1 This is Studio 360, I’m Eric Molinsky It was an era much like our own but with clunky cell phones, and sluggish Internet connection. And like today, there was a national fervor because Star Wars was coming back to the theaters – digitally restored, with new special effects, new scenes even! Josh Gilliland was in college. He was of that generation that had only seen Star Wars on VHS. This was going to be his chance to experience what we all experienced in ‘77 – and then some. But something happened that changed the course of movie fandom forever. JG: So let’s set the scene, we’re in the bar, cantina, Of course, when we first meet Han Solo, he’s in a seedy bar on Tatooine. As he’s about to accept a job flying Ben and Luke to Aldaran – with no questions asked. Han is psyched, it’s a lot money, but suddenly, he’s stopped by a green, bug-eyed creature called Greedo. Of course, Josh knew this scene very well. We all did. JG: And this exchange takes place at gun point.Words are said and we get threats and Han says over my dead body, that’s the idea, I’ve been looking forward to this a long time. In case you can’t tell, Josh is a lawyer. JG: Han replies yeah, I bet you have. Blaster shot and the rest is movie history. But not anymore. George Lucas had re-edited the scene so that Greedo fires first – and hits the wall next to Han. Then Han Solo shoots him dead. JG: How do you miss at 2 feet? Seriously? How do you miss at 2 feet? 2 I remember being totally confused at that moment. What I had seen on screen just didn’t make sense. But Josh immediately understood what Lucas had done. JG: I remember thinking what the hell? Because the enhancement with spaceships or droids floating those were enhancement and people were okay with background but altered major scene, it was a very first specific moment defines character not bullied not going to be intimidated and when threatened will take appropriate action. Journalist Jonathan Last was also horrified. JL: I mean that’s your first big character moment with Han, sense of him with Obi Wan, boastful, he’s funny, cocky but you don’t get sense he’s a real cowboy willing to shoot not quite in self defense in aggressive way, and it makes his ultimate not redemption but character arc, selfless guy, General Solo by the very end, responsible for tons of people, volunteering for dangerous missions much that character arc that much more completely. I’m not sure it cost us anything. If you’re really worried about the kids, subtle thing, when I saw it 9, 10, I don’t think it registered to me that Han shot. You’re kidding? I felt it at the time in the audience, I remember feeling in that 1977 audience and he was a fucking badass JL See you were a much more sophisticated viewer than I was. Or at the age of 7, I was still tapped into the zeitgeist of the ‘70s. JG: America went through ringer, we had gone from optimistic 1960s to beat up 1970s, so I think people would’ve been more callous, more Westerns in ‘60s and I think early ‘70s, if I remember the Shootist John Wayne’s last movie before he died of cancer was in the early ‘70s. Actually it was ‘76, the year before Star Wars. JG: So I think that was the tail end of cowboy genre, so seeing a callous hero, threatened, shoots a guy and kills him, people didn’t march in the streets over that. Why would they? This was the era of Death Wish and Dirty Harry. 3 CT: It’s clearly not in original script as much as Lucas has said his intension at the time. Chris Taylor wrote a book called How Star Wars Conquered the Universe. CT: It’s clearly referencing Western gunfight – that’s exactly how they would go down -- but Lucas has tried to defend it. But the fans don’t buy Lucas’s excuse, that he always intended Greedo to shoot first, that it was just bad filmmaking on his part. Which is why fans believe he had a change of heart. And Josh Gilliand says that’s actually kind of common. JG: I get that, as people age, you go through life experiences, your point of view changes and some people stay consistent and some people after have kids, life experiences, you see a shift, supreme court justices change views on the bench, kids grow up, see things differently and that’s kind of normal. Especially as the debate around guns and violence in the media got more heated. Following Lucas’s lead, Spielberg re-released E.T. on its 20th anniversary with new special effects, and he digitally erased all the guns from the belts of the government agents, and replaced them keys – a decision he later regretted and quietly put the guns back for the BluRay edition. But Lucas has never wavered. He was just asked about this recently, and he said yes – he did base Han Solo on a John Wayne type character, and in those movies, the bad guy always shoots first – or make a clear gesture they’re about to shoot. And I think its to his credit that he was lying awake at night, worrying about the morality of shooting Greedo because let’s face it, if that character were a human speaking English, and not a green alien speaking a weird language – I bet more people would have been bothered by it. But Josh Gilliand says Han Solo is still not a killer if he shoots first in this scene. Besides being a lawyer in Silicon Valley, he runs a website called Legal Geeks where he delves into moral and legal conundrums in fantasy films – especially Star Wars. 4 JG: I did the employee safety issues in Jabba the Hutt’s palace from having trap door to Sarlac pit and whether or not Boba Fett is an independent contractor. What duty of care was owed to him. And he intends to prove, your honor, that Han Solo was completely, legally justified in shooting first. JG: There are different views on deadly force, common law which is before statues deadly force justified in self protection if defendant necessary to prevent imminent unlawful deadly force by aggressor, which gets into some states have retreat rule and some do not, if a person can safely retreat they should do that but there are exceptions, if you’re in your own home don’t have to retreat place of safety, some states get into work qualifies as well don’t have to retreat also need reasonable belief that you’re doing to be killed. His back is literally against the wall. JG: He has no place to go so if he tries to break left or right or under the table he will die. He had a reasonable belief tone of conversation, he’s being threatened, I will kill you, not stated but that’s the idea. Would you call this a stand your ground case? JG: Yeah, it’s definitely a form of it, and people, this gets political quickly, stand your ground law in many states and in CA it goes back to 1850s or ‘60s not like it’s a new idea where we’ve seen it in the news. There are people who literally don’t understand self defense, horrific 911, I see someone on my property I’m going to kill them, don’t do that, got ‘em. Dude, that’s murder! You did not have reasonable belief you were going to be killed! Given the fact that Han has dealt with bounty hunters, he’s dealt with Jabba, it’s very likely he could die, the use of deadly force would’ve been justified. Finally, Lucas just said, this my movie, I can do what I want. The fans said no, this is our childhood. You’re ruining it. The slogan “Han Shot First” was emblazoned on t-shirts, worn proudly as a statement of rebellion. It became one of the first Internet memes, and the first shot in a long and protracted war between Lucas and the fan base he spent so many years cultivating. 5 AN: As Star Wars franchise matured, fandom was maturing not age in terms of becoming more complicated and sophisticated. Annalee Newitz created io9 and now she’s an editor at Ars Technica. And she says this sense of fan entitlement that began with Han Shot First, is now part of the tug and pull between the studios and every fan base for every franchise. AN: I think what you’re seeing the development of an idea that fans own them as much as creators if not more, fans are spending money collecting toys, collecting the movies and every collector edition, they become like constituents, not just passive people in movie theater just soaking it all in, they’re participating in creating the culture of SW. CT: He’s derided Blade Runner, director’s cut, narrated version, only one version my version, the BluRay is final definitive. But with him being so unmoving fans have gone and done own versions, who are much better at refurbishing old film and re-creating special effects, despecialized editions, I can’t tell you where to get them but what I hear, friends tell me, it looks so much better than special edition or BluRay, really maniacal about restoring to 1977 but clearing up special effects.