FulltimeCasual

UPSIDE/DOWNSIDE: STAR WARS

It wasn't my idea! Today is the birthday of a friend of mine, and I asked him what his favourite movie is. Pure coincidence that I'm also a massive nerd for Star Wars. Promise! So... here it is, the first entry in Upside/Downside, where I try and look at what makes great films great, but also where they don't quite work. Also, Upside/Downside is kind of a crappy name I think... any suggestions are welcome! :) UPSIDE/DOWNSIDE: STAR WARS Even if you haven't seen it you still know "Use the Force!" and "Boring conversation anyway!" and probably even "Stay on target!". It's fucking Star Wars already! With Jaws, Steven Spielberg invented the summer blockbuster... with Star Wars, George Lucas created a blockbuster that became a load-bearing pillar of Western culture. Does it bear the load? UPSIDE: STORY Fuck yeah! It's a virtuosic recombination of tried and true story elements filtered through an amazingly imaginative science-fiction world. Vader is a silent film villain with a helmet in place of a bushy moustache. Obi Wan is a wise hermit with a lightsaber in place of excalibur. Luke Skywalker is a naive farmboy who works on moisture vaporators instead of combine harvesters. Is "vaporator" even a word? Probably not. But Lucas convinces us it is, 'cause he makes the case for the Star Wars universe so earnestly. UPSIDE: SOLO I mean, it's a goofy 70's science fiction movie. It's got cute robots and mystical Force bullshit and a space pirate called Solo. Who has a dog called Chewbacca that's apparently qualified to fly spaceships. Still, via Harrison Ford's casual charm, Han Solo is the coolest fucking guy ever. Ever. If you say you wouldn't switch teams for 70's Ford, you're a great big liar. UPSIDE: DAMBUSTERS So the end of the film is completely ripped off The Dambusters... down to: "How many guns do you think, Gold 5?" "Say about twenty guns. Some on the surface, some on the towers." That's practically word for word. Lucas took the best and most exciting bits of other films to make this one. All of the spacey actioney bits are based on WW2 films and WW2 gun-cam footage. Genius. UPSIDE: FUCKING GORGEOUS The design work on this film is beyond beautiful. Special effects too. Dykstra! McQuarrie! Burtt! If you know the names, you know what I mean. If you don't, no big deal -- their work is so good you didn't even notice. Look 'em up. UPSIDE: WILLIAMS John Williams was the master. He created the soundtrack of the 70's and 80's. Sure, there was some Alan Silvestri, Brad Fidel and a lot of Jerry Goldsmith... all great. But Williams set the bar with Jaws and Close Encounters and, most importantly, Star Wars. UPSIDE: EVERYTHING It really comes together. The characters, the story, the execution, the effects, the music. It's kinda everything that cinema can be. Fuck you, Michael Bay -- this is how it's done. DOWNSIDE: EVERYTHING Okay, let's be honest -- it's pretty clunky. It gets by on its charm and originality, but damn some of that dialogue is bad! DOWNSIDE: LUKE Seriously... he's so earnest it hurts. And why is it that he's so upset when Obi Wan dies? He knew Obi Wan for, what -- a fucking day? When his foster parents died, all he did was turn his head to the side in a dramatic fashion. When his new old man friend died, he screamed loud enough that the boys in white started shooting at him. DOWNSIDE: GIRLS Where are the girls? Sure, there's Princess Leia but, in spite of her defiant attitude, she's awful passive in the story. This flick sure could use a coupla Ripleys. DOWNSIDE: LUCAS He went back and, with computers, fucked with it. Why deface your own mural? I don't get it. Nobody gets it. The original was a product of its time, a product of you at that time, a chunk of zeitgeist, an artistic treasure. But you only owned it legally, George! In spirit, everybody owned it. You created an indispensable cultural object, something we all shared, and then,,, UPSIDE/DOWNSIDE Somehow, it just fucking works. I don't really know why and, judging by George's more recent efforts, he doesn't either. Star Wars -- the original -- wins.