I KNOW: IRVIN KERSHNER 1923-2010

Empire was great...Never Say Never Again sucked hard. Almost AVTAK, Moonraker and Die Another Day levels of suck.

RIP

Dammit. I guess I should consider myself lucky for seeing him speak a few years ago.

EDIT: Actually now I'm really pissed at my self for not having the guts to stand up at a Star Wars convention and ask about Harlan Ellison's I, Robot.

Really great write-up, Andre. You only need one, indeed. Considering the Lucas/Kershner relationship, one wonders if this exchange was prescient in more ways than one -

"I... I don't believe it."

"That is why you fail."

But no Gary Kurtz. Hmmmmm.

I like Never Say Never Again. It's how a "Bond in his fifties" movie should be played.

I wouldn't call them good movies, but I enjoy watching ROBOCOP 2 and NSNA from time to time.
I bet Irvin came up with the "Bond uses his own piss to blind his enemy" idea.

Never Say Never Again's only real flaw is that cockbite of a score. It's an okay flick otherwise.

Phil, I deleted a mention of Kurtz, mostly because I didn't want to get into that.

Understandably.

The luck of Ginger Coffee...wonderful film with a touching performance by Robert Shaw. Thankfully it gets shown on TV once in a while up here in Canada.

Kirshner said he wished he had directed ROTJ. So do we all, I guess.

Why didn't he?

I'm guessing because Lucas wanted someone a little more malleable in the director's chair.

Really fantastic tribute Dre. I must be honest, I have a bit of a soft spot for Never Say Never Again and Robocop 2, but if Empire was all Kirshner gave to the world that'd still put him in a very special place in my cinephile heart.

Wow, you too huh? My parents used to relate to me how they took me to the '77 original and set my bassinet up vertically in one of the chairs in the front row and my then-baby self didn't make a noise and sat happily through the entire film, but my very first memory of sitting in a cinema and being utterly enraptured was sitting through Empire. I can still vividly see Boba Fett placing a frozen Han Solo onto his ship in Cloud City through my four year old eyes and looking to my left to see my Dad as engrossed as I was.

Kirshners visual poetry was a big reason why that film left such a vivid initial impression on me and why I continue to return to it on those rare occasions these days when I want a Star Wars fix - I just wish Lucas had listened to his teacher a bit more and had him direct Jedi as well.

Count me in among Robocop 2's defenders. Sure it can't possibly touch the greatness of the original (and it certainly doesn't), but it's still pretty damn fun in its own right. Also when you compare it to where 3 wound up going (to say nothing of the utterly rancid TV series and cartoons: my memory of Prime Directives is incredibly hazy, so I'll keep silent on that for now until a revisiting)... yeah, it could've been WAY worse. I'll happily take it as being a very decent and watchable follow-up in comparison to the embarrassing awfulness of most of the rest that followed after. Plus Tom Noonan is wonderful as always.

I've always been weirdly neutral on Never Say Never Again. It's never really moved me one way or the other. The most response its even gotten out of me is making me raise an eyebrow in surprise every time Rowan Atkinson first appears because I have this strange, inexplicable habit of always constantly forgetting that he's in the movie until I'm either watching it or IMDB-ing it (like I am right now with regards to the latter). Oh and the "Domination" game thingy was pretty neat visually. Other than that though, the film's kinda just there.

Anyhow, I wish I had more to add other than from now on whenever the subject of Kershner comes up I'll always immediately think of this really fascinating look into his on-set manner and directorial style via this transcript of the day on the set of Empire when the Han Solo/Carbonite Chamber sequence was shot.

Can't really think of much more to say that hasn't already been said: Empire's arguably the most over examined and nitpicked to death entry in what is inarguably the most over examined and nitpicked to death film series ever.

I think anyone who's even remotely a Star Wars fan can agree that Empire is in a league if its own when it comes to the SW films. Kershner was clearly the biggest reason. At least the guy lived long enough to realize he was responsible for sci-fi/geek masterpiece.

All this talk of him missing out on directing Jedi makes me wonder how it would have differed from what we actually got.

Wookies instead of Ewoks for one, probably. And a better use of Han most definitely.

Man, between this and Leslie Neilsen...

I feel the same about that push-in on Leah. It's always the point at which it's clear this is a different director making a different movie than what we've seen before. It's amazing how one camera motion can do that.

Oh what could have been... Or maybe not. Maybe it's best he didn't do Jedi.

Wonderful writeup Dre splendid. One indeed.

Depth and emotional honesty must you have and dramatic tension rather than a soulless, glorified toy commercial yeeeees...



...sorry, couldn't help myself.

He made the greatest movie I've ever had the pleasure of watching, and he's gone now. Sad day.

You done some good memorializin' this week, Dre. Though I hope there's no call for you to do it again any time soon.

RIP, Mr Kershner. I may no longer enjoy STAR WARS, but I can respect and appreciate the role he had in shaping my childhood and yes, EMPIRE is a cracker jack picture. Maybe you do need only one

PS Great write up, Andre. Probably one of the better pieces I've ever seen from you on the site!

PPS You are wrong, aside from the Greedo thing the STAR WARS SPECIAL EDITIONS are great

I read that whole thing last night. Fascinating! Kind of makes me reconsider (however briefly) my desire to direct a large budget feature film. There is alot to wrangle on set, clearly

PS How were these exact quotations obtained? Did the author have a good memory? Were the proceedings recorded?

PPS Ms Fisher seems slightly unhinged, unless her remarks were liberally abridged. The way she goes from loudly fighting with IK to the 'I shouldn't have talked to Harrison like that!"stuff in the span of two sentences is kind of odd, at least as it reads on the page

PPPS It kind of blows my mind to think of a STAR WARS where someone other than Lucas is changing dialog and reworking scenes. I can only imaging how it all would have turned out had he hung around on set like on JEDI



Robocop 2 is violent, funny, and moderately entertaining. It's not bad, it's just looks bad in light of the fact it's a fairly pedestrian action sequel to what is arguably one of the very best films of the 1980s. Still though, it's kind of wacky and there is alot to love IMHO This ALWAYS perplexed me! That scene seems to suggest that it's not just that he blinded the enemy with urine, but that Bond's urine is especially volatile. The way that bad guy reacts is crazy, and then Bond looks at the label as if to say "Well of course he screamed and passed out, it's my urine after all!"

Totally bizarre

Amazing piece. Like the one for Leslie Nielsen, it's both a respectful tribute and an honest analysis of the man's career. Really great stuff.

Clearly, you've never had a Scotsman's urine thrown in your face.

Not sure if this was posted anywhere else (probably in the I Still Like Star Wars thread...), but here's a recent Vanity Fair interview with Kershner for the release of the Making of ESB book.

Kershner LOVES Ratatouille.