ROMEO & JULIET REVIEW

                                                         ROMEO & JULIET REVIEW




I enjoyed this film, even though I have seen the film a couple of times, I was mainly looking closely at the elements the director has put into the modernised adaptation, E.G. Language, Theme and Setting. Also I was looking at the different types of camera shots that were used within this film that make it bold and vigorous. The film is set in the gangs and gun culture of Verona Beach, the Capulets and the Montagues are two rival corporate dynasties with generations of hatred behind them. Whilst watching this film I was thinking  of ideas that I could use for my Shakespeare piece, not language but mainly Theme & Setting because I've realised that it's going to be quite difficult to modernise me & Prince and we have only come up with 4 ideas. The language used throughout this film is understandable and for those who find it difficult reading Shakespearian texts (Including myself) have a chance to explore more of Shakespeare's works.

In this film dialogue is shouted unintelligibly, while the rest is recited dutifully, as in a secondary school production. What I didn't like about the film which I found really off putting was Mercutio dressed up as woman performing on stage, dancing with Romeo. A black man in bright silver high heels, with lip gloss signing 'Young Hearts Run Free' (By Kym Mazelle). I do take my hat to the actor having to take that risk because if it was I was given something to do like that, I don't think I could pull it off, but the fact that it was a black guy is like 'Oh my God'- if it was a white guy playing this role it's understandable. To be honest it is very rare nowadays that you see a black man portray a woman except from those top Hollywood movie stars such as Eddie Murphy, Martin Lawrence, Chris Tucker and so on.

THIS = NEVER TO BE SPOKEN ABOUT AGAIN! :@



Another thing I like about this film is that the melodic storytelling and dramatic performances don't seem to be out of place in this tragic film and it keeps to the original text by maintaining the language which in its form sounds poetic, the story has however been updated to suit today's audience. I think Leonardo DiCaprio & Claire Danes did an excellent job playing the lead roles and it was very clever of the director to give both of them the main parts, since Leo & Clare were highly rated as the most attractive male and female during the 90s. Also they even look the part, E.G. Clare Danes as a 14 year old Juliet with her youthful features and innocent eyes but most importantly she plays the part very well almost flawlessly capturing Juliet's distressing journey from childhood to womanhood. On the other hand Leo was almost equally impressive portraying Romeo and some of his reactions of Shakespeare made me think about things he did to tackle this challenging role but throughout the film he was fine. What I really liked is that DiCaprio captured the intensity of Romeo's emotions incredibly well because Romeo is brash & impulsive with an inclination to act on the heat of the moment rather than to first consider the situation like the more level-headed Juliet.

The other actors were also great and they wonderfully portrayed their characters as Shakespeare intended. Except for that one part of the film with Mercutio dressed up as a woman dancing I think that actually spoilt the essence of this film but overall I still enjoyed his performance.

Even though the story of Romeo & Juliet has been told many times, what I liked is that the director kept the idea fresh by using a mixture of fast editing and choreographed fight scenes, which wouldn't look exactly the same as a John Woo action film. This also combines a brilliant soundtrack with a stunning backdrop of 'Verona Beach'. From the beginning to the end of this film it would keep you interested and engaged throughout, due to the explosive beginning with the Capulets & Montague's shooting at each other at the petrol station and the tragic deaths of Romeo & Juliet.  

