Star Was
A tale told in instalments tends to foster speculation between those instalments of what comes next. I have very much felt this in relation to Star Wars. It started with the very first trailer for the exciting new movie. The ad flashed many images that gave a vivid impression of the setting but gave away none of the story. Even as a five year old I could tell that this was more than just a space adventure. It also seemed to have something old-worldy about it including clashing laser swords. I saw one such figure in all-black armour - was that the black knight of space? There were glimpses of figures in white armour and I wondered whether the duel would be between a black and white knight like in Chess. I somehow forgot that one of those dualists was dressed in dowdy browns.
The story later named A New Hope was more than I could have imagined and aspects of it got confused in my memory. Back in 1977 you saw a movie at the cinema and then had scant other media to help reinforce your memory of it. I assumed that the small ship was boarding the larger in the opening battle. I also assumed that the humans serving Vader were converts from the human crew he had captured. I never understood that the stormtroopers were also human - the white armour was effectively dehumanizing. I do however remember a cousin musing that they were the 'clones' referenced by Kenobi.
I would be speculating on what was to follow for decades to come. The fact that the original standalone movie was given the designation of Episode IV drove one to wonder at its past. We knew there had been Clone Wars and that Vader and Anakin had both been apprentices of Kenobi. Would we see a war in which both sides used clone soldiers? I still think that concept is more interesting than 'the war of the clones and droids' that we eventually got. On the other hand, the revelation that Vader was Anakin was such a wonderful shock in 1980 and allowed for redemption to be central to the saga.
Initially Vader seemed to be the key villain. I overlooked how much sway Tarkin had over him and missed the importance of the Emperor. But finally there was word that we would meet this über-villain in 1983 and I wondered what kind of armour such a figure would wear. I was influenced by Battle Of The Planets into imagining someone in garish and eleborate purple and red (like a cross between the imperial advisors and royal guards that we did see). The shadowy Palpatine in modest cloak was much more intriguing. Here was somebody interested in power rather than glory (and I have never been sure the later depicted statue of him made sense).
The Kenner action figures helped turn enthusiasm into fanaticism and also sometimes provided what we now call 'spoilers'. I saw Chief Chirpa and wondered what a Chirpa was. I saw both Klaatu and Gamorean Guard and wondered if they were a gangster and his bodyguard sharing the same green hide. I made the mistake of assuming that a character who got a figure was necessarily important. Kenner was never that logical in its character choices. But the original trilogy resolved well and made a whole lot of sense by the time I was twelve.
Then there was a long hiatus. I never got very into the expanded universe of novels. I focused more on filling all the gaps in what I knew of the original trilogy. But eventually the prequel trilogy arrived and it was exciting once more. Things I liked about them included the way they presented a more opulent and cosmopolitan galaxy. By now I was an adult so I understood all the inter-war deco designs as a way of showing that this was a civilization yet to fall into conflict. Things were smaller but more crafted and that was nifty. But I think I wanted a rather different story. Remember that two-sided clone war I imagined as a child? I also imagined that the Galactic War starts with a civil war on one planet. All that ineptly depicted stuff involving commercial interests would have made more sense as a truly political clash between the civil and military elites of a particular world - and rather than make it Naboo how about it be Alderaan that must be saved from its own coup d'etat?
The thing with only having two Sith was interesting. It was like applying the concept of terrorist cells to the old sorcerer-and-apprentice relationship and got me speculating on other Sith characters. But it was difficult for the story-tellers to justify and so eventually we see other dark side Force users effectively swelling the Sith ranks in ever-expanding ancillary media. One of the best things in the prequels was seeing Jedi in numbers working together. Kenobi and Skywalker in action were a marvel to see. But the ill-fated young Jedi was too young at the start - once more the impression left by the original movies was that he should be a brash adult rather than a surly youth.
And then we had another hiatus. I was okay with that. There was plenty of other stuff in which to be interested. But of course I was all set to see the sequal trilogy once it came long. It was fun but it stretched credulity for me as a political historian. If (as we tend to assume) the Galactic Empire is analogous to the Third Reich (specifically) and to fascism (more generally) then why had it so quickly arisen from its own ashes? In our own primitive world it took twice as long for movements deemed fascist to even re-surface. The fact that they surfaced while the sequel trilogy was made possibly answers my question. But motives outside the story need justification inside the story. Why was the New Republic so flimsy as to let the First Order form in its own back yard? I wish to have seen that story told - espionage and political intrigue culminating in exposing and thwarting plots to throw the galaxy into a new dark age. I guess I wanted a cold war rather than another world war but maybe that would have been too much like the prequels.
