How the Mythic Force and Cultural Resonance
of Star Wars was Squandered...

by eepious tamiken

A long time ago, in a decade known as the 1980's, the keepers of the cultural myth known as Star Wars (licensing rights be damned) were the little hands clutching onto plastic versions of "Yoda" and "Darth Vader."   To supplement the official cannon depicted in the original trilogy, these hands enacted millions of unscripted adventures to fictional planets and epic lightsaber duels that would never pass before the light of a movie projector.

Today, the soul of the franchise rests not with the current batch of 8-year olds, but with media wary former 8-year olds ready to chortle at anything that defies their personal nostalgia.

It is this former class of 8-year olds who have molded the contagious opinion that this latest and final Star Wars flick just isn't of the same ilk as the original trilogy.

Stop the crazed hate-filled rants directed at the newest Star Wars movie!

Sadly, we are in an era where the movies you endorse and can quote from now pass as personality.   At what point did having drastic opinions on matters of pop culture become as valued as it is today? Nothing is more of our time than treating pieces of mass entertainment as a two-way conversation.   Each image that flickers before our eyes now contains the question 'and how does this one make you feel?'. Pop culture, and movies in particular have turned into a form of mass therapy.   The reactions we have to everything we are hit with, define us as people.

This week we will see some of the most hyperbolic reactions in the history of film.

So please remember, this Star Wars movie was not created by George Lucas as a way to mess with the seminal movie franchise of your childhood.   Your childhood will not be lost because this movie did not help you relive it.

I can tell you right now that you are never going to walk into a theater as a jaded adult only to be transformed into the idealistic 8-year old you were the first time you saw a Star Wars movie.  

It's just a friggin movie people.   Stop demanding that George Lucas re-invent the wheel each time he sets out to tell one of his space adventure episodes.   (Even though with his advances in digital filmmaking he essentially has...)

Let's examine this perceived demise of a once proud franchise...

See, in 1977, when the original Star Wars flick came out, people generally reserved their most animated debate for issues of social and political consequence.   Today we have a generation of folks that are irate because George Lucas can't pen romantic dialogue.

In 1977, America was in dire need of a cultural mythology to provide relief from the political and social unrest of the times.

Star Wars filled that void by rescuing the movie industry from decades of freefall due to the popularity of television.   Suddenly going to the movies was an engrained routine of what it meant to be American.

If the original Star Wars film were released in today's media climate, do you think that Mark Hamill's theatrical stylings would evoke words such as 'inspired'.   The only reason that these new movies are called 'contrived' now, is because it's a word that these movie critics learned somewhere along the journey between being eight and who they are today.  

Here is a heretical snippet: Every single Star Wars movie ever made has been contrived.   There are completely good characters and there are completely evil characters.   We knew exactly who to root for, and we knew that they would overcome incredible odds to rescue a princess and destroy a planet sized space station.   It is this very simplicity that drew you to the franchise (and allowed you to follow along when you were six) that you are now lambasting.

Should the movies have progressed and grown with you?   Should the movies (intended to ultimately be one continuous story) have upped the emotional complexity as you accrued life experience?   Should the movies have changed tone and become intrinsically deep as you eventually had children of your own?

The original Star Wars faithful have ruined the aura of the franchise by continuing to hold their expectations at unrealistic levels.

Today, the soul of the franchise could rest with the youngest of the PG eligible crowd were it not for the Star Wars marketing blitz that leaves little in the way of choosing your own adventure.

Yes, the toys still appear as endless racks of clones in any store that can find an excuse to sell them.   The difference between now and the original heyday of Star Wars is that the action figure has been cast aside in favor of the video game controller.

Youngsters these days travel through the exactly replicated locations shown in the movie, while blasting away with the officially sanctioned Lucasfilm sound effects, all set to the glorious CD quality John Williams score.

In 1978, Tatooine was a beige colored rug in the living room, and the off-key and awkwardly hummed soundtrack had to take a pause any time Han Solo's blaster needed to ring out.

Yes, the creativity that fleshed out the Star Wars universe, and existed beyond box office record smashing, has gone the way of the Empire.

What we are left with is a hollow remnant of cultural mythology that those who lived through glorify like a fish story from a crazy uncle.

So when you go to see Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith, let it go peacefully.   Don't let yourself be personally offended by how George Lucas failed to help you recapture the magic of your childhood.

See it with the eyes of an eight year old if you want to have fun.