Posted on 06/20/2015 11:05:05 AM PDT by rickmichaels
One day in the 1970s, George Lucas screened a rough cut of his new movie, Star Wars, for his influential Hollywood friends. And almost none of them liked it. The plot seemed incomprehensible, the made-up fantasy names absurd. Director Brian De Palma, who had just had a big hit with Carrie, made fun of everything about the film, including Princess Leias hairstyle: Hey, George, what were those Danish rolls doing in the princesss ears?
Almost 40 years later, De Palma is mostly making low-budget movies, and the most-anticipated film of the year is Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the first Star Wars movie since Lucas sold the franchise to Disney. In June, Empire magazine published its 500 greatest films of all time list, chosen by a poll of 250,000 readers; the winner was the sequel, The Empire Strikes Back, with the original also making the Top 10. You wont hear people today making fun of Leias hair or Luke Skywalkers disco haircut.
Instead, we have The Force Awakens director J.J. Abrams, who quit the Star Trek movies to defect to the franchise hes always loved more. Star Wars is probably the most influential film of my generation, he said in 2006. Everything that any of us does is somehow directly or indirectly affected by the experience of seeing those first three films. This would have surprised Alec Guinness, who wrote to a friend from the set of the first movie: New rubbish dialogue reaches me every day, and none of it makes my character clear or even bearable.
It would also have surprised earlier generations of critics, who were raising doubts about George Lucass talent even before his second trilogy of Star Wars films proved them right. While the first Star Wars got mostly respectful reviews and even an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture, the bloom was mostly off the rose by the time The Empire Strikes Back came out. With its heavy tone and the implausible plot twist that the bad guy is the heros father, the movie was widely dismissed as a money-making machine that had lost the first films charm: The Force is with us, indeed, and a lot of it is hot air, wrote the New York Times powerful critic, Vincent Canby. The Empire Strikes Back is about as personal as a Christmas card from a bank.
By the time Lucas re-released the first Star Wars in 1997, many critics were willing to point out that even the original film didnt hold up. Whats stunning is simply how bad it is, wrote Salon film critic Charles Taylor, while The New Yorker writer John Seabrook suggested it was a film with comic-book characters, an unbelievable story, no political or social commentary, lousy acting, preposterous dialogue, and a ridiculously simplistic morality. In other words, a bad movie.
Even if you liked the movies, you might not have liked what they were doing to moviemaking around the world. Alex Leadbeater, editor of the film site What Culture, wrote an article earlier this year on how Star Wars negatively affected cinema. He says it was one of the films, along with Jaws, that led to the introduction of the blockbuster model and the weakening of the auteur model, making studios less willing to take chances on Lucass edgier director friends such as De Palma and Martin Scorsese. Thats become such an unpopular sentiment to express, one forgets that mainstream film books used to say the same thing, but more meanly; film critic Glenn Kenny points to Peter Biskinds book Easy Riders, Raging Bulls as a proponent of what he calls the Star Wars ruined everything line; the book never misses a chance to portray Lucas as a sellout and Star Wars as a silly childrens film.
But today, you can barely criticize Star Wars at all. Actor and writer Simon Pegg (Shaun of the Dead) made a mild attempt this year when he argued that Star Wars might have killed off gritty, amoral art films and resulted in us consuming very childish things. The Internet attacked immediately, with Gawkers pop-culture site i09 asking, Is he trolling, or has he really gotten so little out of years of science fiction?
And dont even think about an artistic criticism: when Joss Whedon (The Avengers) criticized The Empire Strikes Back for not having a clear ending, his remarks stirred up the kind of Internet outrage usually reserved for people who make racist jokes. There was a time when even fans could be critical; today, the debate is not over whether those first two films are great, but just how great they are.
