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As the final Star Wars flick bursts onto movie screens like 10,000 supernovas, I remind us all that you can't spell Sith without s, h, i, and t. And I ask "the question that catches in our collective throats more fully than one of Chewbacca's hairballs: Why the hell do we still care about Luke, Leia, Han Solo, Anakin, Obi Wan, and the guy played by Jimmy Smits?"
|5.19.05 @ 4:36PM|#
it's a given that if Star Wars didn't start to go downhill
sometime during the "Cantina Band" sequence in the very first
flick
Objection! That is one of the most gripping sequences ever recorded
on celluloid.
ed|5.19.05 @ 4:54PM|#
Nick, your essay rather mirrors the whole sad epic: starts out with a bang and evolves into tedium. Sorry.
|5.19.05 @ 4:54PM|#
"And I ask "the question that catches in our collective
throats more fully than one of Chewbacca's hairballs: Why the hell
do we still care about Luke, Leia, Han Solo, Anakin, Obi Wan, and
the guy played by Jimmy Smits?"
Dogfights in space, laser gun battles with Wookies, light
sabers--when the first one came out, I was seven years old, and I
had no idea that anything could be that cool.
...Like a bunch of heroin addicts, I suspect we're chasin' that
first high.
|5.19.05 @ 4:55PM|#
Geez, Slate has already done three or four articles on this vitally important subject. I can't believe Reason is only just now getting around to their first.
|5.19.05 @ 4:56PM|#
"Objection! That is one of the most gripping sequences ever
recorded on celluloid."
I second.
The dance of the Ewoks hurt the franchise. Watch the prequels all
you want; in the back of your mind, you know it all ends with the
Dance of the Ewoks.
|5.19.05 @ 4:56PM|#
...Like a bunch of heroin addicts, I suspect we're chasin'
that first high.
A-MEN Ken!
|5.19.05 @ 4:57PM|#
I don't see an answer from Lee yet, but I was a midnight viewer
(costume free, got to the theatre at 10:30) who also thought the
move was awesome. The end of Jedi sucked (abandon your mission for
the emperor to chase some teddy bears?). Phantom Menace was a
menace, except for the pod race. Attack of the Clones was crippled
by wooden performances, but the sequence with Obi Wan and cloners
was good and the last sequences were very entertaining.
This movie wasn't perfect, but the action was heated, the acting
very good (Portman is a great actress and for the first time in
this series you get to see some of it) and the conclusion to the
story arc is very solid with lots of little clues that tie all six
movies together.
I'd like to see it again before giving a final judgment, but it's
probably going to be right up there with Empire.
|5.19.05 @ 5:13PM|#
I agree with Ken - spaceships, cool monsters, and
lightsabers.
Also, I care about Leia because she is pretty much the only hot
woman in the trilogy and became a part of my fantasies because of
that.
Although, I suppose some people might go for that dancing
tentacle-headed woman, Aunt Berue, or Sy Snootles*. The mighty
sarlacc could be considered titillating to the S&M crowd.
* Sy Snootles is the singer for the musical trio at Jabba's pad. I
know she was female because the card that came with the playset I
got for my birthday said so. Man, that was a lame playset.
|5.19.05 @ 5:17PM|#
The comic books were way better, and the Dark Lords of the Sith, Tales of the Jedi comics were far more engrossing and I didn't feel cheated of my money by the end of the books.
|5.19.05 @ 5:20PM|#
I've been getting a kick out of the people who are seeing the film as an anti-Bush message. Which, of course, means that George Lucas hates America.
|5.19.05 @ 5:31PM|#
I always viewed my experience with the original trilogy as being
similar to that of Wedge Antilles -- damn lucky to have survived
all three.
But I have to admit, I do want to see this movie. I'm a
special-effects whore.
|5.19.05 @ 5:39PM|#
by the time the Peter Jackson movies hit American screens,
it was difficult not to read the story as an oblique commentary
about post-9/11 and the need to stare down evil.
