Han Shot First
The digital eradication of former President Trump proceeds apace. The closure of his Twitter and Facebook accounts will constrain his future engagement with the public, but that is insufficient – we must cleanse him from the past as well.
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation edited The Donald’s cameo out of Home Alone 2 some years back; and an online petition is circulating to extend the edit across all platforms. This act of virtual hygiene may be modest, but every little bit is apparently needed to sanitize us after the gruesome experience of the last four years.
Hollywood has long since demonstrated the capacity to update media in light of changing circumstances. A recent example occurred when Oscar winner Kevin Spacey ran afoul of the #MeToo initiative. His attempt at leveraging his status as a gay man did not inoculate him from revulsion at his alleged pedophilia. And so All The Money In The World was electronically reshot; removing Spacey frame-by-frame and inserting the late Christopher Plummer in his place.
But that event occurred prior to the film’s completion. A more remarkable example occurred in 1997, when the re-release of Star Wars featured an edit that famously updated the confrontation between Han Solo and bounty hunter Greedo. In the original 1977 movie, Han shot Greedo before the bounty hunter could execute Han himself, seeking the reward posted by Jabba The Hut.
But in the 1997 re-release, Greedo shot first, with Han carefully waiting for Greedo’s provocation before returning fire. This eliminated the moral ambiguity of the original by making it crystal clear that Han was acting only in unavoidable self-defense.
Commenting in 2012, Lucas said:
The controversy over who shot first, Greedo or Han Solo, in Episode IV, what I did was try to clean up the confusion, but obviously it upset people because they wanted Solo to be a cold-blooded killer, but he actually isn't. It had been done in all close-ups and it was confusing about who did what to whom. I put a little wider shot in there that made it clear that Greedo is the one who shot first, but everyone wanted to think that Han shot first, because they wanted to think that he actually just gunned him down.
Lucas is doing something rather extraordinary here: he is attempting to claim that Greedo shot first all along, and that the original release in 1977 simply failed to make that clear – hence the expanded scene with a “wider” frame.
But consider the words of actor Paul Blake, who played Greedo:
"Of course, it said it all in the original script, we played in the scene in English and at the end of the scene, it reads, 'Han shoots the alien.' It's all it says and that's what happened. It was very painful."
Blake went on to say that he felt that Greedo shooting at and missing Solo at very short range made him appear inept, and that Greedo has more glory if he is "just blown away.”
In 1977, I myself saw the original release of Star Wars at the magnificent Uptown theater in DC, with its extraordinary, immense curved screen. I clearly recall Han shooting first, to include maneuvering Greedo into a seated position, where Han could release his holster unseen, preparing to take…proactive measures. There was no video or audio indication that Greedo fired at all, let alone first.
In my view, the original scene does not depict Han as a cold-blooded killer (unlike Lucas’s take). But it does demonstrate Han’s determination to survive – even if survival requires the moral ambiguity of acting before your opponent can get the drop on you.
IMHO, this makes for a more interesting character, and one whose journey to redemption becomes more satisfying.
We (including Lucas himself) will all differ as to the ethics underlying the scene. How far are we expected to allow an opponent to engage before we seize the initiative? Where do we draw that line? Never an easy question…
But what most fascinates me about the entire Han Shot First debate was George Lucas’ attempt to recraft history, to reinforce Greedo’s actions through digital alteration of all subsequent releases of Star Wars.
And then to claim that was the reality all along – retroactively applying it to the 1977 original.
Indeed, unless you are 1) an aging geezer like myself who saw the original Star Wars in the theater; 2) have the old VHS copies or 3) or pull up the clip on Youtube; then you will believe Greedo always shot first, because no other media will depict otherwise.
This phenomenon, this digital reworking of history has profound implications for how we access truth.
Of course, Han Shot First is but a minor example of how events can be recrafted into something other that what they truly were. But as more of our history is transformed from physical to electronic representation, the ability to alter that history is increasingly available...and tempting.