A Thousand Stars: Episode IV, Part 21
Jan. 30th, 2025 03:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
matrilCarrie Fisher has often related how she had to act devastated when the destruction of Leia's home planet was represented by a guy saying 'Bang!' Movies with lots of special effects have always required a little extra imagination from their actors, long before the digital age. This scene pulls it off, however. Carrie might have had to imagine the planet, but we get every image we need for the emotional punch.
First Leia is defiant and contemptuous of Tarkin. Then he declares his intentions toward Alderaan, and we cut immediately to a planet that happens to look a lot like Earth. Ooof. We're already on Leia's side, but this hits hard as we see her pleading.
We can hardly blame her for confessing the hidden base (though we find out later it's only a partial truth), and then even more brutally, Tarkin orders to destroy Alderaan anyway. Here the precise editing moves swiftly, inexorably toward the awful moment. Leia's shock, Tarkin's sneering response, a shot of a faceless solider and cold mechanical workings, the massive laser striking toward the planet, one last shot of Leia's helpless horror, and the explosion.
All of these had to be filmed separately, with little surrounding context, on soundstages or with miniatures, all the different pieces coming together to make a surprisingly coherent moment. The impact is further strengthened by the following scene, which we will cover next time, but it's already a masterful example of how to lead an audience's imagination to something that feels very real.
First Leia is defiant and contemptuous of Tarkin. Then he declares his intentions toward Alderaan, and we cut immediately to a planet that happens to look a lot like Earth. Ooof. We're already on Leia's side, but this hits hard as we see her pleading.
We can hardly blame her for confessing the hidden base (though we find out later it's only a partial truth), and then even more brutally, Tarkin orders to destroy Alderaan anyway. Here the precise editing moves swiftly, inexorably toward the awful moment. Leia's shock, Tarkin's sneering response, a shot of a faceless solider and cold mechanical workings, the massive laser striking toward the planet, one last shot of Leia's helpless horror, and the explosion.
All of these had to be filmed separately, with little surrounding context, on soundstages or with miniatures, all the different pieces coming together to make a surprisingly coherent moment. The impact is further strengthened by the following scene, which we will cover next time, but it's already a masterful example of how to lead an audience's imagination to something that feels very real.