As long as one didn't realize that it was filmed almost entirely
before 9/11.
|5.19.05 @ 6:03PM|#
People aren't just "seeing it as an anti-bush message", I'm
pretty sure Lucas explicity said he intended to make those
allusions (such as the emperor saying "You're either with us or
against us"). So i guess if Bush is the Emperor, that makes Bin
Laden Yoda and Saddam Luke Skywalker? And the World Trade
Center....well that must be the Death Star.
He can say whatever he wants, free speech and all that, but fuck
him for making his allegory about how dangerous Bush is instead of
terrorists who intentionally blow up school kids.
By the way , the movie was great. 100 times better than the
previous two shit fests.
|5.19.05 @ 6:14PM|#
Actually, it was Anakin who said "You're either with me, or you're my enemy." Thus, if we're going to assign characters who were initially created 20+ years ago to modern politicians, that would presumably make Palpatine symbolic of Karl Rove.
|5.19.05 @ 6:35PM|#
yes, yes, we know - star wars ruined films because rather than
emphasizing the auteurs who made intense, dark films about Things
That Mattered, Star Wars simply entertained.
yes, yes, we know - none of the movies that came after the first we
ever as good.
call me when you stop recycling material with the frequency that
Camino recycles Jango Fett.
|5.19.05 @ 6:59PM|#
Recently at my local coffeehouse a reformed (12 step) crackhead
told me that the Star Wars epic has all the elements of classical
myth.
Beats me. To me the whole thing comes off like The Muppet
Show with better special effects.
|5.19.05 @ 7:04PM|#
Dumbfish, I daresay that Natalie Portman is more of a babe than
Carrie Fisher. Even after renormalizing their ages.
I'm actually mildly excited about the new film. Episode I was poor
and Episode II was so-so, but this one should be okay given that
we're getting to the payoff for the two-film build up (e.g., Anakin
goes bad) and that we're approaching the time and setting of the
best Star Wars movie. Yes, that would be the one called
merely Star Wars when I watched it as a kid in 1977.
In related news, will Bea Arthur be in the impending Star
Wars TV series?
|5.19.05 @ 7:10PM|#
Dave,
The Emperor's machinations were hinted at in Ep 1 which began
principal photography during the Clinton Administration. The were
expanded on in ep2 (in as much as anything in the series can be
said to have been explored in depth).
The theme of using an a permanent war to keep "emergency" powers
dates back to at least Orwell, probably much further.
What makes me giggle is the the idea that both the Pro-Bush camp
and the Bush haters are seing the same allegory and reacting in the
expected ways. For some people, there has to be a secret political
message in EVERYTHING.
|5.19.05 @ 7:51PM|#
Didnt anakin chime off something like "your either with us, or
against us"
Isn't that one of the things people chide bush about?
|5.19.05 @ 8:13PM|#
Pro Libertate,
I was talking about the original trilogy, since that is the source
of all the nostalgia. Keira Knightley was in Episode 1, and she's
as easy on the eyes as Portman.
Do people here really believe that Star Wars is popular because of
it's political undertones? Like Ken said, it's all about cool
looking laser blasters, AT-ATs, and that asteroid worm.
Or maybe I'm wrong. Maybe The Matrix was popular because it
spoke to a number of concerns about the plasticity of identity
and reality that were in the air during the late days of the tech
boom.
|5.19.05 @ 8:27PM|#
dumbfish - Knightley and Portman look like twins. I didn't know who Knightley was until I saw that movie King Arthur. I thought it was Portman until the credits.
|5.19.05 @ 8:32PM|#
I'm afraid that time and Lucas's fiddling have dimmed my love
for this saga, but I remember when I went to see the re-released "A
New Hope" in 1997. There was a kid sitting in front of me who
pumped his little fists in the air when Luke and Han took down the
last TIE fighter while escaping the Death Star. It brought a smile
to my jaded face.
Let's face it, you've got to be 7 years old to really love these
movies; the rest of us are just wallowing in nostalgia.
|5.19.05 @ 8:54PM|#
I used to think I was a cynical prick until I started to read
Nick's columns. Is there nothing you love and have a passion for?
Can anything leap over the wall of cynicism you have built around
your written/online persona?
