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Friday, May 25, 2007

Wars at 30

A recent exchange among friends on the 30th anniversary of Star Wars led me to write:

============

At the World Science Fiction in 1976 (Kansas City, IIRC?), they'd taken a room to demo concept art from this movie they were planning on releasing called "Star Wars," and I went up to talk to them about it. They were quite up front that it was space opera, which I thought was a good idea; science fiction film in those days was still captivated by 2001. Not much in the genre got theatrical release, and most of what did appear was arty, pretentious, and "meaningful." Nothing wrong with a good space opera. It might even be a useful corrective to the then-predominant view of SF.

I didn't see Star Wars the first few months after release, though I'd heard good things about it from friends, but after an all night Dungeons & Dragons session with friends, one remarked that he had a ticket to it at the theater on 86th Street that was nearest my apartment, and offered to sell the ticket to me. I took him up on it, took the subway back to 86th, and went to an 8 AM showing.

I then sat through it twice.

The single moment that got to my most was when Luke is standing on Tatooine--I think shortly after his aunt and uncle have been killed--and in the background hang two suns.

It's far from the most impressive effect in the film--a simple double exposure--but something I'd been reading about as a serious science fiction fan forever I now -saw- for the first time. I was on a planet in a double star system.

As for the rest--oh, nice pulpy space opera, to be sure. Really stilted dialog, of course, but then, you would expect nothing more of Doc Smith. Good fun, and one of the few science fiction movies at the time that didn't make me want to hurl something at the screen. Even if there was not the merest nod to actual science, and the screenwriters apparently had no idea that a parsec was a unit of distance.

In other words, I liked it a great deal, but it was not a life-changing experience. Science fiction to me meant Clarke, Asimov, and Heinlein, and it was interesting that these interloping film people were finally waking up to the potential of the genre--but of course, they couldn't be expected to get it exactly right.

I liked the second movie better--starting to see some actual depth of characterization--but the third was a dire disappointment. And by the second (or first, if you prefer) trilogy, Lucas had obviously imbibed far too much Joseph Campbell and actually thought he was creating Myth for the Space Age--the entertaining banter and tension between pulp characters had been replaced by these self-conscious mythic archetypes, and the dialog, even at the start pretty scant, had turned into such appalling crap that you wondered anyone could put it down on a page without flinching. But the end of the last--with Darth redeemed by the grace of Our Lord and waving happily with his good dead buddies Yoda and Obi-Wan at our heroes--I was ready to hurl something at the screen. Iesu fucking Christe. This is the man who in the first five minutes of the first movie destroyed a planet on which billions of sapients lived, making him more of a mass murderer than Hitler, Stalin, and Pol Pot combined. And yet he is forgiven? I suppose we should prepare for the consecrecation of Adolf.

As for its impact in filmic science fiction, although Star Wars was initially a breath of fresh are, the ultimate effects have been dire. Rare is the film that attempts anything other than space opera (and those few, like Gattaca and 2010, that try something more, somehow miss the mark). I'm still waiting for someone to drag SF movies into the Campbellian era, at least. After which we can talk about the New Age, and maybe even Cyberpunk.

Oh, well. Not doing anything to diminish my reputation as a curmudgeon, I guess.

posted by Greg at 10:20 PM 20 comments

20 Comments:

Darth Vader did NOT order the destruction of Tattoine. That was Governor Tarkin, instead. Not only was it Tarkin's order, it was *his* idea in the first place. ('Perhaps she would respond to an alternative form of persuasion.' Tarkin, to Vader)

It also happened much further into the movie than 5 min in, a minor point.

By Indy, at 10:50 PM

It wasn't life changing for me, either, but I was thrilled that even 1930s pulp had made it to the screen in an accessible fashion.

"the ultimate effects have been dire"

I disagree, to the extent that there probably wouldn't even be many BAD SF if Star Wars hadn't shown there was money to be made. I think some of what came out of the torrent of crap was acceptable, or at least interesting. Films like The Minority Report and A.I. were flawed, but they were real SF.

By Stefan Jones, at 1:11 AM

Stefan makes a good point. I don't think "Blade Runner" would have been made if not for "Star Wars".

By Jonathan, at 12:56 PM

"Kansas City, IIRC?"

You recall correctly.

I never got around to the exhibit, as I had much going on at that con, and:

a) the description sounded really dumb: a princess and a wookie and a mystical Force?

b) most sf movies, following Sturgeon's Law with a vengeance, and only an occasional exception, before that time, were crap. I didn't know there was any reason to think this one would be any different. Silly me.

