We watched the Criterion Collection's cleaned up DVD of The Third Man last night. I had only ever seen the beginning of that film (and I'm embarrassed to admit, that was because I was playing a computer game that based its hook off of The Third Man and I was hoping to get a clue). What a great movie! I miss movies like that sometimes, I really do.

Great digital cleanup on a really chewed master, also.

And I was a huge Star Wars fan as a kid. It was my first fandom, and I went whole hog - I wallpapered my room in magazine images of Star Wars, etc. I'm sure my parents thought I'd be a serial killer just as soon as I could get my hands on a lightsaber. And I can still watch Episodes 4 and 5 and enjoy them, even the recent remakes. But even though I was pretty close to 25 when Phantom Menace came out, I was grotesquelydisappointed. However, the friend I saw it with is now 37, and loved both PM and When Clones Attack. So that skews George's statement too (and hey, he should know not to think in absolutes).

Of course, this friend also kept shushing me during Broken Arrow and rewinding so that he wouldn't miss any of the dialogue. And he thought Armageddon was pretty good.

Huh. I guess Lucas' legacy to me is that I am unwilling to throw myself whole-heartedly into a fandom now, for fear of getting hurt. Only Joss has given me the courage to try again...I think there's a Hallmark card for the Dark Side in here.

I was... hrmm. How old was I?

It came out in '99, because I was working my first onsite job at the Evil Empire, and I saw it opening day at 4am, then went straight to work where I worked, then napped under my desk before going back home to crash for an hour or two.

I was about one month away from 25 at the time, and realized that PM wouldn't stand up to a rewatch without the mind altering effects of extreme sleep dep.

Which means if I ever want to watch it again, now would really be the time...

Huh. I guess Lucas' legacy to me is that I am unwilling to throw myself whole-heartedly into a fandom now, for fear of getting hurt.

Between him and Chris Carter, I learned in the span of about a year that really, Trust No One was good advice.

I can think of two good things about The Phantom Menace.

1. It proved that Ewan's sex appeal cannot be conquered by awful late-80s hair. (Although the face fuzz in AotC tested his inherent sexiness severely.)

2. It spawned the Sith Academy.

Number two is kind of like saying Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves was good because it spawned Men in Tights. I mean, yay, and all. But "Well, mocking it was fun," is probably not the accolade a director wants unless he's working for Troma.

I am recalling the Special Destruction Edition releases in theatres, which happened my senior year in college. We lined up for Star Wars (I mean, #1, or #4, or whatever), and when that cleaned-up print began, we cheered and fell in love all over again.

And fell out again, when it became clear how unnecessary/detrimental/obvious so many of the changes were. (I mean really. If your vaunted digital inserts are that fake-looking, why bother?)

Thus began a long period of disillusion, when the prequels came out, and word was that they sucked, though I don't kow because and I didn't watch them at all, and Star Wars was like a cautionary tale.

But you know, some time a year or two ago I sat down and watched Star Wars again, and it was such a cheerfully ramshackle movie, so wrapped up in its own odd enthusiasm and amateur whizbang and derring-do. It's a good movie (the original version, I mean). It's even a good trilogy. It's cute. I'm pleased that it can hold up despite the years and the large shadow of crap George Lucas casts now.

I was watching Godzilla vs. Megasaur (or whatever the monster was) last Sunday and realized that it came out just one year before Star Wars. I've gotten blase about special effects and all that, but there's really quite a leap between the two movies. They look decades apart.

ita's second link was the same as her first link for me.

Both were the guy who died in the shipwreck which made me sad, because I was interested in the character.

This was supposed to be the second link.

Sumi -- I got interested too. I kept waiting and waiting ...

"Village Sheriff" - does that mean he was one of the guys who were burying Balian's wife ? Or are they talking a village attached to Godfrey's Palastinian estate ?

Either way -- he couldn't have been in it enough, because I don't remember him.

Also, Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy are in final negotiations to star in "Bathory" -- a movie about Elizabeth Bathory.

Maybe he was one of the guys who came to arrest Balian. But yeah, I love looking at him, and didn't even notice.