36 years later, Return Of The Jedi's Tatooine and Endor filming locations remain mostly unchanged
Aux Features Star Wars
36 years ago this past May, America saw the release of Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, the third installment of the original Star Wars trilogy and the sixth episode in the ‘Skywalker saga’ of movies. It’s hard to deny the impact of the franchise as a whole, especially since that last movie made so much money. As Disney and various merchandising opportunities love to remind us, we love Star Wars and will likely succumb to the siren song of Disney+ off the strength of The Mandalorian trailer alone.
Then & Now Movie Locations, a fan BlogSpot (yes, a BlogSpot account updated in 2019), recently took a trek to Death Valley National Park and Grizzly Creek Redwoods State Park to uncover some locations from Star Wars: Return of the Jedi. Despite a bulk of of Star Wars iconography being nothing but big rocks, cliffs, deserts, and a few trees, the results of the blog’s trip are still pretty fucking cool, as a lot of photos taken seem to match up almost perfectly compared to their film counterparts.
They snapped a few photos of the desert location R2-D2 and C-3PO wandered before arriving at Jabba’s palace, which is just off 20 Mule Team Road in Death Valley National Park. The cave that the duo were seen in has since been collapsed by park services for safety reasons, and some of the terrain has shifted from traffic and wind, but most of the horizon still remains true to the film’s original footage.
They also grabbed a few shots of the Endor moon speeder bike chase located at Creek Redwoods State Park inside of Grizzly Creek Redwoods State Park. It’s pretty wild that most of the park looks practically unchanged and those fallen tree trunks that lay against each other haven’t moved more than an inch. Aside from some greenery growing alongside the elder trees, the locale still looks distinctly Star Wars.
They also visited a few more desert settings to check out locations from Star Wars: A New Hope earlier this year, and we imagine one of these days they’ll chronicle the Rise Of The Skywalker filming locations, which you can catch a glimpse of in new footage released this morning.
64 Comments
See?!? Climate change is a hoax! I don’t see no skinny polar bears in any of those pictures!
ya cuz sawyer killed it.
The glaciers in Death Valley are exactly the same size in 2019 as they were in 1983!
Wow, I had gone all this time assuming that those landscapes were like 90% matte paintings. Turns out Mother Nature is the most special effect of them all.Also, now I’m in the mood to watch RotJ.
But only with the original Ewok song at the end.
…there are other versions?(A friend gave me some very special Blu-Rays a few years back; they haven’t left the immediate vicinity of my entertainment center since.)
Oh, god. Don’t even start with those questions…..
I’m guessing they’re the “Despecialized Editions?” I remember reading about that project four or five years ago when they finished de-specializing A New Hope. They had a detailed log of how they reconstructed each shot, either removing extraneous CGI or re-inserting matte boxes. It seemed outrageously ambitious, and it invites some really interesting questions about what elements of a movie are “definitive.” Anyway, in college I overspent on the limited-edition DVDs that have the Special Editions on one disc and the Theatrical Versions on another. They’re non-animorphic, Laserdisc-quality transfers, but if anything that makes them feel more authentic (I grew up with tapes of the Star Wars movies my parents made when they played on TV).
Yeah, Despecialized. They look fantastic; they’re just amazing high quality transfers of the films with proper color correction and none of the distracting latter-day “additions.” My friend had the DVD for ANH with the theatrical cut and he loaned it to me just so I could see how bad the transfer was – “It’s like they’re spitting in your face for asking for it in the first place.” I popped it in and was instantly in agreement that it felt like a passive aggressive slight against the fans, and then I wound up watching the entire movie because it’s just that good. I can get down with a bad transfer working in a film’s favor sometimes (It’s why I prefer my original DVD copy of The Warriors to that Blu-Ray version that came out a decade ago that added god-awful “comic book” transitions and a new text scroll intro. Just give me a smash cut to grainy, grimy footage of the Wonder Wheel, thanks.)
I have a love hate relationship with the Warriors, but this reminds me to look for a grimier copy. If you’re bored and can find it, the blog where they break down the “de-specializing” process is really interesting. For some shots they used the Blu Ray transfer and altered it to hide the effects, other times they used the DVD transfer and upscaled it, or overlayed the DVD effects onto HD matte backgrounds from the Blu Ray. It’s really impressive.
Ewoks sang first.
I kinda like the new Ewok song they did. It felt a bit less kiddie of a (then) ending to the whole saga.But that Jabba song, wow.
I’ve been to that redwoods park, and if you go there at the right time (in other words, not on the weekends), it’s ridiculously quiet and peaceful. Stand still, close your eyes, and listen to the giants growing all around you as they sway and creak in the wind. Magical.