Without going into much more comment about Star Wars, I do tend to refer to it as "science fantasy" rather than "science fiction," but that's because my own curmudgeonly aspects run towards being picky about those sorts of distinctions.

And I found a long long interview with Gary Kurtz, a while ago, who quit producing the SW films after Empire, which interestingly alleges that Lucas became convinced, after the success of Raiders of The Lost Ark, that putting a lot of effort into the story didn't really matter much as regards pleasing the audience.

Kurtz is pretty critical of Return of the Jedi on the same bases everyone else is, including: did we really need to see another Death Star blow up? Again?

His ideas for the third film want way elsewhere; a shame Lucas apparently grew tired of hearing disagreement with his own vision.

(Although I'm a lot more kind in my view of the second trilogy than most people; I agree that the dialogue mostly sucks, and I agree that Jar-Jar was awful, and with a number of other criticisms, but I also find a lot of positive in them, albeit a lot of it is simply the visuals -- but I also think that Phantom Menace was the worst of the three, and that they got better with each iteration; but I require no one to share my view.)

Mm, Kurtz interview here (see all pages, though); it's in my "to blog" file, along with 500 other entries.

By Gary Farber, at 10:42 PM

"Darth Vader did NOT order the destruction of Tattoine. That was Governor Tarkin, instead."

Nobody ordered the destruction of Tatooine. It was Alderaan that was destroyed. Yeesh!

By coldacid, at 5:19 PM

Damn, don't know why I got the bloody names confused.

By Indy, at 6:20 PM

Science-fiction has always been pulled between the "action spectacle" and the literature of ideas. SW was the vulgar triumph of the former.

Not to mention that, starting with Jedi, the SW films increasingly failed even as good action spectacles. Not only is it Low Cult, it's incompetent Low Cult.

I remember an old issue of Cinefantastique - the real Fred Clarke mag, not the shambling zombie from Mindfire - which listed "The 20 Most Important People in Sci-Fi."

There were no writers on the list.

There were movie producers, directors and the like plus one or two actors - the real heavyweight types who can get projects greenlit just by their box office draw - but no writers.

No writers.

Sure, CFQ was a movie/TV mag, but Clarke made it an exceptionally literate one. We're not talking about Starlog here. And the article copy made it clear that these were not estimated to be to 20 most important IN HOLLYWOOD - but in sci-fi, entire.

I'm afraid that is the legacy of SW.

By BrainFromArous, at 12:48 AM

I'm pretty certain the dual sun scene is way before his uncle is killed :D

By cliff, at 2:50 PM

Ahh, those were the days. Back then, merchandising hype didn't proceed, nay; define a movie. Unfortunately SW paved the way for it however.

I agree with the comment stephan made as well, so SW:No modern SciFi.

As for hurling something at the screen, I almost got hurled at the screen when I made false gagging and gurgling noises during the Yoda death scene. Sheesh, people totally hated me for that one.

By Anonymous, at 3:08 PM

People clap and whistle when a favorite character appears on the screen, or when a villain you love to hate finally gets his due, but I've never seen or heard theater-goers actually stand up and cheer during a movie since the first Star Wars film (when Luke finally "delivers the mail" to the Deathstar).

You can cite Joe Campbell, you can say it was the cynical times in which the movie came out, etc., but the fact is that the movie connected with audiences in ways that filmmakers only dream of.

I've thought about _why_ a lot. I have lots of little personal theories about it, but basically it comes down to the fact that we all need someone to cheer for. Always.

It's why we enjoy sports events. It's why we vote for political candidates. It's why we root for the little guy, and it's a primary reason why we reacted to Star Wars as strongly as we did.

When I first saw the movie in 1977, the merchandising and cynicism and endless analysis had not yet begun. I wish everyone could have been there at that time, virgin, to experience the phenomenon as it actually happened, unfiltered, unrevised, and feel its original creative (and yes, inspirational) power.

Meanwhile, I continue to wait patiently for a phenomenon like this to occur in movies, in any movie not just science fiction (which Star Wars isn't, btw), again. Not for myself --I've already had this experience-- but for younger folks who haven't.

It's long past due.

By Rich Carlson, at 12:13 PM

I was there, Rich. 1977 in a small Rhode Island movie theater. I will never forget my first viewing of Star Wars. Magic, indeed.

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