Ever wonder what the brave young men of the United States Navy do to kill the time during those interminable ocean crossings? They make a movie of themselves having a lightsaber duel, of course!
There are thousands of Star Wars fan films out there on the ‘webs, of course, but this is perhaps the only one that was shot on board an active-duty naval warship, the USS Shiloh (serial number CG67, hence the title of the movie and of this blog entry). The film is a little too long and unevenly paced, and the audio is a bit dodgy, but it looks like the guys involved had a blast making it, and it definitely has its charms. Be warned, though, that there is some NSFW sailor-type language in this clip (in other words, they swear, including the dread F-word):
For some reason, I was highly amused to see they have Nutter Butter cookies for sale on board the ship. I don’t know why; guess it just never occurred to me that sailors would have access to the same junk food that I do. I also like how nobody in the mess hall reacts to two lightsaber-wielding engineers clashing their way through the room. Could this be a common occurrence on board the Shiloh?
Anyhow, the source of the video is here; I came to it via Boing Boing, naturally.
The acting is bad, the audio is bad, the dialogue is bad, the camera is bad. But taken as a whole, it’s awesome. I hope I never learn how these lightsaber effects are done; they look so impressive even in these amateur films. I take my hat off to these guys.
Still, I’m pretty sure it violates a bunch of security laws to film inside an active duty naval vessel.
And the Nutter Butters are pretty cool. But did you notice the Chips Ahoy? Now there’s a sense of humor.
I’d imagine these guys would be in a whole world of hurt if this film showed us any security-sensitive areas…