Deconstructing Star Wars and 'The Last Jedi'

Weekly Standard ^ | 5 Jan 2018 | Hannah Long

[Rummyfan]

Star Wars’ roots in mythology are so well-established that they have become a sort of legend in themselves: Somewhere in a hallowed office in the ’70s, George Lucas, poring the ancient pages of Campbell's Hero With a Thousand Faces, struck the molten iron of the sci-fi zeitgeist to create a new myth, a fantasy set in the stars, with futuristic light sabers and a misty philosophy which feels like long, long ago.

Every subsequent Star Wars film has attempted to recapture Lucas' initial magic, with mixed success. Each trilogy is wildly different, from the archetypal myth of the originals to the shallow politics of the prequels to the meta, self-referential Disney films.

And yet they all share one thing in common: the failure of authority structures. In the original trilogy, Luke has to come to terms with the reality that he is the son of the most iconic villain in cinema history. The prequels loop back to observe the tragic rise and fall of that character, and his disenchantment with the stilted bureaucracy of the Jedi Order. The Last Jedi combines both of these anxieties—the crisis of absent, immoral parents and failed institutions. But having abandoned its mythic roots, TLJ has no way to handle these conflicts.

[freepertoo]

I love the original 2, can tolerate the original third...hate all the rest.

[ro_dreaming]

bfl

[SkyPilot]

'Star Wars: The Last Jedi' leans into political fray

"But the latest movie, "The Last Jedi," appears to lean into the political fray, from its egalitarian message to a more specific critique of callous plutocrats."

"The pair's escape also weaves in an animal-rights theme, as the two rebels liberate a creature used for a kind of horseracing entertainment."

"The latest batch of "Star Wars" movies have also made a conspicuous effort to be more inclusive in terms of female and minority characters, after the original film was criticized for its all-white vision of space."

Alex Jones (yeah, I know, sometimes he is a blowhard) said that the movie went overboard to decry Toxic Masculinity, and to suggest that only women can lead men properly.

[safeasthebanks]

“I love the original 2, can tolerate the original third...hate all the rest.”

Agree 100%.

[Publius]

"The literature of the past," said Balph Eubank, "was a shallow fraud. It whitewashed life in order to please the money tycoons whom it served. Morality, free will, achievement, happy endings, and man as some sort of heroic being -- all that stuff is laughable to us. Our age has given depth to literature for the first time, by exposing the real essence of life."

A very young girl in a white evening gown asked timidly, "What is the real essence of life, Mr. Eubank."

"Suffering," said Balph Eubank. "Defeat and suffering."

"But...but why? People are happy...sometimes...aren't they?"

"That is a delusion of those whose emotions are superficial."

--Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged, Part I ("Non-Contradiction"), Chapter VI ("The Non-Commercial"), page 133

[rlmorel]

Boy, if ever there was a prototypical Leftist, it would be the character Balph Eubank.

Sound like any Leftist college professor these days...

[ASOC]

The Last Jedi is a chick flick. or this

[siberianheat]

Alex Jones (yeah, I know, sometimes he is a blowhard) said that the movie went overboard to decry Toxic Masculinity, and to suggest that only women can lead men properly.

The funny part is that women are thrust into lead roles all across the board in this movie. They mock or demean the men under them, leading the viewer to wonder if they are going to pull out some major tactical achievement to save the day because the screenwriters wanted women kicking ass, but then the women proceed to screw up absolutely every engagement. Luke is even made subservient to women by LITERALLY milking a space cow for sustenance.

I have no problem with women in charge, but the lack of competent leadership anywhere in the female ranks of this movie says more about the writers and directors than it does about the story. It's like they have no idea what a good woman leader looks like.

I hated this movie simply because you could see the directors reaching into every scene so they could hit me over the head with their politics. Go over to Rotten Tomatoes and read the fan reviews and you'll get spoiler-filled diatribes about how awful this film is.

[BenLurkin]

Deconstructing ‘The Last Jedi’

It stank.

