Share your favorite experience related to Return of the Jedi for a chance to win a piece of Jabba's Sail Barge

Art Andrews

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I have a small 4" X 4.5" piece of Jabba's exploded Sail Barge, recovered from the filming site in Yuma. You can still see some of the paint/texturing on it. All I ask is that you tell me a good story relating to Return of the Jedi; anything at all. On Friday, April 17, I will choose one of the stories and send the winner this small bit of Star Wars history.

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I have a small 4" X 4.5" piece of Jabba's exploded Sail Barge, recovered from the filming site in Yuma. You can still see some of the paint/texturing on it. All I ask is that you tell me a good story relating to Return of the Jedi; anything at all. On Friday, April 17, I will choose one of the stories and send the winner this small bit of Star Wars history.

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When building Jabba’s cruise ship, the studio was worried about the high winds and sand storms blowing or destroying the ship. So they build miniature sails to test them for durability with large fans. One of these sails is now owned by Gus Lopez in his massive Star Wars collection!
 

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I went with my friends to see Return of the Jedi at a movie theater in Westwood, CA back in 1983 when I was 11. The trailers before the movie sounded fine, but when the movie started, for some reason, the volume was cranked to max. It was so loud, many of us were covering our ears and screaming, "TURN IT DOWN!!!" Some people left to tell the management, while most of us stayed there covering our ears but still watching because dude--it's Return of the Jedi and we just waited in line for like an hour, lol. After about 10 minutes of the movie, the volume suddenly reverted to a normal volume level. All good, right? WRONG. People were PISSED, and got up to insist that they restart the movie from the beginning. Of course, management was worried about their schedule and messing up the next showing. Then one guy started chanting "REFUND", and a bunch of the audience joined him so that even those who wanted to watch the movie couldn't. The manager went to the front of the screen, had the movie stopped, and promised us that they would indeed rewind the film and start the movie over. That's the first and only time I've been a part of a theater malfunction, and it was during an iconic movie. =)
 
Well I don't have any interesting facts about the movie, but I'll just say that ROTJ was my favourite SW movie as a kid and even though I may appreciate ESB more nowdays from a film making POV, I'm still deeply in love with ROTJ - ewoks included. I know it's not a popular opinion, but anyway. ANH might be the best adventures movie of all time with the perfect pace, ESB might be a very robust mid-story movie, but to me, ROTJ was the emotional one of the three. Plus my father got me the green lightsaber for my birthday in 94, that I still own in mint condition today.

Oh! There's my interesting fact! "Ewok" is never mentioned in the movie. Ha! Ok cheap trick, I'll show my way out.

Anyway, I was born in 1988 so I must had watch ROTJ for the first time in 93 or so, and it became my favourite right away. The reason? ESB was a little too dark for me and I didn't agree with Luke rushing to help Han and Leia. To me, desobeying a grown up was a big no-no. And he got served! On the other hand, ROTJ shows a mature Luke Skywalker that had become a true Jedi knight, like he told Ben Kenobi in Star Wars.

By the time I saw ESB and ROTJ I had already rewatched Star Wars (ANH) a thousand times. So there was this thought in my head recalling the line "I want to learn the ways of the Force and become a Jedi like my father" as I watched Luke Skywalker, the Jedi knight, talking like that to Jabba, fighting the rancor and rescuing Han and Leia with a little help from R2 following the tempo of John Williams. That was Star Wars magic right there. Not to mention the sarlacc. Poor Boba Fett.

Then there were quite a lot of muppets and criatures in the movie -gamorreans for instance- and the best space battle I've ever seen in cinema without one-single-CGI frame. "Just" studio models and commercial MPC kits (I'm building one right now! First gen! Yay!). And what is there to say about the redemption of Anakin Skywalker and how close Luke was to taste the dark side through his rage. I'm getting goosbumps right now. My God what an end to the trilogy. Remember when Vader mentions Leia to Luke and he goes crazy? Imagine that being a what, 5,6 years old? So emotional.

Not only George Lucas introduced a bazillion new things to the SWUniverse that actually worked great, but he completed the circle in a perfect way.

I understand the critics about the movie, mainly ewoks and the softer/childish tone compared with (or compared to? I always struggle with that) ESB, but what-a-movie. I just... I know I may sound stupid, but the classic trilogy is so good... perfect adventures movie, super exciting struggle movie, and redemption/epic win movie.

Aight, imma gonna go rewatch it again haha.

Cheers!
 
I went with my friends to see Return of the Jedi at a movie theater in Westwood, CA back in 1983 when I was 11. The trailers before the movie sounded fine, but when the movie started, for some reason, the volume was cranked to max. It was so loud, many of us were covering our ears and screaming, "TURN IT DOWN!!!" Some people left to tell the management, while most of us stayed there covering our ears but still watching because dude--it's Return of the Jedi and we just waited in line for like an hour, lol. After about 10 minutes of the movie, the volume suddenly reverted to a normal volume level. All good, right? WRONG. People were PISSED, and got up to insist that they restart the movie from the beginning. Of course, management was worried about their schedule and messing up the next showing. Then one guy started chanting "REFUND", and a bunch of the audience joined him so that even those who wanted to watch the movie couldn't. The manager went to the front of the screen, had the movie stopped, and promised us that they would indeed rewind the film and start the movie over. That's the first and only time I've been a part of a theater malfunction, and it was during an iconic movie. =)
Good god that sounded like a one hell of a ride Tom! Me and my cousin had a similar experience with Harry Potter, but instead of the volume being too loud, it was delayed. The movie was playing two minutes ahead from the audio, and was restarted halfway from the movie:rolleyes:
 
A 15 year old boy sees Princess Leia in the slave costume and falls in love.
 

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So, Mark loved monster trucks. Lived and breathed monster trucks. Bigfoot was the shnizzle.

So, the first scene with ewoks, is a closeup of an ewok's feet approaching Leia. My friend, in typical MST3K fashion (before there was MST3K) says, "hey Mark. Look! There's your truck."

We spent the rest of the moving shaking, holding back our laughter and urine.
 
I was 9 years old when Jedi was released. My mother, not having any understanding of the Star Wars universe, took my 7-year-old brother and I to see a matinee on opening day. Needless to say it was sold out. She presented us with two options - we could leave and try to come another day or buy tickets for the next show and wait in the lobby. We agreed to wait. Keep in mind, this was before theaters were showing big films in multiple houses so to wait meant at least 2 hours, in a packed lobby, with no such thing as cell phones or handheld gaming devices. Bless her heart - she didn't have to wait. She could have easily brushed the whole thing off and said, "We'll come back another time." But that was who she was... She had no thought of the time wasted when she could have been doing something she needed to get done. She gave up her time so that we could see the movie that day. She died in 1995 never having a chance to meet my son, her grandson, who's 12 now and loves Star Wars as much as his dad. I think they would have really gotten a kick out of each other.
 
Thank you all for participating! I love hearing stories like these. I can particularly relate to MrJerry 's story as I got in BIG trouble when my mom caught me drawing pics of slave leia topless. I was nine.

With that being said, I loved mluder 's story and declare him the winner. mluder, please send me a message with your mailing address and I will send you your piece of the Sail Barge!
 
Thank you all for participating! I love hearing stories like these. I can particularly relate to MrJerry 's story as I got in BIG trouble when my mom caught me drawing pics of slave leia topless. I was nine.

With that being said, I loved mluder 's story and declare him the winner. mluder, please send me a message with your mailing address and I will send you your piece of the Sail Barge!

Thanks, Art!
I'm honored to be chosen and can't wait to share this piece of cinema history with my son.

Cheers
Steven
 
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