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Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Discussion Thread (SPOILERS!) (1 Viewer)

BobO'Link

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Obviously it's just conjecture but I've always thought that Raiders Of The Lost Ark was what really made Harrison Ford a star.
I'd agree. For me, when I hear Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher it's almost always Star Wars. Ford was always an after thought for me on that one. When I think of Harrison Ford it's always Raiders that first comes to mind.
 

Sam Favate

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Obviously it's just conjecture but I've always thought that Raiders Of The Lost Ark was what really made Harrison Ford a star.

Star Wars made him a star. Raiders of the Lost Ark made him a superstar.

I believe it was Barbara Walters who pointed to the scene in Empire Strikes Back where Han Solo says "I know" as the "moment Harrison Ford became a star." She's not wrong. His performance goes a long way to making Empire the success it is.

After Star Wars, Ford was in a lot of movies - Hanover Street, Force 10 From Navarone, The Frisco Kid, etc. All good movies, but none great. After Empire, he was in great movies: Raiders, Blade Runner, Witness, etc.

Carrie Fisher's last book, The Princess Diarist, has a lot about Harrison. She says that they all knew when they met him that he was going to be a big movie star in the classic Hollywood sense.
 

TravisR

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Star Wars made him a star. Raiders of the Lost Ark made him a superstar.

I believe it was Barbara Walters who pointed to the scene in Empire Strikes Back where Han Solo says "I know" as the "moment Harrison Ford became a star." She's not wrong.
I think Empire was what got him Raiders. It's tough to divorce yourself from knowing Harrison Ford but if you look at American Graffiti or the original Star Wars or even those Star Wars audition tapes, I think you can see that the guy has the magical 'it' factor. The problem is that 'it' still needs the right movie to hit that next level and he got lucky enough to get the right movie with Raiders.
 

Tommy R

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Anyone else always thought of Ford’s double whammy of Han Solo and Indiana Jones akin to Eastwood’s double whammy of the man with no name and Dirty Harry?
 

Carlo_M

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Harrison definitely has that "It" factor. Yes to some extent the Eastwood comparison works. But let's not forget Ford has a slew of good-to-great roles (Fugitive, Jack Ryan, Mosquito Coast, Frantic, What Lies Beneath). Harrison's skill transcended being stereotyped, and he had double the risk of it with Indy and Han. Same with DeNiro and Pacino, who could have easily been trapped by The Godfather movies, but went on to have successful careers.
 

Johnny Angell

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And just to be clear, I really like Daisy Ridley and John Boyega and I think that their natural charm was a big part in getting the audience to quickly care about new characters in a Star Wars movie.
Did you catch Boyega in “Attack the Block”?
 

Colin Jacobson

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Obviously it's just conjecture but I've always thought that Raiders Of The Lost Ark was what really made Harrison Ford a star.

All 3 of the leads were stars after "Star Wars", but "Raiders" showed Ford could be a lead in a non-"Star Wars" hit.

The other 2 never had that.

Of course, it helped that Ford continued to make successful movies independent of the "SW" and Indy franchises. Clearly we'd view him as a 2-trick pony - and one dependent on Lucas - if he'd not been in other hits...
 

Colin Jacobson

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After Star Wars, Ford was in a lot of movies - Hanover Street, Force 10 From Navarone, The Frisco Kid, etc. All good movies, but none great. After Empire, he was in great movies: Raiders, Blade Runner, Witness, etc.


"Apocalypse Now" wasn't a great movie?
 

Jake Lipson

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Nothing against Ridley or Boyega but I tend to think that their stars will begin to wane in the next few years (something that is pretty much inevitable for all but the luckiest actors) and in a decade, they'll mostly be doing conventions and they may be more than ready to get the paycheck for another SW movie.

I think they will be working actors. It certainly won't give them the kind of paycheck that Star Wars did, but they can be working actors with successful careers on a smaller scale than that. Saoirse Ronan is a good example. She has never done a big franchise movie as far as I know, but she keeps working in a number of smaller projects that do quite well for themselves considering their budget range. Even if Ridley is never in something the size of Star Wars again, I hope it gave her enough notoriety to keep working. Her next film with Kristin Scott Thomas and Nina Hoss appears to be in this range.


