Star Wars: The Homemade Version
| Fanwork | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Star Wars: The Homemade Version (see note in article) |
| Creator: | Scott Corrales and Antonio Guzman |
| Date(s): | spring of 1981 |
| Medium: | |
| Fandom: | Star Wars |
| External Links: | |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Star Wars: The Homemade Version is a fan-made "photo-novel" by Scott Corrales and Antonio Guzman and described great detail (including the complete plot), along with some sample photos, in Blue Harvest #10 (1996).
NOTE: The title of the fanwork is never mentioned and called here on Fanlore by the title of the Blue Harvest article.
The photo-novel was created in 1981 after Scott and Antonio read an May 19, 1980 article in Time Magazine on the third Star Wars movie. "With hundreds of dollars in toys and a Rollei 35mm camera, we were determined not to wait out the excruciating three years in passive anticipation -- we would make our own "Return of the Jedi."
About: From "Blue Harvest"
The manuscript, 105 pages long, was accompanied by dozens of photos of the Kenner figures and vehicles depicting the actions described. When the Kenner figures wouldn't do, we employed 3 3/4" figures from other pro grams, such as Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers and other action figure series of the time. We joked about having made our version "entirely on location" as opposed to using "soundstages"— Puerto Rico's Condado Beach became Tatooine while a nearby patch of lush Caribbean vegetation turned in Dagobah, where an old man hollered at us: "Aren't you both too old to be fooling around with toys?"
Over a number of weekends in the spring of 1981, Antonio Guzman and myself set out to turn George Lucas's universe on its head, turning its protagonist, Luke Skywalker, into a self-redeemed hero who used his powers to shatter not only the dreaded Empire, but the Rebellion as well. Lando Calrissian, the debonair "big city" character, would have to redeem himself for the betrayal of his friends on Bespin by searching for Han Solo in the Jundland Wastes. We would introduce new characters, such as Ghimesg, the Tusken Raider, and Captain Omar, the young Imperial who would become Lord Skywalker's friend; we would unmask Boba Fett, explore the characters of Cammie, Fixer and all of Luke's Anchorhead cronies, and in the end, free Tatooine's outback from the fear of Hardhead and the dreaded Cold God...oh, by the way, we would also tackle the thorny question of "the Other" prophesised by Yoda.
The "heavy philosophy" which we adapted from Dune (there's a lot of Paul Muad'Dib in the character of Skywalker, like it or not) and other sci-fi greats was simply that Luke Skywalker had acquired a deeper understanding of the Force than anyone around him, and for that reason alone, the Emperor found him so dangerous. There is, however, a middle path, and Lord Skywalker chose to take it. The Empire was a negative influence because it had been obsessed with technology and dehumanization, and the Rebellion was hardly any better because it was obsessed with past glories and reinstating ancient hierarchies.
What's my favorite part of my homemade final installment to the Star Wars Trilogy? The "final scene," when we have Lord Skywalker tell Leia that her duty to the future is to collect all of these events for posterity, presaging the "Journal of the Whills" which appears on the first page of George Lucas's novel. To paraphrase the memorable entry that appears on that page: "We were all in the wrong place at the wrong time (I should have been studying harder!). Naturally, we all became heroes.
first page of article about this fanwork from Blue Harvest #10
second page of article about this fanwork from Blue Harvest #10
detail from the second page
detail from the second page
