Let me start by saying, for those of you not already aware of this, I am an unapologetic Star Wars geek. I’m one of those guys who measures his life as being divided by the time I spent on this planet before May, 1977 and the time after May, 1977. My most often-repeated objection to the concept of suicide; “But they might make another Star Wars movie.”
Now that that’s established, I really enjoyed this final Star Wars movie.
We all knew the story it had to tell so there couldn’t be any really big surprises for any of us. The fun of the journey this time was how we got there. What did the events leading to the creation of Darth Vader LOOK like? How was it decided who would take Luke and Leia? Why didn’t 3P0 recognize anyone when he saw them again?
Of course the dialogue was wretched. The dialogue in EVERY Star Wars movie except Empire is wretched. Part of the entertainment value is seeing if the actors can overcome the horrible things they’re given to say. In this one they acquit themselves admirably. Hayden Christenson still had trouble with a few especially terrible passages but fared better than he did last time. Ian McDiamard actually made something out of the lame response of “Good.” The scene between he and Christensen where Palpatine begins to reveal his knowledge of the Dark Side played very well, resonant with threat and very creepy.
Lucas is telling a huge comic booky (meant in its best sense), grand opera kind of story and he’s not terribly concerned with how his characters speak to one another so long as they convey what he needs to keep the story moving. He’s a showman above all else. He’s our modern day equivalent of DeMille. He wants to deal in universal themes and tell big stories. He’s never been that interested in subtlety or art or nuance. It’s a pity but then there really aren’t that many great dialogue guys out there these days. Would you really want to let a David Mamet loose on this franchise? Just thank your lucky stars that an Akiva Goldsman or a David Koepp came nowhere near this project. Star Wars best dialogue was in Empire and we have an old Hollywood hand like Leigh Brackett to thank for that. Leia’s “I love you” and Han’s reply of “I know.” Was not improvised by Harrision Ford or penned by Lawrence Kasdan. That scene, and so many like it, were penned by the same woman who contributed to The Big Sleep and Rio Bravo.
I honestly intend, when ROTS comes out on DVD in November, to watch it once with a foreign language track. I think it might be improved by watching it in French and juts absorbing the story without the dialogue.
The action was tremendous. We’ve all become so darned jaded that it’s harder and harder to open on a “wow” scene these days. But that opening tracking shot through the space battle over Coruscant was kick ass. I liked the dialogue exchange between Anakin and Obi Wan. It was a return to the kind of camaraderie that Lucas established between his characters in the first films. One of the things that was refreshing about Star Wars when it first came out was its return to the dashing heroes who didn’t care a damn about danger after nearly a decade of one anti-hero after another dominating the big screen. We return to this here and Lucas was wise enough to establish the easiness of the friendship between these two Jedi before their relationship goes down its classic path.
I found many delights in the film. Almost every scene with Yoda rocked hard. General Greivous was a tremendous creation and I was sorry to see him get kakked. The montage of the betrayal of the Jedi on all those different worlds was an instant classic. The final light saber duel between Obi Wan and Darth delivered on a 28 year promise. And you just can’t have enough wookies, right?
So, I dug it and will be geeking out for weeks contemplating the questions the movie raises for me as a long-time, real-time SW fan. By “real-time” I mean that I’ve watched this story with all its three and sixteen year gaps of anxious waiting.
And it made me think of bigger things as well. The closing out of this franchise on the big screen describes the history of film since 1977. Star Wars created the summer blockbuster when it arrived. It created the special effects extravaganza. It exploited marketing and tie-ins like no film had before it. (Trust me, there was merchandising of movies before Lucas showed up) But the most amazing effect it had was Lucas himself. Sensing they had an embarrassing bomb on their hands, Fox did an unusual thing in letting Lucas retain the rights to the property in exchange for cutting their losses by reducing his fees for writing, directing and producing. That left the property solely in Lucas’ hands. He used this never-ending river of cash to advance not only the technical side of filmmaking but even how movies were exhibited. Remember, he’s a SHOWMAN first. Heck, I think the popcorn even tastes better since ’77.
He used his fortune to explore the possibilities for joining film with electronic technology. Now we have a digital revolution with the evolution of ILM and Pixar and THX and other behind-the-scenes concerns that Lucas has spawned over the years. The guy wants us all to get more bang out of going to the movies. Try and see this latest SW movie at a theater that projects it digitally. The difference is staggering. That’s George Lucas who brought us that when no one else cared whether or not you got your eight bucks worth. Hell, at most theater they’re too cheap to project the movies at the proper lumens so you can SEE the damn thing. And if you have a kick-ass home theater set-up that you pulled from a box and put together without the help of an electronics geek then you can thank George for that too.
That brings it to what I always think of as the Scott Beatty Edict. Scott’s as zany for SW as I am and his answer to the many carpers and whiners is that it’s Lucas money so he gets to tell the story any way he wants. He finances the movies himself, answers to no one and takes all the heat from the critics. He’s the last guy (and will probably be the last guy EVER) who doesn’t have to do focus groups or listen to studio morons give him their notes or compromise his vision in any way. You see what he wanted you to see. He removed the last obstacle to getting his ideas to the screen by godfathering the development of CGI effects.
Movies are so expensive to produce nowadays that there’s no room for a Hitchcock or a Ford or a Hawks or a Kurasawa to bring their ideas to the screen without interference. Of course, it’s hard to think of anyone working these days with that kind of talent. God forbid we get Renny Harlin’s unadulterated vision. That’s how we end up with crap like Pearl Harbor.
Woody Allen recently held a press conference to announce that he was moving his productions to Europe because he was tired of the studios sticking their hands into his projects where once they left him alone. I don’t know how you personally feel about Woody Allen or his movies, but why would you agree to finance one of his movies and then diddle with it? The guy’s one of our last auteur filmmakers. He also keeps his movies at a modest budget and they make a modest profit. They can’t even leave Woody alone.
Much of the rift between Disney and Pixar is over the same kind of moronic meddling that plagues the entire industry. The recent Kingdom of Heaven was probably initially an interesting idea that got compromised to the point where it’s no more compelling than the screensaver on your PC or Mac. The trumpeting of the upcoming Cinderella Man is another example of the kindergartners running the pre-school. The trailers and pre-press make this sound like the movie event of the year. It’s a BOXING MOVIE! For all the weepiness and “gosh darn-it this movie has something to say” earnestness of Opiein his interviews this flick borrows the plot of a hundred second features made from the silent era until now. It’s been the subject of dramas as well as comedies. I’ve already seen this movie with John Garfield, Robert Ryan, Mickey Rooney and (for gawd’s sake) Joe E. Brown in it. This is the very movie that Barton Fink was struggling to write.
All of this I think of when the last great one-man shows comes to an end. As my oldest son assured me as the end credits rolled on, (he felt the old man’s sense of loss) there will be more Star Wars in other medium. The story does not end. But I think this movie does mark the end of an era for Hollywood movies. We’re left with what the American movie industry did not take away from the success of the Star Wars franchise; what they didn’t learn. They thought it was all the effects and the merchandising and forgot that these escapist entertainments are supposed to have heart. That it’s not just smart marketing and slick packaging that makes the public embrace a movie.