The camera work in this when it comes to certain parts especially dark parts of the film was quick and choppy which adds to the power and ever present depressing atmosphere. All of these camera shots were strong, with Clare Danes and Leonardo DiCaprio having an amazing chemistry. DiCaprio wan't popular at the time the film was shot and generally people can't say that he was the best male actor they have ever seen to play Romeo. Danes was emotionally connected in her role and out of the films she has done throughout her career this is one of her best. Also with the camera work, most of the transitions came at the right right time and the amount of close ups that was used on the characters was very effective especially in the bit when Mercutio gets killed by Tybalt that scene I think was the most powerful scene because of the way how Mercutio reacted to what Tybalt was saying was so strong and it gave me a better understanding of the type of character Mercutio is. Also the suspense leading to Mercutio's death again was powerful leaving me clueless and kept me thinking to myself ''Shouldn't he just die already ?'' because after he was shot by Tybalt he just went into this long dialogue/monologue and pretending that he is not hurt. To be honest I think this part of this scene was the strongest bit, the Mercutio actor in particular did a brilliant job doing a powerful dramatic death, giving us a clear understanding of Mercutio as well as he understood himself and his thought process throughout this scene and the film.

Throughput the film there is a number of great themes that create symbols and represent the film - E.G. The bright colours, immaculate hearts and religious symbols like crosses. Out of those three themes the religious symbols makes reference back to Shakespearian period on how Catholics followed every teaching from the bible and things they were against such as adultery and homosexuals. The use of pop music and a bit of Gospel when all these themes came up made it effective and exciting to watch, when it came to the scene when Romeo & Juliet get married with that little kid singing ''When Doves Cry'' was quite clever because the fact that it was little black boy that sang a cover for this song brought a nice vibe to this scene and to the whole film which would make more people want to watch this.

When we finished watching the film there were a few things that I picked up on in the film that I liked, which were, Setting, Language and Theme. Those are my three main ones but what I also liked was there emotional connection with there characters and the way how they deliver there lines with that intensity, instead of just playing it in a Classical way, by doing that it made us understand what they were saying. Also what I liked is how the Montagues and Capulets marked and separated themselves, E.G. clothing, tattoos (Especially on their necks-Montagues) and politics. 


Overall I enjoyed the film, out of 10 I would give it an 8 :)

HISTORICAL CONTEXT OF PERFORMANCE

                                HISTORICAL CONTEXT OF PERFORMANCE

The piece me & Prince are doing is the fight scene (last Act) from Macbeth, when Macduff avenges his family and kills Macbeth. In our modernised version, Macbeth gets shot.

Original Design Of the Set, Costumes, props and Conditions at the time, Acting Styles

The original design of the set wasn't like the stage they have now (present) in the reconstructed Globe theatre, all performances took place on that exact same stage where most of the other plays such as Hamlet, twelfth night, a midsummer night's dream and so on were performed on that stage. They didn't rebuild or do anything to the stage all performances had to be performed on that stage but the Actors, including Shakespeare himself had to figure out ways how the plays would be staged. For them to do that they had to really take their time and do things one step at a time. After each performance ideas would begin to shape in Shakespeare's mind until his death,1564-1616. 30 or 34 years after his death that's when the interregnum came (1642-1660) when most public stage performances were banned by the Puritan rulers (a group of English protestants).  

That was then........





This is now.........

The costumes that were worn at the time for men, were ornamentation, hats and vivid colours. Most of the actors in Macbeth wore their own clothes, but sowed or decorated it themselves. Some of the costumes were made for them and some of them were donated by Rich patrons. For the play Macbeth the props that were mainly used were swords & daggers, chairs, stools, books, whips, blankets, helmets, armour, flags, crowns, candles, fake jewellery, and skulls/bones. These props were not just used for Macbeth but the other tragedies that Shakespeare wrote. Since Macbeth had kings/queens and wealthy characters in them, the actors costumes represented their characters social status. During Shakespeare's time (Elizabethan era) costumes was the main modern dress at the time. For less important roles whether actors only appear briefly in a play they just wore their own clothes. The conditions at that time is that all of the actor's were men. Men and boys played all the female parts and as with men the women's costumes were ordinary clothes that reflected the social status of the character that the males were playing. Also they wore wigs by their hair colour and styles, which showed age and statuses of their characters. While performances were on at the theatre people had to sit at certain space. For instance the rich people sat at the top deck of the globe where they could see a lot of the action, poor people sat at the very back, trams just had to stand, and female & male prostitutes sat at the bottom deck. People from different working classes or backgrounds had to sit a certain place. The queen also sat at the top deck but at very front where she got the best view. If the queen wasn't entertained at any actors performances they would be put to death. The Acting styles at the time was very powerfully, strong and energetic, especially when Macbeth was performed that it was has made it one of the most recognised play that Shakespeare has written. Today, Acting styles during Shakespeare time is termed as ''Melodramatic''. This is seen as emphasized and exaggerated displays of emotions as well as stereotypically characters.

