wars on the big screen. But George Lucas had made a fundamental change that altered Han Solo's introduction -- and that scene sparked a war between the creator and his fans that haunts Lucas to this day, and changed the course of movie fandom. With Jonathan V. Last, Annalee Newitz, Chris Taylor and Josh Gilliland of "Legal Geeks." The song over the credits is "Han Shot First" by Third World Famous. This is part IV of a V part series on Star Wars. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode is brought to you by Secret. Secret deodorant gives you 72 hours of clinically proven odor protection, free of aluminum, parabens, dyes, talc, and baking soda. It's made with pH-balancing minerals and crafted with skin-conditioning oils. So whether you're going for a run or just running late, do what life throws your way and smell like you didn't. Find Secret at your nearest Walmart or Shoppers Drug Mart today. A special message from your family jewels brought to you by Old Spice Total Body.

Hey, it stinks down here. Why do armpits get all of the attention? We're down here all day with no odor protection. Wait, what's that? Mmm, vanilla and shea. That's Old Spice Total Body Deodorant. 24-7 freshness from pits to privates with daily use. It's so gentle.

We've never smelled so good. Shop Old Spice Total Body Deodorant now. You're listening to Imaginary Worlds, a show about how we create them and why we suspend our disbelief. I'm Eric Molenski. It was an era much like our own, but with clunky cell phones and very sluggish internet connection. And like today, there was a national fervor because Star Wars was coming back to the theaters. fervor because Star Wars was coming back to the theaters.

Now, for its 20th anniversary, the adventure of a lifetime returns to the big screen with newly enhanced visual effects. They're coming in too fast! And a few new surprises. Josh Gilliland was in college. He was part of that generation that had only seen Star Wars on VHS. This was going to be his chance to experience what we all experienced in 1977, and then some. But something happened that changed the course of movie fandom forever. So let's set the scene. We're in the bar, the cantina. Now, of course, when we first meet Han Solo, he's about to accept a job flying Ben and Luke to Alderaan with no questions asked. 17,000. Those guys must really be desperate. This could really save my neck. Get back to the ship. Get her ready. Han is thrilled. It's a lot

of money. But suddenly he's stopped by a green, bug-eyed dude called Greedo. And this exchange takes place at gunpoint. Words are said, and we get threats. Over my dead body. When Han says, over my dead body, we get the reply, that's the idea. I've been looking forward to this for a long time. I bet you have. Han replies, yeah, I bet you have.

And then there's the blaster shot, and the rest is movie history. But not anymore. George Lucas had re-edited the scene with new special effects so that Greedo fires first. Hits the wall next to Han, and then Han Solo shoots him dead. How do you miss at two feet?

Seriously, how do you miss at two feet? Sorry about the mess. I remember that moment. I was just confused. I was like, wait, wait, what just happened? But Josh immediately understood what happened. I remember gasps.

And people just stunned. You know, I remember thinking like, what the hell? Because the enhancements that they added with, like, spaceships floating around or you know the droids floating as they're going about those were enhancements and people were okay with like the background but that altered a major scene fundamentally it's a very specific moment that defines that character that he's not going to be that he's not going to be bullied, he's not going to be intimidated, and when threatened, will take the appropriate action. The journalist Jonathan Last

was also pretty horrified back in 97. I mean, that's your first big character moment with Han. You know, you get a little bit of a sense of him when he sits down with Obi-Wan, and he seems like he's a little bit boastful. He sort of is funny. He's cocky. But you don't get the sense that he is a real cowboy who is willing to shoot, not quite in self-defense, but in an aggressive way. And it tells you all sorts of things about him going forward. And it also, I think, in a way, makes his ultimate character arc,

where by the end, he's this real selfless guy. You're all clear, kid. Now let's go home. He's General Solo by the very end. He's responsible for tons of people around him, and he's always volunteering for dangerous missions. General Solo, is your strike team assembled? My team's ready. I don't have a command crew for the shuttle. That's going to be rough, pal. I didn't want to speak for you. That's one.

General, count me in. I'm with you, too. It makes that character arc that much more complete, I think. And I don't know that it cost us anything. You know, if you really are worried about the kids, it was such a subtle thing when you're watching it. When I first saw Star Wars, I guess I was probably, you know, nine or 10 years old, maybe eight. I don't think that it registered to me that Han shot first. You're kidding, because I remember at the time I felt it immediately in the audience, in that 1977 audience that he shot first, and that he was a fucking badass for doing it.

