I know many of you have seen this story in the Times, or have picked up on it elsewhere, but I thought we’d bring it to the table of our humble little abode. Is Lucasfilm just trying to find a way to get me off my ass and see this thing? If so, the plan is working.
john,
i fixed your link. by the way, posting really long links seems to break the site design.
to post a link use the following html code:
{a href=”http://wwww.yourlink.com”}text to be linked{/a}
except use angled brackets instead of curled ones (i had to use them to make the code show up)
i’ll be getting my sith fill tomorrow afternoon–will report.
arnab
Sorry Arnab. I’ll make a note. By the way, how can I make the link open a new window?
the conversation about links and brackets is more interesting to me than the political readings of Lucas’ latest marketing scheme.
I don’t think I am one to hold a grudge against directors for past deeds (I’ve forgiven Sydney Pollack for grabbing the last pork roast at West Hollywood Trader Joe’s), but I am not going to see this film.
It’ll have sfx galore, wooden acting from Hayden, the continually perplexing Samuel Jackson, the pointyheaded Jedi that doesn’t talk, the increasingly tiresome Obi_wan, lots of Senatorial doings and another Darth Maul type rent-a-villain – this time with 4 light sabres.
There’s no soul to these films; not a single character I care about; nothing that compares to the first couple of films.
I’ve always been amazed that Lucas tried in Return of the Jedi to do Death Star again. They destroyed it once, and then they have to do the EXACT SAME THING again.
Well, this time Lucas looks to be re-enacting the awful Ewok forest war scene from that film again, this time with Wookies. That fat Kenny Rogers-clone couldn’t come up with another original idea if Linda Ronstandt was wearing roller skates, hot pants and carrying a bag of blow in front of him.
It’s about selling cereal. And I don’t want to see it.
By the way, the Japanese sports-zombie-comedy Battlefield Baseball came out on DVD this week. I trust everyone has seen it?
The odd thing about this whole Star Wars phenom is that it is so polarizing. Either one is hopelessly nuts about the thing–savoring every last morsel of hype, plopping onto the pavement for a premiere campout–or exceedingly disgusted with it–bitching and moaning about how one has wasted 25 years of one’s life and so on. Anthony Lane’s review in the latest New Yorker is a fine example of the latter. He calls Lucas a “vulgarian genius,” among other things. It’s a vicious piece of film criticism, and it’s totally predictable (as is Mark’s comment).
From those who fall into the former category, there appears to be some acknowledgement (even from rabid fans) that the whole phenom is just one big swifty. But all remain unapologetic nevertheless. They rave and rave (even Daily Kos!) and say “I know, I know, but I grew up with this and…”
Is there no in between? Any way to talk about this film without enlisting in either camp? I wish I could give it a try, but I am not going to see this film. Paying $11 for a Cleveland Steamer would be a better use of my time and money. And what’s with the lousy acting/lame script/trite story/awful casting/dumb character names/…
D’oh!
Mark just sent me a private email asking where he can get a Cleveland Steamer for $11.
i find the whole thing mindnumbingly dull (see my previous post “star wars”) but i am still compelled to watch. and from time to time i even find myself on various sites reading the “history” of the empire and crap like that. this is partly because i am easily amused, partly because through his sources lucas has tapped into fairly robust mythical structures. unfortunately his cinematic renderings of these structures is pretty crappy outside of special effects.
and the problem with the second trilogy is that its raison d’etre is entirely the success of the first. as bad as the first trilogy is cinematically what made it work is that we didn’t know anything about that universe when we watched it–everything was a surprise. this second trilogy is all explanation and everything that was a surprise in the first trilogy is rendered banal.
as for the politics of the film, i may have more to say in roughly 7 hours but i’m sure someone has pointed out that the polar good/evil world of the jedi/sith isn’t very much more complex than that of bush inc.
John said this (predictably, I might add):
I don’t believe this to be the case at all. Most people – the great silent majority – are mildly interested to see it, have kids they’ll take to see it, or have thought “Maybe I’ll go see it,” and in two weeks they’ll decide to wait and watch it on DVD at home. Or they don’t care to see it, and don’t get nearly as angry as I do when they see a wookie on a cereal box.
Looking at the media however, certain unperceptive types (ahem), might think that there is a public polarization on the topic, b/c it’s the polarized types that go to the effort to post on blogs, rant about it pro and con, appear on talk shows, and so on.
I wonder how divided the public ever is – even on things like the last election, where you supposedly had such diametrically opposed camps backing wither the pro-war candidate or the …ummm…. other pro-war candidate.
I don’t believe the media is TRYING to create an atmosphere of polarization, but it happens b/c of the intense competition between the shows to ratchet up the debate, which leads to presenting extreme examples on any topic.
I think Mark is right. I made mention of what Mark calls the “silent majority” in an earlier version of my comment but craftily deleted it in order to set up my cheap joke. Oh well. Anyway, a great many of my students showed mild to no interest. Only a few played the polarizing game. I was mainly referring to those people Mark says I shouldn’t pay attention to: the pundits, the bloggers, the film critics, etc. I just happened to read the Anthony Lane piece and thought “is this the best he can do?”
I’m more fascinated by the great Hollywood anxiety crisis of 2005 with Star Wars being positioned as the savior of a film industry currently experiencing an unprecedented financial drought. And everyone (even the Times with its capitalist propaganda disguised as left-wing conspiracy theory) appears to be in on the game. I’m surprised Bush isn’t holding a news conference encouraging folks to get out to the cineplexes for a little self-injection of nation-building. The critics I like to read didn’t seem to appreciate it, though I’ll probably slog through the damn thing next week (if I can find the time to figure out what happened during the last two films–which I saw but still have no idea what the hell is going on).
What’s a Cleveland Steamer? Please don’t answer, as I think I have an idea…
Isn’t Sydney Pollack Jewish? What’s up with the pork roast, then? You should have hit him with it, for Random Hearts at least. also in The Interpreter he makes African genocide dull and inconsequential.
Why the Kenny Rogers bashing? I mean, didn’t he give us “Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love to Town” and the Gambler TV movies?
lousy acting, trite names, etc.–aren’t they staples of Star Wars? at least we don’t have to hear from that fraud Joseph Campbell this time around.
Will Mel Brooks make a prequel to Space Balls? The Phantom Itch? Attack of the Shingles? Revenge of the Cysts? hey, this is A material!
Where have I been? recovering from the unprecedented success of my job search so far. also I loathe the internet these days. thanks for your attempts to motivate my comments–sorry I wasn’t more responsive.
I grew up with impetago. Does that mean I need to stand in line for it?
next up on my Netflix cue when I get the energy: Elephant (thanks to Mark’s post); The Leopard (long Italian neo-realism); End of the Century (Ramones documentary. “Judy is a punk” gets me through the darkest moments…) I love B-grade horror, so feel free to make suggestions…I hear good things about “I Eat your Skin.” not much about its sequel “I Thumb Through Your Magazines”–apologies to The Simpsons).
Mark said this about Return of the Jedi:
“I’ve always been amazed that Lucas tried in Return of the Jedi to do Death Star again. They destroyed it once, and then they have to do the EXACT SAME THING again.”
Wasn’t the second Death Star constructed as bait for the Rebels? Perhaps Lucas knows, as the Empire does, that people are stupid enough to come back again and again and again for the exact same thing.
Hmmm…from the Dark Side much to be learned there is.