John Simon on Star Wars

Words from John Simon on Star Wars:

"One of [George] Lucas's particular achievements is the manner in which he is able to recall the tackiness of the old comic strips and serials he loves without making a movie that is, itself, tacky. 'Star Wars' is good enough to convince the most skeptical 8-year-old sci-fi buff, who is the toughest critic."

http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/08/24/reviews/970824.24simont.html

Carrie Fisher is "bovine and unappealing"

via: http://hauntedbog.com/worstcritics1.htm

John Simon, New York, (June 20, 1977), collected in the book, Reverse Angle (1982)

"Still, Star Wars will do very nicely for those lucky enough to be children or unlucky enough never to have grown up."

John Simon in National Review, June 13, 1980

"The Empire Strikes Back... is malodorous offal... everything is stale, limp, desperately stretched out, and pretentious.. Harrison Ford (Han) offers loutishness for charm and becomes the epitome of the interstellar drugstore cowboy. Mark Hamill (Luke) is still the talentless Tom Sawyer of outer space - wide-eyed, narrow-minded, strait-laced. Worst of all is Carrie Fisher, whose Leia is a cosmic Shirley Temple but without the slightest acting ability or vestige prettiness." 

via: http://kirjasto.sci.fi/brackett.htm

"Diverting piece of nonsense."

via: http://www.velocityreviews.com/forums/t272668-original-star-wars-trilogy-through-rose-colored-glasses.html

John Simon, Siskel & Ebert discuss 'Return of the Jedi'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rB3V3qyZiFM

These movies try to keep children; stupid children forever.

And that I think is wrong.

http://old.nationalreview.com/movies/simon061499.html

As for Queen Amidala, I'd say her name comes from the Yiddish, a madela, a girlie. Natalie Portman, who portrays her, as well as her decoy doppelgänger, is both Jewish and quite a girlie. The name of the beautiful 9-year-old blond boy, Anakin Skywalker (Jake Lloyd), derives, surely, from manikin, i.e., little man, and what a little man he is!

*omit*

The heartening thing about The Phantom Menace is that overwhelming armies of evil can be mowed down by a handful of stalwarts with computer-game ease because the Force is with them. "Feel, don't think," Qui-Gon counsels, and I can report that the second part of the advice was scrupulously heeded by the filmmakers.

Anchorhead wrote: I disagree with that statement.

Thanks for the perfect opening remark.  (good job without coffee)  This was part of the point of this post.  There's been complaints about the NYTimes article where George comments about 'retiring' and how people are pointing fingers at internet posts which were negative.  Yet critics like Simon have been critical since the beginning and George has said 'he didn't care what critics had to say about 'Star Wars'.*  Simon wasn't alone, but i've just been fascinated by his interaction with the SW phenomenon, thus the quote collection.

Now if I wanted to be a dick, I could have replied to Anchorhead with:

You disagree with the statement on vestigal prettiness, but you're ok with the bovine comment?!!!!

But really I think Simon is clouded by Fisher's family history when these statements were made.  If Simon's remembrances of Debbie was that perfect, then the offspring from that cad Eddie are what spurred these statements. 

But those TPM quotes are just weird on a whole other level.  And i'm constantly fascinated where people draw lines with people's statements. 

* http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:lN9NkVjGG-oJ:today.msnbc.msn.com/id/7383411/ns/today-entertainment/t/sorry-george-critics-used-love-star-wars/+%22george+lucas%22+critics&cd=3&hl=en&ct=clnk&client=firefox-a#.TxwzrCNQGGM