5 Reasons Star Wars Actually Sucks
In a previous column, I noted in passing that I fell asleep during Star Wars.
I have this dim (repressed?) memory of getting dragged to see it by a high school boyfriend. (So it must have been during a theatrical re-release — I’m not that old.)
I remember:
a) Harrison Ford = hot
b) remarking loudly that we shouldn’t be able to hear those rocket ships or whatever they were because, as everyone knows, space is a vacuum and you can’t hear explosions or anything else.
Then I gathered my jacket around my head until the house lights came up.
I figured I was free and clear. Little did I know that, well into the next century, Star Wars detritus would be washing up onto the shores of my life each and every damn day.
I’m talking about stuff like this:
And this:
And whateverthehell this is:
Seriously: isn’t there some cancer you could be curing?
If you’re trying to make adults with refined tastes and a real religion hate your favorite movie even more, congratulations, Star Wars fans: mission accomplished.
Star Wars actually sucks. Here’s why.
THE MOVIES
First of all, I’m not going to employ those pretentious, post-market locutions like “Episode V” or whathaveyou. If you are a grown up, then there are “the three old Star Wars movies” and “the three new Star Wars movies.”
Now: let’s look at all the other people George Lucas got rich ripping off, the way Picasso did with the Africans.
First, Joseph Campbell. This toxic troublemaker earned his academic reputation for his theories on “the hero’s journey.”
That is: Campbell discovered that, in every culture, in all times, societies had myths.
About heroes.
Who went on journeys.
Damn, I wish I’d gone to college.
Campbell also coined the insidious Baby Boomer, New Age bumpersticker motto, “Follow Your Bliss.”
Now, most people know that the sign over Auschwitz read “Work Will Set You Free.”
Fewer people know that the sign over Buchenwald read “To Each His Own.”
What nobody knows yet but me is that when Concentration Camps 2.0 are erected, the signs over their gates will be “Follow Your Bliss.”
(Or, hey, maybe even “Welcome to Comic-Con”…)
Influence #2: Kurosawa. Star Wars is The Hidden Fortress in space. We nuked Japan and stole their movies! (They only deserved the first former.)
Influence #3: Flash Gordon, the boring-beyond-imagining 1930s film serial.
We’re meant to be impressed that Lucas was also inspired by John Ford’s The Searchers (1956). Except that almost every American film made after The Searchers (and not a few foreign ones) was also influenced by The Searchers.
So a human comic book with a stirring soundtrack, bad jokes, and loud zapping noises is one of the top 10 highest grossing films of all time.
Yoda wept.
THE DIRECTOR
George Lucas is a plastic toy manufacturer who makes mediocre movies on the side.
He is the Ringo Starr of the “Easy Riders and Raging Bulls” who put the “New” in “New Hollywood” back in the 1970s.
Compared to Spielberg, Scorsese, and Coppola, however, Lucas’s film oeuvre is nothing but juvenilia, from American Graffiti to Star Wars to… well, he’s never made anything else.
It’s like his career has the opposite of Progeria.
It’s not just that George Lucas has the kind of face you just want to punch, although that doesn’t help.
In what must be a unique phenomenon even within the complex and mysterious ecosystem of fandom, even Star Wars fans hate George Lucas.
(A note to those of you fond of tossing around the glib expression “George Lucas raped my childhood”: unless it also contains the words “stepfather,” “Catholic priest,” or “Jerry Sandusky,”‘ you don’t actually get to use the words “raped” and “my childhood” in a sentence, m’kay? Please get another First World problem.)
THE FANS
When I was still (barely) in contact with what’s left of my family, one of my in-law step-somethings was a fat, hairy loser in his mid-twenties who collected Harley Davidson stuff. One particularly painful Christmas, he was bellowing about all the great Harley junk he’d received, and about all the other Harley stuff he already had or still needed to buy.
My fork hit the plate.
“Has it ever occurred to you,” I asked, “that if you’d saved all the money you spent on this crap, you could OWN a Harley Davidson by now?”
It’s true. He didn’t have a bike of his own. Or a car. Or even a bus pass.
With a few dozen additional I.Q. points, that’s your average Star Wars fan.
If they took all the time and money they’ve wasted obsessing over somebody else’s (boring) vision, they could probably be astronauts or champion fencers or costume designers by now.
Speaking of which: do you know what the brother of the guy who designed the Storm Troopers uniform was doing when he was sixteen years old?
(And no, I don’t mean “recreating someone else’s movie in my backyard,” either.)
He shared his brother’s passion for militaria, so since the 1960s, Andrew Mollo has worked as a historical consultant to the movies, with an expertise in military uniforms.
In other words: Andrew Mollo is a guy who has a lot in common with thousands of Star Wars fans, except his job does not require him to wear a name tag.
Successful, mature men do not play computer games, attend “cons,” and get excited about overrated science fiction movies from the 1970s.
Come on, all the conservative boys who’ve read this far:
Do you imagine Victor Davis Hanson is some kind of font of boring zombie lore?
Do you think Mark Steyn wastes his spare time playing World of Warcraft? (Trick question. Mark Steyn doesn’t have any spare time.)
No, these men have careers and families, here on planet earth.
THE MERCHANDISE
As much as I hate science fiction in general, I have to give Star Trek credit: at least that franchise inspired a few non-loser, hard working, intelligent people to create real world goods:
On the other hand, since 1977, Star Wars has inspired the creation of Happy Meals and other disposable (if not exactly biodegradable) junk.
Good luck using your toy light saber as a defibrillator, guys.
The Space Shuttle may have been a stupid waste of money, but remember: they called it the Enterprise, not the Millennium Falcon.
IT’S EVERYWHERE
The Star Wars-related visual smog that pollutes the internet is bad enough.
What’s worse is the linguistic variety.
We need a moratorium on “the Force is strong…” and “not the XYZs you’re looking for.”
Speaking of over-quoted movies — but this time it’s uniquely relevant — you know the Spinal Tap drummer who “choked on someone else’s vomit”?
Well, every time you write the phrase “the Empire strikes back” or “you’re my only hope,” you are vomiting someone else’s vomit.
Look: two good things came out of Star Wars (three if you count Harrison Ford, above):
a) the “Holiday Special” (which isn’t so “special” anymore now that YouTube has made it less legendary), and
b) unarguably one of the five greatest book covers of the last decade.
That’s all.
The extension of adolescence throughout the West is a serious matter. The never-ending obsession with Star Wars is but a symptom of this arrested development.
I’d observe that Star Wars fanatics are “amusing themselves” (and boring us) “to death,” but it’s worse than that.
Over 30 years on, their “death,” alas, is nowhere in sight.
Related: Geek Rage: Star Wars Comments of the Day
When Gary Kurtz left Lucasfilm, that was the last of the adult supervision. That was right after Empire Strikes Back and his absence showed in every film after he left, each film got progressively worse as if Lucas was daring the world to “Stop me before I go to far”.
I loved Star Wars ( you know, the first movie) Since it was 1977, before the age of the video recorder, I saw it 70 times – at the theater. Paid every time, stood in lines that sometimes took several hours to get into a showing. Yes, those were the days.
Absolutely Loved Empire Strikes Back, again since I didnt have video recorder ( they were around but rather pricey)I worked at a movie theater, and yes, I watched it start to finish at least 100 times. Love it each time.
But…
Return of the Jedi is where it all started to go straight to hell and our guide to the suphur filled underworld called “Lucasfilm” was called an “ewok”. frikken teddy bears? Really? If that was the end of the pain, it could be forgiven but sadly, no. It got worse from there.
Much much worse.
I hated, HATED Return of the Jedi, but I wasnt prepared for the day-glo orange lava level of hate that I would have for each of the following movies. In the end I would look back at Return of the Jedi as not being half bad by comparison. Of course, you know what Im talking about here dont you?
I’m talking Jar-Jar, as in Binks as in “WHO THE HELL THOUGHT UP THIS CHARACTER?” only it isnt just one flawed character, Watto? Did you get a look at this guy? Seriously? I mean really between Jar-Jar and Watto theres a serious lawsuit just waiting to happen.
And worse but not least – Anakin. The snot nosed kid who we all know is going to be Darth Vader some day. Sure he is, just look at him. And yes he gets worse in the next picture where he’s played by someone who is quite possibly the worst actor of all time, a boy who can barely speak his lines much less emote. but hey ,who needs acting when you’ve got CGI to cover it all up.
Oh, future-darth-vader is about 14 and he’s supposed to have a really hot girlfriend who’s easily 10 years older than him and hey, shes a princess so you would think she would have a number of other guys after her but no, she has the hots for the kid she once babysat for Qi-gong and Obi-wan. Sure, that happens all the time, only the princess is named “Mary Kay Latourneau” and she teaches Junior High School.
Crap. crap-crap-crap-crap-crappity-crap.
Oh, and lets not forget “Howard the Duck”. trust me when I say this, The Star Wars Holiday Special was not a one off anomaly in Lucas’ career.
Will I be seeing Star Wars in 3D? Let me put it this way, I hate 3D more than I hate Jar-Jar Binks. Good lord, why would ANYONE pay to see Jar-Jar Binks in 3D?
Who knew that THX-1138 featured the best dialogue that George Lucas could ever write?
I love watching the Porsche drive through the cones. That is a very good scene.
Me too — Lucas’s best moments are invariably when he ditches dialogue for a rhythmically-edited chase scene.
Just remember what Carrie Fisher said the Lucas:
“You can type this sh*t, but you can’t say it”
Almost tautological there, Ed.
It’s the best dialogue because it’s the least dialogue.
pretty much this
although i thought the “little kid” anakin did a decent job in “phantom menace”
Re Jar Jar Binks: My 6 year old granddaughter saw the 3d prequel Star Wars the other day. She can do a perfect voice imitation of him, but she did wonder what he was. I was tempted to tell her he was an effeminate combination of Duckbill dinosaur (Hadrosaur, which she knows a lot about), a google-eyed chamelon (she also knows a lot about them), and a walking capon.
As for the original movies, I’m letting her see them gradually so that she can enjoy them without having me do a Sigmund Freud on them, and that is the way they should be seen. As the late Harry Golden wrote, “Enjoy, Enjoy”.
PS: My granddaughter now goes thru my Star War card collection (in binders) and I tell her about the autographed photos and cards that I got in-person from David Prowse, Peter Mayhew, my bar-scene talk with Jeremy Bullock, and fun with Kenny Baker and his family. This she understands and thinks its great that grandpa actually met these people.
She also likes the Action Figures (I haven’t shown her the giant Millenium Falcon yet, but that is coming up soon).
We should let our children enjoy sci-fi, whether it is a space western (Outland is a perfect example), a space environmental issue (Silent Running, cool robots), Space exploration (I hated 2001; liked 2010), space spoofs (SpaceBalls, May the Farce be with You – god bless Mel Brooks and his zany gang of actors/actresses); or good versus evil (Star Wars – which is a lot like a Kurosawa movie).
Star Trek is a lot more sophisticated sci-fi and is best left for older kids, as are Night Gallery, One Step Beyond, and perhaps the original Outer-Limits. However, it is still good sci-fi entertainment (and the cast members from all five movies, including B5 & DS9, are really nice people, and a few are funny beyond belief – Ethan Phillips, Steve Furst, Max Grodenchek, Robert Picardo, etc).
Compared to the crap that passes for Sci-Fi movies today, Star Wars (the three original ones and Star Trek, STNG, DS9, ST:Voyager and my least favorite, B5), are still classics. So far, only Firefly and Serenity come close to being of the same quality.
Sci-fi movies are attempts to take you to places that exist only in the mind and are meant to entertain you. You have to leave your critical mind behind, grab a bag of hot popcorn, some Chocolate mints, and a soda, and take off some time from the reality outside the theater doors.
Excuse me, I have to go answer the phone. I think it’s George Nouri calling, or maybe even Rod Serling.
“Come on, all the conservative boys who’ve read this far: Do you imagine Victor Davis Hanson is some kind of font of boring zombie lore? Do you think Mark Steyn wastes his spare time playing World of Warcraft? (Trick question. Mark Steyn doesn’t have any spare time.) No, these men have careers and families, here on planet earth.”
Jonah Goldberg. ‘Nuff said.
And Goldberg actually produced an intelligent work, Liberal Fascism, while to the best of my knowledge Mark Steyn mostly just uses “metaphors,” otherwise known as “strawmen” or, more accurately, “slander,” to claim that individual acts of evil–such as the recent Italian crew ditching their sinking ship–somehow indicts the rest of us. He also bitched about how we’re not building battleships, ignoring all the fighter planes and bombers that we have produced since we stopped building more big targets for Migs.
Ok, so you hate Science Fiction, we get that. That doesn’t make those of us who do love it losers. I have a real job, a real career (a couple-three of them if you count my day job, the work I do here and other similar places and writing about and editing those SF novels you hate)and a family.
Withal I still find time to occasionally play a game or two, and enjoy the original three Star Wars movies — the versions before George Lucas screwed them up.
You’re certainly entitled to your opinion of the movies and I’d even agree with you about the $*(#%$&@*(#@ prequals. But calling us all losers and stupid because we like something you don’t is just uncalled for.
“Ok, so you hate Science Fiction, we get that.”
Not exactly. There is Science Fiction, and there is “Star Wars”. Star Trek is Science Fiction. Star Wars is pulp fiction at it’s worst, with lots of special effects added. But, as the old saying goes “You can’t put lipstick on a pig” To help Star Wars fans visualize the metaphor, I will modernize it by saying “You can’t put lipstick on JarJar Binks”.
Perhaps the ultimate arbiter on the quality of Stat Wars is Bart Simpson, who got into an argument in one episode over which Star Wars movie stunk the most.
Actually, technically, they’d both be Space Opera.
Please don’t get me started on the fallacy of “it’s just pulp.”
Many of the greatest writers of the last century were dismissed as “mere pulp.”
