Wanting to start on a relatively simple sequence, Ralston chose the one in which the stolen shuttle, with the rebels aboard, flies by Vader’s massive ship, which is seen from the cockpit. “It was the first sequence we started filming,” he says. “We shot these incredibly long bits of film on Vader’s ship, 600 frames, sunlight passes that required 15 to 20 hours of exposure. We tried to get all the movements and angles in one shot so George could cut it anyway he wanted.”
Ralston couldn’t know that this one shot in the sequence, coded “MA,” would become his nemesis.
Ford hangs off skiff #1, while the make-do tentacle is wrapped around Billy Dee Williams’s leg. Hidden in the base of skiff #1 was a hydraulic rocker that shook the vessel and tipped it on command.
Because Lucas wanted a pristine desert, crews had cleared the sands of vegetation where cameras might be pointed. However, those bushes and plants had provided shade for an array of desert life, including snakes. Consequently, crew soon learned to be extremely careful when picking up objects around the set or going wherever the shade might be shared with some exiled creature.
On location in Buttercup Valley, California.
An overhead view of the Sarlacc pit under construction.
A stuntman takes a fall into the pit, where many managed to injure themselves.
Ford waits between shots in the desert.
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On location in Buttercup Valley, California, stuntmen take the plunge into the Sarlacc pit, experimenting, April 1982. (0:36)
REPORT NOS. 61–65: TUESDAY–SATURDAY, APRIL 13–17; EXT. JABBA’S BARGE AND SKIFF #1, SCS. 26, 29, 29, 33 [MELEE, LANDO FALLS, FETT ATTACKS], 44 [HEROES IN SANDSTORM], 35 [HAN REACHES FOR LANDO], 41 [LUKE AND LEIA SWING]
Many of the crew noticed what had quickly become a morning ritual at the Pueblo Coffee Shop counter, where informal meetings took place with Marquand, Tomblin, and Lucas. “They were always the first on the set each morning and the purpose and enthusiasm radiating from Marquand and Lucas touched everyone present,” says location DP Glennon. “Armed with the storyboards, they would walk the set of the day’s work with arms gesturing. They had one command in common: ‘Give me cuts.’ And so we did. By the end of the first week, including ILM coverage, we were doing six and seven camera setups for each shot.”
“There are so many people deciding the setups in advance,” says Hume, “that I tend to stay back and try to make up my own mind on the actual day.”
Lucas, Marquand, and the principals did set the tone and were ongoing subjects of discussion. “George was under a lot of pressure and it was business,” would say Roffman, who arrived Wednesday. “Out of respect, he was letting Richard [do the] directing. I really think he felt that it was the right protocol. But his dismissive attitude was subtle, while distinct. You look at body language, at facial expressions, at the way people clip their words. It’s signals.”
“The Yuma stuff was very technical, fights and stunts,” Bloom would say. “It wasn’t a lot of acting. That’s what George knows how to do. He gets it, he understands it, and all the visual effects stuff was a little bit new to Richard. I got the sense that when Richard would set something up and George was there, he would ask, ‘What do you think?’ He was a collaborative director.”
“Richard would set a lot of the shots up, but George was always there kind of like an advisor for what the characters should do,” Scott Farrar, who was on location to shoot plates, would say. “Truly, Richard was the director, but George was always at his ear to help him.”
“I keep an open mind because movies are made by groups of people not individuals,” Marquand says. “It’s a craft, not really an art.”
“Dad wasn’t an egomaniac at all,” James Marquand would say. “He would just as happily sit and chat with a grip as the executive producer. He also had huge respect for the classically trained actor. As I understand it, maybe some people found it difficult with Anthony Daniels, but I think my dad would have been fantastic working with someone like that.”
While Ford would remember his working relationship with Marquand as enjoyable, Barton would say, “Harrison didn’t take to Richard at all. He didn’t get on with him.”