See, well, you were much more sophisticated. Well, I don't know about that, but maybe as a kid, I was still pretty tapped into the zeitgeist of the 70s. America kind of went through a ringer. And we went from being the bright, optimistic 1960s to this beat-up 1970s. So I think people would have been a little more callous. We would have also had more Westerns. I think, if I remember right, the shootist, John Wayne's last movie before he died of

cancer, was in the early 70s. Actually, it was 1976, the year before Star Wars. Sir? Are you hurt? No, but they are. Call a marshal. So seeing a calloused hero who is threatened, shoots a guy and kills him, people didn't like march in the streets over that. You've got to ask yourself a question. Do I feel lucky? I mean, some of the most popular action franchises at the time were Death Wish and Dirty Harry.

Well, do you, punk? The really interesting thing about that controversy, which I think, by the way, we should call the hand-shot solo controversy, because it wasn't that he shot first. It was that he was the only guy who shot. Chris Taylor wrote a book called How Star Wars Conquered the Universe. You know, it's clearly not in the original script as much as Lucas has said. That was his intention at the time.

It was clearly referencing a Western gunfight. But Lucas has tried to defend it time and again. Of course, at this point, I need George Lucas here to argue his counter-defense, but he was busy. But he has said that he always intended Greedo to shoot first, that it was just sort of bad filmmaking on his part, even though a lot of research into the original production indicates otherwise.

That's why the fans believe he just had a change of heart. And Josh Gilliland says that's actually kind of common. As people age, you know, you go through life experiences and your point of view changes. And some people stay consistent. Some people stay totally true to what they believe. But some, after they have kids, after they've had life experiences, you see a shift. You know, a nice comparison is Supreme Court justices, that you see them change views on the bench after they've been there a couple decades or their kids grow up and they see things differently. Now, during this time, the debate around guns and violence in the media was getting more heated. Now, during this time, the debate around guns and violence in the media was getting more heated.

Following Lucas's lead, Steven Spielberg re-released E.T. on its 20th anniversary with new special effects, where he digitally erased all the guns from the belts of the government agents and replaced them with jangling keys. A decision he later regretted and quietly put the guns back for the Blu-ray edition. But Lucas has never wavered. He was just asked about this recently, and he said, yeah, he did base Han Solo on a John Wayne-type character. In those movies, the bad guy always shoots first or makes a clear gesture he's about to shoot. I mean, I actually think it's to his credit that he was lying awake at night worrying about the morality of killing Greedo.

Because, to be honest, if that character were a human being speaking English and not a green alien speaking a weird made-up language, I bet more people would have been bothered by it. But Josh Gilliland says Han Solo is still not a killer

if he shoots first in the scene. Besides being a lawyer in Silicon Valley, Josh runs a website called The Legal Geeks where he del first in the scene. Besides being a lawyer in Silicon Valley, Josh runs a website called The Legal Geeks, where he delves into the moral and legal conundrums of fantasy films. I did the employee safety issues in Jabba the Hutt's palace, you know, from having the trap door to going out to the Sarlacc pit and whether or not Boba Fett is an independent contractor, what duty of care was owed to him. And he intends to prove, ladies and gentlemen of the jury,

that Han Solo was acting in self-defense when he shot first. There are different views on the use of deadly force. And so in common law, deadly force is justified in self-protection if the defendant reasonably believes that its use is necessary to prevent imminent unlawful use of deadly force by the aggressor. Which then gets us into some states have a retreat rule and some states do not. So if a person can safely retreat, they should do that. His back is literally and figuratively against the wall. Yeah, he has no place to go. We can also say that he had a reasonable belief because of the tone of

the conversation. He's being threatened. I will kill you. Now, granted, that's not exactly stated, but we do have the statement, that's the idea. Would you call this a stand your ground case? Yeah, it's definitely a form of it. This gets political quickly, but there are a lot of people who literally don't understand self-defense. There are the horrific 911 calls where you have somebody say, I see someone on my property, I will go kill them. And you hear the 911 operator saying, no, don't do that.

