End of an Era

As a child, I loved Star Wars. I'm referring to episodes 4, 5 and 6. When Episodes 1 and 2 came out, I was largely disappointed. Yes, its nice to see lightsabers and aliens and droids and spaceships and all but there was little else other than the effects and geeky cool. So now with episode 3, Revenge of the Sith, we can finally conclude the saga that is Star Wars. None too soon as well. As a movie, Sith is relatively entertaining, engaging, full of action, suspense and humor. Yet, at this point in my life, I think I've long grown out of thinking that the Force, lightsabers and Stormtroopers were cool. I think I've finally grown up and I can no longer watch Star Wars and enjoy it purely for the action and pretty lights. The super ultra corny lines and terrible acting were just really cheesy elements that don't make Star Wars anything more than a kiddie movie.

Looking back, I remember I used to put Star Wars as favourite movie alongside Trainspotting right up to when I was 21 or something like that. Now, I'm thinking that its embarassing that I used to like Star Wars. Ok, back then I suppose I easily glossed over the bad acting and stuff, summed up by the out of work Mark Hamill, whose best performance in recent times was a cameo in The Simpsons as himself trying to get over being Luke Skywalker. The cheesy lines were also more acceptable back then. "You scoundrel." But oh how I cringe when I see Ewan McGregor, pivotal in the aforementioned Trainspotting, fall to new depths when he says things like "But he is like a brother to me, I can't!" or "He killed... younglings...". I used to think Ewan was cool and he still is mind you, despite singing gayly in Moulin Rouge and appearing 3 times in 3 Star Wars movies as an actor with a good reputation acting bad almost on purpose. Acutally, his acting is fine in Star Wars. Its more of the pathetic scripting and puke worthy lines.

I really wonder why I used to love Star Wars so much. Lightsabers probably. X-Wing fighters and Wookies, funny droids and Yoda. Chewbacca, Han Solo. Boba Fett. Stormtroopers. AT-AT Imperial Walkers. TIE fighters. I suppose the old movies had lovable characters, lots and lots of cool stuff. The new movies seemed focus on effects and gasp! a plot. When I learned that the original Star Wars, A New Hope was really gleaned off of an Akira Kurosawa movie, I realised that George Lucas had stumbled cleverly upon the first blockbuster ever. He copied the basic storyline as well as several characters. Plus its hardly a stretch to see where the mysticism, which seems so blaise and anglicised, and the lightsabers came from. The jedi costumes. Amidala's make-up. The brilliant bit about Lucas was he borrowed Japanization. He Lucasized a Japanese movie, The Hidden Fortress. Which basically means he beat the Japanese at their own game. The Japanese took the Western movie and the noir aesthetic and put it into their samurai films, which Lucas stole back to make a tour de farce that was to become Star Wars.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not bashing Star Wars. It still remains a brilliant film. Back when I was young, in my memory, where it will remain, beatified. I just don't want to erase the beautiful, if exagerrated memory of how brilliant Lucas' work was in my youth. If I were to say rewatch the entire 6 movies, I'd probably lose that spark of childhood, where impressions were fresh and my mind hadn't been tainted with the adult world. Yes I am bashing it.

The other day, I had a small conversation with Flo about the new movie. An avid Star Wars freak, Flo sticks to his t-shirts and various memorabilia with pride. He hated the first 2 movies. Episode one had the fearful Jar Jar Binks whilst Episode two "de-mystified" the force with its scientific explanation of Jedi blood. I was trying to tell him how the show just had loads of shit lines. But he went on about how you know, anyone could control the force, therein lies its mystery. Which I suppose was the magic element that made the film stick. There was this invisible force that moved both in and out of the movie to immortalise Lucas amongst nerddom.

I think I read some review somewhere that mentioned how people watched the film and got the feeling like there was a relation to the existing American president. Whilst the issue of how Senator Palpatine turns the Republic from a democracy into a Dictatorship may perhaps draw some parallels with the current political state in America, its hard to see that buffoon quite as devious as Palpatine. The public stupidity in accepting Palpatine, Anakin's stupidity in falling for his bad acting may perhaps stir chilling similarities with voting habits in the US but still, if anyone wants to draw this political backline into the front, it just serves as some cheap, pathetic way to market the film as being deeper than Padme's make up.

It is finally the end of an era, where I have lost my innocence when watching films at last.