It is an assumption that the original trilogy is a surrogate for World War II. What if it were World War I? The original 'stormtroopers' of history were elite German forces in the Great War rather than the later Nazi party paramilitary. The Galactic Empire are authoritarian and the Sith some kind of 'meritocracy of evil' but are they truly Nazis? Some draw attention to how humanocentric they are. But once more we need to look outside of the story for an explanation. Latex masks and other markers of 'alien' nature are expensive even in a blockbuster. Both sides are dominated by what look like humans. Jump back into the story and we find that an imperial officer calls Chewbacca a 'thing' but then the republican diplomat Leia calls him a 'big walking carpet'. It seems that everyone is a little bit speciesist (and who knows what slurs the Wookies have for the seemingly ubiqitous humans).
I do wish there were more aliens prominently depicted in the movies. Maz Katana was cool but then very quickly sidelined. The self-sacrifice that logically belonged to Admiral Ackbar fell to another character we had only just met. For me Holdo felt more like a politician than a military commander and she would have worked very well as part of the Cold War story I never got to see. But it was all a bit of a mess. Many scenes felt like they belonged in other movies. The space gangsters preyed upon by loose rathtars felt like Red Dwarf. The never-ending mirrors into which Rey stared felt rather Harry Potter. They were cool but did they fit? I guess it is impossible to say. If you insist a setting looks only like those parts of a setting you have already seen then it will never get bigger. But then in an odd way the sequel trilogy made that galaxy seem smaller than it had been. It was a bit rushed and crammed and as a result more became less.
My overall assessment of these three sets of three movies? Episodes VII to IX were created by an ever-changing committee seeking to sell tickets to a fractious array of fans in an era of too much chatter. Episodes I to III were created by an auteur with lots of imagination but too much power. Episodes IV to VI were created by the same creative figure who once faced limitations set by both his relative youth and a few self-possessed collaborators who could curb his excesses. It is this that makes the original Star Wars trilogy the best and surely it is more than nostalgia driving me to make such rationalizations.
The story later named A New Hope was more than I could have imagined and aspects of it got confused in my memory. Back in 1977 you saw a movie at the cinema and then had scant other media to help reinforce your memory of it. I assumed that the small ship was boarding the larger in the opening battle. I also assumed that the humans serving Vader were converts from the human crew he had captured. I never understood that the stormtroopers were also human - the white armour was effectively dehumanizing. I do however remember a cousin musing that they were the 'clones' referenced by Kenobi.
I would be speculating on what was to follow for decades to come. The fact that the original standalone movie was given the designation of Episode IV drove one to wonder at its past. We knew there had been Clone Wars and that Vader and Anakin had both been apprentices of Kenobi. Would we see a war in which both sides used clone soldiers? I still think that concept is more interesting than 'the war of the clones and droids' that we eventually got. On the other hand, the revelation that Vader was Anakin was such a wonderful shock in 1980 and allowed for redemption to be central to the saga.
Initially Vader seemed to be the key villain. I overlooked how much sway Tarkin had over him and missed the importance of the Emperor. But finally there was word that we would meet this über-villain in 1983 and I wondered what kind of armour such a figure would wear. I was influenced by Battle Of The Planets into imagining someone in garish and eleborate purple and red (like a cross between the imperial advisors and royal guards that we did see). The shadowy Palpatine in modest cloak was much more intriguing. Here was somebody interested in power rather than glory (and I have never been sure the later depicted statue of him made sense).
The Kenner action figures helped turn enthusiasm into fanaticism and also sometimes provided what we now call 'spoilers'. I saw Chief Chirpa and wondered what a Chirpa was. I saw both Klaatu and Gamorean Guard and wondered if they were a gangster and his bodyguard sharing the same green hide. I made the mistake of assuming that a character who got a figure was necessarily important. Kenner was never that logical in its character choices. But the original trilogy resolved well and made a whole lot of sense by the time I was twelve.
