Star Wars
K O K O G I A K
This pretty sums it up. Whether I like it or not, I was utterly taken by the original Star Wars when I was nine, and so was every friend of mine. We would spend entire playtimes reciting the best bits of dialogue and acting out the good bits.
What made Star Wars so exciting was the feeling that this movie was made exactly the way I wanted it. I was the target demographic for that film, and boy did it feel good.
Talking about "Sith" with friends, I've been saying that the trouble with Episodes I and II was that they felt like they were made by someone who had never seen Star Wars, but had been to a few fan conventions and figured they knew what was wanted. Whereas III, for all its many flaws, feels like its made by someone who really likes Star Wars. Just as Star Wars felt like it was made by someone who really loved space serials, and wanted to make the best ever.
The Lucas' dialogue has, if anything got worse over the years, and it was never much cop to start with. But in Star Wars he knew his characters, and he cared about them, even the minor ones. The attack on the Death Star remains the best bit of film-making Lucas has ever put his name to, and not just because its exciting, dramatic and a suitable climax to the film. But he also manages to introduce a bucketful of new characters late into a movie, give us a brief sense of who they are, and make us care when they die.* That's hard.
What makes III better than I or II is that, for the first time, we start to get characters, rather than figures spouting bad dialogue. It takes a while, but when Vader is put into his mask for the first time, it actually looks like a prison rather than armour, and we understand that he sees it this way.
In the end it did what a prequel should - made me want to watch the original (analogue, 1977, Han-shoots-first original) straight away.
*Porkins (good name George! How long did that take you?) is the obvious example, but for me it has always been Gold leader. Even as his wingmen as being shot to crap, he is intoning "Stay on target. Stay on target." For me, this is the talk of a man who has spent his life in middle management - I see him working in a bank somewhere - but, when the chips went down, he went to the Rebellion. And when he had his one chance to save the world and cause he believes in, you'd better believe he's going to stay on target, no matter what, because he's going to do it by the book, because, while he'd rather be home with a book and his wife, he will not shirk his duty or miss his chance. And then he's dead and it's up to Luke.
This pretty sums it up. Whether I like it or not, I was utterly taken by the original Star Wars when I was nine, and so was every friend of mine. We would spend entire playtimes reciting the best bits of dialogue and acting out the good bits.
What made Star Wars so exciting was the feeling that this movie was made exactly the way I wanted it. I was the target demographic for that film, and boy did it feel good.
Talking about "Sith" with friends, I've been saying that the trouble with Episodes I and II was that they felt like they were made by someone who had never seen Star Wars, but had been to a few fan conventions and figured they knew what was wanted. Whereas III, for all its many flaws, feels like its made by someone who really likes Star Wars. Just as Star Wars felt like it was made by someone who really loved space serials, and wanted to make the best ever.
The Lucas' dialogue has, if anything got worse over the years, and it was never much cop to start with. But in Star Wars he knew his characters, and he cared about them, even the minor ones. The attack on the Death Star remains the best bit of film-making Lucas has ever put his name to, and not just because its exciting, dramatic and a suitable climax to the film. But he also manages to introduce a bucketful of new characters late into a movie, give us a brief sense of who they are, and make us care when they die.* That's hard.
What makes III better than I or II is that, for the first time, we start to get characters, rather than figures spouting bad dialogue. It takes a while, but when Vader is put into his mask for the first time, it actually looks like a prison rather than armour, and we understand that he sees it this way.
In the end it did what a prequel should - made me want to watch the original (analogue, 1977, Han-shoots-first original) straight away.
*Porkins (good name George! How long did that take you?) is the obvious example, but for me it has always been Gold leader. Even as his wingmen as being shot to crap, he is intoning "Stay on target. Stay on target." For me, this is the talk of a man who has spent his life in middle management - I see him working in a bank somewhere - but, when the chips went down, he went to the Rebellion. And when he had his one chance to save the world and cause he believes in, you'd better believe he's going to stay on target, no matter what, because he's going to do it by the book, because, while he'd rather be home with a book and his wife, he will not shirk his duty or miss his chance. And then he's dead and it's up to Luke.
posted by Toby Scott at 5/20/2005 03:18:00 PM
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