- Time
- Post link
I don’t know if it’s because I just finished Andor or we are experiencing autocracy in action or maybe I’m just getting old but my recent Star Wars viewing expenses have very, very different from my first.
The first two films made are pretty simple good versus evil tales that appeal across the ages and have a sense being inside the story. However we are shielded from some of the implications of fighting for liberty because the enemy dresses up almost like machines. For a “family” film it is also quite violent. We are with Owen and Beru long enough to see their charred skeletons as more than set dressing both heroes and villains alike are cutting off arms with some frequency. Anakin burning alive is deeply uncomfortable viewing bfor a film series supposedly primarily for children.
From Return of the Jedi onwards the increase in the number of aliens (Puppets and CGI), the always bizarre status of droids as both characters we care for but also things to blow up or laugh at when mistreated ramps up too. This in my few adds further distance from the reality and consequences of violence. The Battle between the Gungans and the Battledroids and the Ewoks and the Stormtroopers sanitise death, and pain on the altar of spectacle. Vehicles explode. Blaster bolts fly but nobody really bleeds (except a for one Ewoks and a flesh wound to Leia’s arm). We are so used to even the heroes treating droids as slaves that seeing human child slaves having comfortable lives once again sanitises the concept. Not to mention the child soldiers of the Jedi and the clones.
We see politics as blank shapes emotionally numb in committees. Once again lots of masks lots of face paint. Rarely does anyone raise a voice. Compared to reality where we see the anger, the duplicity, the drama of politics everyday. We very rarely get close up emotional responses in these films. That was a standout feature of Andor for me.
Then romance. Everyone seems to agree that the Prequels handled romance badly but consider Han’s attitude to Leia in ESB. He aggressively ignores Leia’s boundaries, she repeatedly tells him to stop and he pushes, he literally backs her into a corner and forces her into a kiss. There a very similar scene in Bladerunner which is meant to be uncomfortable and ethically dubious but I don’t think that was the intent in that scene. In the Prequels Padme is very uncomfortable around Anakin she is clearly aware he is fiercely infatuated with her and vocally tells him to back off, though for some reason the costume department put her in an impossibly tight and revealing outfit for the most vocal putdown. She only seems to show genuine affection after he tells he he murdered women and children. Also what is Jabba doing to these scantily clad women? It’s so unpleasant that Threepio can’t look and Salacious Crumb thinks it’s amusing.
Then there is the body humour, burps, farts, poop.
Gluing these elements together is some of the most beautiful symphonic music ever compiled for a film series. I hope John Williams stays with us for many years to come but a large chunk of his legacy to the world will be his Star Wars scores but for some of the reasons I mention above it doesn’t seem appropriate at times.
I was tempted to start this thread in the fanedit category as it would be interesting to discuss particular examples and maybe ways this situations could have been rectified or enhanced for narrative effect. I appreciate for a first post it’s quite blong but I would be interested in more specific examples people notice or if people think I’m looking too deeply or wanting too much from a series I first encountered in a darkened room nearly 50 years ago.