“Harrison is great, he really is,” says Marquand. “He’s a very professional actor. A man who is now quite a major box-office star. He gets on with it and doesn’t suffer fools gladly. If you don’t know what you’re going to do on the day, he gets a little confused and upset. But he’s terrific as an ally, someone who understands the craft of being a movie actor.”
“It was like Richard was afraid of Harrison or respected Harrison, but he certainly didn’t respect, as far as I could make out, too many other people,” Fisher would say. “But he was great to Harrison, who’s intimidating, you know. He’s a movie star in a way that I’m not, in a way that Mark isn’t—and Richard kowtowed to him. Now, to kowtow to him and treat us badly, Harrison didn’t like that. That was my impression. Maybe I’m wrong.”
Marquand, Lucas, and Tomblin.
BREAK A LEG … AND AN ANKLE … AND ANOTHER LEG …
It was soon apparent that the action shots of creatures plunging into the Sarlacc pit were going to exact more than their fair share of injuries. “The whole damn set was terrifying, a nightmare,” says Marquand. “It was a very frightening set. The first few days it was hilarious to see these hefty macho stunt guys all pussyfooting around with great harnesses on as they carefully hung themselves over the edge of the pit.”
“They jumped into the sand vagina,” Fisher would say, referring to the Sarlacc pit. “The first thing I ever heard anyone say on that set was, ‘Pauline Kael [notorious film critic for The New Yorker] is going to have a blast with that.’ ”
“I was the first guy to jump into the Sarlacc,” says Diamond. “Always lead from the front. Later, as one went in, he’d have to be pulled out before the other one got in and sometimes that was a comedy film unto itself. These are the things the public doesn’t see.”
Two stuntmen had been injured before a single camera had turned over: Colin Skeaping had sprained his ankle, and Frank Henson had a suspected fracture from a practice fall. On Wednesday, stuntmen Julius LeFlore and Paul Weston were injured during a tumble into the pit when their harness cable snapped: Julius received stitches in his finger; Weston broke an ankle. (Weston had his plaster leg cast signed by many of the cast and crew, who added humorous quips such as, “Don’t lose your sense of Yuma!”)
“Everybody had to jump in,” Bloom would say. “All the English stuntmen were so macho—‘Oh, no problem!’—and three of them would jump in and they’d all break their ankles.” “It was incredible, all the stuntmen getting injured,” Roffman confirms. “They just kept carting them away.”
“There was a competition between the British and the American stuntguys,” Hamill would say. “There was a big argument about whether someone could take a leap off the barge into the Sarlacc pit. One person would say he could do it from 20 feet—‘Well, I could do it from 30 feet.’ They got a perfect take, but the British guy broke his leg the very first time and was on a plane back to England within two days.”
“We had stuntmen breaking things daily,” Fisher would say. “I’d come on the set and there would be this kind of silence, which was unusual—and you knew that meant something bad. David Tomblin would be on his walkie-talkie and it would crackle, ‘George, we’re talking about two men—one of them has broken their leg, and the other one sprained it.’ Three stuntmen had gone into the sand genital. Then you’d go back to the motel and these very jovial guys, who’d had much worse happen to them, would be sitting by the pool with casts here and there. They were tough.”
“One morning I heard an explosion—and then these blood-curdling screams, ‘Aaagghhhh!!’ ” Bloom says. “A steam machine had blown up and very badly burned a local special effects
technician, John Chapot, a very nice guy. He just got covered with first and second-degree burns to his chest, body, and legs.”
Even the security team got into the act when John Lemon separated his shoulder after his all-terrain cycle flipped over backward. Within the pit itself, life wasn’t much easier. After one grain of sand fouled up the Sarlacc’s intricate hydraulics system, Kit West and special effects supervisor Roy Arbogast decided to operate the tentacles using poles and wires controlled by six men.
“We were working the creature at the bottom of the gorge and we had no breeze and sand was falling down on us,” says Tippett. “We were covered with this glue from the Sarlacc … I cracked on that one. I cried then, it was so terrible.”