According to Lucas, it was a space western. The ending struck me as a typical Rad Baron-type movie, complete with biplanes (the X-wings) and the awards ceremony. It was a very entertaining movie, and very clever and original.
If I want cutlure, I read a book.
Well, she did say in the beginning of the “Merchandise” paragraph, “As much as I hate science fiction in general” so I think we can be forgiven for thinking she “hates science fiction in general.”
Sorry, but Star Trek is NOT science fiction. They have teleportation (scientifically impossible), ESP (also impossible), and intelligent holograms that simulate their own solidity in reality and carry around their own hologram generators on their arms, as if a poof of light can support itself against a gravity field. WORST of all, they claim to “have abolished money” and that only those dirty ugly rude jew-like aliens, the Ferenghi still use it (that makes Star Trek racist as well as “not science fiction”), without any rational explanation of how one operates an interstellar multispecies civilizations economic system without any medium of exchange.
The writer is also ignorant of Lucas’ movie career, which goes beyond just American Graffitti and Star Wars, to the Indiana Jones movies that he collaborated on with Steven Spielberg, as well as Willow, Herbie, and a number of others. A brief glance at his IMDB page would be illuminating to this toxic woman. I think she’s still pissed her boyfriend didn’t take her to some sappy chick flick she really wanted to see.
What was that? I stopped caring …
When anyone starts to tell me what is impossible relative to future scientific achievement, I move on to search for another discussion.
Good policy to have.
Tell me you didn’t just include Willow on his resume, he wouldn’t if he could.
Ok, so you hate Science Fiction, we get that.
Ever hear about the guy who asked his neighbor to turn down the raucus noise emitting from his stereo? “What are you a music hater?” “No, I’m a music lover. I just hate that.”
See, this is what happens when you’ve got to blog something on deadline, want to get your hits up with troll-bait, and can’t think of a subject of your own. Attack a popular part of pop culture so that elitist snobs will think that you’re hip. I expect this from Michael Moore or the Huffington Post, and I guess that it can be tried here, too. Maybe it will work, and Kathy will be able to escape fly-over land. But she’ll still be empty inside until she puts a creation of her own out there. It may just be a movie/toy line/cult hit, etc. But it’s a lot more than a blog article, and just what has she done for comparison?
Funny! It was a good read. Thanks.
Oh my, not a movie for grown ups apparently though you fail to see the difference between “serious” filmmaking and “sober” filmmaking that puts the blinders on you and therefore an inability to perceive art. Star Wars is successful and therefore doesn’t inhabit the politically correct social space wherein failure is an automatic ticket to grown updom and success a ticket to idiotville.
Well, it doesn’t quite work like that. Good stuff is where you find it and ticket sales or a conspicuous lack of success have nothing to do with it. Science fiction literature, from which Star Wars emerged, has a long and impressive literary history. The problem is that you actually have to read it to be aware of this.
Let me know when you’ve written anything as stunningly original as “Fondly Fahrenheit” or “The Weapon Shops.” Either story and dozens more I could mention, are decades ahead of the insipid films you’ve listed as movies for grown ups. Science fiction in 1942 or 1954 displayed more nuance and layering than a film going mainstream public was able to grasp. Even in 1984, the makers of “Dune” had so little faith in the ability of the film going public to understand the material that they compromised and made a failure.
The thing you are entirely unable to grasp about Star Wars is that the complexity of its literary ancestors and much of its success lays at the edges of the film, in it’s design, use of language, background displays of technology. On top of that, Star Wars has film ancestors but this success once again lies within things that are filmic tools and not story. These things are use of editing, innovative use of scale and staging scenes, lighting and casting. The special effects were not only innovative but seminal.
You seem unable to grasp that film’s are not simply picture books. They can and mostly are measured as successful entirely on considerations that have little to do with the actual content of the story apart from how well they serve that story. Logan’s Run is also an interesting SF movie. The problem is that it seems to have been put together based on the design and fashions of a hair salon. It fails on so many levels as a film its difficult to number them. If Logan’s Run had the same non-verbal nuance and layering at its edges as did Star Wars, it certainly would inhabit a far better legacy than it does now.
For further proof of how story needs to be told in a filmic way to impel it forward, I give you Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Either as a film or short story, if you reduce it to mere plot it is not very impressive; it is not an “idea” film. However if you dress a proposed literary version in prose artistry, or the film itself in the stunning use of editing, script, casting, acting, screenplay, special effects, art design and all the rest, it is a spectacular achievement. You think SF is stupid, what does SF think of you and your complete detachment from the tools that build art while sadly reducing all to plot.
Comic books have plot but sadly too many pictures. You could create a more adult version, the pictureless comic book or perhaps the Bradbury version, the wordless comic book. Lots of cute salamanders.
Do yourself a favor and read Fondly Fahrenheit, a short story from 1954. It’s about a man who owns an android he uses to earn an income by farming out its services. It is as tersely heady and brilliant as anything American literature produced up to that time, perhaps for the rest of the century as well and there is more if you wish to “see” it. After that at least read The Weapon Shops from 1942; even imagining a 1942 mainstream film audience “getting” a film adaptation makes me laugh, and these were the people laughing at “nerds.” You see there’s no place for Clark Gable or Gary Cooper to give cute smirks.
Fondly Fahrenheit?! I thought I was the only person who had read that. Alfred Bester was a genius.
You two aren’t the only ones … and I wish I weren’t one. Damn story is CREEPY, and has stayed with me for decades. If I could unread it, I would – and that just goes to show you how effective it is!
Definitely not the only one. Now how many see C.M.Kornbluth’s ‘Marching Morons’ as prophetic, or prediction?
And how many people think it’s unintentionally ironic that “The Marching Morons” was made into “Idiocracy” by… marching morons?
I do, and both stories are in the Science Fiction Hall of Fame. Sad to think they’re perhaps not even known about. Anybody who thinks people in the ’50s were conformists compared to the dragon and “merc” ridden trash that comprises fantastic literature nowadays should have their heads examined.
Oh, look! It’s a Conservative/Libertarian “merc” in armor with a shoulder mounted rocket launcher hopping around huge distances like a frog! Who ever saw that before! And the angst, the angst, the violence, the rebels, the crappy planet! Oh, guh.
You come off as overly bitter about something which has a very simple explanation: many people are inclined to fantasy, science fiction and stuff because they want to escape (at least for a while, at least in their imagination) from the boring, day to day life. It’s absolutely normal.
Playing various games, computer or not, is also a natural thing to do, especially for boys or men who like these types of fictitious challenges. Throwing out the “conservative male model” at your readers is ridiculously dogmatic, like conservatism is some kind of overaching ideological straight jacket.
Like Patrick says, “you’re entitled to your opinion”, and I’m entitled to mine, which is that your article is lame.
You are just gratuitously spewing your personal frustrations on your readers. You try to be ironic but
Why is your life “boring”? Why have you permitted that?
Like I said: put all your energy and frustration into creating something instead of playing computer games — which is the electronic equivalent of being a parasite on a host.
When you play computer games, you are hooked up to a machine like a “vegetable” in a hospital. Except they have an excuse. What is yours?
We are doomed if game-playing “men” are the future of the West.
Just exactly who are you to tell me what forms of relaxation I may and may not enjoy? Or how I’m dooming Western Civilization because I occasionally choose to spend a few quiet hours playing a game.
My favorites tend to be Real Time Strategy games, which promote decision making, global thinking and problem solving. None of which are bad things. (Although when I’m in a foul mood there’s nothing quite like a good First Person Shooter to let out some of that natural aggression.)
Your pretension that gamers and SF fans are all a bunch of geeks and losers marks you for a literati snob whose close-minded opinions on the subject are to be discarded like yesterday’s refuse.
Could it be modern feminism has destroyed adult males? Now we have middle aged (and younger) adolescents fantasizing about heroics that they’ll never be able to experience first hand. The only exception to this is in American culture is the US military, but don’t worry, the sociologists running Human Resources in the Pentagon will eventually ruin that institution as well.
And here’s the nightmare scenario: if the American/European economies collapse and we enter a dark ages, what kind of men will there be trying to keep civilization together. I think it will make “Mad Max” (another SF genre!) look tame in comparison.
I agree. Video games are to porn what methadone is to heroin–both gateway drugs to oblivion. I know guys who vacillate between the two like ping pong balls. Ok, enough with the alliterations, but I think you get the point. Oops.
“When you play computer games, you are hooked up to a machine like a “vegetable” in a hospital. Except they have an excuse. What is yours?”
You’re a rabidly offensive, hateful creature. Do you realize that? People do all sorts of things to pass the time and enjoy themselves. Perhaps next you’ll bombard us with a list of Officially Unacceptable Pastimes, and admonish the rest of us when we fail to comply with your edict.
“We are doomed if game-playing “men” are the future of the West”
No, we’re doomed if we let carping, overbearing know-it-alls make up rules capriciously that the rest of us have to follow. That’s called fascism. And we’re even more doomed if bossy harpies succeed in pressuring men to enjoy only the leisure activities they themselves enjoy, or to which they give their haughty stamp of approval.
So you want to get rid of all science fiction and video games. What’s next? Professional athletics? Heck, what kind of future could we have if grown men keep cheering for other grown men who keep running around throwing balls through hoops and shooting pucks in nets, right?
What exactly is your proof that we’re “doomed” if boys and men enjoy Star Wars and play video games, anyway? Are statements like that grounded in any kind of compelling evidence, or are you just making shamelessly provocative statements to attract attention to your ill-natured self?
You do know that it’s not just conservatives that like Star Wars, right? The liberal Jon Stewart is a Star Wars fanatic, and last time I checked, he was rich and famous, plus married with children. Did an obsession with Star Wars doom Jon Stewart, or did he turn out OK?
You’ve got to be one of the most mean-spirited creatures who ever published an article anywhere. All anyone needs to know about you is your liberal use of the word “loser” to diminish other human beings to the level of caricature, and wound them viciously.
“When you play computer games, you are hooked up to a machine like a “vegetable” in a hospital. Except they have an excuse. What is yours?”
People do all sorts of things to pass the time and enjoy themselves. Perhaps next you’ll come up with a list of Officially Unacceptable Pastimes, and admonish the rest of us when we fail to comply.
“We are doomed if game-playing “men” are the future of the West”
No, we’re doomed if we let overbearing, opinionated people make up rules capriciously that the rest of us have to follow. And we’re even more doomed if harpies succeed in pressuring men to enjoy only the leisure activities they themselves enjoy, or to which they give their haughty stamp of approval.
So you want to get rid of all science fiction and video games. What’s next? Professional athletics? Heck, what kind of future could we have if grown men keep cheering for other grown men who keep running around throwing balls through hoops and shooting pucks in nets, right?
What exactly is your proof that we’re “doomed” if boys and men enjoy Star Wars and play video games, anyway? Are statements like that grounded in any kind of compelling evidence, or are you just making shamelessly provocative statements to attract attention?
You do know that it’s not just conservatives that like Star Wars, right? The liberal Jon Stewart is a Star Wars fanatic, and last time I checked, he was rich and famous, plus married with children. Did an obsession with Star Wars doom Jon Stewart, or did he turn out OK?
It was mean-spirited of you to use the word “loser” to diminish other human beings to the level of caricature and wound them. Doesn’t speak well of you at all.
‘When you play computer games, you are hooked up to a machine like a “vegetable” in a hospital.’
she said…as she pounded away on her keyboard.
Oh wow, video gamers are equivalent to vegetables hooked up to a machine in a hospital? Realllly? Think about this: Studies have actually shown that video games increase hand eye coordination and improve the aptitude of doctors and surgeons who need fine motor skills to perform delicate surgeries. So perhaps if you actually do at some point in your life suffer the misfortune of needing to be hooked to some machine in a hospital like a vegetable then you perhaps might actually wish that your surgeon has been honing his skills by playing video games.
Video gamers often perform much better of critical thinking tasks that involve taking abstract tasks and linking them together in a coherent way. The score better of IQ portions of tests that involve arranging patterned blocks. Hell, even just playing word jumble games from the back of a weekly newspaper also improves people mental aptitude with object recognition and pattern formation. Something you might actually want to become practiced at if you were say, an airline pilot reading a weather radar screen and driving the plane through the least area of turbulence.
Also, the number of murders has been steadily declining as the number of game playing hours has been increasing. Not to say that correlation necessarily equates causation but there are possible links that the cathartic experience of playing a violent video game can ameliorate the violent outburst of a stressed individual who suddenly snaps one day and goes on a shooting rampage. Despite the prognostications that said violent video games would increase murderous tendencies.
Lest not forget the time and money spent viewing pornography on the internet. The number of violent rapes has been on a steady decline and once again could be linked to ever increasing abundance and easy access to pornographic material on the internet. Think about that next time your walking to your car in a empty parking garage on a dark night. Would you want your would be rapist lurking in the dark corners behind your car? Or would you want him to be at home WTF Pwing someone on Call of Duty and fappin’ it to Jenna Jameson?
And if I tell you I’ve climbed more volcanoes around the world than most people had changes of underwear in January and personally witnessed the revolution in Egypt after raising myself on a steady diet of science fiction then I am a braggart. One can’t win this argument about keeping it “real.” I understand your point about a value system; it has nothing to do with science fiction and fantasy. iPads, iPhones, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and all the rest have nothing to do with SF but do have the same dangers you speak of. At least SF stimulates the imagination. How stimulating is it to Twitter Kim Kardashian or send your cousin in Kuala Lumpur a picture of a fish frying in pan? How about watching young tourists eternally on their cell phones in Varanasi, India? Why did they leave home?
That’s what I love about conservatism; telling other people exactly how much they are supposed to contribute to society and in what way. No…wait…
I guess you’re unfamiliar with the upcoming graphic novel, “VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: ZOMBIE KILLER.”
It’s an adaptation of “CARNAGE and CULTURE and ZOMBIES.”