Well...that didn’t take long. Anyone want to go grab a bite to eat?

[BenLurkin]

You didn’t miss anything. It stank on ice.

[MarkL]

First SW film I skipped since 1977.

I was 15 when Star Wars opened, and seeing it on the big screen for the first time (anyone from Kansas City remember the Glenwood Theater?) was an incredible experience. Nothing like that had ever been seen before. The opening scenes of the text scrolling across the universe with John Williams' score playing, and then seeing these gigantic spaceships fly over you... It was jaw-dropping. Again, at the time, nothing like that existed before.

The story wasn't that different than a standard western, but the setting made it an experience.

Mark

[Durus]

I agree mostly. Rogue One was a good flick. The Force Awakens is almost as good as Return of the Jedi...almost. The prequals were abysmal with the exception of good lightsaber fights. The last one had very few redeeming characteristics.

[butlerweave]

Feminize Star Wars and Dr Who ,it’s the new Straight White Male

[DiogenesLamp]

I own Rebel One and like how it wraps all the prequels up right to the very second the first movie starts.

Super Super Girl Power, "Diversity uber alles", and Homosexual fighting duo didn't bother you?

All I saw was another attempt at politically correct propaganda being disguised as entertainment.

[DiogenesLamp]

Shame, you missed a good film

Which one would that be? I've seen them all except for this very latest one, and I have no intentions of seeing it.

Utter garbage and dreck. The last one that was even tolerable was "Empire Strikes Back". So far as i'm concerned, the pantless teddy bears is where the franchise jumped the shark, and each subsequent iteration has been astonishingly worse than the previous.

"Star Wars" has become spoon fed idiocy, and "Mr. Plinkett's" reviews have been actually far more entertaining than the movies themselves.

[robroys woman]

Yeah. I get that. I just look past it.

I find it funny that movies imagine women that can’t be squished like a bug even by a typical 50 year old male couch potato. Even if the girl is a bodybuilder. It’s about muscle mass and size.

The simple LENGTH of Chimpanzee arms give them a big advantage. I’m 6’1” and my wife is 5’5”. She would have to be so muscle bound as to be downright disfigured to beat me physically if I did nothing but sit on my butt and watch TV for the last year.

I consider those female characters comical. Which is part of the fun of those movies.

[DiogenesLamp]

I love the original 2, can tolerate the original third...hate all the rest.

Exactly. Garbage ever since "Empire Strikes Back", and "Empire Strikes Back" was not nearly as good as "Star Wars".

[SkyPilot]

A long boring feminist sermon.

It appears that was by design.

Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy Says She Doesn't Need to Cater to Male Star Wars Fans

How Disney And Kathleen Kennedy Ruined Star Wars and how they can fix it

[stockpirate]

I found it a boring propaganda piece. Goid guys light sabers have blue light, bad guys red....mmmmm who could that mean.

[DiogenesLamp]

I find it funny that movies imagine women that can’t be squished like a bug even by a typical 50 year old male couch potato. Even if the girl is a bodybuilder. It’s about muscle mass and size.

The simple LENGTH of Chimpanzee arms give them a big advantage. I’m 6’1” and my wife is 5’5”. She would have to be so muscle bound as to be downright disfigured to beat me physically if I did nothing but sit on my butt and watch TV for the last year.

I consider those female characters comical. Which is part of the fun of those movies.

I see it as deliberate propaganda and it pisses me off. We are engaged in a war against reality right now, and misleading people about what is true does not serve the interests of our nation or of civilization in general.

This business of females beating up greatly stronger males is going on all across the entertainment industry, and I think it contributes to efforts outside of movies, such as pushing women into combat roles. (Which I see as very damaging to military effectiveness.)

I'm also sick of the need to put a different race into every d@mn role in a movie. It is a form of preaching, and I don't like being preached at. I love foreign movies, and I enjoy seeing a movie from Korea or India or wherever, but this need to put "diversity" into everything shown in the movies or television is an attempt to manipulate myself and others, and I don't like it.