Its interesting the two critics of the Star Wars series you quote
are from New York publications. The east coast has started to
slowly lull you into its elitist folds. Move back to Ohio and stop
giving a fuck what the village voice or New York Observer has to
say about anything. Critics who actually enjoy and obsess and take
movies seriously have given the last film great reviews -- check
out aint-it-cool.com as just one place to start to read a review
from someone with an empathetic bone in their body.
The shit really gets thick when you start quoting Michael Valdez
Moses --
"In divine fashion we would redesign the entire cosmos according to
our individual whims and throw off the chains of all external
authority. We wish at once to be free and to be a god to others. We
would return to an idyllic past and progress forward to an
unbounded future."
ivorytower hogwash.
I'm not a huge fan of Star Wars or LOTR and have never seen or read
the Harry Potter series, though I'll probably see the film this
weekend. I just found the article to be one of the most cynical
self indulgent elitist pices of crap I've read since like a couple
hours ago when I ventured to the Huffington blog for about 2
seconds...
|5.19.05 @ 9:17PM|#
also, most of the views of ROTS are positive:
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/star_wars_3/
136 postive to 28 negative or 83% good. So there are just factual
errors in the piece:
"And even littler doubt that no film event has been more reviled.
While some critics, such as the Ebert & Roper team, have given
Sith a thumbs-up blessing, at least as many, especially among those
with pretensions that go beyond writing the script for Beneath the
Valley of the Ultra Vixens, have smacked the new movie with a Death
Star rating."
|5.19.05 @ 10:23PM|#
LowDog,
I agree. In my post I was about to mention that Knightley=Portman.
Knightley was cast(casted?) to be Portman's decoy, so that makes
sense. I still prefer Leia in her gold bikini to either of them,
which is due to the same nostalgia that makes these movies
popular.
Darth4DoorNova,
You have to be 7 - or a kid anyway - to love the movies originally,
but once you love them, they stick with you. It says something
about how well they did with the special effects of that movie in
1977, that a kid today can would still get fired-up about a part of
the movie that fired me up as a kid.
Spur,
The tone of the column bothered me too. Sometimes I get the feeling
that the writers here, and often the posters, just reflexively
trash music/movies/authors that are popular. Some kind of disdain
for the masses.
Of course, I might just be defensively reacting as a Star Wars
geek.
|5.19.05 @ 10:34PM|#
There's probably something to that, as it's easierto be different by knocking what others enjoy. I didn't get that impression from Nick's article though.
Jim Walsh|5.19.05 @ 10:45PM|#
There was a time when it would have been a big deal. No, I take
that back: there was never a time when catching the latest
George Lucas space opera was even on my top-ten list of priorities
(In my view the best Lucas flick ever was American
Graffiti). I did see the first three Star Wars
installments and liked The Empire Strikes Back the best;
it was certainly the darkest, the least pandering to the popcorn
set, and the one that did the best job of tying in all the Joe
Campbell mythological influences.
I'll see the new one when it comes out on DVD - maybe. In the
meantime, one quick anecdote:
Spring, 1978 - I was in line to see the first Star Wars
(yeah, it took me a year to get around to seeing it; I've always
been a world-class procrastinator). A rather frail-looking youth a
few steps ahead of me in line turned to the guy next to him with a
major compost-eating grin on his face.
"This," he said, "is the seventeenth time I've seen this
movie."
"This," the other guy said, "is my girlfriend."
Touche...
|5.20.05 @ 12:08AM|#
"Sometimes I get the feeling that the writers here, and
often the posters, just reflexively trash music/movies/authors that
are popular. Some kind of disdain for the masses."
Have you met the masses?
...I sometimes feel like that guy in Dazed and
Confused:
"You know how for like the last year or so I've been talking
about going to law school so I can become a ACLU lawyer to be in a
position to help people getting fucked over and all that? Well I'm
standing in line at the post office yesterday you know, and I'm
looking around and everybody's looking really pathetic you know
what I mean. Like people have just got drool sticking there, and
like this guy's bending over and you can see the crack of his... It
was all just like wife beaters, it was.. Anyway. I realise that I
just don't want to do it. You know what I mean it sounds good and
all but I just have to confront the fact that I really don't like
the people I've been talking about helping out. You know what I'm
saying. I don't like people period. I mean you guys are okay. I
don't know. I'm just trying to be honest about being a
misanthrope."