Character Analysis


The character I'm portraying is...........

(Macduff as how I imagine him to be in present day)

Name: Macduff
Born: 23rd February 1970
Age: Early 40s
Eye Colour: Dark Brown
Height: 5 ft 11
Ethnicity: British
Class: Middle Class
Hair Colour:  Black
Weight: 85.7kg
Siblings: 2 brothers and 1 sister
Best Friend: Malcolm
Spouse: Lady Macduff
Hobbies: Pool (Snooker), Boxing, Swimming
Occupation: Businessman/Criminal
Religious Views: Atheism

In this modernised piece I have changed Macduffs name to M.D. and he's no longer a knight or brave general, he's a crime lord seeking revenge on Macbeth ('Mac' for short in this project). Me and Prince are slightly changing a few bits around from the original text. E.G. Macbeth has just killed his crime boss King Duncan (K.D) and all the other criminals including myself (Macduff) are happy that he's finally stood up to that horrible bastard and I respect him for that. Now that Mac's in charge he's not being fair keeping all the money to himself, killing the innocent for nothing.

My objective in this scene is still the same as the original text, but in this version he has killed my best mate & his son (My Godson) and I'm not having hit, since the rest of criminals are too scared to stand up to this guy I want to put this to an end once and for all. In order for Macduff (me) to this he has to be smart, vigilant & strong. Also he has to get past Mac's two assistants whom he calls his two 'bitches'.  This still reflects on my characters emotion and thought process. In fact Thought Process is vital to what we're portraying in this scene, since we're not doing anything big or physical. Right now I'm p****d off about of this situation and I want to avenge my family.

Vocal wise I wouldn't have to shout too much or play my character big physically & emotionally because the boom operator is there and everyone could hear me clearly. I'm not changing the way I speak, I'm going to speak in my normal voice with that intensity of anger and hate so I could make this piece as truthful as possible.

Characters from Top Thriller Action films that influence my character















































EVIL VILLAINS/CRIMINALS THAT RELATE TO MACBETH IN MODERN SOCIETY











From watching some of these films/TV shows where these major characters are from, it gave me & Prince a broader knowledge on how we can portray our characters in modern society. We didn't steal ideas from these films we just used little bits of each so that we know what we can put into our piece. Also because my character Macduff is the superhero in the play & Macbeth is the villain I didn't want to watch any superhero film otherwise it would make our scene to ''Camp'' (Simply staged). Another reason why I didn't wacth any of these marvel films is because it would be too typical in a way in which the bad guy has done something to get good guy to kill him and the good guy kills him the end. If we did that in our piece it wouldn't really feel right and it would be rushed. People would expect more in our scene since it is being modernised because they've seen the Classical version, it keeps them thinking what stuff have they got in their modern version, where is it set ? and how are Macbeth & Macduff like today in this time period ?. Me and Prince had alot to offer with this scene. At first I thought it was going to be difficult modernising this piece because there's alot of fighting, shouting and it's gritty but all we had to do is just tone it down since we were being filmed. 

How We're Modernising this ?