Based on your description, I have to ask: Have you ever been to that park….on weed?
Oh, I was very high, yes.
I like to go there, close my eyes, and imagine all the likes my #liveyourbestlife Instagram selfie is gonna rack up. It really makes you realize there truly must be a God.
And that God… that God is Me.
If I went there, I’d be running through the Speederbike course with my camera like a madman.
Haha. Making the noises with your mouth.
Then fart
They couldn’t find the original Pit of Carkoon? Disappointed.
When they were designing that sequence, I hear that instead of drawing concept art, Ralph McQuarrie just submitted a page from Hustler with teeth drawn on it.
I’ll allow it.
I had no idea they filmed in Death Valley. I thought all the Tattoine stuff was filmed in Tunisia. Been on 20 Mule Team Road many times over the years to go four wheeling.
I want to say A New Hope was filmed in Tunisia, with all the Moisture Farm stuff, cause it’s still there.
I think the sets that are still in the Tunisian desert are rebuilt Tatooine sets from Phantom Menace
The Hotel Sidi Driss (the Lars homstead “pit”) was used for ANH and then spruced back up for AOTC. But it was the same place.
I remember Ewan McGregor visiting that site on Long Way Down.
I just watched the clip and apparently he visits the Sidi Driss, which was the Lars homestead for ANH and AOTC. (He never filmed there personally.)
You’re right, there are standing sets from Phantom Menace that are still just wasting away in the desert.
A New Hope wasn’t filmed anywhere, since that’s not the title of the film released in 1977. Star Wars was made in Tunisia, though.
Holy angry pedant, Batman.
I don’t know that I’m angry about it, and I’m not being pedantic. I’m just insisting on the validity of a reality that I lived through and experienced, which is that the title of the film released in 1977 is Star Wars.
I believe Tattoine was filmed in Tunisia for A New Hope/Phantom Menace, but Jedi stayed closer to home. Personally I think there is alot of laziness involved with the filming of Jedi and picking locations so close to Skywalker ranch help contribute to it.
Most of the Tattooine stuff in a New Hope was filmed in Tunisia, but they did some pick up shots in Death Valley (there’s probably a breakdown online). I’m guessing they didn’t bother since with Return of the Jedi since they didn’t need to build large sets. And Death Valley is way easier to get to.
I remember reading a biography of George Lucas and the author basically said that between his crumbling marriage and all of the unpleasant locations they used in the first two movies Lucas was so burned out that he specifically planned for the whole thing to be filmed in California.
To be fair to him, You don’t have to go far to find a big sprawling desert near California.
It also explains his need to re-edit the originals, possibly to undo whatever Marcia did (she really saved the first one in editing). And by the time of the prequels he decided he could film most of this in front of a comfortable studio green screen.
So he found comfortable green screens in Italy, Tunisia, England, Spain, Australia, New South Wales, China, Thailand, and Switzerland.
Perhaps he subscribes to the Adam Sandler school of filming in fun locations as a thinly veiled excuse to also vacation.
Parts of Star Wars (you know, the one in 1977) were also filmed in Death Valley. And the sail barge battle in Jedi was filmed in Yuma, AZ.
“…and here we see the sprawling lake country of Naboo…”
Is that where Hayden Christensen and Natalie Portman rolled down the hill like a couple of lustless, soporific lovers?
Well played sir.
…and here we have the majestic planet-sized city of Couruscant:
Funny joke in concept, but your choice of Naboo was poor, since most of that was actually filmed in real places.
I assume that your glasses were being adjusted properly as you were making that comment.
Why?
The “Well, actually,” is strong in this one.
Sure, sure. Or you could just not be wrong next time. I tried to give you at least partial credit, though, so sue me.
sue this man!
lol!
That’s no “Well, actually…”
A blogspot.com update? I must go directly to my Livejournal and post my feelings about it forthwith.
Don’t forget to link it on your MySpace.
I was going to share on friendster
You hipsters and your social media. I’ll be over here on my Geocities-hosted web page.
Wait a minute, is the Cave Scene in the Special Edition version of Return of the Jedi or only in the original and cut for the Special Edition? I have vague recollection of the Millenium Falcoln and X-Wing shot when C3PO and R2 leave the cave. I feel like I’ve seen that movie 1000 times and really don’t remember that at all.
Redwoods are full of tannins, so they don’t rot very fast.
“Haven’t changed”??? Did the Parks Service also collapse Jabba’s palace, because WTF?
Actually, the “last movie in the franchise as a whole” was Solo and that one didn’t “make so much money.”
“yes, a BlogSpot account updated in 2019″…:(
I did something like this for Twin Peaks. Way fun.
Yes, that is pretty cool.