There has even been a shift in the way fictional characters react to Star Wars. In popular culture, being a fan of the trilogy used to mark a character as being nerdy, even behind the times. On the 1990s sitcom NewsRadio, the lead character (The Kids in the Halls Dave Foley) was mocked by the other characters for loving Star Wars. His ability to identify Boba Fett, the intergalactic bounty hunter from The Empire Strikes Back, marked him as having very different interests from everyone around him. Today, Star Wars is used in pop culture in the exact opposite way, as a cultural touchstone almost every sympathetic character loves. Liz Lemon on 30 Rock was a Star Wars fan; so were the characters on How I Met Your Mother (a woman who jilted the hero at the altar was a Star Wars hater). If a character likes Star Wars, you know he or she has good taste.
So what happened to change the way we looked at these movies? Leadbeater, who critizes the franchises influence, but admits the first two movies are among his favourites of all timeI love Star Wars, he saysthinks the changing reputation of the franchise is partly about generational change: That shift came when those who grew up with the series came of age. They became a more vocal voice in the media, which shapes perceptions in many ways. For filmmakers and critics of Lucass own generation, the movies were recognizably bigger, more expensive versions of things they had outgrown, like old serials; even the cliffhanger ending of The Empire Strikes Back, now seen as daring, just seemed like a ploy out of a Flash Gordon serial.
Younger critics and filmmakers not only grew up with Star Wars; they are less likely to view this kind of movie as inherently immature. The New Yorkers Pauline Kael dismissed Lucas as hooked on the crap of his childhood, but people used to say the same thing about filmmakers who made Westerns, or samurai movies. An earlier generation of criticsincluding Vincent Canbywound up giving more serious consideration to those genres. Today, weve done the same for the kid-friendly fantasy of Star Wars or superhero comics.
Star Wars is also benefiting from a new trend in pop culture criticism: an increased willingness to like popular things, and hope theyll turn out well. Entertainment Weekly declared a wave of pro-franchise optimism, and, with Star Wars, in particular, its uncool to be too cynical; David Sims of The Atlantic wrote that people who complain about the prequels sound like bitter Gen X-ers upset that their childhoods are receding further into the distance. In an era when its almost obligatory to praise Beyoncé and other pop entertainers, bashing Star Wars doesnt make you look refined, as it did in the 1980s.
Besides, there are many other things for critics to bash. Hollywood blockbuster movies have become so big that Lucass films seem charming by comparison. As tent-pole movies have gotten ever more frenetic, Kenny says, the near-classical styling of [Star Wars:] A New Hope and the sobriety of Empire look more and more old-school and respectable. One of the ways Abrams has encouraged fan optimism is to promise that the new film will use less computer-generated imagery than is the norm for modern movies, and more practical effects, miniatures and puppets. Star Wars films were once criticized for their overreliance on special effects; now, theyre from a more artistic and craftsmanlike time.
Could there be another Star Wars backlash? Maybe not. Kenny, who thinks Biskinds criticisms were overblown, admits: If youre a fan of things like non-franchise, non-superhero movies, its kind of difficult now not to see Star Wars as a culturally corrosive influence. But all the things people used to dislike about Lucass filmmakingthe New Age faux-religiosity, the overdependence on technologyare now inescapably part of every movie being made for mass audiences. Which means that, even if Star Wars: The Force Awakens disappoints, the original movies will just keep looking better. After all, as Kenny and others point out, Lucass visual language and storytelling in Star Wars were inspired by Akira Kurosawa. Todays blockbusters have the disadvantage of being inspired by George Lucas.
You need to lay off the stalking, evidently you have some rage from some distant thread, and brought it to this Star Wars thread.
Try to gain some control over whatever feelings are driving you.
Shhhh! Don’t tell ansel12... Putin is a HUGH Star Wars fanboy. I am series.
I was 28...I was watching TV in 1977 and a 30 second commercial came on. At the end my jaw was on the floor.....it said Star Wars....”what was that?”’I said. No DVRs. No VHS....so I had to wait for another commercial.
Long story short I saw the movie on the second day it came out....saw it four or five more times in the next few weeks.
WOW. I’m still in awe at what a great flick it was.
It is not science fiction. That involves technobabble (another favorite Star Trek had that). The science aspect was an unknown backdrop that you didn’t explore or question. No it was an epic....like Homer, like Tolkien, like Gilgamesh.
“Why bring your religious bigotry to a thread about Star Wars movies?”
