Monday, February 27, 2006

Imperial Idiot

EXPERIMENT #41
"IMPERIAL IDIOT"


FILM

The Empire Strikes Back (1995 "Faces" VHS).

ALBUM

American Idiot by Green Day, the multi-platinum Grammy-winning punk rock opera that also synchs up with the original Star Wars in numerous significant ways (click here to see how).

As usual, I started this sucker right after the second drumroll in the 20th Century Fox fanfare.

SYNCHS

- The line "welcome to a new kind of tension, all across the alienation" in "American Idiot" is heard as the Star Wars logo is fading away. I heard it as "welcome to a new kind of tension, all across the alien nation," which makes slightly more sense.

- The drum breakdown toward the end of "American Idiot" coincides with the film cutting to the underside of the Star Destroyer. A few seconds later, the music cuts out exactly when the film cuts to the shot of the probot shooting towards Hoth (as Billie Joe sings, "Calling out to Idiot America."). Not terribly significant, but cool to see.

- The line "so it seems to confess it didn't say much" is heard in "City of the Damned" at the same time Han Solo tries to say goodbye to Princess Leia with getting "all mushy" (when he starts to bid Leia farewell, Han seems he is about to confess something, but then he doesn't say much).

- The line "signs misleading to nowhere" in "City of the Damned" is heard as Han and Leia argue in the corridor over how Leia has possibly mislead Han to believe she is in love with him.

- The Wampa dies as the line "to die in tragedy" is heard in "Tales of Another Broken Home."

- Luke is seen running out of the Wampa's cave as the line "to run, to run away" is heard in "Tales of Another Broken Home."

- The line "this is the dawning of the rest of our lives" in "Holiday" is heard seconds before Obi-Wan's first ghostly appearance (actually at the point where we hear Obi calling to Luke but do not see him).

- Han appears out of nowhere to rescue Luke as the line "can I get another amen?" is heard in "Holiday."

- "Are We The Waiting" plays during the scenes we see the Rebels preparing/waiting for the pending Imperial attack.

- At one point, we see Luke conversing with his co-pilot Dak, who says he feels like he could take on the whole Empire himself. During this exchange, the line "welcome to the club and give me some blood" is heard in "St. Jimmy."

- The line "his life on the line with anxiety now" is heard in "East 12th St." as Luke is nervously looking around his Dagobah camp site.

- The camera is on R2-D2, who is covered in all sorts of disgusting crap from being on Dagobah, when we hear the line "somebody get me out of here" in "East 12th St."

- That part of "Whatsername" where it gets real quiet and then real noisy coincides with Yoda dropping the goofball act and Luke realizing that this little green annoyance is the Jedi master he's been seeking.

- "Whatsername" fades out as Yoda tells Luke he will be afraid (concerning the Jedi training).

NOTES

I think there are a couple ways you could interpret that whole Dak/"Welcome to the club and give me some blood" thing. Since this is Dak's first appearance in the Star Wars trilogy, we can assume he's a new recruit. Therefore, he's "welcome to the club." Based on his gung-ho dialogue, I think it's safe to say his mantra is "give me some blood." Unfortunately for poor Dak, his quest for Imperial blood was short-lived; he bites it less than five minutes after we are introduced to him.

Another way to look at it could be that "welcome to the club" applies to Luke, who is on the left side of the screen during the conversation, and the "give me some blood" part applies to Dak, who is on the right. Like, "here's two guys: welcome to the club and give me some blood." Although we don't know for sure that Dak is a more seasoned pilot than Luke, we do know that Luke is pretty green. The only previous combat experience he has is the assault on the Death Star (where, by all accounts, he got very lucky and blew the damn thing up). He didn't even go to the Academy!

As for the experiment on the whole, I'd categorize it as "pretty neat." Not gangbusters, not a complete washout. That's all I can really ask for.

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