I'm yet to stand in line for the new Star Wars film, but I've felt
like that standing in line for other movies. ...Haven't you?
|5.20.05 @ 1:41AM|#
I've always grokked what Lucas was up to. When I was a
7-year-old, I was sitting in front of our black-&-white TV
every afternoon, patiently waiting through Chuck McCann's kiddie
show, enjoying the cartoons and the Paul Ashley puppets, for
the daily installment of one of the old Universal or Republic
chapterplays. Flash Gordon (all 3 of them!), Buck
Rogers, The Phantom Empire, The Purple Monster
Strikes, and others. I know I caught The Masked
Marvel and Spy Smasher on the Saturday Million
Dollar Movie on New York's Channel 9, WOR, and the Rocketman
serials were played often, too. By the time Batman aired
on ABC in 1966, I was fully familiar with the cliffhanger schtick
the show employed, which was straight out of the serials.
After seeing a Buck or Flash serial through the
slightly older eyes of a jaded 12-year-old who had viewed
2001, the obvious brainstorm presented itself: What if you
could make feature versions of the old comic strip or comic book
heroes using modern cinema technology and with a full budget? That
cool idea was behind the first SW flick, from the opening
crawl, and as someone who had been infected with the serial-meme as
a second-generation fan, I watched with almost as much nostalgia as
Forry Ackerman. Ironic detachment only set in later.
Lucas' original pipedream, to make nine full-length chapters, was
always unrealistic. He probably should have abandoned it short of
the dancing forest midgets, though.
Kevin
|5.20.05 @ 2:25AM|#
David-
Believe me, I would have loved to keep any sort of "this character
is supposed to be talking like (real life politician)" discussions
out of this. You seem to be saying that people are reading this
into the movie though, when I'm talking about what the
creator/writer/director/producer of the movie just said about it
the other day. The guy who made the whole thing up says he was
trying to make that connection, which i think is really a shame.
Aside from the fact that I don't agree with the political point he
was making, the power of a movie like Star Wars is that it's themes
are general enough that we each give it our own meaning (the same
goes for great songs). Get more specific, and it becomes a much
smaller thing.
|5.20.05 @ 8:33AM|#
Dave,
Everything I've read says that Lucas denies any political
references in that quote.
And Bush is not the first, or even the most famous person to make
that statement. Jesus himself said it in Matthew 12:30, which is
probably where both he and Lucas got it from.
|5.20.05 @ 9:12AM|#
Ken,
Yeah, the masses is asses and all that. Maybe "disdain for the
masses" wasn't what I meant, since I have some of that myself. The
attitude I dislike is more along the lines of what David says,
someone knocking down things that are popular so that they feel
unique.
I don't remember that quote from Dazed and Confused. Which
character says that? The entire thing is amazingly similar to what
a friend of mine told me. While nearing completion for a master's
degree in Social Work, he was working at a Chevron Station. After
dealing with customers - a nice chunk of which were repeatedly
buying cheap 40's of Shlitz with handfuls of change - he realized
that he really didn't like, and mostly detested dealing with
people.
|5.20.05 @ 10:34AM|#
Bunch of Jedi grimacing in front of urinals? I think it would be just as uncomfortable as seeing someone vomit in a movie.
Warren|5.20.05 @ 10:49AM|#
Nick,
That is THE biggest piece of balderdash I have ever seen from the
pages of Reason. That you of all people should engage in dissing
pop culture with such elitist vapidness is incomprehensible.
Spur,
You nailed it dead on.
To suggest that there is wide-spread agreement that Star Wars, is
now or has ever been, less than acclaimed, is to confess to a level
of isolation from the American people more disconnected than "I
don't know anyone who voted for Nixon". Check it out, Every Last
One of the SW films gets a 'fresh' rating on the
tomato meter . Even the supposedly universally panned Return Of
The Jedi gets 80% positive reviews.
Couple this article with the "Live Free and Die of Boredom" tripe
from the Feb. issue and it would seem that Nick is becoming the
exact sort of elitist snob that he supposedly loathes.
