8 | January 27, 2016 | Milton Herald | NorthFulton.com
OPINION
Star Wars: Hollywood’s walk on the safe side Spoiler alert: This is a candid review of that cultural phenomenon known as “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” so if you haven’t seen it yet, and you want to be totally surprised, then don’t read any farther. Han Solo dies. See, I told you not to read any farther. Not to worry, though. This is Hollywood and anything or anybody can be resurrected – including an entire movie. Just wait HATCHER HURD and see. Executive Editor hatcher@appenmediagroup.com Having two grandsons can mean you have to repeat yourself. Take the latest “Star Wars” film. I saw it with one grandson, so naturally I had to take the other. That caused a bit of row because Grandson Chase said it wasn’t fair because Grandson Tripp got to go twice. Well, life is unfair. But seeing that “Star Wars” in now in its seventh incarnation, I am moved to comment about it. First let me say I fell in love with “Star Wars” in 1977. I was a Trekkie in the 1960s, and a sci-fi buff since I read my first Robert Heinlein novel in the seventh grade. The first three installments that came out were great fun, full of cutting-edge special effects, loopy humor and an homage to the great early sci-fi serials such as “Flash Gordon.” Then came the long-awaited prequels (for future clarification and my sanity, when I refer to “Star Wars” films, I will use the chronology of when they were released, not the dorky episode numbers used in the “Star Wars” conceit). I was not moved to see them be-
cause what I had heard about the films sounded turgid and boring. The original “Star Wars” trilogy was enough for me. But this new movie did intrigue me. First, from the movie trailers I saw a “Star Wars” landscape I was familiar with. The old Storm Troopers were back along with a touch of the panache and puckish humor that graced the originals. But Hollywood is first and foremost a business. So when Disney bought the “Star Wars” franchise in 2012 for $4 billion, you knew Jar Jar Binks would be nowhere to be seen. Sure enough, the latest “Star Wars” film was chock full of visual and plot cues to know this was going to faithfully follow the original “Star Wars” plot. It was so faithful that it is almost indistinguishable from the first one. For the logic of this I will recommend to you the most excellent book about the film industry, especially the cut-throat business side of it, by William Goldman. His “Adventures in the Screen Trade” gives a somewhat jaundiced account of how Hollywood works. Goldman’s first and foremost rule for Hollywood is always repeat what worked before. Originality is not bankable. That is why when small, original movies hit it big, the sequels are spit out like watermelon seeds. Think of “Rocky,” now translated into its seventh iteration, or a particular favorite of mine, “The Magnificent Seven,” which produced three sequels and a TV series – and was itself a remake of Akira Kurosawa’s “The Seven Samurai.” Other examples abound – “Lethal Weapon” and “Die Hard” are but two more. So, given the $4 billion investment, it is little wonder that almost every plot line in the origin of the franchise shows up in Disney’s version. Billed as the next installment it is really the same installment with a
Goldman’s first and foremost rule for Hollywood is always repeat what worked before. Originality is not bankable. That is why when small, original movies hit it big, the sequels are spit out like watermelon seeds.
new paint job. The George Lucas original begins with the young protagonist on a desert planet, raised by foster parents, and he is drawn into a “big adventure” when he meets a cuddly robot. The Disney version is much different. A young protagonist living on an arid planet, who is waiting for her parents to come back for her, meets a cuddly robot that draws her into a big adventure. So the protagonist is a girl – big, big difference. The villains in the Lucas version use warriors in white armor and fly space fighters that swarm like bees. In the Disney version the villains use warriors in slightly more sleek white armor but the same fighters that swarm like bees. So in version 1, we have Luke, and in version 2 we have Rey, but I call “Lucille” and likewise we have Darth Vader in the Lucas version and, oh, let’s call him Li’l Darth because he is the grandson of Darth. And although Li’l Darth is a perfectly formed human, he still wears the black armor and helmet of Darth and uses a voice speaker that makes him talk like Darth. But our little Lucille goes on to meet Han Solo – yes, the Han who would also raid lost arks – so that we cannot mistake this for anything other than the true sequel to the Lucas epic. Princess Leia is there, only now she is General Leia – a more feminist role, certainly. Now the plot in Lucas’ “Star Wars” is the evil Galactic Empire which has a Death Star (a weapon as big as a moon, so you know it’s bad) which is going to destroy the planet that is home to The
Rebels. Again, the plot is much different in the new version. It’s the evil First Order 30 years later, which has arisen to challenge Leia’s people (who are still called The Rebels, I suppose for continuity). They have a new Death Star, which is three times the size of the old one. But somehow there is still one Achilles heel that, if hit, will destroy the whole thing. So guess what happens? Right in one. Now just to make sure we are snug in our “Star Wars” cocoon, we meet original cast members Harrison Ford (Han) and Carrie Fisher (Leia) with a cameo by Mark Hamill (Luke). Then R2D2 and C-3PO show up along with the Wookiee (Chewbacca). In this version Chewbacca gets all the best lines. So there you have it. Disney did not run out a sequel to “Star Wars.” They simply did a remake. And with a $4 billion franchise to protect, should we have expected anything else? Of course not. We want our old characters back. We want Han Solo skirting trouble with unsavory types he’s skinned in some deal. We want C-3PO and R2-D2 trading barbs. We like walking into another Star Bar that echoes Rick s Café Americain in Casablanca. We want to recapture that old warm and fuzzy feeling for that world Lucas created. So why did they kill off Harrison Ford at the end of this move? Well, death is only permanent outside of Hollywood. Inside, anything is possible, especially resurrection.