She has already done some smaller size voiceover projects in between Star Wars. The Eagle Huntress documentary which she narrated in 2016 was really terrific. It didn't make very much money, but it was very good and she sounded very natural and enthusiastic in her narration of it. I'm in the minority here, but I became aware of that movie because she was involved and decided to see it based on her presence.

She also provided her voice to the English dub of Studio Gibli's Only Yesterday that same year. Neither of these set the box office on fire, but they were good and I think she enjoyed working on them. She will also be voicing a role in a new animated film called The Inventor.


Boyega can probably do the same thing. I saw him in The Circle, which was a terrible movie, but that wasn't his fault. He was phenomenal in Detroit, which should have done better than it did. I am one of the few people who will follow actors from franchise movies into other things gladly, and I would be happy to see him continue to get roles in quality movies no matter their size.

It is possible that they could luck out into another big franchise, but if that happened, it would have to be the right match for them in order to work well. Hemsworth did not find that with Men in Black or Ghostbusters, so it's no surprise that he is sticking around as Thor, which is a good thing.

I am on the record much earlier in this thread as having hated The Rise of Skywalker, and I still hate it and I will always hate it. But I think Daisy Ridley and John Boyega are phenomenal talents who were wasted in that movie, so I will be delighted to continue to support their work in other movies. I realize that makes me an outlier compared to most people who turn out to franchise films for the IP and don't follow the stars elsewhere. Josh is right about that. But I would, if they continue to make interesting work.
 
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Sam Favate

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"Apocalypse Now" wasn't a great movie?

It was indeed, but Ford had, essentially, a cameo. He’s on screen for maybe five minutes, in one scene. I agree with Travis.

That said, just having a role in AN shows that he was thought of very highly.
 

SamT

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John Boyega was already an established actor. In the first movie, he is the best actor of them all.

Daisy Ridley has played in other non Star Wars movies, I have seen Ophelia (2018) and Murder on the Orient Express (2017).

They are not going to wane. This is not like Mark Hamill situation where he didn't get other major acting jobs.
 

TravisR

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John Boyega was already an established actor. In the first movie, he is the best actor of them all.

Daisy Ridley has played in other non Star Wars movies, I have seen Ophelia (2018) and Murder on the Orient Express (2017).

They are not going to wane. This is not like Mark Hamill situation where he didn't get other major acting jobs.
I'm not saying that Ridley and Boyega will never work again but they aren't going to be leads in major movies in the coming years either and the history of actors after working in big budget movies is decisively on my side. And again, that's not a critique of them either because very few people stay at the top for a long time. The only actors from the sequels that I think have a chance of continuing to do high profile work are Oscar Isaac and certainly Adam Driver (who has worked with a ridiculous number of big directors in Hollywood in under a decade).
 

SamT

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What's the situation with the Graphic Novel? I was going to read the Last Jedi and was surprised to find out that the Rise of Skywalker comic is not released yet. Is it canceled?
 

TravisR

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What's the situation with the Graphic Novel? I was going to read the Last Jedi and was surprised to find out that the Rise of Skywalker comic is not released yet. Is it canceled?
There's been no official word but it seems like it's been canceled. It was supposed to be 5 issues and the first one was solicited in March 2020 (and scheduled for release in June 2020) just as the pandemic was starting. The pandemic shut down and bumped all of Marvel's releases in those early months but once they got back up and running, Marvel never rescheduled the adaptation. I figured it would eventually get released but after more than a year, it doesn't look like Marvel is going to do it.

The comic book company IDW did release their kid-friendly adaptation of The Rise Of Skywalker a few months ago though. They've done similar adaptations of the other ten SW movies.
 

SamT

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Man this is too bad. You can not cancel the release of the last part of the trilogy.
 

TravisR

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Man this is too bad. You can not cancel the release of the last part of the trilogy.
Agreed. Initially, I figured it was guaranteed that Marvel would release TROS just so they could eventually release a sequel trilogy hardcover book and a huge Skywalker Saga omnibus of all nine comic book adaptations. What's weird is that no matter what someone thinks of the movie, all Star Wars comics sell pretty well for Marvel so that makes TROS not getting released even odder.
 

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