Cinematic Grand Opera

Rating: Null/10 (24 May 2002)

Attack of the Clones is an impressive experience as we have all come to expect from each new film in the Star Wars saga. Visual effects, sound, and music all combine to deliver a glorious spectacle. Even though I knew ahead of time that all these elements would be spectacular, nothing that came before really prepared me for this when I sat down to actually see the film. As pure magic show, the Star Wars films have time and again proven their worth. It should be noted that the film is only truly appeciated in a large theater properly equipped with digital projection and well balanced digital sound systems.
But, as with the last two Star Wars films that have been made, Return of the Jedi and The Phantom Menace, I came away feeling that George should have hired me to polish the screenplay. In as much as this can be taken for criticism (and of an arrogant kind), it is really a tribute, for Lucas has created something so remarkable that most movie goers, from the casual observer to the rabid fan alike, can hardly resist the desire to invest something of themselves in it.
As is the case in general with the Star Wars phenomenon, it should be noted that yes, these are just movies, and everyone seems rather inclined to make too much of them. But, because it is such an undeniable phenomenon, perhaps no script, no matter how brilliant, could hope to live up to everyone's expectations.
Be that as it may, I would say that since A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back, Lucas has failed to get the most out of his material and his story telling opportunity. The bottom line is that while his instincts for character and story are sound, he simply lets too many elements crowd his vision. His fascination with technology and cinematic canvassing has more often than not overwhelmed his characters and their story.
This film is very exciting and thrilling stuff, make no mistake. It is as entertaining as one might hope for, albeit maybe a bit relentless. I would have preferred it if some of the protracted action scenes earlier in the film had been curtailed a few minutes here and there to give the characters and themes some more breathing room. This might also have served to give the stunning, climactic battle scenes an even greater impact.
I would disagree straight away with those who dismiss the Star Wars saga as plot-less. Lucas really has created a very imaginative and engrossing space opera with splendid archetypal characters, mythological undercurrents, and universal themes. As in all good re-tellings of the same basic human stories, these themes are played out with important and timely relevancies.

The Star Wars saga is routinely criticized for its portentous dispensation of philosophy, religion, politics, and science. But if anything, I think Lucas might be criticized for being too reticent to give these elements fuller play. No doubt, the greatest difficulty for him as he has unfolded his saga has been to somehow meld these engrossing operatic elements in a way that does not diminish the work as it was also meant to be - a fun Saturday afternoon serial adventure story. This difficulty is something that few of his harsher critics fully appreciate. Maybe it's just me, but I think the philosophies and politics of the Star Wars galaxy lends as much to its fascination as does its spectacular settings, vehicles, weapons, and life forms. This remains true as much for me when I saw A New Hope at the age of 12 as does Attack of the Clones at 37.
The old Flash Gordon serials were clear inspiration for the young George Lucas, but he has created something far larger than anything the old B-movie moguls could have dreamed of. And I am not speaking of just production values here. By injecting more than imagination and excitement into these films, Lucas elevated the material onto a more seriously engaging stage.

Thus, I must say that where Attack of the Clones has come up short, like the two proceeding films, has been in the near impossibility of trying to combine, if you will, elements of grand opera with light musical comedy in the same dramatic context. While this strange and intoxicating blend worked so well in Episodes IV and V, it has been a much more difficult thing to achieve in the later installments, primarily because so much more emphasis has been placed on ratcheting up the GRAND factor.

