George Lucas Almost Ruined A Beloved Star Wars Movie By Removing Its Worst Line
By Chris Snellgrove | Updated
While younger fans have gone out of their way to revive the Star Wars prequels, many older fans still agree The Phantom Menace that was also very bad Attack of the Clones it was shameless, shameless contempt. However, the third time was the charm for George Lucas: Sithi’s Revenge felt like a proper Star Wars movie, especially after the disappointing films that preceded it. Unfortunately, the film is hampered by some of Lucas’s trademark excesses and weird dialogue. The most famous example of this is Obi-Wan Kenobi’s ominous warning to Anakin Skywalker, “I have the upper hand;” Anakin attacks anyway, is cut and left burning.
It’s an infamous moment in franchise history. Like, when they dance in Star Wars they write in regular shows Gilmore Girlsyou know you wrote something stupid. However, it is interesting that this famous line was almost removed from it Sithi’s Revenge completely. In another version of the duel scene, Obi-Wan never says anything about the high ground, but ends up beating Anakin by accidentally cutting his former apprentice. This would have ruined an epic movie scene by accidentally turning it into a comedy. Fortunately, Lucas changed things up and added some great dialogue, effectively saving the best Star Wars prequel by giving it the worst line in the franchise!
Dueling Fates
All this information comes to us courtesy Sithi’s Revenge stunt coordinator Nick Gillard. In an interview with Empire, he revealed how the original version of Obi-Wan’s duel with Anakin went down. “At first, they both go down the side of the lava flow and soon they start fighting. Anakin frees Obi and grabs him by the throat,” he said. “He’s about to decapitate him, but Obi sucks the lightsaber out of his hand defensively to try to block it, and in doing so cuts right through Anakin’s arms and legs.”
What’s going on? George Lucas. According to Gillard, “[George Lucas] he wanted something else.” He then added, “George is a creator. We would be fools to guess him.” While Gillard’s sincerity is admirable, she accidentally sheds light on why so many stupid things ended up in the prequels. Basically, Lucas would get some weird idea or another in his head, and he was surrounded by so many sycophants that no one wanted to tell him that this was a bad idea. This is probably why Jar-Jar keeps going, why Anakin runs through sand, and why Qui-Gon is so obsessed with midichlorians: Lucas came up with these things without anyone to tell them that these are dumb ideas.
Burn, Baby, Burn
However, this time, George Lucas had the right idea. Sure, the over-the-top dialogue is dumb, but at least it’s likable, adding some levity (even if by accident) to one of the franchise’s most serious scenes. Speaking of unintentional jokes, the first scene described by Gillard sounds like it would have been pretty funny. Like, Obi-Wan wins a duel with a defensive action, which some might think seems appropriate for a Jedi. But this description also makes it sound like the Jedi Master accidentally dismembered his old apprentice, which would be more damaging to Star Wars than hearing Obi-Wan yell, “I’ve got the upper hand!”
In the final version of the duel that made it to the screen, Obi-Wan Kenobi is forced to make a painful decision. He has to fight Anakin to save his life, but he can’t bring himself to kill his oldest student. Instead, he performs surgery on him, which ends up being very brutal: Anakin is crippled and crippled, and instead of getting a clean death, he burns slowly, almost to death, before being rescued. All of this adds weight to Obi-Wan’s words about Anakin in A New Hope: he really loved his former student, and that last duel hurt him a lot (okay, probably much) as it hurts young Skywalker.
Saves the Best Prequel for the Worst Dialogue
There you go, Star Wars fans. In the beginning, Sithi’s Revenge it had no dialogue about having a higher ground, and the final battle between Obi-Wan and Anakin was very different. But George Lucas personally stepped in to create the scene we know and love (or maybe loathe). It’s the kind of decision only the Maker could make, eh, and it was a good one. With one decision, Lucas saved the best of the Star Wars prequels, and he did it by adding the worst dialogue in the galaxy.
Sadly, no one was willing to return his hands as Harrison Ford reportedly did on the set of A New Hope: “You can type this sh*t, but you sure can’t say it!