Nick Gillespie|5.20.05 @ 11:22AM|#
Well, since I've been called out by at least a couple of you,
let me respond briefly. Pace Spur (and Warren, I guess), I don't
think my piece is "cynical" or "elitist" (it may well be
"self-indulgent" and "crap," but those are more judgement calls
than the others).
The starting point of the piece--and the ending point, too--is that
"we" (that is, most of America, including myself, apart from
certain critics who tend to deride mass successes no matter what)
still do care about the Star Wars characters because we use them
both to enjoy ourselves and to talk about any number of issues
relevant to our culture. That's a defense of the series, fellas,
not an attack (the same goes for Moses' essay, from which I
quote).
At the same time, I don't see anything wrong with
acknowledging--indeed, having fun with--what virtually everyone I
know who follows the series concedes about Star Wars: that the
movies have generally gotten worse and worse, pretty much from the
get-go.
|5.20.05 @ 11:26AM|#
No one I know voted for Rutherford B. Hayes. So how did he become president?!?!
|5.20.05 @ 12:28PM|#
Saw the movie yesterday. I enjoyed it for what it was a pretty
good Sci-Fi movie. Of course its not as cool now as the old ones
were when I was a kid but I enjoyed it and thats all that matters.
I don't see what all the fuss is about its just a movie if people
want to get dressed up and enjoy themselves while seeing a movie
let it be guys.
After all being free to do what you want is what this site is
supposed to be about anyway...
Warren|5.20.05 @ 12:49PM|#
Nick,
Yeah, nice try but No Sale. You were not "having fun with--what
virtually everyone I know who [voted for McGovern?]
follows the series concedes about Star Wars: that the movies have
generally gotten worse and worse, pretty much from the get-go."
Your central thesis rested upon the bogus claim that the Star Wars
films are bad films. To wit:
"�generally acknowledged mediocrity�"
" Indeed, it's a given that � the series actively started to suck
wind� "
" �Return of the Jedi, a film so bad that it may well be the space
opera equivalent of The Day The Clown Cried."
You then proceed to follow these baseless accusations with the
demonstrably and egregiously false claim that:
" While some critics, such as the Ebert & Roper team, have
given Sith a thumbs-up blessing, at least as many, especially among
those with pretensions that go beyond writing the script for
Beneath the Valley of the Ultra Vixens, have smacked the new movie
with a Death Star rating."
Shame on you for you blatant ELITISM. And double shame on failing
to cop to it and attempting to backpedal.
|5.20.05 @ 12:57PM|#
I don't think you can call Gillespie and "elitist"; he often
comes down from the mountain to answer our questions
directly.
...I probably wouldn't do that.
|5.20.05 @ 1:52PM|#
Ummm Warren, not to belabor the issue but Phantom Menace and Clones are generally reviewed as mediocre films. Not that Nick has proof for his assertions either. I just think the truth of Star Wars critical reception lies somewhere in the "Empire rocked, the prequels have good SFX but aweful dialog" middle. I mean, for fucks sake, lines like "I don't like sand. It's coarse and rough and irritating and it gets everywhere. Not like here. Here everything is soft and smooth." are impossible to defend.
Nick Gillespie|5.20.05 @ 2:00PM|#
Warren,
I'm not backtracking from anything. I've yet to meet a Star Wars
fan (at least one who is over 10) who likes Return of the Jedi or,
same thing, considers it the best of the bunch. Similarly, I don't
know that I know any fans--fans, mind you--who would argue that the
series has gotten better over time.
And my main point was: None of that--or this back and
forth--matters when it comes evaluating the social significance of
the franchise.
|5.20.05 @ 2:12PM|#
David-
From the NY Times:
All of which calls into question Mr. Lucas's decision to have the
premiere of the "Star Wars" finale at the Cannes Film Festival.
France is sometimes called the biggest blue state of all, after
all. And just what was Mr. Lucas - who could not be reached for
comment Wednesday - thinking when he told a Cannes audience that he
had not realized in plotting the film years ago that fact might so
closely track his fiction?
Alluding to Michael Moore's remarks about "Fahrenheit 9/11" at
Cannes a year earlier, Mr. Lucas joked, "Maybe the film will waken
people to the situation."
