Me
Donald R. McClarey
Cradle Catholic. Active in the pro-life movement since 1973. Father of three, one in Heaven, and happily married for 41 years. Small town lawyer and amateur historian. Former president of the board of directors of the local crisis pregnancy center for a decade.
I was thinking of Alec Guinness earlier today. He was in the WORST “sword” fight ever filmed. It was of course in Star Wars.
He liked the money, and I think that was all that he liked about his involvement with Star Wars.
Yet the role called for his sort of character: a world-weary eminence-gris, battle-hardened, frank about the evil of the universe but not so cynical as to give up hope of victory. He reminded me almost of a noble Viking: “The gods may lose to the giants, but I will side with the gods”.
Oh he was perfect for the role, and he was far too much a professional not to give his best, even though he was bemused by the project. Guinness had played a lot of flawed heroes during his career, and I think he would have found the role more interesting if the flaws in his character had been developed in the first trilogy. Typical Guinness heroic roles:
Guinness specialized in complexity and ambiguity, elements missing in the first trilogy.
Don is correct. And Lucas’s tragedy is he’s incapable of writing the kind of complex character Tom rightly noted the story calls for.
Don:
That might draw attention away from the internal conflicts in Luke, who was (after all) the protagonist. In the same way JK Rowling left the ambiguous youth of Dumbledore out of the early Potter books, until Harry’s own character had developed; and Tolkien says little about Aragorn’s inner doubts until Gandalf disappears in Moria. It’s confusing to focus on the internal conflicts in more than one character at a time
One of my favorite renditions of the “elder mentor” role.
And now to go back to playing Final Fantasy XIV: The Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game.
It’s basically our bowling league, but with no drive-time, and the kids can play if they want, too.
Alec was a true professional and honest worker who gave it his all no matter his own ego.
Though i have immense respect for him, part of me still wishes we had gotten Lucas original pick for the role…
Toshiro Mifune
(Who could have deflected Vader’s lightsaber with just his eyebrows.) That man was stone cold on screen and I still get chills imagining him in that iconic role. Plus we could have had like… Donnie Yen play the young version in the prequels.
boggles at the idea of Star Wars with Toshiro Mifune
Seven Jedi Knights!
Yojimbo: A Star Wars Story
I know, right, Foxfier? It’s the kind of thing you wish for the alt world hypothesis to be true so you can see that film, don’t you.
By the way, here’s the story.
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/toshiro-mifune-turned-down-star-845721
At the very least, for CGI to advance to the point where we can DO that.
Mifune was a Christian, his parents being Methodist missionaries. I think that helped give him an outsider quality that made him so unusual in Japanese cinema.