The idea that we have come up with is that we've only changed the setting in a pub/office
with two criminals (Macbeth & Macduff) who come and want to kill each other but without each other knowing who's going to get killed first-similar to what we see in the thriller films when the hero/detective or FBI secretly wants to kill the criminal. What I suggested is that rather than Macbeth & Macduff being two workers, Macbeth could be a criminal and Macduff could be a lawyer who meets his old enemy and seeks for revenge but Macduff has to be smart about it. Instead of this just being a physical fight scene, using our fists and maintaining energy. We've decided to tone it down, not go physical with this and not use our voices to much (Not having to project too much and be bold). What me & Prince have decided to do is to bring guns into this, at the start when Prince says his small dialogue ''Why should I play the Roman fool, and die.......'' as he delivers this line he can be having a glass of wine/beer thinking to himself about the bad things he has done and what he regrets doing. Also there should be a medium shot on Prince while he's saying his lines which can make this more effective so I could be seen in the background not clear but it will be blurry. After Prince deliverers his lines I come straight in with my line, and as I say my line '' Turn,hell-hound, turn!'' vocal wise I can say it in a dark and whisperery way which could build a suspense that will keep audience thinking in their heads ''What is he going to do to him, what's going happen to both of them? and so on '' because it is unexpected and I have just shocked everyone. Also I want to keep this truthful and as real as possible, things which happen today in our modern society. As this scene goes on both of us could be sat at a table and have both our guns underneath the table with the camera filming it underneath as well. Towards the end of our scene having the camera filming us holding the guns would create an image which would represent the eager, audacity and intensity with me & Prince wanting to kill each other because we don't know that we have a weapon each. Also at the end of our scene after Prince says his last line '' And dammed be him that first cries, Hold enough'' he tries to shoot at me under the table and realises that he has no bullets. After 4 attempts I do a little snigger and say my last line ''I Banish Thee To Hell'', there should be close-up when I say this line as well which could make this more effective At this point I bring my gun out and aim at his head-with no gun sound or any sound at all what so ever, with this the camera would just have an extreme close up of just the gun. From there we would end it. Another way we could end it is if we both point the guns at each other and just end it at the point probably with a title card saying 'To be continued........' .This would keep the audience wanting to see more and have them saying ''Argrrrghhh!! what happens next''. Again similar to what we see in crime, drama and thriller films when we as the audience want to see more of the action. We are still following the story to the original text.

We don't need that many props for our scene all we need is................


*Guns
*Cigar for Prince
*Drinks

This is what we used for our piece

Car matt black spray paint, to spray paint the guns



Before me and Prince came up with this idea here are some ideas we had before in mind that could have possibly worked............


2. CANTEEN: playing chess for 3-4hrs. with integrity. Since we are all setting this in present day, me & Prince have changed the names of Macbeth & Macduff to Mac and M.D. and we have decided to make them teenagers as well as adults. Something around our cast-ability playing age. Again we still keeping the same story as the classical text. Mac & M.D. are too sixth formers who are quite close but when they're playing chess that is when they are enemies and hate each other real bad when it comes to this game. Mac (Macbeth) wants to win so badly sine it has been 7 years and not once he has beaten M.D. (Macduff). Alot ofthe action takes place in the board. Instead of me killing Prince physically, in the chess game I kill his King and it will all end by me saying Checkmate and Prince would get annoyed and knock the board over.

3. PRISON CELL: With this we want to get everyone involved in the scene as prisoners a fight breaks out between Mac (Macbeth) and another prisoner, in the background I want to have everyone cheering it on and have a police break it up and sends Mac back to his cell. Later me as M.D. a policeman comes to Mac's cell, lets his prison mate free- locks the cell and shoots him dead, and gets his justice since Mac has killed a very close friend M.D. which had affected him for years. 

4.COLLEGE BASKETBALL COURT: The whole class getting involved and set it outside in the sports ground basketball court and have teams play against each other, with that same integrity as the original text but modernised.

If we were to go out on location and film our piece it would be in the pub in Leyton (called Shoe Lace). By doing it this way our scene would have looked so much better and interesting. Also because it's being filmed in the pub it would have been more effective as well but ''Location has to be on College campus''.