You hear a click and bang, and the person say, yeah, I got him. It's like, dude, that's murder. You did not have a reasonable belief that you were going to be killed. Given the fact that Han has dealt with bounty hunters, that he's dealt with Jabba, that he knows that it's very likely out on Tatooine he could die, the use of deadly force would have been justified in that situation. Finally, Lucas just said,

Look, this is my movie. I can do whatever I want with it. The fans, of course, responded, this is our childhood. You're ruining it. The slogan Han shot first became the statement of rebellion. You probably saw it on T-shirts. I think it became one of the first internet memes. It was also the first shot in a very long and protracted war between George Lucas and his own fan base. As Star Wars the franchise matured, fandom itself was also maturing. And I

don't mean in terms of age, but I just mean in terms of becoming more complicated and sophisticated. Annalee Newitz created the site io9, she's now an editor at Ars Technica. And she says the sense of fan entitlement that first began with Honshot First is now part of the tug and pull between every studio and every fan base for every franchise. Yeah, I think what you're seeing is the development of an idea that fans do kind of own these stories as much as the creators do, if not even more, because fans are the ones who are spending all that money collecting the toys and, you know, collecting the movies and collecting every collector's edition of the movies. And so they become almost like constituents. You know, they're not just passive people in a movie theater just kind of soaking it all in. They're actually participating in creating the culture of Star Wars. He's derided Blade Runner, for example, which he says is available six ways from Sunday.

You know, you have the director's cut, you have the original narrated version, and so on and so on. And Lucas said, no, there's only one version of Star wars and it's my version it's the latest version and you know the blu-ray is is the final absolute definitive version of star wars but you know with the interesting thing with him being so unmoving on that is that fans have gone and done their own versions you know fans who are actually much much better at you know refurbishing the old film and recreating special effects. So you have these what are called despecialized editions all over the darker portions of the Internet. This generation felt empowered by the origin story of George Lucas himself, the indie filmmaker who defied the Hollywood establishment and did his own thing.

And the fans were undermining George Lucas with the same digital technology that he helped develop. And you had things like the Phantom Edit of Episode 1 where Jar Jar was taken out because fans were so grossed out by Jar Jar, which, for obvious reasons, because it was a terrible mistake of a character. Now you have this incredibly democratic situation where, you know, Star Wars is available on the Internet 6,000 ways from Sunday.

You know, I can respectfully say why I might not like something or disagree with it. But the world owes George Lucas a huge debt for his imagination and vision and for turning it over to others to continue that legacy. And I agree. Lucas deserves credit for turning Star Wars over to Disney and letting it grow without him. And Chris Taylor thinks that Lucas only got to that point by coming to terms with the idea that he didn't really own Star Wars. No one does. I mean, he's described it once in these sort of very grandiose terms, as there's this Holy Trinity, you know, he is the father, he takes care of the movie universe, or took care of the movie universe, now Kathleen Kennedy does, you know, and then there's the son, and the son is sort of the licensing group, and all of the expanded

universe stuff, and the novels and everything. And he doesn't involve himself in what the son does. And then there's the Holy Ghost and that's the fans. And he's like, you know, I'm the father. The son of the Holy Ghost can go their own way. So that's really how he viewed it. He just sort of kind of threw up his hands and said, you guys do whatever you want. It's interesting how Disney's marketing the new film The Force Awakens. It's very different from the prequels, which are all about Lucas and what he's thinking, what he wants, what's he planning, is he ruining your childhood?

With The Force Awakens, the message is clear. This is your Star Wars, our Star Wars. Let's celebrate. And buy stuff. I am certain that there are going to be more Han-shopped-first type controversies in the future. The interesting thing to me is that Star Wars is now in the hands of a corporation that will course-correct because they are afraid of the fans in a way that George Lucas never was. But we shouldn't be too proud of this technological terror we've constructed. And by that I mean Twitter.

Because at a certain point, filmmakers need to have leeway to make bold, creative choices so the franchise can breathe and grow and not be just a big nostalgia trip. As for me, I'm seeing The Force Awakens on Sunday, December 20th in IMAX 3D. More on that in the next episode. Special thanks to Josh Gilliland, Jonathan B. Lass, Chris Taylor, Annalee Newitz, and Third World Famous. And when you see The Force Awakens, let me know what you think on the Imaginary World's Facebook page.

But, you know, careful about spoilers. I tweet at emalinski. Joe's website is imaginaryworldspodcast.org. you gonna do with a sense that every droid has come for you Donkey Kong 94 these are not the droids you're looking for it happened a long time ago in a galaxy far

far away