Apparently in all seriousness, though, he went on to say that he
had first devised the "Star Wars" story during the Vietnam War.
"The parallels between what we did in Vietnam and what we're doing
in Iraq now are unbelievable," he told an appreciative
audience.
By the way, it seems that we now have at least 2 Daves and 1 David
on this thread.
|5.20.05 @ 2:37PM|#
Nick,
I am a fan and I like ROTJ. But you're right, it was my least
favorite of the original trilogy. Also, I think that Episode 1-2
are worse than any of the original movies.
I agree with Warren. Your column reeks of condescension. Don't
condescend me, man. I'll fuck'in kill ya. I didn't realize that it
had anything to do with evaluating the social significance of
the franchise.
|5.20.05 @ 2:40PM|#
Look, I don't think for a moment that(Lucas' intentions aside)
Bush = Palaptine. But the lines about the lust for acquiring and
retaining power are almost undeniably true. Those exercising power
bear watching with a healthy dose of mistrust, even when they are
acting in accordance with our political preferences.
Cinematically, I'll give the movie a B-.
Warren|5.20.05 @ 2:45PM|#
OK here's the overly wordy version of my point. I'm not
suggesting that SW has not been on a steady downward trajectory.
(However, while I haven't seen Sith, the reviews are overwhelmingly
more favorable than for eps 1 & 2). I was like 13 when the
first SW hit the screens. I was so wowed by it that I insisted my
parents come see it with me the following week (sheesh, what a
nerd). I hated Empire because it ended with "to be continued�" and
with three years between episodes, I was pissed. By the time
Phantom hit the screens I had grown to middle age, but the script
seemed to be dumbed down from the Original Trilogy.
Anyway Nick's main point is, that we Americans revel in the Star
Wars hegemony, despite the fact that the films are
crap. Not "so-so", not "declining over time", CRAP. Nick
needs the films to be unwatchable for his greater thesis to work,
i.e. "They're crap, but Star Wars is more than the film, more even
than all the hype and merchandise and fanatics. It's a cultural
phenomenon with a life of it's own that colors and shapes our
world. So even though the films are crap we can still enjoy them."
The general shittyness of the films is so essential to Nick that he
asserts it over and over again. Often insisting that it's,
generally accepted, or universally agreed upon. But this meme is
simply not so. Even Phantom and Clones, while the most disliked of
the SW saga, were overall favorably reviewed.
Nick,
You are definitely attempting "plausible deniability". You are
asserting that you didn't mean anything more than the franchise has
diminished over time. I think I have established that this position
is untenable.
Warren|5.20.05 @ 2:57PM|#
Oh and,
You don't know any fans that like Jedi!? Well there are millions
and millions of them. In fact, damn near all Star Wars fans
like the film, which in no way even resembles saying that
they like it best.
|5.20.05 @ 3:22PM|#
Dave,
I don't see anything in that article that can be construed as Lucas
deliberately creating a piece of anti-Bush propaganda. The
character (I guess) that Bush tracks most closely with is Palpatine
(as Anakin is a puppet in all this), but it's clear in the film
released 6 years ago that he was using manufacted wars to become
chancellor and gain "emergency powers".
Lucas must've hit it pretty close to the mark to get conservatives
all riled up like that,
huh kid? (please pardon the lame quote).
I think it's comical that the people(liberal and conservatives
alike)in this so-called culture war need to make everthing, even
something as innocuous as a popcorn movie, a political issue. All I
care about is whether I'm entertained for my 8.75. Why does
anything else matter?
|5.20.05 @ 3:46PM|#
In terms of meaningful discussion, these Star Wars geeks are
worse than torture apologists.
The Dance of the Ewoks subtracted significantly from the franchise,
and if you liked the Dance of the Ewoks, then your taste sucks.
Anyone who likes the Dance of the Ewoks or the Return of the Jedi
is a double dumb ass who in a healthy society will and should be
condescended to.
...Once you get older and you've had a chance to work your way
through a couple of books, or maybe seen a few movies that don't
involve lasers, magic or dancing teddy bears, you may find that
your taste has matured. Until then, don't be surprised if people
laugh at you when you spout your hamster dance lovin' opinion in
public.