SOCIAL, HISTORICAL CULTURAL & POLITICAL INFLUENCES

Social Aspects: With the social aspects, since we've have set I in this present day London 2013 things are still the same, E.G. New laws, technology, David Cameron and so on. Linking with our storyline, Macbeth & Macduff as crime lords/hit men in this scenario rather than knights, soldiers or generals me and Prince have twisted it around a little bit so people have a better understanding of the scenario in this scene and the intention on why Macduff wants to kill Macbeth. Nowadays we don't here or see much about crimes in London because most of them have been locked up and are serving up 10-15 years behind bars. Relating to our piece Mac (Macbeth) is now a top crime lord after killing K.D. (King Duncan), and he is stronger than he was, smart, vigilant and aware of his surroundings. He's on a look out for Police whether they would approach him or not, if they approach him he knows exactly how he is going to escape them. Today in the UK the majority of youths are getting arrested for various crimes they have committed but on the other hand we don't really here much about adults because in the past alot of them have been in arrested and are now being released after serving a huge amount of time in that cell. I decided to use elements of this and put it in our scene so that the audience (whoever watches our clip) has a full understanding of how Shakespeare can be modernised and the way me & Prince have brought them into this time period.

Historical/Cultural Influences: Now that we have changed things in our scene, again we still have to keep the story of the original text the same and compare how our modernised version of our scene differs from the classical play. With our fight scene, if we were to perform this again the Classical way it would take a lot of time for me personally to get back in the zone, be in the mind-set, and look at video clips of medieval times. Also during the reign of Queen Elizabeth the plays Shakespeare wrote such as A Midsummer's Night's Dream were often seen to embody the generally happy, confident and optimistic mood of the Elizabethans. Since there's a lot of fighting in my scene we had to look at how stage combat was performed during the Elizabethan times,  the difference between stage performances of that period and today (Modernised Shakespeare). Stage Combat at that time had pesky incomplete stage directions, for example while directors make their choices, sometimes they would counter to our expectations or wishes. Stage rehearsals and preparations became rushed in order to get the ''product'', never to get confused with ''art'' to reach the paying public as quickly as possible.  More than poetry, fights held special attraction for the common crowds, because the audience not only recollected but anticipated this Stage Combat. The importance of Hamlets contests with Laertes (The father of Odysseus) and as it reveals much about the two combatants and how Hamlet will reconcile his divided loyalties as either a flagellum dei, a “Scourge of God” (a damned soul destined and used to bring justice into the world by God), or as a “Minister of God” (one appointed, saved, and an indicator of the hand of God’s ever-present justice prior to the Judgment). Stage directions during the Elizabethan period reflected the actions taken by the first actors in the successful staged production of the script. Actors that were eager to achieve the most necessary actions of the script and to do justice to the script errantly emulate someone else’s decisions at that emotional moment—actions marked down by a stage manager in most cases. Also unknowledgeable readers of the script fail to understand these technicalities, slavishly attempting to follow the actions of another, while misunderstanding the intentions driven by alien emotions. 

In our modernised piece instead of swords as our weapons we've used guns, similar to what I saw in the Romeo & Juliet film with Leonardo DiCaprio, when the Capulets and Montagues had guns which said sword on it. Me & Prince did not exactly copy on the films idea we just grasped it so that we both have an idea on how we can modernise our fight scene from Macbeth.  