I brought no religious bigotry. You’re the anti-Catholic. Also, I think it is interesting that two notable FR anti-Catholics both dislike Star Wars. I have actually noticed this sort of thing before. I saw no reason to make the point I made.
“Is The Force making you do it?”
No. Does “The Force” make you anti-Catholic?
“Has Pope Francis added liking Star Wars movies to Catholic theology?”
No. Have Protestant anti-Catholics added disliking Star Wars to their beliefs?
“Ill admit, they are at his intellectual level on economics and technology...”
I’ll admit, your intellectual level is as poor as you mistakenly imagine his to be.
I actually seem to like “fluff-movies” more now that I’m older. When I was in high school and college, I was into the artsy stuff.
But now, when I watch something, it is for pure escapism - and a childish sci-fi flick is just perfect.
“You need to lay off the stalking,”
There’s no stalking involved. I read the thread and noticed two anti-Catholics disliked Star Wars. I posted about that. You seem to have real issues.
“evidently you have some rage from some distant thread, and brought it to this Star Wars thread.”
No rage. I’m actually quite amused that two anti-Catholics dislike Star Wars. It seems to tie into to general dried up, joyless, sad-sack nature of the mental illness of anti-Catholicism.
“Try to gain some control over whatever feelings are driving you.”
The only feelings involved are amusement and wonder (if that’s a feeling). Maybe you should gain some control over you’re continuing habit of making things up out of thin air.
“no political or social commentary”
Liberals just don’t like to admit THEY are the Dark Side.
Ha!
Yes, “Troops.” It’s great.
Hehehe. Somebody is a fan of “Waiting For Guffman.” ;-D
I guess I am really hard to impress.
I saw it the first weekend it came out. Read the article on the cover of Time.
I liked it. Saw it two or three more times while on dates.
Years later I watched it with my kids, introducing them to popular culture in the same way I did showing them Bambi and Lion King.
My wife showed them Old Yeller when they were 3 or so. I came home with about half an hour left in the movie. I asked my wife if she was crazy, showing them that movie. She asked why? (She had never seen it.) Just about that moment the screams and cries started in the other room.
I laughed my ass off.
“Liberals just dont like to admit THEY are the Dark Side.”
Yep, the battle between good & evil continues...not unique to Star Wars movies. but they really did visibly highlight the concept.
Is that where I swiped that line?! I did like “Waiting for Guffman,” “A Mighty Wind” and “Best in Show.” I thought all those “mockumentaries” were very good.
If a movie is not a vehicle for promoting Marxism, the movie critics will pan it. The first Star Wars was all about rebellion against totalitarianism.
“ridiculously simplistic morality”
There’s the reason the critics hate it. Take everything away, and it’s a story about good vs evil, and good triumphs.
Liberals can’t admit evil. It forces the inevitable look in the mirror.
I’m more of a Trek guy but the Star Wars series is ok. It has always reminded me of a middle ages tale.
You have some serious emotional problems, you jumped on this thread as a stalker, an act of desperation and rage.
You obviously cant control it.
If critics hate a movie and viewers like it, that is a pretty good sign that it is a good movie.
If critics like it, and viewers are “meh.” then do not go!
Plain and simple Empire Strikes Back cannot be "the greatest movie of all time".
It picks up with the franchise already well established. It finishes with a lot of dangling plots threads and no "end".
If you watch that movie and no other (not just no other Star Wars films, NO OTHER FILMS PERIOD), you won't make any sense of it (and the effects may not hold up with "modern" audiences).
Liking Empire more than Star Wars is a blah debate. "If you like this, you'll LOVE this". Ok, so? Return isn't as good as either of the first two and the next three are even worse than that.
I love that scene.
The story behind it was they had done about 20 takes of this complicated fight scene between Indy with bullwhip, and the sword guy. Ford was tired, sweaty and hot. As a joke, after the guy does all his sword play watch Ford’s face. Definitely an “awww screw it moment”.
Maybe no socio-political commentary about OUR world but maybe something about the human condition of wanting to rebel against tyrannical rule even if the odds are not in your favor and even if some of you may die in the cause.
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