BLUE HARVEST BLUES
The key production group was up at 6 AM Wednesday to watch dailies in the motel’s Apache room, having already viewed dailies well into the previous night: four cameras’ worth, followed by VistaVision coverage, which, Peecher noted, was “enough to exhaust everyone but the very hardcore members.”
On set, the actors had a lot of time off as crews set up elaborate shots. “First I was wired for sound in a shot,” Hamill says. “Then it became a stunt, so the wiretap went. Finally, I wasn’t in it at all.” Gusting winds then caused the sails to split. “Today there have been better weeks,” Lucas wryly notes.
Because Fisher’s slave outfit had been cast in soft materials to fit her proportions, and because she had lost weight, the costume hung off her at times. “There were a lot of jokes on the set about this thing,” Fisher would say. She and her stunt double, Tracy Edon, were very popular among the crew when they sunbathed, “like the Double-Mint Twins.”
On Saturday another injury was reported when Billy Dee Williams was burned. “I was hanging on a rope with Han Solo trying to save me, and one of these squibs went right through my toe,” he would say. “I’m screaming to Han, ‘Stop, stop!’ but he’s too busy acting. I’m in pain and all of a sudden he realizes that I got hurt.”
Word having spread that Blue Harvest was, definitely, Revenge of the Jedi, fans had gathered at the perimeter fence. “It’s a hobby,” says one. “It’s like a party. We all get together.” One reporter remarked that Harrison Ford fans managed to make “a particular nuisance of themselves, often having the unfortunate tendency to squeal whenever they saw their hero.” An article would appear in The San Diego Union about how fans had spotted a Wookiee, saying that Mayhew wore pink underwear beneath his costume.
Hamill and crew prepare for a shot (focus puller Michael Frift measures Hamill’s distance from camera).
Jabba’s barge set, seen from afar. “I was a little surprised when production designer Norman Reynolds reenlarged the sails during set construction, almost to the size I had initially planned,” says McQuarrie. “Norman also made the barge much heavier, more tank-like. When it was built for the film, metal plates were substituted for the cloth walls, with moveable panels similar to the gun ports of a pirate galleon.” (A seamstress in a Sausalito loft crafted 4,000 square feet of 6.8-ounce polyester material with triple stitching, strengthened by nine-ounce corner panels, into the sails for Jabba’s barge.)
According to location manager Louis Friedman, most of the timber from Jabba’s barge would be sold as salvage, probably in Mexico. A very strict contract was also written up between the salvagers and Lucasfilm, stating that it would not be used for any souvenir purposes whatsoever. “We also had an obligation that the land be returned to at least equal condition as it was when we found it,” says Friedman.
Hamill is ensnared in Boba Fett’s rope for a shot on a skiff, as myriad crew work at recording the moment.
Fighting the strong winds, Marquand and Hamill prepare to shoot the latter entwined in Fett’s “lasso.”
Cast and crew at work on the skiffs.
“I said, ‘Let’s charge for tickets! We could make some money here,’ ” says Marquand.
Fans were able to observe Fisher dashing around the set; Anthony Daniels discussed racing on the Isle of Wight with dune buggy enthusiasts; Lucas was reported coming and going; and Gary Kurtz showed up for a visit. Reporters had actually called Hamill’s mother in San Diego to find out the truth and were told that her son was off making Jedi in the desert.
“I was called by a reporter to confirm or deny that I was killed in this one,” says Hamill. “The best thing for the public to believe is that I turn to the dark side or that I die. It’s good to throw people off. So my response was, ‘What is “dying” in the Star Wars galaxy?’ ”
The fans also generated their own rumors, some closer to the truth than others, including: the “death” of R2; that Yoda would be played by a real person because Oz had found someone who looked like him in real life; and that a stunt man had broken his leg falling into a “monster’s” mouth.
Ford relaxes on the plank, with Marquand and Hamill near.
Hamill signs autographs.