Zombie might take exception to that, though.
One reason why “Star Wars” is better than marriage:
“Star Wars” won’t kick you out and drag you to court. Ever.
Really, we all know some guy who got taken to the cleaners by a greedy ex-wife and a compliant (or bigoted) judge. Until men are once again valued for who they are, the curious blend of John Galt and Comic Book Guy will continue to have the last laugh.
Gus, you realize that John Galt and the Comic Book Guy are both, you know, fictional characters, right?
Fiction in name only. The best fiction is based on fact.
These “fictional” characters have far more coherent and focused motivations than Mrs. Shaidle, whose true self, beliefs, and heros may or may not exist depending on who annoyed her last.
I happen to agree with you for the most part in your article, I myself, liked the original 3 movies and then moved on, and never fell into the fandom thing.
I also remember I played video games, mostly when I was in the university, now I think that’s ok if you have time to kill. And many creators have time to kill, I have a regular job and 2 other ones of myself and really have not too much free time, particularly because I love what I do for life (which involves mathematics, statistics and classical art); but when I am trying to relax (which is a licit thing to do) I can throw angry birds to green pigs, specially during flights.
However… I hate this stupid excuse of an excuse of “hey! they were just fictional characters!”
You can be right in your article, but there is no need to fall down to this level of ignorance. Literature (which can be good, mediocre, irrelevant, plain bad, etc) is based in the transmission of concepts. Mr Galt may not exist, yet his ways are very alive between us, just like there is people like Roark or Dagny. An author may fail sometimes, and you may not like some writtings, but the value of literature is well above that, and well above the fact the characters are real or not. You may want to read Bashevis Singer ideas about logic and fantasy in his Stories for children to see why the story itself matters despite the realism of the characters.
Have you ever read a book? If yes, have you ever made a connection or cared about what happened to the characters in the story? The characters in those books are no more real than those from Star Wars or any other movie or comic book (fictitious ones of course). Just because the movies or books aren’t real doesn’t stop people from caring or urging the characters on. Now look at video games. They have matured a great deal over the past few years. Yes there are games focused solely on action but many have strong stories and characters. The Mass Effect series for example has a very gripping narrative. Each generation has its own way of expressing itself and it may turn out that video games will be an outlet of expression for generations to come.
Loved the column. There are some truly excellent lines in there, and I thank you for the laughs, and that Fanboys trailer. Hilarious! And yes, I’ll get it on DVD when it comes out. I don’t do theaters anymore. Mr. Martin, sir, I salute you. A most excellent response. Most Fans I know loved the first two movies, and pretty much detest to greater or lesser extent, the other four. I love the special effects though. They’ve come a long way. Thanks to all here. I enjoyed the reading, and the memories.
Great. Another blogger bashing Star Wars.
It’s been done. A lot. By everyone online it seems. Even a description of a Star Wars related product will contain a dig about Jar Jar Binks. Kudos to you copywriter, for putting in your two cents!
It’s old, tired, and now boring.
But the disgruntled fanboys and youngsters who grew up in the Lucas backlash that is the last ten years will continue to pound out articles and videos about how much they despise the franchise and its creator.
And I will ignore them, as I have been doing so for some time.
So, who’s going to see Phantom Menace in 3-D?
Can’t wait to miss it.
What’s strange is that we have a blogger on a conservative, free market, website bashing economic success achieved without government support…
SW is fun, even if Lucas was misguided in portraying the rebel scum and their smuggler accomplises as the good guys.
If people find escape in it from the drudge of everyday life by buying some props and roleplaying characters from a fictional universe, more power to them.
Far better than stealing a gun to rob a store or house in order to buy meth or crack, or to blow their own brains out.
Do some take things to extremes? Of course, a few do that with anything and everything at all. The author here does it with her hatred for example
Where is the author bashing economic success?
Thanks for wasting my time and yours with this useless diatribe.
Here’s a better motto to put over your door: “Get Over It”.
I’m sorry that your boyfriend took you to Star Wars — get over it.
I find it hard to believe this “writer” ever had a boyfriend. She has absolutely zero understanding of the male half of the species.
Her boyfriend was probably of the type that beat up us poor star wars nerds. I guess that makes him enlightened and mature, a real man in Kathy’s world.
Oh, wait, that’s high-school. In actual reality the star wars nerds make the world go round and Kathy’s hubby makes fries.
Between this crap and Klavan abandoning film as a medium it’s little wonder the culture has gone to pot.
All that’s required for evil to win is for good men to do nothing, and apparently the “good men” in America are too “good” to bother with those piddly little childish toys like story.
Grow up, Kathy.
“Grow up, Kathy”
(chuckle) oh, the irony.
I have long said that Star Wars is sci-fi (if you can even call it that) for children and Star Trek is sci-fi for adults, espcially when you get past the original series and make your way into the latter seasons of The Next Generation and the Deep Space Nine series.
That said, Trekkers who dress like Klingons and attend conventions aren’t any better than their Star Wars counterparts. But at least they’re into something people over the (mental) age of twelve can enjoy.
Don’t agree…….
I Think Star Trek is for children and Star Wars is for the, ehm….. ‘specially gifted’………
Great article, Kathy. Can’t spare the time to read it all. My fleet just delivered six new 24 lb. howitzers and I have Napoleon cornered in Savoy.
I admire Shaidle, but here she’s managed to embody a nigh-Platonic ideal: everybody’s First Wife from Hell.
At least you’re not making it personal.
Fun article, possibly a bit of overkill. Have to agree about Joseph Campbell. Lucas name-dropped the guy and since Campbell, back in the 70s, was considered really profound, people started thinking Star Wars was really profound. As if nobody had ever used “the hero’s journey” in a movie before Lucas came along. The fact is, it didn’t reach deep into our ancestral archetypal psyches any more than any other action/adventure move ever did. It just did so in a new and exciting way. People at the time loved Star Wars because it had likable characters, lots of action, and the most amazing SFX people had ever seen before. That’s it.
Oh I get Cathy, you’re basically just a sh*t disturbing contrarian. You think The Monkees are better than The Beatles. You think Star Wars sucks. What’s next? An essay on the fact that you think peanut butter is yucky?
Hey! Peanut butter *is* yucky!
But you’re right. It’s trendy to harp on Star Wars, and this article is obviously troll bait. It would have been fine to express a certain amount of antipathy to Star Wars, but this came off as needlessly aggressive toward fans.
Of course, if it hadn’t been, it wouldn’t have drawn clicks–which was the point. But let’s just say that it’s not a surprise that someone who claims to not like science fiction doesn’t like Star Wars, and even less of a surprise when she doesn’t understand geek culture. She doesn’t even realize how ignorant it makes her sound. That’s fine: it’s not her thing. People are often a bit more circumspect about revealing their own cultural blind spots.
And the Monkees were better than the Beatles, in that they;
1) never shilled for communism
2) never went off to India to “find themselves”, and
3) gracefully retired from the biz before making asses of themselves with facial hair and LSD
Also, they never pretended to be anything but what they were: four kids putting on a show in order to make money.
Unlike some fab foursomes we could mention.
Just. Beautiful.
Well, OK, you do seem metaphorically gifted, and your acerbic wit is off the scale. Can we send a Jedi to you for a blood test? Please don’t kill him. Actually, that encounter is a mental picture I am enjoying.
But the bottom line is that they never did a Hitler video about Carrie Fisher, or any of your other cultural allusions. This one on Hitler and the Death Star is pretty good (watch for the profanity): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIYJDVT7eCM
Much to learn you have! Anger management is for girls too.
I would love to see a Jack Vance novel adapted to the cinema.
Nice troll bait, Kathy. Mind telling us what your hobbies and interests are so we can insult them?
Damn straight, Otto!
I see you’ve deleted my comment. Thin skin, huh? You’re sad.
Welcome to the new PJMedia, where we’ve taken the “pajamas” out of the name because it was no longer ironic.
sigh…
thy name is Kathy Shaidle, apparently. You really don’t have a sense of humor, do you? It’s all about you.
I’ll bet you voted for Barack Obama, didn’t you!
Staley, you made my day by mentioning “Fondly Fahrenheit”, one of the best SF short storis evah!
And I love Mark Steyn, and Hanson—but I seriously doubt Kathy is thinking of taking up farming in California’s Central Valley anytime soon, and she’d probably consider Steyn’s interest in old show tunes, and Broadway, just too, too tacky, for her superior tastes.
As another poster said, Conservatives should not be in the business of putting straightjackets on each other (though, Heaven knows, some try!)
Saw Star Wars when it first came out in June ’77 and was very disappointed.
I find the series boring and dislike the fact that so many of the “characters” appear to be wearing fur ripped from old teddy-bears.
I was ten in ’77. I fell asleep in my parents car while at the drive-in watching it. I had nice dreams. Star Wars was not a part of them.
Well, a lot of interesting comments here. I remember the fan base when the first movies came out. I never saw them in theaters so I didn’t know what I was missing. Later on I did manage to see them. The first time I watched them back to back, I had seen “Return of the Jedi”, I was sorta impressed. As time passed I became more and more aware of how badly the whole story sucked.
I was a Star Trek nerd though, and much of what you can say about Star Wars you can also apply it to Star Trek. Poorly written stories, that have for some reason attached themselves to people and never really die that proper death they deserve.
One thing. George Lucas got so inflated on his self worth after the first two Star Wars movies he figured he was above it all. It took others to bring forth his vision. When he tried doing it himself we got the newer movies that sucked beyond belief.
The difference is that Star Trek fans openly acknowledge the badly written stories. They don’t defend them and feign outrage if someone points out that an episode like “Spock’s Brain” sucks.
In fact, I would argue that Star Trek fans are hypercritical of their own brand. I have seen unfair criticisms of Voyager and Enterprise that make me wonder if I’m seeing some kind of special edition, rewritten version of the same series that’s much better than its general rep.
Kathy,
Same goes for those idiots who follow The Secret. I asked someone recently who just picked up the book, “Hey, do you think if those people in Hannibal Lectors (Hitlers) camps wished and thought really positive thoughts that they could have released themselves from the camp??
I cal him Hannibal because I’m just reading The Storm of War and I came to the conclusion that Hitler was a madman on the level of Hannibal Lector on steroids.
“Do you imagine Victor Davis Hanson is some kind of font of boring zombie lore?”
I imagine that Victor Davis Hanson knows entirely too much about the various stylistic quirks of Ancient Greek and Roman writers with multi-syllabic Europeanized names, and the only reason we tolerate him is because there ain’t enough Greek and Roman scholars around nowadays for us to be sick of them.
“Do you think Mark Steyn wastes his spare time playing World of Warcraft? (Trick question. Mark Steyn doesn’t have any spare time.)”
How many young conservatives impatient for the daily dose of concentrated Steynery groan loudly whenever ANOTHER fargin’ column on musicals comes up?
Face it, you like Star Trek because it has all those slow asides with down-home old men engaging in snappy dialogue around the fire whilst singing “Row, row, row, your boat.” And Data trying to have emotions.
Let’s make a deal: Y’all don’t try to understand our loser pain when one of the greatest bits of inspirational 20th Century Americana that was developing a rather rich backstory by competent authors and designers in the early 90s got screwed by its author…
…and I won’t tell you to go play Ar Tonelico to understand how Japanese people make up constructed languages to sing multipart harmony in their attempts to construct an entirely song-based language for a one-off video game.
(Or for Western audiences, you could always search for the Skyrim theme.)
And I won’t whine about how Electronic Arts raped Kesmai for it’s sports properties and summarily dumped AirWarriorIII. Leaving all us air warriors out in the cold. Bastages.
- Greas, formerly of the Killer Sheep of the ACCS (Aerial Crowd Control Services)
May the force be with you!
“So it must have been during a theatrical re-release — I’m not that old.”
That explains a lot. If you want to review Star Wars then you need to consider when it was released. Star Wars was vastly different from the normal Hollywood fare of the 70′s and it was one of the first films to heavily utilize compute animation. You saw it when… in the 90′s? Well, Star Wars hasn’t aged well, the graphics just don’t hold up, much like my video games. And George Lucas only had one or two stories in him, everything after the first two movies is unwatchable. Put in context of the time Star Was was groundbreaking, now it’s been so commercialized that it appears to be a caricature of itself.
Sorry Chris, now you’ve brought context and an understanding of cinematic history into the game, and that’s blatantly against the rules. Kathy is a child, an ignoramus of history and art, please be more gentle and understanding with her fragile psyche in the future.
antipathy to Star Wars reveals the power of its vision. If it was just bad art you wouldn’t care much one way or the other.
Before we stopped going to movie theaters (due to precipitous decline in product quality), I went with my wife to “The Color Purple” and I didn’t fall asleep. I went to “The Joy Luck Club” and didn’t fall asleep. (Didn’t cry either – unlike my spouse.) On one of our first dates, we went to the drive-in to see “Alien.” She fell asleep. When it was over, I watched it again. She never woke up. Conclusion: men are more polite about sitting through women’s movies than vice versa.
Like Star Wars or don’t…I care not.
The rest of this reads like a deleted scene from the Alpha Beta house in “Revenge of the Nerds” Scifi, like any other genre of entertainment, is a taste and it’s not for everyone. I personally don’t like mayonaise, but you don’t see me tossing off 400 words about how mayo lovers are losers. Scifi geeks and nerds are are a large and growing part of our culture, so just get over yourself.
I’m (mostly) convservative, a gamer, and managed to find employment in the US Army…
And the nerds and geeks you hold with such disdain? Responsible for every damn technological innovation that made this site, this page and this response possible…
“And the nerds and geeks you hold with such disdain? Responsible for every damn technological innovation that made this site, this page and this response possible…”
The LEFT denies that. I’ve listed spin-offs from military research prompted by SciFi and had the Socialists call me a liar. Then I linked to the supporting data and got deleted. So What can you do? The left side of the WWW has become an echo box bought and paid for by Lewis, Soros and Co.