Political Influences: Going back to the original text of our play, the political influences of Macbeth is based around the historical events of Scotland and the civil war that was going on at the time. The principal topical allusions in Macbeth for most Stratfordians (But not all of them) was the 1605 Gunpowder Plot, the plan was to blow up Parliament and to the subsequent trial of a Jesuit priest.Not only for treason but for equivocation. The play depicts the treason of Macbeth against his king and famously features the porter’s ramblings about “equivocators”. 1606 when the play was written, shortly after the Gunpowder plot, serves orthodox scholars well in that it links the playwright to a reigning king of England and one of the most sensational events in British History. This commemorated since as Guy Fawkes Day. Also it helped spread the plays rather evenly throughout the working life of the Stratford man and puts its composition. Bringing it to present day now that the police are a lot more tighter on criminals, we decided to change Macbeth and Macudff into hit men so that there is more of an understanding as to why we didn't make them top policemen, detectives, lawyers or prime ministers and all sorts. If we made them top working class people I felt that we would have lost the essence of the scene a little bit because it could make me & Prince and others thinking to ourselves why do these two lawyers hate each other. Not that it's a bad idea but OBJECTIVE (What their objective is within the scene) wise and Language.

Where it's Originally set ? & New Setting we've chosen

Our play is originally set in Scotland and it dramatizes the corrosive psychological and political effects produced when evil is chosen as a way to fulfil the ambition for power. The main type of weather found throughout the play are thunder and lightning storms, which occur when evil deeds are either being formulated or carried out. In the original text it's set on a battlefield where most of the action would take place but because it's on  Film & TV we've changed the whole setting, plot and scenario so we could go straight to the point. In our modernised piece we've set it  in a marijuana shop where Mac (Macbeth) has drugs shipped to him, such as weed, cannabis and all sorts.

     Does this sync well with the original text ?

This syncs  well with the original text, in our modernised piece we're still keeping the whole text and storyline the same. What we have changed is the way how me & Prince deliver those lines in a different tone of voice (Vocal Technique) and our facial expressions. What I mean by this is how we react after each of our dialogue has been delivered. Performance wise is what we have been mainly working at really since our scene is 5mins long. Again we are still keeping the intention of both of us wanting to kill each other but ''thriller style!''. THOUGHT PROCESS is our main key within this piece. Also we've kept the language the same and it is already understandable as it is. Costume wise it wasn't really difficult because we had to think carefully about what our characters would wear in this present day and the first thing that popped in our minds was ''suits'', and it would have been silly if we said they should dress as how we normally dress E.G. tracksuits, jogging bottoms, Ralph Lauren tops, Nike, addidas and so on. If we actually put this in our piece it would spoil the essence of the story, not that the acting is bad but the costume would just put the audience off. It's just the way how me & Prince would introduce Macbeth & Macduff in modern society. Also we had to stick with the original text.

CONCLUSION

The modernised elements we used were Guns, Cigar and Drinks. The guns was mainly our effective choice because it's modernised Shakespeare productions the guns are supposed to represent the swords that Macbeth & Macduff use, similar to the Romeo & Juliet film when the Capulets & Montagues used guns against each other throughout the film, on the guns it said 'sword' on them. The idea of using guns was an effective choice because it would give  the audience an idea on how it was perofrmed during the Elizabethan Era and for them to understand storyline behind Macbeth better.
    
     Also another modernised choice we had in mind was costume, going back to the original text of Macbeth the clothing styles that Knights, Kings and Generals mainly wore were mainly armours, cloaks, tunic, trousers and leggings. In our modernised piece the clothing me & Prince decided to wear was suits this was also an effective choice because it represents that both of these men have authority and are top criminals/fearless. This links with things that are happening in our society today E.G. Drugs, Crimes and Youths that are getting arrested for various crimes. 

The social discussion that I'm aiming to achieve is for the audience to understand why we have set our piece in a marijuana drug shop instead of all the action taking place on a battlefield, why we have changed the scenario and the importance of this. This is important because I feel that setting it in a marijuana drug shop it would create a stronger effect and with Prince sitting down and saying his short monologue it makes it gives a better understanding of Macbeth and the type of person he is. Also this will explain the disadvantages of Ambition & Kingship.  Again similar to what we see in our society, when the stabbing in London became very bad the main reason for this being is that those killers that are in jail mainly did it because of the respect that they wanted. The main message that me & Prince are trying to get to the audience or for anyone that watches our piece is that in life you can't ''having higher status and being selfish will not make you prestige''.

