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Kerry Spot [ jim geraghty reporting ] INSERT YOUR FAVORITE ‘LUCAS TURNING TO THE DARK SIDE’ JOKE HERE Over in the Corner, Jonathan Adler links to Jason Apuzzo’s skeptical reaction to some George Lucas praise for Fahrenheit 9/11.
It’s a free country, and Lucas can make whatever films he likes, and put in whatever subtle or not-so-subtle political messages he likes. But I can’t be the only one who finds a stunning disconnect between the messages of Lucas’ films and the decisions he’s actually made in his life and work.
Let me get this straight. With villains in Attack of the Clones that consisted of the “Trade Federation”, “Commerce Guild”, “Techno Union” and “Intergalactic Banking Clan”, etc., I’m being warned about the dangers of capitalism from a man who made perhaps more money from merchandising than any other man in history. I’m getting lectured about the dangers of greed from man who authorized, “C-3POs” breakfast cereal, “The Star Wars Christmas Special” featuring Bea Arthur’s musical number, and not one but two Ewoks made-for-TV movies.
I’m being warned about the dangers of technology, and the glory of primitive cultures like the Ewoks, who are able to defeat the ‘technological terror’ of the Empire, in what is supposedly an allegory of Vietnam. Technology is bad, soulless, dangerous, and dehumanizing. Mmm-hmm. This from a man who replaced a tall man in a hairy suit, a projecting the human-eyed loyalty and sadness of Chewbacca, with the CGI cinematic war crime that is Jar-Jar Binks. A man who tossed aside the Yoda puppet, the spaceship models, the stop-motion animation of the Imperial walkers to go all-computer-animation-and-green-screen, all-the-time.
I’m being warned about the dangers of a “you’re either with me or against me” attitude, and the viewing of the world in a black and white morality, from a filmmaker who has his villain dress entirely in black, choke the life out of helpless pilots, and blows up entire planets. This from a man whose nuanced moral view required an edit to make Greedo shoot first.
Topic for discussion among the geeks: George Lucas had to make the second trilogy first because the character of Luke paralleled his life at the time – a young, gifted outsider taking on the powerful repressive empire of the Hollywood system, and triumphing over astounding odds to the point where he was free to follow his vision. Like his protagonist in the second trilogy, Anakin, Lucas finds himself being swallowed up by the oppressive system he strove to fight against, and has become… well, more machine now than man, twisted and… you get the idea. [Posted 05/02 05:06 AM]
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