I took exception to Kathy’s remark on a “real Religion”. The Supreme Court says a religion is what ever it’s practitioners say it is. So if enough people want to worship Jabba the Hutt, then they can. Mr. Hutt Makes as much sense as a god as that Jesus dude.
SciFi rules because of the Babes. It is NOT a co-ink-see-dink that when they put out the top 10 lists every year, the hotest babe list is loaded with girls that made their chops in ‘B’ grade SciFi films.
“Successful, mature men do not play computer games, attend “cons” and get excited about overrated science fiction movies from the 1970s.”
I’m sure women know what makes successful mature men.
How about we start off with something important. No one is the same. I’m not a star-wars fan but I object to you acting like some judgemental snob over something that you obviously do not understand.
And until you do you are as qualified to talk about it as a virgin talking about sex.
And before anyone makes a comment yes I mentioned virginity in a comment about geeks and nerds.
=
I think she’d be surprised by the number of Bas, Masters of Science, and PhDs at an average SciFi conference (even when counting just those visitors old enough to have gained those degrees, not the staff or children)…
** I’m sure women know what makes successful mature men. **
Sure we do. At least to the extent we know who we want to be with; I guarantee you it isn’t an immature male who spends all his spare time playing video games or dress up. That’s why the avg. age for women to marry is later now than ever (30 yrs.) or not marry at all.
Actually, I pretty much agreed with what you said, until you lost me with this sentence. As sarcasm, it way overshot the mark, and hit a true (but unintended) target.
“That’s why the avg. age for women to marry is later now than ever (30 yrs.) or not marry at all.”
I think it’s more that guys aren’t asking.
From near the beginning of the first movie when Luke whines “But I was going into Tosche Station to pick up some power converters!” someone should have take Lucas aside and popped him one.
Yeah, the franchise went down hill after Empire Strikes Back, but it wasn’t much of a hill to begin with. The movies are fun and sometimes visually appealing but the dialog is an embarassment. Of course my kids, who are now at the age I was when Star Wars first came out, love Percy Jackson. And the dialog and acting in THAT movie is far worse.
1 Corinthians 13:11
When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
It is hard to imagine my grandfather’s (or even my father’s) generation holding on to their adolescent immaturity so late in life. SO many of my generation are like shameless, idle, obsessive children and it often causes me profound embarassment.
Oh god, I LOVE Shatner. I just can’t help myself. I’ve had this crush since I was three. And he just gets better and better as he gets older and more self-deprecating. It’s only now that I’m no longer an insecure teenager that I’m willing to admit it.
I like Star Wars too, but it really deeply disturbs me that so many of the grown-ups I know go on and on about it. Some of them are nearly in their 40s and actually continue to collect “memorabilia”. And this is someone with a serious grown-up job who speaks five languages.
Only one of the SW fans I know actually went into film making. All the rest of them are people I bug constantly about their weird habit of playing video games (or whatever you’re supposed to call them now) while their kids pester them to get off the computer. It’s probably the reason I never got married. I hung out with fan-nerds and never met any adult men until it was too late.
Please, I’m begging you. Please please grow up. For the sake of… well… every damn thing in the fricken world. Grow the hell up!
Wow.
Who hurt you?
You didn’t get married because of Star Wars? Yeeouch.
I, for one, am getting awfully tired of women hectoring us on the issue of “growing up.”
Women consume ridiculous amounts of fantasy – see: “Twilight” and whatever chick-flick is coming to theaters this week.
To my experience, most modern women have a extremely adolescent view of marriage and what it is to be a “man.”
… but he died when his bus fell off the bridge.
…Oh, and by the way nerds?
Alec Guinness, one of the greatest actors of the 20th century, HATED Star Wars.
He did it for the money, like every other self-respecting actor looking for a paying gig. Because he was a *professional*…
Which meant he spent his whole life learning to do a thing, get to be the very best there was at it, and then make a living, a really really hard living, doing it.
OK?
You mean like a guy who has spent his entire life learning how to write, how to interview and how to report?
Someone who has spent countless hours in front of a computer screen crafting the stories that tell you what’s going on in the world? Someone like that?
How about the writers who spend years of thankless, unpaid work in order to put together the novels we enjoy reading?
SF and games are harmless pastimes which give us geeks and nerds pleasure. Don’t need your approval.
You mean he hated competition… SW meant less income from his own work, hence he hated it.
I enjoyed the column, but as far as I’m concerned, it’s just more proof that Star Wars is like The Three Stooges – women just don’t get it.
Best comment.
Kathy, you favorably mention Harrison Ford twice. That’s fine, he didn’t write the script. But that scene early in the first, I think, movie that has Ford talking with a Wookie[is that right?] was idiotically juvenile. This Wookie is Ford’s co-pilot, whom I just recently learned is named Chewbacca[chewing tobacco]. Ford keeps calling Chewbacca childishly insulting names like Poopoo Head and Dumbdumb. At this point I changed channels, never to visit the realm of Star Wars again. I guess I missed all the good stuff some people rave about.
I guess you never worked on an old car with an old friend. Those were familiar terms of endearment. It showed they had a special relationship, because if he really meant it, Chewey would have ripped his frikkin’ head off.
I feel kind of sorry for you, if you’ve never had that kind of friend.
Speaking as a disillusioned Star Wars fanatic, I see a lot to agree with in this–excluding the various conservative political views which I don’t share. I’ve posted excerpts on my Star Wars blog (which you might hate) as I think this post deserves some more attention.
I found this article funny, but I have to add some things. While there is something somewhat sad about grown people putting on costumes, buying toys, or playing videogames, it is no more sad than all the grown people who paint themselves for sporting events, buy sports jerseys and/or football phones,watch every sporting event, get depressed when “their” team loses a game, play sports video games, play fantasy football, etc, etc, etc.
Everyone has their hobbies, including Mark Steyn and Victor Davis Hanson. I’m not sure what their’s are, but I know Hanson likes wine. Rush Limbaugh spends tons of money (along with many non-rich conservatives) playing golf.
All that said, I have two jobs. One civilian and one military (reserves), but I still watch Star Wars. I just came off active duty where I was an Apache pilot. You know why I was an Apache pilot? It’s about as close to flying an x-wing that you can do out there. What’s more, I’ve talked with other military pilots who joined for the same reason.
Similar to what I’ve seen in the aerospace industry, Dave. Many people ended up choosing careers in it after Star Wars, Star Trek, or the like sparked an interest in space when they were young.
I was in the Navy when Star Wars came out. It wasn’t until 1995 when I was shown the first movie.
“Cute,” I thought. I haven’t had a really positive thing to say about it since. Of course, I never had to see the other five (as if a grown man should waste brain cells on even keeping count). The “culture” made certain that each and every plot twist was completely aired through articles, lunch conversation, satire, and whatever else consumes time (like collecting bad motorcycle junk).
However, I disagree with one point above: the sign over concentration camps 2.0 will read, “The Force Is With You.
Reasons that Led Zeppelin Is Way Better Than The Who:
1. Led Zeppelin had the intelligence and class to break up immediately when THEIR irreplaceable drummer died.
2. Led Zeppelin’s guitarist has sex with underage GIRLS.
3. Ann-Margret never rolled around in baked beans to any Zeppelin songs.
4. Zeppelin never sold any of their songs as “CSI” themes.
Hey, Kathy. Another pithy, punchy piece to rouse the interwebs. Brava!
Interestingly, my father (a hard-core real SF reader from youth) cordially hated Star Wars, and still does. Good SF is where you’re still allowed to do metaphysics on the side– but don’t tell anyone. BTW, he studied nuclear physics, computers, medicine, and is a working pathologist, a.k.a. super-doctor, so he has a career or three. NRA, Republican.. you get the drift.
George Lucas is a smarter-than-thou nasty little man of limited but real talents, and a boundless appetite for money, and hating on his fans. As a teen, I too went to the theatre that summer of ’77 too many times, and enjoyed less and less the new movies as they came out.
Then I mostly grew up, got two degrees, got married, went to work, got babies, and while I’m a recovering nerd, I understand how SW is a fixture for so many people. It’s a place (like religion used to be) to discuss and cheer on and unapologetically love the big stuff: good and evil, right and wrong, sacrifice and redemption. It’s also politically incorrect, and has manly men being men and all manly and stuff. With swords and guns and zoomy ships. It’s hardly mangina fodder.
Mind you, it’s actually better to get a life & a real religion, since worrying about the fate of the Ewoks or spending endless years of life nerding up on fictional minutiae isn’t the same as worrying about the fate of the Copts, or figuring out the minutiae of faith, the Bible, and the fate of your soul.
In that respect, the Tolkien books are doors opening into that world without all of Lucas’ Buddhist BS, and the little idiot Yoda’s bromides and nonsense. Peter Jackson messed up many of the themes and characters, but reading the books is always possible, and re-reading them yearly (like Sir Christopher Lee) reveals more each time. Lucas’ original book is OK, but it’s like a signpost pointing to another signpost in terms of The Big Issues in Grown-Up world.
IMAO.
Personally, I think that the only people who need to get a life are those who obssess over other peoples obssessions…
Amen to that brother. Way I see it if we work a solid job and take care of our business we are all entitled to enjoy our downtime in any legal way we choose.
I choose to read, play games, watch movies, and collect knives. Others may prefer knitting, watching soaps, and gossiping with friends. And still others may prefer camping, playing touch football, and skeet shooting.
All of them are valid ways to pass the time between work and sleep and no one is qualified or within their bounds to cast aspersions on another for their hobbies.
Those that do can rightly be called judgemental, snobbish, busybodies with no hobbies of their own.
LOL! Mel Brooks was right–the biggest contribution Star Wars made to movie culture was merchandising.
I remember it quite well. The advance publicity was unrelenting. Time and Newsweek joined in. Nobody had ever seen anything like it…the publicity, I mean.
So a bunch of college friends and I piled into the old Palace in Danbury, Conn to see it, feeling quite excited. My initial reaction? “When does the movie begin?” It seemed like one long, boring prologue. Little did I know at the time that it was and there would be 5 more.
The special effects aren’t as cheesy as Flash Gordon. That’s what made it seem new and different, I guess. But the story, dialogue and acting all were. Take out the score, and whaddyou got? Long, empty spaces of…fake space.
BTW, the Original 3 are quite popular in the faculty lounge, where aging Baby Boomer professors love to obsess over “empire.” Really! Bleh.
ah, well, Kathy: Nerds just wanna have fun.
KS – You’re too young to understand the original Star Wars. I was 11 years old when Star Wars came out and it was “light years” (pun intended) ahead of and unlike anything I had ever seen.
It’s important to understand the era of the original Star Wars- it was pre-VHS and (for all practical purposes) pre-cable, and this is not an insignifant point. We had no practical access to the material that inspired Lucas. We were no where near as media saturated as people are today. We had never been exposed to anything remotely close to what Star Wars gave us. I doubt the world will ever experience another Star Wars-like phenomena due because we can now enjoy any form of media, on demand, in seconds.
Further, in those days Hollywood didn’t make movies for kids. Movies were made for “adults” and adults were deep in the malaise era with a malaise president. The future was bleak and movies were bleak too. “Realism” was the goal and “gritty” was how they got there.
The first 30 seconds of Star Wars was totally different, huge, bright, unimaginable and it nearly exploded my brain! The rest of the movie was bursting with hope and adventure and thrills and fun – in other words, it was totally different from everything else going on in the world in 1977! Iin 1977, Star Wars was way, WAY more than just a movie. It single handedly blasted the zeitgeist in a totally different direction and nobody saw it coming.
Star Wars has undoubtedly lost much of it’s punch as a result of being copied and mimicked by everything that came after it.
Most of the original “fanboys” went on the become doctors, engineers, computer programmers, etc. A later generation of fanboys may have latched onto the movies, but they’re not the ones that made the original movie a smash hit.
I always try to be cognizant of the fact that just because I don’t like a particular piece of art it doesn’t necessarily mean the art is not great. I pretty much hate all poetry, but I also realize that it has legitmate artistic and cultural value, so I stay out of the business of criticizing it. Unless it completely sucks. Which it all does.
^this
Well said Captain B.
My dad was a traveling salesman and one time during a school break, I remember it was winter in the northeast, think I was 10 or 11 at the time, took me to see 2001 it’s first time round in the theaters. He’d taken me with him on one of his sales trips, (this is what you’d call in the Biden-ian sense, a BFD, for a munchkin like me). In it’s first release this film is what one might have considered an ‘event’. Later, in junior high, a classmate turned me on to Analog scifi mag and it’s been all downhill from there
I would point out that none of the SW movies made it to MST3K. Just sayin.
I saw SW in 1977 when it came out (a senior in High School). I liked it (I also liked 2001: A Space Odyssey). I was also a big time Star Trek fan. I’ve enjoyed Sci Fi since I can remember. A voracious reader, I’ve read a lot of new and old science fiction (as well as other fiction). Alternative worlds, dealing with other beings/cultures/races, all that was multicultural before it became cool. Though a huge fan, I don’t let it run my life (I have no collectables, except for a couple of Lego models collecting dust on a shelf).
Unfortunately the author of the article used a wide paintbrush in characterizing the fans of such movies and stories. I sincerely hope that the author did not like Avatar – Avatar was the quintessential politically correct crap movie (Dances with Wolves meets Gomer Pyle). The same with the Starship Troopers movie from years ago (having a “kegger” on a foreign planet surrounded by evil insect aliens – I almost demanded my money back). There is science fiction and then there is “Science Fiction”.
You make a fairly good argument, but instead of getting to the heart of the issue – you just make vague over-generalizations about Star Wars fans. You might have some nice points, but your argumentative, mud-slinging tone causes it to not hold a lot of water.