Then there was a long hiatus. I never got very into the expanded universe of novels. I focused more on filling all the gaps in what I knew of the original trilogy. But eventually the prequel trilogy arrived and it was exciting once more. Things I liked about them included the way they presented a more opulent and cosmopolitan galaxy. By now I was an adult so I understood all the inter-war deco designs as a way of showing that this was a civilization yet to fall into conflict. Things were smaller but more crafted and that was nifty. But I think I wanted a rather different story. Remember that two-sided clone war I imagined as a child? I also imagined that the Galactic War starts with a civil war on one planet. All that ineptly depicted stuff involving commercial interests would have made more sense as a truly political clash between the civil and military elites of a particular world - and rather than make it Naboo how about it be Alderaan that must be saved from its own coup d'etat?
The thing with only having two Sith was interesting. It was like applying the concept of terrorist cells to the old sorcerer-and-apprentice relationship and got me speculating on other Sith characters. But it was difficult for the story-tellers to justify and so eventually we see other dark side Force users effectively swelling the Sith ranks in ever-expanding ancillary media. One of the best things in the prequels was seeing Jedi in numbers working together. Kenobi and Skywalker in action were a marvel to see. But the ill-fated young Jedi was too young at the start - once more the impression left by the original movies was that he should be a brash adult rather than a surly youth.
And then we had another hiatus. I was okay with that. There was plenty of other stuff in which to be interested. But of course I was all set to see the sequal trilogy once it came long. It was fun but it stretched credulity for me as a political historian. If (as we tend to assume) the Galactic Empire is analogous to the Third Reich (specifically) and to fascism (more generally) then why had it so quickly arisen from its own ashes? In our own primitive world it took twice as long for movements deemed fascist to even re-surface. The fact that they surfaced while the sequel trilogy was made possibly answers my question. But motives outside the story need justification inside the story. Why was the New Republic so flimsy as to let the First Order form in its own back yard? I wish to have seen that story told - espionage and political intrigue culminating in exposing and thwarting plots to throw the galaxy into a new dark age. I guess I wanted a cold war rather than another world war but maybe that would have been too much like the prequels.
It is an assumption that the original trilogy is a surrogate for World War II. What if it were World War I? The original 'stormtroopers' of history were elite German forces in the Great War rather than the later Nazi party paramilitary. The Galactic Empire are authoritarian and the Sith some kind of 'meritocracy of evil' but are they truly Nazis? Some draw attention to how humanocentric they are. But once more we need to look outside of the story for an explanation. Latex masks and other markers of 'alien' nature are expensive even in a blockbuster. Both sides are dominated by what look like humans. Jump back into the story and we find that an imperial officer calls Chewbacca a 'thing' but then the republican diplomat Leia calls him a 'big walking carpet'. It seems that everyone is a little bit speciesist (and who knows what slurs the Wookies have for the seemingly ubiqitous humans).
I do wish there were more aliens prominently depicted in the movies. Maz Katana was cool but then very quickly sidelined. The self-sacrifice that logically belonged to Admiral Ackbar fell to another character we had only just met. For me Holdo felt more like a politician than a military commander and she would have worked very well as part of the Cold War story I never got to see. But it was all a bit of a mess. Many scenes felt like they belonged in other movies. The space gangsters preyed upon by loose rathtars felt like Red Dwarf. The never-ending mirrors into which Rey stared felt rather Harry Potter. They were cool but did they fit? I guess it is impossible to say. If you insist a setting looks only like those parts of a setting you have already seen then it will never get bigger. But then in an odd way the sequel trilogy made that galaxy seem smaller than it had been. It was a bit rushed and crammed and as a result more became less.
My overall assessment of these three sets of three movies? Episodes VII to IX were created by an ever-changing committee seeking to sell tickets to a fractious array of fans in an era of too much chatter. Episodes I to III were created by an auteur with lots of imagination but too much power. Episodes IV to VI were created by the same creative figure who once faced limitations set by both his relative youth and a few self-possessed collaborators who could curb his excesses. It is this that makes the original Star Wars trilogy the best and surely it is more than nostalgia driving me to make such rationalizations.
Labels: Nostalgia And Reminiscences
posted by Dan at
24.4.22
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