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Re: Star Wars... It's not the hype

>So much that is wrong with Hollywood could be traced to "Star Wars:"
>
>1.) Violence as computer enhanced spectacle.

As Lucas recently pointed out to Katie Couric, there is good violence and there is
bad violence.  Whether or not you agree, that's something to consider.  There is
also the fact that Star Wars displayed a very - *very* - tame brand of violence
akin to the WWII films that John Wayne had been making for years and years.  So
they used blue-screens instead of ketchup packets - why does it matter?  It
doesn't.  SW didn't introduce violence to the movies.

>2.) Obsession with the "blockbuster"

Yeah, Hollywood was never really concerned with making as much money as possible
before Star Wars came out.  :P

>3.) Poor scripts, written to be fully understood by 10 year olds.


And what, exactly, is wrong with that?  I'm not smelling a little highbrowism, am
I?  The deepest truths, the most touching sympathies, the most spectacular
imaginations can be realized by ten-year-olds, and it takes a rare genius (Jim
Henson comes to mind) who can pull such things off without alienating the adult
audience.  Any film or book (Narnia, anyone?) that can supercede our culturally
imposed distinctions of age-level focus should be lauded, not berated.

>4.) Shallow characters that undergo no important development.


"Shallow characters" is a fairly relative term, and I guess everyone is entitled
to their opinion.  But you misspeak when you assert that the charcters undergo no
important development.  Luke undergoes terrifying character development.  Compare
the whiny, cocky farmboy dreamer to the hard-edged, confident, and wary warrior
who confronts the Emperor. And it's not a shake-and-bake transformation, either.
We get to live through those experiences that change him, and we believe it when
it's done.  Much like real-life, you don't notice it so much while it's happening,
but retrospect makes it clear.

Han's development is just as pronounced, if more subtle.  *Darth-frickin-Vader*
undergoes a fantastically subtle and powerful transformation that spans all three
films.  How many movies actually take the time to not only develop their evil
characters, but to save their wicked souls?

>If you want to see a brilliant dissenter from the Star Wars hype,
>read film critic Jonathan Rosembaum's very insightful review of Star
>Wars:

Read it, and I must respectfully submit that he's full of crap. His article, while
well-written (and a "10" in the smarmy dept.) never really substantiates it's
claims, does it? Rosembaum is convinced that SW is responsible for the decline of
Western Civilization, but he never quite gets around to explaining why.  His
reasoning is nebulous and ambiguous at best.  If yer gonna rip a film, fine.  But
rip it apart, don't just rip *into* it.

np: Phish, "Billy Breathes"

Paul Christian Glenn      |  "Besides being complicated,
trance at radiks_net         |  reality, in my experience, is
http://x-real.firinn.org  |  usually odd."  - C.S. Lewis

Currently Reading: "The Two Towers" by J.R.R. Tolkien
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