I am a fan because Star Wars shaped my childhood from the time I was 6. I loved the original trilogy; every clunky phrase and awkward fight scene. I cannot separate it from the history of my life. Now I agree that the prequel trilogy was terrible, but I love the way that it fleshed-out the rest of the story – a story that needed to be fleshed-out. You know, how the actual hero – the one that restores balance to the universe – is the one who you thought was the bad guy all along… Which is a completely original and unique plot point to a kid who started paying attention to it when he was 6. And the marketing – don’t even get me started on the marketing.
But what really threw me off about your blog is how you believe that all Star Wars fans are unsuccessful lumps – And that is not at all the case. I am a successful I.T. manager. Many of my friends who are fans are also very successful in their respective fields. We are able to collect the things that we do because of that success. If we have the money, and it makes us happy, then who does it hurt really? Many fans were inspired by the movies to do really great things like become actual movie makers themselves, writers, scientists, musicians… you name it!
You have the right to believe that Star Wars sucks. Art is subjective. But just because we disagree doesn’t make me less of a person.
Criticizing Joseph Campbell proves you are subhuman. You fell asleep during Star Wars, I fell asleep during your article on Star Wars. There! Life is fair!
Drop dead whoever you are.
Sum up the whole problem in three little words: Han Shot First!!
And good for him.
You missed the biggest influence: John Carter of Mars.
I enjoyed all six movies. They’re fun fluff, like most movies. There are very few movies, even in Hollywood’s ‘golden age,’ that are more than fluff. I see no problem with setting aside adult cares and being a kid for an hour or two at the theatre. Most Broadway plays are infantile. Most novels are written at a 5-grade reading level. That’s what entertainment is.
The problem is not Star Wars (I find Trekkers more off-putting), or with any of the other obsessions with some bit of pop culture. This is THE 1st world problem. What do you do with too much leisure time? The simple answer is: weird stuff.
There lies between the wealthy who can afford to get away whenever they like and the poor who are trapped wherever they are, a large class of people who can’t quite afford the yacht or motor home and so have to get away in other ways. It’s known as the middle class. With only 40-60 hour work weeks, there’s lots of time to fill, and not everybody is content to watch the boob tube, which strangely enough has become fairly respectable today. Video games, chat sites, and various collections are perfectly reasonable substitutes. I’m sure you’ll be astonished to know that on Star Wars Galaxies, the biggest MMO before World of Warcraft, 40% of the users were women over the age of 30. Personally I hated the game, but the reason I hated it was the reason women liked it–requiring dancing to heal, designing your own clothes, stuff like that. Designing my own starship? I might’ve liked that, but it wasn’t availbe in the first few months when I tried it out.
Instead of ranting about how childish everyone is, please furnish us a list of activities you consider grown up. Is ‘Law and Order’ adult enough for you? Harlequin romance novels? Jane Austen (my favorite author)? Should we all be out in the woods, tramping around for a week at a time (another favorite of mine, when I can afford it)? The problem is that hobbies have been childish from the beginning. Toy trains are no less infantile than collecting Star Wars figurines. In every advanced civilization there will be a lot of people with time on their hands, and many will write bad poetry or terrible fiction, many will sculpt horribly ugly statues or paint as bad as Picasso, and many will obsess over silly fluff like Star Wars. I’m glad you think we should all write bad poetry, but I see no reason why anyone else should feel required to agree with anything you’ve said. I have a suggestion for you and all the other women constantly whining about how men aren’t grown up enough. Grow up. So long as women think they are entitled to anything they want without the slightest need to actually BE or even TRY to be the sort of person that actually does deserve what they want, hey presto! They’re not going to get it. They don’t deserve Ivanhoe or John Wayne or Mr. Darcy. Many women today are too grotesque for Mr. Wickham (and I don’t mean physically). What exactly is attractive about cruelty, derision and bitterness? I see so many wives publicly treating their husbands with such disdain while the men just bear it, and I can’t help but wonder why those women think they deserve anything more than exactly what they give. Feminism has damned us all. I can hardly blame those men who don’t long to be treated like crap for finding solace in other areas of life. Star Wars may be fluff, but there are many worse things they could get into, so don’t rail so hard against a harmless diversion.
…well, you can certainly tell who the hardcore Star Wars fans are.
heh
Yeah Lucas is a total loser… Except for the few billion he created…
I think that there’s a difference between basement-dwelling, trivia-knowing, girl-not-kissing Star Wars fans who go to conventions dressed as Jawas, and those of us who can kick back after a hard days work with some lightly entertaining jokes and explosions.
Every bit of culture produces fanatics (there are opera fans, I’m sure, who know more trivia about Princess Turondot than that guy with a lightsaber knows about Princess Leia). But let’s not label all people who like Star Wars by the actions of the most extreme fanatics.
Kathy does not state why it sucks or even why exactly she didn’t like it. All we have here are snide remarks about Lucas and his helpers and examples of how thoroughly Star Wars pervades our culture. Could it be Kathy sucks not Star Wars.
I would like to respectfully disagree on some of these points, Ms. Shaidle.
Yes, there are plenty of people who do go over the top with some of these things. But there are also plenty of people who enjoy the films for what, at the bottom, they originally tried to be–a story about a young man’s evolution from irritating, whiny farmboy to an adult with something to believe in. A certain amount of indulgence in fantasy and fiction is hardly something rare: we have records of “hero’s journey” stories predating paper, for goodness’ sake. The Epic of Gilgamesh was pretty much the same thing–fights, beautiful women, people getting curbstomped, magic and more fights. Star Wars isn’t a seminal work of fiction, but I think in itself it’s essentially harmless, if nothing new.
I’d say the problem is not with Star Wars specifically, but with overindulgence in it to the detriment of other interests–to which I could argue that you find such examples in pretty much any organized fan group. I saw similar things when I worked at a renaissance fair. And if the idea of grown men attending Star Wars conventions worries you, I hope you never get an eyeful of some of the anime or JRPG fan groups.
I’ve always enjoyed your writing, and I’m definitely going to keep reading your columns here. But I think on this one, there may be more to the issue.
The Mark Steyn, World of Warcraft line is just dirty pool. We are not all going to be Mark Steyn’s in this world. Nor will we all be paragons or captains of industry. Great men of the world or giants in any field. I am for instance an electrician, I am a very good electrician, I am considering starting on my master’s license later this year. But, that is all I am likely to ever be. And that is enough for me. It provides more than enough for me to care for myself, my family and my home. And if I spend my downtime when out of work, between one 14hr a day job and another, playing WOW and making wow jokes to my friends, what difference does it make to anyone but me? Now, don’t think for a moment that your over theme of delayed adulthood and permanent adolescence was lost on me. I am not dressing up as a night elf while living in my parent’s basement, or going to “cons”. I do understand that there is a large and growing subculture of overgrown man-children who can neither care for themselves or others. They cross all sorts of sub culture lines. From the comic book man-child to the pop culture man-child. I just think it was a bit narrow sighted to lump WOW in as a major cause. (BTW, I like Mark Steyn, and all I can say is, if he wanted, he would make a kick ass rogue. He has a way of sneaking up on ya and going for the kill.)
relax everybody, (you too kathy) “star wars” is fun but its just space opera, the stuff sci-fi writers have been grinding out since the ’30s. lucas simply took it to film with some pretty good special effects for his time. though we know that “space fighters” don’t do dogfight areobatics like a ww2 spitfire, and a blaster pistol likely won’t look like a c-96 mauser or a sterling submachinegun. e.e. (doc) smith did it long ago with his “lensman/galatic patrol” yarns, lucas just followed a well beaten path to his pot of gold.
Kathy,
This was a scream. Please, please don’t ever unleash your wrath on “Lord of the Rings” and those of us who love the books and movies….please? But you do rather elide the very real differences between those who like sci-fi (and fantasy–although “Star Wars” is a bastard hybrid of both) as a tongue-in-cheek release and even as a serious literary genre (“Dune;” “A Canticle for Leibowitz;” etc.) and jejune fanboys.
Yes, the Star Wars series and spinoffs definitely had it good and bad. I loved the first three movies. It was the only movies that lined up with the books I was reading like the Prydain Chronicles and the Lord of the Rings. It was my best movie entertainment between my 5th to 11th birthdays.
At some point after 1995, the geeks took over the fandom. It was the dressing as Jedi/Dark Jedi and lightsaber battling while camping out days in advance to be the first to see the new movies.
That is what ruined it for me.
My 10 year old son and I do enjoy the Clone Wars Series. I personally think the cartoon series is more along the lines of the original 3 movies.
Let me see if I can sum up the argument of this article. Here goes.
Page one: I don’t like Star Wars movies
Page two: I don’t like Star Wars’ director
Page three: I don’t like Star Wars fans
Page Four: I don’t like Star Wars popularity
Page Five: Anyone who disagrees with me is stupid. And juvenile. And stupid. And did I mention stupid?
Hey I can be a “citizen journalist” too! PJMedia, you can just email me and I’ll give you my paypal information for this column. Unless you want to send a check, in which case I’ll give my address.
Film snobs to the left of me, gnostics to the right…
Let’s examine the logic here. Basically, we have two axioms and a conclusion.
Axiom #1: The author does not like Star Wars
Axiom #2: Some people like Star Wars too much
Conclusion: Star Wars is a terrible movie.
I am not sure of the Latin form of the fallacy (Ipso facto, upuasso?) but I don’t think that particular syllogism will get you an “A” in any Logic 101 class.
BTW, if anyone feels compelled to point out that my “axioms” are not actually axioms, you need to Google the word “Backpfeifengesicht” and then go look in a mirror.
it looks more like a non sequitur… or, to be more of a geek, Error 404: logic not found
Sounds like a computational error on your part, “X”.
The logic works from this side of stupid.
I see that others have ripped you well enough regarding context (i.e. you had to have been there in the 70′s to see how revolutionary star wars was.) Your take on con attendees is even more pathetically wrong. I know cons because my wife’s business sells at these events (she makes more than I do, and I’m at the top of the engineering pay scale!) and I go to help. Most trek fans etc are in fact heavily weighted to engineering/math types. Yeah they like to play just as hard as they work. Big deal. Are there loser geek types attending cons? Of course. Are they typical? No.
Most con attendees are nerds, not geeks. There’s a difference. Nerds take the back off a TV set and know what the parts are and what they do. Geeks take off the back and marvel at all of the cool looking stuff with no idea what any of it is. You don’t get who goes to cons or why, and your prejudices are based on pure ignorance. No, you are NOT better than con attendees.
As for your slap on gamers. I know plenty of young men who via 3D FPS games were able to easily adapt to the realtime environment in Iraq and credit their survival to having been adept at games. Meanwhile it’s standard knowledge that the drone flyers are flight sim gamers. These are the people who are keeping you safe, and you belittle them? You’re no better than the democrats who spat upon the returning viet nam vets.
Wow.
I see someone got the Tobasco bottle mixed up with their Summer’s Eve this morning.
Kathy’s gone to the Darkside.
Ms. Shaidle, you are caustic and funny. My kinda gal. You were dead-on about George Carlin (he never ever once made me laugh). And I agree with Frank Martin. The first 2 films were fun, and then drek ensued.
And you can count Jack Kirby and Frank Herbert as two more geniuses that Lucas ripped off.
“Do you imagine Victor Davis Hanson is some kind of font of boring zombie lore?”
No, but Jonah Goldberg is.
“Do you think Mark Steyn wastes his spare time playing World of Warcraft? (Trick question. Mark Steyn doesn’t have any spare time.)”
No, but David French, conservative lawyer and Iraq War veteran, does.
“No, these men have careers and families, here on planet earth.”
As do I. I still like to imagine putting bullet holes in zombies and enjoy a game of Skyrim and Mass Effect 3. By the way, the Mass Effect saga is a much better sci-fi trope than Star Wars ever will be. Now that I think about it more, Star Wars was/is a really crappy franchise.
Nurtured by space travel writing in “Colliers,” and even in “Look,” “Saturday Evening Post,” and “Life,” I fould “Star Wars” was stupendous. Then the supernatural content grew, and unplugged my interestt. Later, the “Lord of the Rings” movies all gave me theater nap time. The grip of print media factualism resting on hard science was too strong.
IMPORTANT: Compare the controls layout in the YouTube clip on Jet Propulsion Laboratory with the layout shown in the pictures of the naughty nuclear plant in Chernobyl.
Kathy, let me express my support for you and your opinions.
Escape into fantasy is fine for kids and adolescents, if it isn’t carried to extremes. For adults, it’s okay as occasional entertainment and nothing more. But a lot of people seem to make a religion out of this stuff, which is unhealthy in every way.
Becoming an adult means investing yourself in your faith, your family, your work, and dealing with real-life problems and issues.
At that point, you’ve ended up becoming nothing but a slave to whatever provides you money. Being able to enjoy a hobby, even if its an hour or two a day where you go out and do what you love, it helps with the stress.
@1389AD
“Becoming an adult means investing yourself in your faith, your family, your work, and dealing with real-life problems and issues.”
Pardon, but I seemed to have missed the memo where you were made Commissar of Adult Definitions.
Bug off on your description, the sole purpose of which is to elevate self into a position to dispense demeaning observations. Besides, it’s way to friggin’ limiting.
Do you feel better now?
OK, you don’t know zip about scifi or really who or what Lucas was ripping off, but plagiarism from two or more sources is called creativity. In its day, the original Star Wars was highly amusing, no matter how derivative, clearly the best scifi movie ever made, up to that time. It was also a bit self-deprecating, Lucas certainly knew what he was doing, the movie was stagey and not “natural”, overblown as an old movie serial, yada yada. So if you take it seriously, you’re wrong. If people doing rip-offs of the rip-off bother you, I apologize on behalf of all that is unoriginal, which should cover about 99.44% of all reality.
That, and you’re a girl, which predisposes you to negativity about both the material and anyone who will even look at it, we understand that. But boys will be boys, for better or worse.