Warren|5.20.05 @ 4:10PM|#
Ken,
Your comments regarding the Dance of the Ewoks, are disturbingly
reminiscent of John Derbyshirer's thoughts on sodomy.
Tim Cavanaugh|5.20.05 @ 4:18PM|#
I think I have established that this position is
untenable.
Warren, the only thing you've established is that you're an
out-of-the-closet Ewok lover.
|5.20.05 @ 4:56PM|#
You know, I don't hate Return of the Jedi. It's unquestionably the weakest of the first three movies, but it has its good points. Heck, one of my favorite moments in the whole franchise is when Luke tosses aside his lightsaber and says, "Never. I'll never turn to the Dark Side. I'm a Jedi, like my father before me." Which, incidentally, hits on the reasons people like these movies as much as they do--pure good, pure evil, adventure, even redemption. Nice stuff, especially when we seem to be approaching infinite cynicism (and that's just here at Hit and Run).
|5.20.05 @ 5:01PM|#
I freakin' hate the Ewoks, incidentally. Fortunately, I can find solace in their almost certain demise as a species. Lucas must've been smoking Jedi peyote when he had little furry runts defeating armored, heavily armed soldiers. He should've either stuck with the original idea of Wookies kicking butt, or he should've had some overt use of the Force by the stupid furballs. Egad, just thinking of the hang-gliding Ewok makes me want to turn to the Dark Side.
|5.20.05 @ 5:07PM|#
"Your comments regarding the Dance of the Ewoks, are
disturbingly reminiscent of John Derbyshirer's thoughts on
sodomy."
John Derbyshirer's taste sucks too. ...and I make fun of it in
public at every opportunity.
|5.20.05 @ 7:12PM|#
So i guess if Bush is the Emperor, that makes Bin Laden Yoda
and Saddam Luke Skywalker? And the World Trade Center....well that
must be the Death Star.
Dave, are you saying that anyone who expresses concern about the
dangers of trading freedom for security is on the side of the
terrorists? That sounds like something an enemy of freedom would
say.
|5.20.05 @ 7:40PM|#
I heard somwhere that Lucas invented the Ewoks because he originally wanted to go back to the Wookiee planet, but didn't have the budget to create mobs of full-sized Wookiees.
|5.20.05 @ 9:35PM|#
I liked all five of the movies I've seen so far and expect to
like the sixth. I don't see them as six separate movies anyway, but
one really long one.
Things I like: the fate of the universe hinges on Luke's decision
to put his entire faith in his father's redeemability. Sort of like
Gandalf putting the faith of Middle Earth on a hobbit. Luke does
this against the advice of his wise mentors and ends up being
right.
The fact that, in keeping with the Buddhist philosophy at the
films' core, holding on to the people you love is not a Good Thing.
In this the Star Wars films give all our society's platitudes the
finger and upset our dearest preconceptions. Luke shouldn't have
gone to Bespin to rescue his friends. Anakin shouldn't have gone
back to rescue his mother. The scene where he massacres an entire
camp of unarmed Tusken raiders is one of the most powerful I've
ever seen in this kind of movie (i.e. the escapist kind). No other
filmmaker would put his hero in a position where he does something
so horrible (killing unarmed, helpless opponents) for reasons with
which we can completely sympathize (they killed his mother).
There's nothing monstrous about the things that push Anakin to
become Vader, just the kinds of emotions we all experience.
I also liked the subtlety of the Republic's transformation into the
Empire. Not a coup by a gaggle of fascists, but a carefully
engineered poltiical game manipulating the well-intentioned senate.
I found it kind of mind-blowing to see the storm troopers appear as
the rescuers of the Jedi in the second film. It's much more complex
than what I would have expected from this kind of film.
Fortunately I was able to mentally edit out Jar Jar, Hayden, the
stupid Battle Droids and the midichlorians.
And few directors can still do an action scene as clearly and
excitingly as Lucas. In most films I lose track of what's going on
very quickly.
|5.20.05 @ 11:29PM|#
I've seen several religious traditions attributed to Star Wars--it seems a Manichean universe to me.
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