'Return of the Jedi' - 30 years ago already!

Tomorrow, Saturday, marks 30 years since the release of the last film in the original Star Wars trilogy, 'Return Of The Jedi'.  I can hardly believe it was that long ago.  1983 was a much simpler, yet also much more difficult time of my life, in the midst of prolonged civil unrest, military counter-insurgency operations (that would eventually escalate, a few years later, into a full-blown conventional campaign), and a host of other memories.  One of them was the tragic loss of my fiancée, only a few weeks after we'd watched this movie together.

Wired has produced a fun article titled 30 Things You Didn’t Know About 'Return of the Jedi'.  It includes gems such as these:

• The Ewoks occasionally speak Tagalog, although most of their dialogue is loosely inspired by Kalmuck, a language spoken in Mongolia. One of the Ewok songs once was believed to be in Swedish — with the lyrics translating, wonderfully, as “It smells of cereal in here” — but that, sadly, was based upon people mishearing the gibberish the oversized rodents were singing.
• Carrie Fisher’s infamous “slave girl” outfit was, reportedly, a stylistic response to her alleged complaints that the outfits she wore in the first two Star Wars movies made disguised the fact the she was a woman.
• An early version of the movie was to end with Luke walking off alone, leaving his friends behind in true gunfighter/Samurai fashion. That idea was dropped in favor of a happier ending, reportedly because Lucas feared a downbeat ending would throw a wrench in the printing press from which truckloads of merchandising money flowed.

There's much more at the link.  Entertaining reading.

Thirty years ago . . . dang, I suddenly feel old!

Peter