   

    

       

    




     
     

 

FILM & TV UNIT:WEEK 3 MODERNISING OUR SHAKESPEARE PIECES

WEEK 3

During this week all of us continued modernising our Shakespeare pieces. Also we continued watching clips from films and discussing with our pairs on what things would and would not work. Also all of us had our Stars Wars auditions (Used as practice auditions showing us how the film & TV industry). Most groups/pairs filmed their pieces this week. Me and Prince were supposed to film sometime this week but because we didn't have the props (Guns, Drinks & a Cigar) for our scene. Me and Prince came up with cool stuff/elements that we could include into our piece. 




Monday 25th November: DRAMA WITH YUSUF

In this lesson we continued working on our pieces whilst Yusuf was out filming Yvonne, Esther & Bictons scene. During this lesson me & Prince were practicing our scene and trying different things that would and would not work, throughout the lesson we kept experimenting, as long as we don’t shout/scream with that intention then our piece should be fine. To be honest I find it quite difficult because we have moved on from the classical theatre part to film & TV I feel that it’s going to be quite tough having to deliver my lines with that same intensity but I just can’t raise my voice because the boom operator is there and it’s going spoil the whole essence of the scene. From an audience view it wouldn’t look too good. So what we decided to do was to look at clips from some top blockbuster action films and grasp how they deliver their lines in a situation like this with that intensity.

                                 

This is what me & Prince have been doing so far in lesson. Whilst we were rehearsing alot of ideas kept popping up, some worked and some didn't. This was to do with camera shots wise and the type of film shots we've been considering to use are medium shot, two shot,loose close-up and close-up. These type of film shots could possibly work in our piece. Also while we were running our piece I was thinking about actions that me & Prince could include and things we could do while both of us deliver our dialogue which could be Prince taking draws of his cigar and me having a drink, those are the two ideas we have in mind so far. I've realised that it's difficult to do a certain action at the right time/when it felt right for me to do the action. Whenever Prince was delivering his lines to me I had to think about how I would react by my facial expression to the lines he kept delivering to show my thought process. The Context of our scene still remains the same but different time period and setting.

Me and Prince were supposed to film our piece on this day but because we didn't have our props or anything to play around with, Yusuf couldn't film it otherwise it would look bad on screen. The props we need are guns, cigar and drinks.

Tuesday 26th November: DRAMA WITH YUSUF

During this lesson Yusuf filmed Charles & Ahmed's piece in class since they couldn't use the College gym.






















STAR WARS SCRIPT


Ben hands Luke the saber.

LUKE: What is it?

BEN: Your fathers lightsaber. This is the weapon of a Jedi Knight. Not
as clumsy or as random as a blaster.

Luke pushes a button on the handle. A long beam shoots out
about four feet and flickers there. The light plays across the
ceiling.

BEN: An elegant weapon for a more civilized time. For over a thousand
generations the Jedi Knights were the guardians of peace and justice
in the Old Republic. Before the dark times, before the Empire.

Luke hasn't really been listening.

LUKE: How did my father die?

BEN: A young Jedi named Darth Vader, who was a pupil of mine until he
turned to evil, helped the Empire hunt down and destroy the Jedi
Knights. He betrayed and murdered your father. Now the Jedi are all
but extinct. Vader was seduced by the dark side of the Force.

LUKE: The Force?

BEN: Well, the Force is what gives a Jedi his power. It's an energy
field created by all living things. It surrounds us and penetrates us.
It binds the galaxy together.

Artoo makes beeping sounds.

BEN: Now, let's see if we can't figure out what you are, my little
friend. And where you come from.

LUKE: I saw part of the message he was...

Luke is cut short as the recorded image of the beautiful
young Rebel princess is projected from Artoo's face.