The Evil Force

Rating: Null/10 (29 September 2002)

I recently revisited this, and remembered first seeing it.
It wasn't the first movie to be heavily hyped. But I recall it as the first one to appeal to kids as a big adventure.
In a couple ways, what's come since have ruined this. Lucas himself ruined it by deciding to make all those extra ones, making up the story as he went. And of course, every month on average we now have a new special effects movie that matches the star wars franchise in visual ambition. Many of these in fact are fueled by Lucas' several companies.
So its impossible to recapture that thrill. At the time, yes we knew he stole from Kurosawa, and leaned heavily on Joseph Campbell's notions of myth. But it all seemed so fresh, and Lucas himself came across as a visionary genius. And we needed that more than we needed entertainment.
Remember, the US had just been through its first sleazy republican scandal and the nation as a whole was discouraged. But the world of movies was exploding. Woody Allen gave us "Annie Hall." Scorcese became known. And then this. The thing that impressed us at the time was how seriously it took itself, despite how childishly goofy that intergalactic bar was. Also how powerful the sounds and images were.
The mythology was so clear. We had it for decades in science fiction and fantasy novels, indeed much better. But this was the first time we had them cinematically, and cinema when it works may be the most powerful of packaged imaginations. Oh how I wish we could see it as we did then.
Now we notice, for instance, how ordinary the dogfights are. These used to thrill. We don't have all the mystery that made the thing deep. Now we know who everyone is and what is going on, and it is all so much more ordinary than what we imagined at the time as possibilities.
In later years, Lucas would let us down, as a person and in this saga. In fact, I think he ruined some things. But for the year of this event, he was the most celebrated singer in the choir. And by me as well.
What do I mean about ruining?
Things evolve. When one thing finds a niche and flourishes, it pinches off other things. When "Birth of a Nation" became a huge success, it froze movies as filmed plays with a larger stage instead of one of the several other directions it could have taken.
Again, there was a period after talkies reinvented the medium where there was a struggle among various different directions. This you can clearly see in the period. In retrospect, it appears as if the world could have only turned out the way it did. But the trends that win aren't the best at all.
So "Star Wars" opened up a gateway for how effects could transform cinema into something far beyond what we had before. And then it closed that gateway, so that effects now cannot show you something unfamiliar. Instead, it all has to be the familiar taken to some extreme.
Yes, it was a goose at the time. But Star Wars killed the greater possibilities of science fiction. In film, at least, and because books are inherently cinematic now, in books too.
Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.