Oh gee, another smug “why I hate something popular because I am smarter and so mature” article including inappropriate Holocaust humor.
Hang it up dear. Like Star Wars you are way past your prime.
I saw Star Wars the day it was released on May 25, 1977 in a full but not nuts movie theater and people were amazed as was I.
Star Wars had multiple innovations and new takes that no one had ever seen before and some of the special effects and cameras were invented solely for this film if I remember correctly.
It’s rather sad to see how few people seem to remember or at least have the correct age to put this film in its true perspective because it was not only seminal in many ways but jump-started the ILM driven mini-golden age of films with a similar look, tone and feel to them in the ’80s.
The opening shot of Star Wars had never before been seen on film and sets the tone for the rest of a somewhat cartoonish movie by having a really wonderfully authentic and new tone showing mile-long spaceships and a planet seen from near orbit from a completely fresh perspective.
The use of language, which is usually ignored in SF films as too plot stopping to deal with, is here dealt with right in your face with Chewbacca and various other entities speaking alien tongues.
I could go on with a ton more but this film is being given short shrift by people who frankly don’t know what they’re talking about. Movies are not literature shown through a window and it’s sorry to see them discussed as pure plot.
oldguy, yes, I would love to see Jack Vance, well done, on the big screen! (mmmm, “The Dying Earth.”)
I think one reason so many fans are disappointed with George Lucas is that this is a guy who could have done anything after the first “Star Wars” movie, and, instead, he gave us “Howard the Duck”, and Ewoks. A lot of us were hoping not only for more Star Wars sequels (NOT prequels), but that a lot of science fiction classics, such as the works of Jack Vance, “The Witches of Karres”, “The Martian Chronicles”, “Star’s My Destination”, “Nova”, would all make it to big screen, now that the special effects barrier had been broken, so to speak.
George could have led a new movement in Sci-fi. Instead, he chose to merchandise. Then, he went over to the dark side.
Yes, yes, I know; science fiction is silly. Kathy Shaidle says so. We should only like the sad, totally downer movies she approves of. Unfortunately, Kathy approves of very little, so if you put on her straightjacket, there’s precious little left to enjoy in life.
Never mind. What are Kimmy, Koo-Koo and Klutzy Kardashian doing? And will Snooki find true love on “Jersey Shore?” Now just sit down, and read a nice, non-sci-fi novel about yuppies in Manhattan. Or “DaVinci Code III”, or something nice and realistic, like that! Or go find a sports team, and support it mindlessly!
Good Heavens! Will you get “real” already? /Sarc.
I thought Empire Strikes back was slightly better than the original. By the third film, the series had deteriorated beyond all comprehension. Harrison Ford beamed his performance home, running around yelling “I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”
When Carrie Fisher talked about it on the bonus track of Postcards from the Edge, she couldn’t even remember the name of the film. By the fifth film, it was like one of those films where humans are walking around in a cartoon.Don’t know about the 6th film – never saw it. However, the excitement stirred up in 1977 was like nothing I’ve seen before or since.
Star Trek is science, Star Wars magic.
Binky, yes, one of the reasons so many of us loved the first two Star Wars movies was that it did have stuff like men being manly, good vs. evil, adventure, suspense and an actual storyline. This was deeply refreshing, after the idiot slop movies dished up throughout the 60′ and 70′s; endless “Devil children” movies, endless weird horror movies, where long-haired 70′s chicks ran up and down endless flights of stairs, while spooky music played; “Zabriski Point”, “Easy Rider”, endless tales of housewives running away, to find themselves. . . etc., etc., etc.
And forcing people into politically correct straightjackets, dictating what they should like, and what they shouldn’t—can’t we leave that to the Left?
Read what you like. Enjoy the movies you really like. There are probably conservatives out there who enjoy both sci-fi and ancient Greek philosphers—or a good cigar—or some broadway show tunes.
And now, all you nerds—just stop being nerds! It is verbotten to be both nerdish and conservative! Conservatives don’t have hobbies! If they do have hobbies, it’s something properly conservative, such as playing golf, or—or—or—hmmm, can’t think of anything else that’s properly conservative. Boating? Buckley owned a yacht, didn’t he?
/The above is /Sarc.
Seriously, PJMedia? This is post-worthy?
Just because you do not ‘get it,’ or simply do not care for a franchise does not mean that it is somehow undeserving. Frank Martin’s post summed it up fairly well I think, as the popularity of the RedLetterMedia reviews and Star Wars Revisited films can attest. The first two Star Wars films are cinematic landmarks, achieved through collective input rather than over-dependence on a single individual. ROTJ and the prequels (especially the latter) show what happens when Lucas gets everything his way. You do realize that your beloved Star Trek would not have been all that intelligent if Gene Roddenberry had everything his way, right? Art through adversity.
Star Wars is less intelligent because it is not science fiction but science fantasy; if you can’t get past hearing sounds in space, “repeat to yourself it’s just a [movie], I should really just relax.” This post is the worst kind of critique, one not focusing on technique, but just a simple rehash of opinions everybody has heard a thousand times before.
Thank you.
Just because the New York Times, LA Times, SF Chronicle etc. etc. etc. have abandoned any editorial integrity, doesn’t mean Pajamas Media has to also.
I thought PJMedia was about doing things the way they should be.
Guess I was wrong…
OK, everyone take a deep breath & repeat after me: “its only a movie (or 6)” Seriously though, if people wish to completely immerse themselves in some fantasy land of theatrical recreations of space combat’, hey, have at it. And if Lucas made a lot of money off it, he didn’t rip anyone (unlike James Cameron who should be shot if he ever makes another movie) But I am not quite prepared to take the author’s point of view and say “STOPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP . . . IT”. In the words of my philosophical mentor, freedom is a wonderful thang (even if it is a irritating thing to those inclined to tell other people what to do with their lives). Star Wars is a pretty decent movie for entertainment purposes only so whats the big deal here?
um. george lucas financed all the documentaries starring mr joseph campbell. Joseph Campbell would have one odd little book out,published by shambhala press, distributed to new age bookstores in college towns, only, were it not for George Lucas.
As it is, he shills on PBS, courtesy of Mr Lucas, and our tax dollars.
It’s a weak Plotinus, with a dollop of myth. So what? The people who really drink this koolaid weren’t up for being half- decent Christians, anyway. This just means they won’t go half-cracked fake arthurian. At least now, in church, you go b/c you believe it, rather than going and twisting Christianity to the flow- force- midichlorian count sort of shape. We remember the major philosophers. There were minor functionary ones sycophanting the majors. They gave a spirited run for the money to Christians. And, well, there were hacks and bores among them, too. Emperors kept them on staff. Not everyone can handle being Christian. They might prefer Plotinus, or Marcus Aurelius. The current pres thinks he’s some kind of philosopher-king. Unfortunately, he’s sat in church for years, and he’s giving Christians a bad name.
It’s escaping out of Mr Lucas’s hands, anyway. Origami Yoda is a tween book that has boys solving their problems with the use of a hand-puppet. The Clone War cartoon series is a meditation on individuality. And, yes, it’s cartoonish, but it’s obvious enough for kids. And, well, there are any number of Australians registered as being of the Jedi religion.
If your cousin had had a job and a savings account, would you be less bitter?
and, golly, conventions? easiest boy-shopping, ever. It was my one-stop shop for a boyfriend for the year, all through high school. I could sort by height, hair color, eye color, weight, muscles and ownership of a car. Then I’d figure out what he was like as a human being. It should always be that easy, at least once in a girl’s life.
But then, I’ve got little boys, and I live nearly ankle- deep in George Lucas film inspiration Legos, tee-shirts, Halloween costumes, action figures, posters, books…..
You’re making the baby Jar Jar weep with your apostasy!
Keep it up!
The fundamental theme I took away from this: Kathy Shadle is a thoroughly unpleasant person, mired in her own self-importance, arrogant in the extreme and too shallow to see beyond her own narrow interests.
Just as it is wasted energy trying explaining a joke to someone who simply doesn’t get it, there is no point in wasting the precious moments of my life attempting to rebut her snarky and irrelevant views. It is sufficient that one can go anywhere in the world and say “Star Wars”, and everyone from young children to octogenarians will know EXACTLY what you are talking about. Try going to these same places and saying to these same people “Kathy Shadle”… and they will merely stare at you blankly.
This will be the last of Kathy Shadle’s articles I bother to read. I find I simply do not care what her views are, and even when I agree with those views, the tone of her writing is gratuitously (and consistently) mean-spirited and unpleasant to read.
Surely, you have to recognize that without the original Star Wars movies, there would likely be no special effects industry as we know it today. make of that what you will.
I agree – what a bore. Still, you have to admit that Lucas was one of the gang that kept Kurosawa working and turning out great films. So it may have been to pay less taxes, so what? He found the right way.
The only other good thing I feel Lucas has done is produce a short item to test the sound set-up of your home theater. It’s on Disney’s The Sleeping Beauty DVD, but you have to search for it.
“Successful, mature men do not play computer games, attend “cons,” and get excited about overrated science fiction movies from the 1970s.”
Yep, that’s right, we get to play with toys and hang out with our friends, or even those other kids from somewhere else who are into the same cool thing we are.
The really best part of it though is how much it drives “responsible” people crazy with jealousy because they won’t let themselves come out and play with us, and are stuck inside doing boring “grown up” stuff like writing in their diary about how silly we are then posting it on the internet for everyone to read. That part is a real hoot.
Sure, Star Wars is kinda lame, but that’s because Lucas ruined it. The worst thing the fans ever do is spend money on his junk and make him think he’s a competent film maker. (Well, that and letting people with inappropriate body types wear Slave Leia costumes in public. *SHUDDER*)
I absolutely love that at this moment on the Lifestyle page, Bryan Preston’s review of a sport video game is next to this one. Hey Kathy, I guess Bryan just ain’t gonna amount ta nuthin playing them there video games. He needs TO GROW UP AND DO SOMETHING SERIOUS WITH HIS LIFE. I’m not getting five feet of fury out of that but I do see about 10 feet of condescension.
Hmm. My son used to watch the first three SW’s back to back to back all the time. Then he got into video games and computers (or vice versa I forget). Then he wandered off to the Army so he could play with satellites all day. What a loser.
Is he a satellite controller? Those guys are the NERDS of the NERDS LOL
I’m in SATCOM too…it was in SATCOM school that I discovered World of Warcraft…
In 1977, I was nine years old living in a small town outside Albuquerque, passing the time wandering through the desert in and beyond the back yard looking for scorpions, stink bugs, skinks, anything really, of interest, usually finding nothing. That summer, as a treat, the family went to see Star Wars with family visiting from out of town. When Luke looked out at the double sunset on Tatooine, and the voilin strings strained away, that was me! Here on the big screen was a movie that had good guys, and bad guys, and gunfire, and adventure. Star Wars was a revelation! It seemed to comport with my nascent Christian faith, handed down to me through my parents, and the promise that there was some way to live it out in the world. Something awaited. Metaphysical bliss.
The later movies, with all the hemming and hawing on the shades of grey in the world (the growing imposition of the Campbell system), stereotypes in place of characters (much of it was originally supplied by good actors rather than the script), the loss of the sense that something was really at stake, all the endless extrapolation of different worlds, creatures, cultures, lost the thread, that there was something transcendent, and calling, in each of our futures. The system subsumed all that was once thought to be transcendent, including the force. Was it some Jungian system? Who cares. When that final piece, the force, was taken away through some materialist mumbo jumbo about mitichlorians (?) in the blood I had been broken.
And thankfully I am done with all that. My kids don’t seem so very interested in it, except that Dad was once a big fan, so they have tried to take an interest, but it isn’t lasting, because Star Wars is now just a force of culture, not of the individual, as I first received it. So I’m rather glad for the kids, for their sniffing out what is worthwhile from what is not.
“Help us Kathy Schaidle, you’re our only hope.”
Kathy, can you do a Spike Lee movie next?
Also kudos on finding of Lucas that makes him look like jackass Kenny Rogers, only with a bigger neck skin flap.
The author of this article is one example of why we conservative are often viewed by the world at large as stodgy, dry, unimaginative, and boring; beecause some of us are.
“Star Wars”, while not “The Godfather”, “Stagecoach”, “Lord of the Rings” or even “Gone With the Wind”, is still a fun, well-made film, especially for its time, and highly enjoyable, if one is not cynical and 2-dimensional, viewing the world in dollars-and-cents shades of gray, tan and white.
I am a fan of both “Star Wars” and “Star Trek”; in fact, I write Trek fan fiction as a hobby, and have a “Nerd Cave”; a spare room dedicated to my passions. I am a very consrvative Republican.
This is not only a political war we are fighting; it is also cultural, and public perception is 90%. We need to focus on the cultural aspects, just as much, or even more, than the political. After, win the heart, the mind will follow, and vice-versa.
May the Force be with you, and may you Live Long, an Prosper.
I’m glad someone said this. The first two SW films were entertaining enough; the third was completely immoral, intimating as it does that Vader’s reconciliation with Luke somehow earns him forgiveness for his unspeakable crimes; but the 1st “prequel” was easily the worst film I have ever seen in my life: cynical, venal, unspeakably vile (needless to say, I didn’t see any of the others).
I could have forgiven Lucas if, like Ed Wood, he had made an honest effort to make a good movie but simply didn’t have the talent to do it. Instead, he set out deliberately to make a film that was nothing but a platform to market video games and toys so he could make more and more money. I realize that it is called show “business” for a reason, but Lucas didn’t even try to disguise his greed. His contempt for his audience was palpable.
I have heard that Lucas claims he got part of his inspiration for SW from the films of Kurosawa, specifically “Hidden Fortess”, two of the characters of which were the models for C3PO and R2D2.