Tomblin, with bullhorn, and company prepare to shoot a plank shot.
Fisher is entertained by Hamill.
Still in bikini outfit, Fisher sunbathes side-by-side with her stunt double, Tracy Eddon.
Leia and Luke prepare to swing from the barge.
Lucas and Hamill share a moment.
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On location, Buttercup Valley. (0:59)
To delay the local press, Sid Ganis struck a deal with them: If the Yuma Sun would hold off on publicity until after filming, he would allow their writers to tour the set and would provide photographs for a complete inside story. Reporter Dan Smith thus spent a day on location: “The notion that filmmaking proceeds at a frantic pace is entirely a myth. The predominant atmosphere, at least on the Revenge set, is one of boredom.” Fisher’s standin, local Darla McDaniel, concurred: “It’s exciting sometimes, but I didn’t think it took so long. It’s pretty boring really.”
On Sunday, production took a well-earned break from the tedium, which resulted in cookouts, golfing, and sitting by the pool, where Mayhew sunbathed and crew eased their aches and pains. Throughout their stay Fisher, Ford, and Hamill were seen dining and “gallivanting,” according to the local paper, at restaurants such as Orietta’s or The Stag and Hound, where Fisher danced and Kenny Baker was a common sit-in harmonica player at the bar. Ford was “fairly aloof,” spending time with Mathison. Hamill was the most visible, often working the crowds.
“One of my best memories of Kenny was at the Stardust Motel,” says Daniels. “We were all hanging out in this smoke-filled, stupefying, alcohol-laden sleazy bar—when suddenly the strains of Danny Boy came from a harmonica and there is Kenny creating this little piece of England. That juxtaposition gave me great joy.”
“It was such a different scene from London,” Roffman would say. “Yuma is this little town in the middle of the desert; it’s dusty and you’re staying at this motel and everybody’s there, which made it fun in its own way, but it was definitely rough and tumble.”
“We used to get together in the evenings and relax,” says Marquand. “The best thing was seeing Chewbacca out with Artoo-Detoo, walking across the road. That caused a little disturbance. One night some kids invaded and they were asking Carrie Fisher where Carrie Fisher was. Carrie said, ‘What do you mean? Who is she?’ Oh, she pulled it off wonderfully. She has a terrific English accent. She stopped me as I was walking past with my wife and said, ‘Do you know who Carrie Fisher is?’ And I said, ‘No, why?’ And she said, ‘Well, I don’t know. But these girls here keep asking for Carrie Fisher. Somebody is making a film here—do you know about it?’ We had fun there. It was a good place to work.”
REPORT NOS. 66–71: MONDAY–SATURDAY, APRIL 19–24; EXT. JABBA’S BARGE AND SKIFF #1 & #2, SCS. 33, 35, 39 [HAN SHOOTS TENTACLE], SCS. 26, 29, 33, 35, 28, 36 [LUKE BATTLES ON DECK]; SECOND UNIT: SC. 38 [DROIDS ABANDON SHIP]
Everyone fell back
into the routine of shooting on Monday, including the routine of mishaps. Dan Zormeier, doubling for Chewbacca, was injured when his costume caught fire from another squib. “We had a terrible accident out there, when the bombs are going off and the whole skiff is being blasted,” says Marquand. “Luckily somebody spotted it, because Chewie just burst into flames. Suddenly he was ablaze. Not only that, but the guy who was standing in for Billy Dee—his hair caught on fire!”
Continuity reference Polaroids of rebel troopers.
Two stuntmen who seem to have escaped unscathed were Glen Randall, who performed Boba Fett’s death plunge into the Sarlacc pit, and Dickey Beer, who doubled for Fett in other shots. On a more civilized note, Anthony Daniels rustled up English afternoon tea in real china cups, which was delivered on set to expatriates Marquand, Hume, and script supervisor Pam Mann.
The Making of Star Wars: Return of the Jedi (Enhanced Edition) Page 38