The Star Wars Minute
September 23, 2013 11:13 AM Subscribe
The Star Wars Minute is a podcast in which each episode subjects a single minute of Star Wars to Seinfeldian levels of analysis, with commentary, childhood reminiscences, underlining of in-universe questions raised, and geekery in the extreme. Hosted by Pete the Retailer from NerdGeekDork and Alex Robinson of the Ink Panthers podcast, the Star Wars Minute runs Monday to Friday, and has so far addressed such issues as stormtroopers' dubious search methods, who the actual antagonist of the movie might be, and a Simpsons cast member's little-known role in Star Wars.
At this writing they have reached minute 81, the trash compactor. The hosts have dropped hints that once the initial movie is complete, they will move on to Empire. Jedi may have a bit too much nyub nyub for them, and don't mention the prequels to Pete.
At this writing they have reached minute 81, the trash compactor. The hosts have dropped hints that once the initial movie is complete, they will move on to Empire. Jedi may have a bit too much nyub nyub for them, and don't mention the prequels to Pete.
I heard about this on Doug Loves Movies but forgot to check it out. Possible candidate for most awkward minute: The death of the ewok in Jedi.
posted by Big_B at 11:21 AM on September 23, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by Big_B at 11:21 AM on September 23, 2013 [1 favorite]
I'm sure that individual Bible verses have been subject to the same amount and level of analysis and scrutiny, but that's not an excuse.
posted by Halloween Jack at 12:12 PM on September 23, 2013 [4 favorites]
posted by Halloween Jack at 12:12 PM on September 23, 2013 [4 favorites]
I never knew I wanted this, but OH do I want this.
posted by Wulfhere at 1:32 PM on September 23, 2013 [4 favorites]
posted by Wulfhere at 1:32 PM on September 23, 2013 [4 favorites]
When they picked someone to clone to make all the stormtroopers, you'd think they could have chosen someone who was smarter, and a better shot.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 3:02 PM on September 23, 2013
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 3:02 PM on September 23, 2013
I was actually really intruiged by the concept when I heard it - there's great potential there for figuring out just what makes the movie tick and how its so classic and so long lived; breaking down pacing, structure, shot composition, visual, storytelling, and dialog inspirations, production design etc, etc. But no, just another podcast of some friends making jokes and going off on pop culture tangents. A shame.
posted by gregoryg at 5:10 PM on September 23, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by gregoryg at 5:10 PM on September 23, 2013 [1 favorite]
Not a Star Wars fan, but as a long-time Panther listener, it's sort of like bonus episodes; best Minutes to me are the ones with Panther cartoonists Tony Consiglio & Mike Dawson.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 8:50 PM on September 23, 2013
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 8:50 PM on September 23, 2013
When they picked someone to clone to make all the stormtroopers, you'd think they could have chosen someone who was smarter, and a better shot.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 3:02 PM on September 23 [+] [!]
Unsurprisingly, this is covered in the Extended Universe. After the clone wars it was decided that the cloning process took too long, so they used a faster process which resulted in stormtroopers that came out a little half baked.
posted by Hello, I'm David McGahan at 10:55 PM on September 23, 2013
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 3:02 PM on September 23 [+] [!]
Unsurprisingly, this is covered in the Extended Universe. After the clone wars it was decided that the cloning process took too long, so they used a faster process which resulted in stormtroopers that came out a little half baked.
posted by Hello, I'm David McGahan at 10:55 PM on September 23, 2013
Actually the thing that came up that struck me recently, given that Leia's first words to Luke are, "Aren't you a little short for a stormtrooper?"is that Mark Hamill is 5'9" while Temuera Morrison (Jango Fett, the archetype for all the clone troopers and stormtroopers) is all of 5'7". "Aren't you unusually tall for a stormtrooper?"
posted by ricochet biscuit at 6:11 AM on September 24, 2013
posted by ricochet biscuit at 6:11 AM on September 24, 2013
I was actually really intruiged by the concept when I heard it - there's great potential there for figuring out just what makes the movie tick and how its so classic and so long lived; breaking down pacing, structure, shot composition, visual, storytelling, and dialog inspirations, production design etc, etc. But no, just another podcast of some friends making jokes and going off on pop culture tangents. A shame.
gregoryg, I totally get your disappointmeh* with this, but there are many fine film analysis sites and podcasts that cover much that ground. Star Wars occupies a weird cultural niche where an entire generation of people has each seen it dozens of times and the movie is possibly alone in being able to be presented in this fashion ("Okay, today we examine minute 51, which starts with ________ and ends with ________,") and have a sufficiently large audience still be familiar enough with the minutiae to appreciate the jokes and tangents, etc. Off the top of my head, maybe The Big Lebowski might stand up to this treatment, but even that has a tiny fraction of the fandom.
*Actually a typo, but a pleasing one so I kept it.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 12:28 PM on September 24, 2013
gregoryg, I totally get your disappointmeh* with this, but there are many fine film analysis sites and podcasts that cover much that ground. Star Wars occupies a weird cultural niche where an entire generation of people has each seen it dozens of times and the movie is possibly alone in being able to be presented in this fashion ("Okay, today we examine minute 51, which starts with ________ and ends with ________,") and have a sufficiently large audience still be familiar enough with the minutiae to appreciate the jokes and tangents, etc. Off the top of my head, maybe The Big Lebowski might stand up to this treatment, but even that has a tiny fraction of the fandom.
*Actually a typo, but a pleasing one so I kept it.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 12:28 PM on September 24, 2013
So, the one guy was driving me nuts with his whole Princess LEE-AH thing and I was going to quit listening because if it, but he also has a roBUTTS thing so now I just assume he has a speech impediment and I can forgive.
posted by sparklemotion at 1:32 PM on September 25, 2013
posted by sparklemotion at 1:32 PM on September 25, 2013
They actually covered that at some point, as well as whether 'Han' and 'Falcon' have a short or long A. As I say, the analysis is exhaustive.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 5:58 AM on September 27, 2013
posted by ricochet biscuit at 5:58 AM on September 27, 2013
Just made it up to the Doug Benson episodes, and wow, does he stop things cold (And all of a sudden, Pete the Retailer's gone all potty-mouth). Is Benson's podcast as draggy as he makes SWM?
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 8:56 PM on September 30, 2013
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 8:56 PM on September 30, 2013
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posted by ricochet biscuit at 11:15 AM on September 23, 2013