It is worth noting that the definition of `grand' opera, as opposed to opera of the ordinary sort, is not so much in the depth and seriousness of the material, but more with the opulence of its presentation. Grand Opera as a style was popular within the decadent French culture of the 18th and 19th centuries. These grandiose musical plays provided heaps of evening entertainment for the theatre going public of their day, but they were little performed afterwards and not just because of the production expense. Sparing no expense has rarely ever turned away theater goers. The real reason that these works lost their audience was that once the novelty of the presentation wore off, or they were surpassed by something grander still, they were found in time to be.too boring.
It was Richard Wagner alone among opera composers who achieved a workable balance of grand opera and engaging drama. His theatrical epics are portentous, no question, but compellingly so. And it was no accident that Wagner found his inspiration within the great treasure of medieval mythology. It is probably safe to say that without the example of Tristan and Isolde, Parsifal, and The Ring of the Nibelung, there would be no Star Wars, or Lord of the Rings either for that matter.
What is also interesting is that like Lucas, Wagner found the technical means at his disposal entirely inadequate to his purposes. Wagner's specially constructed Bayreuth Festival Theatre was the THX cinema of its time, the only way that The Ring in particular could be presented in any kind of convincing fashion.
Gratefully, Lucas does not appear to be nearly so full of himself as Wagner and while Star Wars may not be in the same league with the greatest of grand operas in terms of its richness as art and drama, it similarly commands the fascination and excitement of the public. Just as Wagner's operas were a popular phenomenon of their time, they also advanced the technique and power of the dramatic experience.
Star Wars is very much regarded as a pure form of contemporary `pop culture'. Wagner's music dramas were blockbusters too, but today, they can no longer be considered popular. The number of people who have seen a Wagner opera are infinitesimal compared to the number who have seen major films and Broadway stage shows. Yet, Wagner's best grand operas continue to hold their own for those that know them, just as the best Star Wars films do, by the measure with which their stories are developed and the sophistication of the technique by which they are presented.
As so many film critics are at pains to point out, the B-movie formula of old is now the industrial mainstay of the modern film business to the complete degeneration of the medium as a serious vehicle for drama and art. George Lucas is widely regarded as the person most responsible for this state of affairs. In the first place, this whole argument is without perspective. Hollywood has always churned out a steady stream of pulp material and always will. It is a business after all.
If there is any reason why we as movie lovers might expect Lucas to somehow deliver something greater and more memorable than the usual popcorn fodder, it is simply because he has done it before. In the first two Star Wars films Lucas achieved something more remarkable than spectacle - he transcended formula with a powerful Wagnerian combination of mythos and rich audio-visual palette. Lucas brought a different set of instincts to the screen with Star Wars. I think the real intent was not so much to conjure up such elements that would sell more movie tickets, but how to re-tell the tales of old in a new and compelling way. These creative instincts are what made Star Wars something special and what I think really accounts for its huge success.
Without question, the enormity of its success has profoundly changed the ways of the movie business, but it has also had its impact on Lucas himself, as it would certainly be expected to.
With all the means and, more importantly, freedoms at his disposal, we might not be too guilty if we should come to expect him to fulfill the greater promise of this saga.
As with Return of the Jedi and The Phantom Menace there is again in Attack of the Clones a small sense of nagging disappointment. It is a pity that the same incredible exertion of talent and energy that has gone into making each new episode in the Star Wars saga such a spectacular and detailed audio-visual feast could not also have been brought to bear on enriching the finer details of the screenplay.
On some level it must be conceded that the Star Wars saga has a life of its own, and in this sense really is more than just a series of entertaining movies. It has all the elements of grand opera at its best and I think Lucas might have made the mistake along the way of thinking that his audience wants only to be entertained.
The only other criticism I would level at Lucas is that while his casting has been by and large quite fine, he has not come to fully realize that his actors, no matter how good, need greater attention when they are being asked to play characters within the context of such an epic story and within such a fantastic environment. The environment for them in particular is a great challenge and not just because it is invisible to them when they are performing. It rests on their shoulders to convey and maintain the human dimension amidst such glorious spectacle.
On this point, I think Lucas owes a significant debt to his composer John Williams. The exciting and brilliant underscore he provides for all the many action sequences is often lost in the exotic and dense mixture of great sound effects, but in those brief moments when the characters are in close up, he greatly helps bolster the overshadowed human element.
Lucas's saga is very character driven, but in his approach to getting this on film, I would say a fair measure of it is being lost in translation.

He has for all intents and purposes turned the whole process of film production on its head. With most films the largest phase of their making is labelled `production', or what is essentially principal photography. `Post-Production' typically refers to the process of stitching all the assembled pieces together. In the case of Star Wars, and especially so in this new era of computer generated visualization, principal photography is now the smallest phase. Far more time, energy, and money is poured into Post-Production - so much so that it is a complete misnomer to refer to it as such. What this has meant for the actors and their characters is that they have taken on that rather sketchy quality of `Pre-Production' elements.

Film critics complain, and not entirely without merit, that technology is rendering the role of actors and their characters less important. Yet, in another sense, this wrongly suggests that they should necessarily be more important. No medium lends itself so well to make-believe as film. One should not find fault in the simple fact that the technical means of the medium are at this time reaching a real maturity.
Maybe the issue is that technology has not advanced nearly far enough. Would it not be a great thing for human actors to able to interface more directly with the splendid verisimilitude modern cinematic techniques provide? For gifted actors, I think this would a great boon. Maybe someday, and maybe not too far away if Lucasfilm continues to progress things as they do, the actors will come in for what is now the real `Production' phase and enter the `set' through some means of virtual reality.
As Anakin Skywalker represents the failed hope of his world to bring it the balance it so needs, he nonetheless through his striving lays the groundwork for a future generation to realize it, so George Lucas is giving filmmakers the means to do things never before possible, and if Lucas himself is not entirely able to bring fullest balance to these powerful new cinematic methods, it will be the essential challenge of present and future filmmakers to do so.
In spite of its narrative short comings, the Star Wars saga remains the measure by which all fantasy adventure films must be judged. Attack of the Clones is no exception and without a doubt Lucas has progressed, and continues to progress, the capabilities of the medium of film to ever new dizzying heights. Many will argue critically - to what real or greater purpose? The proof is in the pudding. Star Wars is delightful and delicious stuff. And as far as many of its essential production elements are concerned, particularly in the case its production design, costume design, visual effects, music, and editing, it gives as much credence to cinema as an art form as does anything else.
What is perhaps most strange of all is the incongruity that now exists within the saga itself. The chronologically earlier episodes have a technical polish and sophistication that all but dwarfs the experience one has watching the later episodes, made as they were with such comparatively antiquated techniques. In the best of all possible cinematic universes, we might have the glorious technical spectacle of Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones with the tighter narrative and fuller character development found in A New Hope and Empire Strikes Back. Here's hoping that Lucas himself can bring that balance back to the Force in Episode III - for which we must now patiently wait three long years.