Star Wars ... Mark Steyn

Steyn Online ^ | 19 Dec 2015 | Mark Steyn

[Tax-chick]

I’ve tried to watch “Vertigo” but never made it.

[Junk Silver]

I consider “The Empire Strikes Back” to be one of the best movies ever made. As it happens Lucas didn’t direct it or have much to do with the script. The new one is an entertaining couple of hours at the cinemaplex, nothing more. Of course that’s a lot more than can be said about most of the crap coming out of Hollywood these days.

George Lucas’s prequels were horrifyingly awful. I remember the first time I saw “The Phantom Menace” the entire row in front of me got up and walked out 20 minutes into the film. It was one of the scariest flights I’ve ever been on!

[ez]

Darth W. Bush? Now that’s funny right there, I don’t care who you are.

[Flick Lives]

One of the things I recall about the 1977 release is how welcome it seemed at the time. The whole grand and clear-cut good versus evil, tied to old-time, b-movie and serialesque adventure. For roughly a decade before this, there had been a real dearth of such upbeat, envigorating fare. The movie theaters seemed to bounce back-and-forth between a sort of adult bleakness with things like “Looking for Mr. Goodbar” and the occasional handful of forgettable Disney live-action slapstick comedies like “Gus” and “One of Our Dinosaurs is Missing.” Everything moves in cycles.

—

Bingo. Star Wars was a reboot of the old serialized sci-fi epics, a next-gen Flash Gordon; to be enjoyed as escapist fun. Just as western movies fell out of favor for awhile then came back to the screen thru Spaghetti Westerns, Star Wars revived the genre of sic fi escapist movies.

[Flick Lives]

I remember the first time I saw “The Phantom Menace” the entire row in front of me got up and walked out 20 minutes into the film. It was one of the scariest flights I’ve ever been on!

---

LOL!

[cornelis]

I started looking at my watch about halfway through the first one back in 1977.

It's for kids.

[baltiless]

Lighten up, Francis. It's not even remotely "anti-Christian." It's simply indifferent. Not everybody has to believe in a "Creator" or an "almighty God" to tell a story about good and evil.

And I don't think you understand atheism. There aren't any "final wet dream(s)" about the end of life.

[Flick Lives]

What is overlooked in all of the Star Wars hoopla which began in 1977 is that the entire series is basically anti-Christian at it's very core. It pushes the idea of an all encompassing 'Force' with good and evil 'sides', and there is not even a scintilla of thought given to the idea of an actual Creator, not an Almighty God, not even multiple 'gods' whatsoever.

Using your line of analysis, Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" is anti-Christian.

[twister881]

The Searchers is a *great* movie. Shane was my late father’s favorite Western novel and film. Took the boys to see it at the theater, and we watched it many time together on TV. Became our favorite, too. I’ll go with the Western Writers Association’s list of 100 top Western movies that has Shane at #1. They have High Noon #2 and The Searchers #3; I would switch those two. In the end, though, it’s a matter of preference and fun to debate.

[mkjessup]

Lighten up, Francis. It's not even remotely "anti-Christian." It's simply indifferent. Not everybody has to believe in a "Creator" or an "Almighty God" to tell a story about good and evil.

And I don't think you understand atheism. There aren't any "final wet dream(s)" about the end of life.

Time (and the end of our respective lives) will validate one view or another.

Good luck with yours.

[mkjessup]

Using your line of analysis, Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" is anti-Christian.

You said it, not me.

But now that you mention it ...

[twister881]

OK, I’m gonna start it now:

1. The Best Years of Our Lives
2. Spartacus
3. Ben-Hur (1959)
4. Lawrence of Arabia
5. Shane
6. The Quiet Man
7. The Big Country

All are about men facing daunting circumstances and personal struggles. Took me years to figure out why they were my favorites. Plus William Wyler directs three of them.

[Mr Rogers]

The first Star Wars movie was fun, escapist fare - particularly post-Vietnam & post-Watergate. It was simply fun to see the Good Guys win.

But it was also a very shallow film, and trying to build on it proved how shallow it was.

Then came the CGI. CGI is bad enough for action, but now it is applied to characters & dialog. They put the script of an old movie into a computer, and it rearranges characters and dialog to generate maximum overseas profits with merchandising.

[baltiless]

Likewise!

I will tell you this: As I’ve posted on here before, I came very, very close to dying earlier this year. My “near-death experience” in no way included the tunnel of light or meeting with God or any of the other things you read about. I was visited briefly by my mother and two of my grandparents, but it was very fleeting. Nothing whatsoever suggested Heaven as Christians think of it.

Just an anecdote. I’m not trying to suggest for a second that it had any larger metaphysical or theological implications.

[ifinnegan]

***Han Solo’s strangely Onanistic moniker***

“Yowsa, have to say that never occurred to me. Steyn is brilliant.”

It sure did to me, Miller.

And then check out the Princess’ name.

Leia Organa.

These names show what a lark or joke Star Wars started out as.

I don’t see a sexual double entendre in Luke Skywalker.

Chewbacca is chew tobacco.

[St_Thomas_Aquinas]

I ve tried to watch Vertigo but never made it.

Give it another chance 8-)

Its reputation has skyrocketed after the last couple of decades. I was blown away by it when it was re-released about 30 years ago.

British critics have placed it as the #1 movie of all time!

Two more from my top ten made the list, "2001" and "The Searchers."

(British Sight & Sound) Critics’ Top 10 Films of All Time

10. 8 ½
9. The Passion of Joan of Arc
8. Man with a Movie Camera
7. The Searchers
6. 2001: A Space Odyssey
5. Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans 4. La Règle du jeu
3. Tokyo Story
2. Citizen Kane
1. Vertigo

My personal top ten, in no particular order:

My Life as a Dog
The Exorcist
Taxi Driver
Diner
2001
Vertigo
The Trial
The Searchers
Network
Duck Soup

[driftless2]

It's for kids

That's what I surmised. However, I have a stepson in his mid-thirties who's a SWs fanatic. Can't say anything bad about it around him. (Yes, he's a computer geek.)

[ifinnegan]

No Capra?

[baltiless]

We have a couple of things in common! My top 10, also in no particular order:

The Graduate
The Godfather
The Godfather II
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
Psycho
Taxi Driver
Good Will Hunting
Grosse Point Blank
Duck Soup
The Karate Kid

[MinuteGal]

I haven't been inside a Bijou for twenty-some years. I've been a lustful movie aficionada my entire life.......and I'm so grateful that the great choices of movies on TV's classic movie channels are extraordinarily bountiful and varied, including the great silents and those meaty, well-written, well-directed, well-acted films from the Golden Age.

Why don't I "go to the show"? Well, unfortunately, today's cinematic efforts are aimed at audiences consisting mainly of moonstruck daters and adolescent males up to age 65 who love owning toys.

Their interests lie in vehicle chases, space-ship chases, operational man-toys ranging from hand-held gimmicks to strange machines destroying the Capitol building, explosions, lethal beams/rays of any sort, robots and weird metal/fur/slime creatures, and the obligatory drippy, no-name female love interest.

Nothing wrong with this at all....but on the whole, as for me and most folks I know (plus Mark Styne, I bet), we'll take the sofa, a glass of Chardonay and "Casablanca" or the "Flash Gordon" serials any time, thank you....and save 12 bucks each, to boot.

Leni