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The Wookiee Living Room |
It is impossible to measure the length of this scene using any form of standard time measurement It could be said that the length of this scene is five minutes. Why not say that the scene lasted three weeks? It doesn't matter either way because any unit of time measurement you use would have no meaning to someone who hadn't seen the Star Wars Holiday Special. Normally amateur filmmakers will put filler scenes such as this into the middle of a movie to lengthen it. The makers of this special opted to stick it right at the beginning.
The scene features Chewbacca's son, Lumpy, running around with a toy ship like an idiot; Chewbacca's father, Itchy, fiddling with something at the couch and being a big grump; and Malla, Chewbacca's wife, in the kitchen, coming out occasionally to yell at Lumpy. It becomes quite obvious after thirty seconds of this why Chewbacca spends most of his time out with Han risking his life.
I have only managed to make it through this scene without the aid of the fast forward button on one occasion. On that day I was helped through the process by several close friends. After forty-five seconds of Wookiee grunting and groaning, any right thinking person would be forced to reach for the remote. Most newcomers to the special are astounded with how long the scene goes on, even in fast forward.
It is worthy of note that this entire scene contains no English dialogue at all. It is a meaningless interaction between Chewbacca's family that is not even explained through simple narration or subtitles.
This scene is a testament to why even 4-year-old children in 1978 hated the Star Wars Holiday Special.
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