For a soulless, money-grubbing, talentless hack like Lucas to claim Kurosawa as his inspiration is a colossal insult to one of the greatest directors who ever lived. Kurosawa’s best films exhibit a warmth and humanity that Lucas’ films utterly lack. It would be impossible for anyone to miss the point of Kurosawa’s work more than Lucas did.
In the pantheon of directors, Kurosawa sits on the right hand of the gods. Lucas isn’t fit to even carry his jock.
I loved the Star Wars movies as a kid. Then I made the mistake of rewatching them as a grown-up and going “this is complete crap!”
I guess I’m lucky, I like almost everything mentioned in this thread: ALL the Star Wars movies, Jack Vance, “real” science fiction, Harrison Ford, Star Trek, William Shatner, the Lord of the Rings books, the Lord of the Rings movies, Peter Jackson, video games, geeky people who go to Star Trek conventions, Carrie Fisher (especially in her slave girl outfit), George Lucas, Jar Jar Binks, THX-1138, Led Zeppelin, the Who, the writing of Kathy Shaidle. Hell, I even like mayonaisse.
Just for myself, I find that I enjoy enjoying things a lot more than I enjoy capping on things, so I’m glad that I have fairly eclectic tastes.
I enjoyed the original Star Wars, but all the prequels and sequels were incredibly dull. As for cinematic antecedents, the direct analogue was another John Ford directed movie, the 1962 film, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence. John Wayne as Tom Doniphon is Hans Solo. His black side-kick, Woody Strode as Pompey is Chewbacca. Jimmy Stewart as Ransom Stodard is Luke Skywalker. Vera Miles, his girlfriend and wife is Princess Leia. Lee Marvin as Liberty Valance is Darth Vader.
Aww Kathy! My Dad was a trekie. Imagination is what it is all about just like a Disney cartoon!
So, let me get this straight. You don’t like Star Wars. Fair enough, I normally skipped everything BUT the big battles (ignored the sword fights, those were boring), but then you go out and say this:
Successful, mature men do not play computer games, attend “cons,” and get excited about overrated science fiction movies from the 1970s.
As if you’re any different madam. You’re a ‘successful’ mature woman who writes for the Pajamas Media lifestyle section. I’m a student with a degree, a stable job, and I indulge on my hobbies of Japanese Anime, Airsoft, and Video Games. It’s all about time management, and to me, I’d like to live my life to the fullest, rather than be a slave to a job with no personality. Lovely trollish article. I stopped reading it.
And guys, cool, I take offense at the fact she makes out Star Wars fans as losers. I’d have a couple relatives who would straighten her out. Disgusting, sounded like I was reading a HuffPo article.
Back in the late 1990′s, the A&E cable network ran a series called “The Unexplained.” Most of the episodes dealt with the usual woo-woo about ghosts, flying saucers, bigfoot, etc. But one episode described “human transformations.” It profiled a guy who wanted to make his real life like Star Trek, so he remodeled the interior of his home to look sets from “The Next Generation,” wore the Trek costumes, went to the Trek conventions, etc. He impressed me as a geek and a loser.
The episode also described Cindy Jackson, who grew up in a small town in Ohio, found her prospects there unappealing, and decided early in life to try to live like her Barbie doll when she grew up. So when she came of age, she moved to London (and why wouldn’t Barbie live in London?), and lived as a musician & bohemian there for several years. When her father died and left her some money, she started to get cosmetic surgical procedures to improve her appearance and make her more Barbie-ish, then capitalized on her better looks to move into more fashionable circles in London (apparently as some kind of courtesan). Eventually she started a successful consulting business for people who want advice about their own cosmetic procedures, and she currently holds a record for the most cosmetic alterations. She doesn’t look freakish, but you can tell she’s had surgery.
I came away from that episode respecting Cindy more than the Trekker, even though she has some psychological issues she could have dealt with in better ways. Living like one’s Barbie doll at first blush sounds as unrealistic as living like the characters in Star Trek, but Cindy figured out how to turn that into a practical goal, then took steps to attain it as much as she could in the real world instead of becoming someone’s frumpy housewife in rural Ohio who reads romance novels about the life she wishes she could have had.
The Trekker could have done something similar, like getting a scientific or technical degree in college and going into the aerospace industry, since we don’t have a real Starfleet Academy he could have attended, much less real manned space travel beyond low Earth orbit. But he stuck with the make-believe stuff instead. Cindy shows that at least some fantasy-driven people can attain their goals in real life.
You also ignore the thousands of impressionable young minds who go to cons and are Trekkies and Star Wars fanatics who are in the IT, Aerospace, and Engineering fields because they want to turn their respective childhood fantasies real.
Ms.Shaidle
If your goal is to write like Maureen Dowd you are well on your way. I hope your personal life works out better than hers, though.
A regular Oscar Wilde, you are.
The look of the Star Wars franchise appealed to me; it was dirty, abused and hard-ridden but none of the characters, plot lines and scripts delivered on that promise. I could watch each of the movies only once. I like the cosplayers and con-folk though. They take the characters and the back stories and make their own narratives with them, much more engaging and inventive than the source from which they draw from……
Dear Kathy,
Thank you. And, thank you.
And, oh yes, THANK YOU.
Gad, I keep waiting for movie fans to grow up and demand adult movies be made, but until then I still have to spend my time watching my collection of old movies — movies made before people thought it was cool to remain 13 years old for the rest of their lives.
Yeesh!
Actually the one redeeming thing that SW brought us was
the guy a couple of months ago who used a toy light saber to
thwart the police’s attempts to TAZER him in a mall by
swatting down the air borne probes with a swoosh of the saber
and he did it more than once.
Somehow I feel this will be of great significance in our society
in the near future.
Typical double standard on display here. She’s free to express how a “real man” is supposed to live and act and as usual women completely get away with it. There are even plenty of white knights that have popped into the comments to support her opinions mainly because they are the type of men that have just grown too tired to argue anymore, “Yes Dear, I know dear, your right dear….” All I see is another perfect example of how self centered women in general have become. No doubt a “real men” is supposed to work, work, work themselves to the bone to spend all that hard earned money on her: buy her plenty of nice clothes, expensive jewelry, a fancy car, a big house, clean the house, mow the lawn, take out the trash, change the oil, paint the rooms, unclog the drain, replace all the light switch covers with ones she spent a grueling 4 hours picking out at the Home Depot, and then finally let’s take a break from it all with trips around the world to visit all the sites she wants to see. But if a guy were to write an article explaining what a REAL women is supposed to be like then he’d no doubt be labelled a sexist, a pig, and the reason for the downfall of society. In fact, after reading this it just reinforces the notion that a real woman is supposed to be seen, not heard. How do you like them apples? Jeez, no wonder only 50% of people are married now days.
I think my doubts about a subscription to PJ media have just been confirmed… the above article is the most insidious waste of valuable space on the internet that I have observed in a long time… this and the “drunk blog” , the poorest examples of journalism in this internet environment.. see ya
I enjoy the drunk blogging, because it’s very interesting, helps cut the crap sometimes.
That said, this was a hit piece and as a nerd who has been smitten with the values and ideals of conservatives even before I was a US Citizen, smacks me in ways not even the HuffPo can do.
To heck with defending Star Wars, I come to defend the Happy Meal, which was invented and test marketed here in Kansas City in 1977, thus not inspired by Star Wars merchandising mania at all. The first movie tie-in to Happy Meals was for Star Trek: The Motion Picture, so you can’t hang the Happy Meal on Lucas.
Mam, we are not the droids you are lookng for.
It’s really not Kathy’s fault she’s such a poor, ignorant author.
It’s the PJMedia editorial board that should be ashamed for publishing this piffle.
Not even huffingtonpost-worthy, I’d expect more thoughtful analysis from Time.
After her previous idiocy-disguised-as-articles collected under the auspicious title “movies for grown-ups who were (apparently) really, really stupid children” I’m more surprised she can construct a complete sentence than anything else. This moistened bint can’t comprehend the cultural and cinematic effects of Star Wars, how are we to expect any relevant discourse?
Stick to your husband, sweetie. Hopefully he still likes you.
Annoyed, that comment is a bit over the top in visciousness, dontcha think? There are many of us who think the article is both hilarious and spot-on, at least those of us whose judgment has not been impaired by years of reading comic books and masturbating.
Whatever you think about Star Wars, Science fiction inspired a lot of people, particularly in the space field.
Oh, you don’t have to get at last as Star Trek. If the naval testimony in the Wikipedia article is correct, a design taken from Doc Smith’s Lensman space opera helped us win WWII.
Any hobby can be a niuce espace or taken too far. Writing comments on political blogs, for example.
You are correct (e.g. A. C. Clarke and geo-synchronous orbits). However, the article does not put down the entire genre of science fiction, the vast majority of which resides in literature, not films. Bradbury, Heinlein, Dick, Niven are all beloved by many of us.
It’s fascinating how George Lucas got dumber as his head got bigger and he decided he didn’t need professional writers any more.
It is as if millions of brain cells suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. I fear something terrible has happened.
Madam Shaidle,
Most “fanboys” of Star Wars or whatever else are gainfully employed—you’re right, that merchandise doesn’t come cheap, and as much of it these days is aimed at grown men with a disposable income as at children. I should know—I’m an economist at a major Canadian bank, and happily married to a wonderful woman I met through (anime) fandom and the likes of whom I probably would never have met in the Bay Street or grad school bubble. I’ve met a lot more of the sort of people you consider “normal” through fandom than through work, believe me.
You’re old enough to know better—much of real life IS dull and boring, even for productive people, and not especially pleasant. Having an escape is healthy. I don’t play video games, but I don’t play bingo or bridge either, or follow hockey. Thing is, I don’t begrudge anyone any of these. Pity rather the men I work with who have no hobbies at all, have no topics of conversation not related to work, married grad school classmates because they had no time to meet other women, and don’t even bother taking vacations because they would have no idea what to do with themselves outside the office.
Madam Shaidle, your posts on B-movies and punk are the ones that make your blog worth reading (and I actually do read your blog fairly often). Nobody begrudges you your hobbies. Don’t begrudge other people theirs. Please.
“When I was still (barely) in contact with what’s left of my family, one of my in-law step-somethings was a fat, hairy loser in his mid-twenties who collected Harley Davidson stuff.”
A pathetic, unprofessional column by an embittered henpecker with a lot of unresolved issues; I believe psychiatrists call it “projection.” If this is meant to pass for insightful writing, there’s no point reading PJ anymore.
It’s not wise to upset a butthurt wookiee.
How can people taunt the President about the unemployment rate while bashing entry jobs? Ever wonder why today’s youth hate to work at the local Fast Food place? It’s because you’ve told them it isn’t a worthy occupation. Now what do todays youth do with all their free time? Play video games and escape to fantasy worlds on your dime. Thanks Original Poster, you are the problem.
Shaidle’s comparing of SW fans to Nazis is indeed ironic. Like both Nazis and Communists, Shaidle believes any time not spent in miserable slave-like conditions for the State is non-productive, and that those who do not produce for the state are “parasite[s] on a host.”
Just repeat to yourself, “It’s just a show, I should really just relax”
Lucas does to sci-fi what Campbell did to (the study of) mythology, putting it all in a blender and reducing it all to amorphous glop. At least he wasn’t, like Campbell, a racist and anti-Semite. They were both hack plagiarists. Watching Lucas is like reading Campbell, it’s the same thing, over, and over, and over again.
Campbell was not an anti-Semite.
I agree with a lot of the article, yet I think is kinda crappy. The author could focus on the artwork itself instead of the fans by doing a collectivist assassination character.
There is a LOT of overrated artists and artworks: I think Bob Dylan doesn’t know how to sing. And I think Jimi Hendrix is an overrated guitar man not up to the job. But we could have a serious discussion about the techniques and the whys instead of lots of unproven assertions about their fans.
Star War was ok considering the artistic context for movies in the 70′s. Jimi Hendrix was not a good player not for our standards and not for the context of his day.
Stop motion animation could reach a notable place with SW; instead, guitar playing has been around for centuries so I really don’t see what was all the Hendrix fuss about.
You see, we can criticize art without speaking about baby boomers, hippies, losers, nerds/geeks, etc.
Hendrix was unique; if you want technique go to the clone factory called American Idol. They can all sing better than Gwen Stefani but will never understand why Gwen Stefani is a better singer – nor will you.
Sure, Hendrix is unique: AFAIK, there are not cloned singers yet; what’s your point?
Instead of assuming I will or won’t understand, please provide some proof of the Hendrix genius. Any youtube link? Note I’m not saying he was unsuccessful. Like Dylan, he was quite successful for many reason like some resonance with the culture of their time. As artists, they would be right to search such a connection with the people/culture/market, even if they don’t get to the top of the technique and virtuousism.
Also note I’m not bashing any fan, everybody has the right to be fan of them if they want. It’s just not my thing. I like how Gwen sing, she is not my favorite singer (Christina Aguilera is my fav) but I think she sings pretty well.
Well the over-souling Christina Aguilera, who never met a musical note she didn’t like or understands how to subvert herself to a song is a dead giveaway. What else, Adele better than Amy Winehouse? Taste is one thing, believing taste equals good another.
Hendrix had no equal when it came to being himself. It is not easy being that unique on a guitar and serving the music as well. In studio, Hendrix was not a show off like his “clone” Stevie Ray Vaughn who is the Christina Aguilera of artistry – there’s too much of him and not enough song. Artistry is its own answer – some people get it, some people don’t. I enjoy art I know isn’t that good and other art I know is that good. Knowing the history of art and being alive to understand Hendrix when he put out new albums means he was just as good as his rep.
Having said that, Aguilera did give one massively artistic performance of James Brown’s “It’s a Man’s, Man’s World at the Grammies” I’ve never seen a live performance like that in my life. It’s on YouTube – stunning emotion and technical control all rolled into one with an unmatched primal scream of pure rock.
@X
“Sure, Hendrix is unique: AFAIK, there are not cloned singers yet; what’s your point?”
So, you’re completely unfamiliar with the entire 1950-60′s music scene?
I’m a fan of neither Star Wars nor George Lucas. I just think it’s hilarious that this article starts off castigating Lucas for ripping off other artists and then goes on for five pages that don’t contain a single original thought.Seriously, there’s not one single critique in here that hasn’t been tossed about since the mid-80′s.
And I’ll admit to some passing curiousity as to how Ms. Shaidle spends her free time and money, that she feels so comfortable mocking others for enjoying their entertainment.
She likes movies other people don’t like just because other people don’t like them. Content and artistry are more or less irrelevant but at least she gets to hog this “cool” space to herself. It’s true that the success of artistry should be judged by obscurity and failure.
On Venus.
Off topic Anti-PJM rant:
Defaulting to six pages for this?
What is this, Glenn Reynolds’ favorite, Popular Whatever?
STOP IT, guys.
Single page.
Don’t whore for fake page views, it doesn’t fool anyone – and it just makes users unhappy.
Combine that with the default subscribe to the Daily Digest, and I just avoid PJM links most of the time. It’s like looking at Gawker or something, but with slightly different politics.
Insulting to the userbase – bad design.
Stop it.
(Nothing against Ms. Shaidle or the other contributors, many of whom I read long before PJM existed.)
hey, thanks, you found the boys’ father’s day card front. it’s your evidence of horrible darkness.
You’re just jealous because I make a living writing SF, going to cons, drinking beer, insulting lefty utopists (Net Gen Trek is possibly the worst example of such. I notice you didn’t risk raising that issue.)
Star Wars also ripped off Dune and Dambusters and Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire–Lucas borrowed from the best, when he was good.
But Trek had aliens who talked like Chicago gangsters, or Romans, and space hippies and Spock’s Brain, so perhaps throwing stones is ill advised in your glass house.
Trek and SW each have flaws, and each have strengths. I’m with George Takei that we need to get past that and ally to fight the true threat–Edward Twinklefangs.
If you make a living writing SF and think Lucas ripped off anyone you probably construct your writing like your criticism: uninformed that what makes Star Wars a success has little to do with pure story and everything to do with how that story was presented. Jack Vance could write a more interesting story about buying a sandwich than the uninformed could about star empires.
You’re just so utterly wrong. And you’re apparently unable (or unwilling) to draw a distinction between fans who just enjoy the movies and those aging adolescents who are still buying or keeping toys, comic books and video games in their thirties. I’m both a Star Wars and a Star Trek fan, but I’m not a “trekky” or whatever the Star Wars equivalent to that is. I never bought a single toy, comic book or video game based on them even as a kid. I just enjoy movies and T.V. series.
“Do you think Mark Steyn wastes his spare time playing World of Warcraft?”
No, but talk show host Mark Levin does. What about that?
It’s just a friggin movie. She doth protest too much.
“Successful, mature men do not play computer games, attend “cons,” and get excited about overrated science fiction movies from the 1970s.”
Sure they do- at least they do until they get completely nagged by their wives into giving up what they love for something more presentable- like wine tastings (which I love actually)
I met up with a few college buddies and we talked about “geeking out” – where you watch cartoons or scifi- my two friends have families and careers-
Women who hate the idea that men are watching scifi can certainly enjoy the guys who watch sports 24/7 (a more acceptable form of fandom)- or maybe they can get an ultra suave type who would never been seen dead near scifi- but has no problem with drugs and infidelity.
I am going to Gallifrey One in two weeks- hardcore Doctor Who fans- many of them have serious careers- engineers, finance, a nuclear scientist off the top of my head. We will have a great time
Really- this article is about nerd bashing- heard this mush back in middle school- I’m free of it now.
Kathy, hon, you should have phoned up Cooper Lawrence before you started pop’n off about video gamers and asked her about kicking the hornet’s nest. Me thinks your blogs henceforth my receive a new level of scrutiny.
I have read a number of Ms. Schaidle’s articles and while I have found her tone a bit angry I have even enjoyed her literary pouting sessions at time. While I admit that Star Wars is not great cinema that can be said for most movies including most of the commercially successful ones. After all not a lot of adults buy movie inspired dolls or lunch boxes. But where does the incredible level of hostility toward men who enjoy Star Wars come from. Did the boy friend who took you steal your virginity. Break your heart and them marry your best friend or what?
Actually Star Wars is great cinema, it’s big-time cinema. Too much weight is being given to it’s subject matter rather than its construction.
If you look at Star Wars from a point of view of its success in terms of editing, music, sound, special effects, use of special effects, art design, script, screen play, set design, casting and more, it scores very high. Separate content from the construction and support of that content and you’ll have it right.
Jack Vance is beyond excellent. Everyone knows about Issac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke but there are other less known authors who are almost in the same league, e.g.
Larry Niven
Joe Haldeman
Alexei Panshin
Robert Silverberg
Frederik Pohl
the list goes on and on.
Star Wars and Star Trek are pathetic when compared to truly great SF.
BettyBlue @ 75 said:
“I think one reason so many fans are disappointed with George Lucas is that this is a guy who could have done anything after the first “Star Wars” movie, and, instead, he gave us “Howard the Duck”, and Ewoks. A lot of us were hoping not only for more Star Wars sequels (NOT prequels), but that a lot of science fiction classics, such as the works of Jack Vance, “The Witches of Karres”, “The Martian Chronicles”, “Star’s My Destination”, “Nova”, would all make it to big screen, now that the special effects barrier had been broken, so to speak. George could have led a new movement in Sci-fi. Instead, he chose to merchandise. Then, he went over to the dark side.”
I agree with this comment. The original “Star Wars” and “The Empire Strikes Back” were excellent movies but the later sequels were of diminishing quality until the last “Star Wars” sequel was unwatchable. I’m inclined to believe that George Lucas got lucky with the first two “Star Wars” movies. He had a good team for making the original movies and was one of the original people to use advanced special effects. Unfortunately his luck ran out after “The Empire Strikes Back” and needed originality to keep making first rate movies. It’s no wonder that it never occurred to Lucas to make a movie based upon a Jack Vance or Larry Niven novel. Lucas is more a technician using established technology than a genuine innovator.
The sign over the gate at concentration camp 2.0 will read, “We Know How to Live Your Life Better Than You”.
^ Successful software developer (wear a tie and everything), hardcore gamer, amateur historian, and ardent Conservative. I love Star Wars (look at the name), “childish” movies (Fanboys was awesome!!!!), and other things that “grown-ups” shouldn’t like. But, I could still sit down and discuss almost any current event both intelligently and fervently.
I guess I don’t exist. Hm… Damn
Read this the other day, and it gnawed at me–had to comment. Maybe I am not the most intellectually gifted man on the planet, but I judge movies on how I feel at the end, after all, they are entertainment. I yelled in triumph as the torpedoes bullseyed down the ventilation shaft after the unexpected return of the Millenium Falcon. Who felt a sense of doom as Han was wheeled out, encased in carbonite, in the evil clutches of the mercenary guy? I almost wept when Qui-Gon (sp?) was killed by Darth Maul and would have loved to have been Obi wan Kenobi leaving Darth Vader to his fate at the edge of the lava river. Too many things we fold spindle and mutilate. A rose doesn’t care if it is the genus Rosa, within the family Rosaceae (wiki) Live for the moment. It’s a rose–take time to stop and smell it.
Thank you, thank you, thank you, Kathy Shaidle, for this piece. I remember being baffled by all the science fiction fans loving this movie. Especially when they claimed “2001″ was no longer the greatest science fiction movie. Yes it is. Not much else is in its league. “Dark City.” “Altered States.” “Frankenstein.” “Forbidden Planet” (maybe). “A Clockwork Orange.” “Close Encounters.” Even “Man With Two Brains.” (not to mention “Donovan’s Brain”) “Star Wars” does not even have one brain. I don’t know what you might think of these other movies, though I think I probably wouldn’t want to know, but thank you again. It’s like trying to deal with people who can not tell the difference between “Star Trek” and “Lost In Space.” In fact, it is. If only this were fiction.
Influence #2 The Hidden Fortress is “The Scottish Play” in Japan.
Why is space noisy? Because we expect explosions to be noisy, if it were depicted realistically, a lot of dramatic effect would be lost. So, artistic license.
In the ’70s, Hollywood was stuck in the run of dark, dismal, anti-hero movies, and the first Star Wars movie broke that. For which, thanks.
Wait, Mark Steyn and Victor Davis Hanson are your counter examples? They’re professional commentators on the works of their betters. The only difference between them and the average sci-fi convention mouthbreather is that sci-fi conventions don’t pay as well as pseudo-news hours.
The Empire may have had its faults, but I’ll bet it had single-payer health care.
I guess I’m late to the party.
Bitching about how others spend their free time because you had a bad date in high school does not seem all that conservative to me. I’m sure a classicist like VDH has devoted some time to the Harpies. Maybe you should read up.
So the standards for conservative manhood are VDH and Mark Steyn? Love both their work but teaching and writing are a fairly narrow view of manhood. I don’t think we’re going to recover our culture by posting to each other’s blogs and buying a couple books per year. For what it’s worth, most conservative, and quite a few liberal, men work. Most relax. Some relax with sci-fi, some with football, some with video games, some with golf, some with porn, some with Harley paraphernalia, some with reading, some with gardening. If you’ve read Steyn’s references to the vanishing of pubic hair in porn, I think you can deduce he’s relaxed in a number of way down through the years.
I think most sci-fi sucks, almost all of Star Wars sucks, and yet my time is my own and it’s a little off-putting to hear a writer who is obviously all kinds of fun at parties bitch about how someone else spends their time.
And I think that conservative guys who chase a little white ball around the countryside every weekend while talking about business and pussy are wasting their time, but THEY DIDN’T ASK ME WHAT I THINK. Maybe I’m qualified to write a column.
Kathy, good article. You’re not entirely wrong, but here’s a few things you should keep in mind about “Star Wars,” that might soften your outlook on “Star Wars”:
• The environment in which the first movie was released (the REAL first one- not this “Episode 4″ nonsense!):1977. “Star Wars” was a breath of fresh air coming out of Hollywood which was alienating audiences due to dreary, preachy, polemic films (interestingly, lefty film critics of the day dismissed “Star Wars” as a throwback to jingoistic movies of the ’40s). It was escapist fun for a summer season and not to be taken seriously. I’m put off by fans so devoted to “Star Wars” they treat the series as religion. But zealous fans are in every endeavor and have a tendency to suck the fun out of the entertainment of their choice with slavish “love it-or leave it” devotion and nit-picking. Frankly, I think sport fans who knows the stats of every ballplayer since Ty Cobb’s era outnumbers “Star Wars” nerds by a wide margin!
PS= what should be noted is what influenced “Star Wars.” For all the highfalutin talk about Joseph Campbell, folklore, etc., it was Jack Kirby’s “Fourth World” series he wrote and drew for DC Comics that is at the root of “Star Wars.” George Lucas was a silent partner of one of the first comic book stores in New York, called Supersnipe. Lucas even cited Kirby’s works in early interviews pertaining to “Star Wars.” Take another look at Darkseid and Darth Vader; Orion and Luke Skywalker; The Source and The Force. Just sayin’!
Forgive me for not taking the bait, but I didn’t see a whole lot of criticism of the movie itself, other than an aside about the commonness of its inspirations and the sound effects in space. I don’t participate in the whole debate about the cultural phenomenon of Star Wars, so I was hoping for some actual movie criticism. Unlike culture snobs, I don’t take something’s ubiquity to be evidence that it sucks. I assume that if millions of people like it, there must be _something_ to it and I should take a closer look, even if that means ignoring my own prejudices.
Two points of order:
#1 The Enterprise has NOTHING to do with Star Trek, in fact the Star Trek Enterprise is supposed to be named after the real Enterprises from nearly the beginning of this country.
#2 Enjoying what is essentially a dime store novel movie has its place, but you can’t equate enjoying it with people that go to Comic-Con dressed as Darth Vader.
I stopped reading the article after the author, outraged, accused Lucas of…being influenced. I hear he even stole the English language he used for the dialogue. And instead of coming up with his own movie-making method, he used the cameras and celluloid. Why should Lucas deserve special opprobrium because, like other stories about heroes on a journey, his own story about a hero on a journey also had a hero on a journey? Perhaps the fiction-making industry should have shut down after the Odyssey.
I guess I’m late getting to the party, too, 73rd, but I’ve never understood the fan craziness of Star Wars – people standing in line for hours multiple times to see it, conventions, websites, toys, blogs, merchandising, etc. I didn’t go see it and still haven’t seen it (although, being a living, walking, breathing human being, I’ve seen clips – any normal person couldn’t avoid it if they tried). I do like Harrison Ford, but this is ridiculous! I’ve had neighbors whose kids were ‘everything Star Wars 24/7′ – draperies, bed spreads, pajamas, full toy boxes, swords of every stripe, color & lighting option, helmets, toothbrushes, you name it. It doesn’t appeal to me and I refuse to contribute to George Lucas & Co. trust funds. It’s a freaking movie, for cryin’ out loud! Get a life, people!
I don’t understand it either. But a good friend of mine with a full time job and a happy family with three kids doing well in school admits that he was at the 3D Phantom Menace opening at midnight last week. And he knew it would suck, but he had to go anyway. And he has collected memorabilia non-stop. And he was there with the whole family which is more than you can say for the old Rocky Horror midnight shows. His family seems as happy as mine.
Speaking of which I was at the theater at noon on Christmas Day 2001 for Fellowship of The Ring. I did not go on to see it 36 times afterward, but I probably watch the series every two years or so. My favoritist movie in the entire universe, The Third Man, I’ve probably seen 10 times max, but most of my friends would think that a bloody waste of time that could be spent dropping multi-colored plastic fish into a lake hoping a real fish will bite it.
Hate to think what Shaidle would think of all this.