NOTE: The following review was written and posted before the premiere of Star Wars, Episode One – The Phantom Menace. I’m including it here for archival purposes. It’s interesting to revisit this review, considering how the “prequels” soon changed our society’s thoughts and feelings about the Star Wars universe. In a way, I miss that time before Lucas’s second, misguided trilogy tainted the legacy, and before fan cynicism turned conversations about a galaxy far, far away into derisive, sneering affairs.
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Standing in line at midnight on opening night for Star Wars – Special Edition, I was nervous and irritated. All around me, people were already criticizing it. “Why mess with perfection?” “It’s a piece of Americana! You don’t change history like that.”
And yet, they stayed in line. They sat through the whole film. And they walked out with expressions of awe and wonder, just as they had back in 1977 when they saw Star Wars for the first time.
The truth is, no filmmaker since 1977 has been able to instill in audiences a sense of wonder quite like George Lucas. He gave us a sense that we were being catapulted into a whole new world of filmmaking. Filmmakers like Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson have contributed mightily to the development of that wonderland with adventure films that have surpassed Lucas’s achievement. But he was the Columbus who discovered this continent of special-effects spectacle and pedal-to-the-metal action.
By revising his classic trilogy, Lucas sought only to improve what was already a wonderful story of good versus evil. It’s a masterfully woven myth, where the humble shame the proud, where the simple shame the wise, where the a meager band of hopefuls overcome evil with good. The Star Wars Trilogy: Special Edition speaks to both our fondness for those years of cinematic revolution, and to our desire to see groundbreaking new visions. Thus, the original Star Wars series is as breathtaking as it ever was.
With the exception of some sequences in Star Wars, Episode Six – Return of the Jedi, the original trilogy has aged well, and the reasons why are clearer in retrospect. Devoted fans will find the comedy even funnier, now that the special-effects spectacle has become more commonplace. The characters stand out strong in contrast to Star Wars-ripoff formula films that included, almost as a rule, the hero, the rogue, the girl, the mystical wise man, the goofy sidekicks. Luke Skywalker’s character is made even richer — we are finally given a scene where Luke reminisces about the old days with his boyhood friend Biggs.
With such a strong foundation, Lucas can afford to do a little fine-tuning and revising. And his revisions are best when they are merely technical, and don’t affect the story. Lucas claims they bring the film closer to his “original vision”. The aging print has been polished to look like new, improving the clarity of the desert scenes especially. New, digitally-animated characters populate Mos Eisley Spaceport with such life and activity that we hardly know where to look. There’s a constant parade of spaceships launching and landing in the background. Little techno-rodents carry equipment through the streets. Curious flying robots pick at pedestrian aliens as though hunting for ticks. A huge reject from Jurassic Park — a Rontoù — lumbers down the street. In The Empire Strikes Back‘s Cloud City, new windows reveal more stunning glimpses of the metropolitan area against the beautiful red skies in the background. And at the climax of Jedi, we are treated not only to new music that replaces the ridiculous Muppet Show party song, but to exciting scenes in cities around the galaxy celebrating the fall of the tyrannical empire.
Throughout the Special Edition trilogy, familiar sights and faces pop up unexpectedly. In Star Wars, the Millennium Falcon is given a stunning blastoff for its maiden movie voyage. Boba Fett, the notorious bounty hunter from Return of the Jedi now walks across the screen as the bodyguard of Jabba the Hutt. Jabba himself makes an impressive appearance, sliming his way around the docking bay while he talks with a resurrected 1977 Harrison Ford. The climactic space battle is decorated with the movie’s best improvements; the ships find new freedom with their animated capabilities, and the viewer rollercoasts right along with them in and out of explosions and dogfights. The Empire Strikes Back‘s abominable snowman, the Wampa, now appears even more monstrous as he gnaws on a big bloody leg of a tauntaun. And in Jedi, there’s a beautiful incidental shot of a herd of Banthas wandering around the deserts of Tatooine. Revamped sound effects bring an improved 3-D effect to the action.
These changes are enough to make me very excited about the next trilogy’s special effects; if Lucas’s digital effects look this good now, in two years they should be absolutely convincing. (The new trilogy, the story of young Darth Vader and his teacher Obi Wan Kenobi, is scheduled to reach theaters in the summer of 1999.)
The smallest revision in the Special Edition — but the biggest mistake — is a change in Han Solo’s confrontation with the assassin Greedo in the slimy cantina. The viewer’s introduction to Han Solo is essential to understanding his character; his cocky nonchalance as he shoots Greedo under the table demonstrates just what kind of guy we’re dealing with here. This mercenary edge to his behavior is removed from the new film “to clean up his character.” Now, Greedo shoots first, and misses. Han shoots back in self-defense. This is ridiculous. First, Greedo is aiming the gun at his face… how could he miss? Second, Solo is a mean-hearted mercenary. This “Disney-ification” of his character makes his development through the series less dramatic, and, for my money, less interesting. George Lucas said he wanted to give children a “cleaner” hero to admire. But Han Solo’s character did improve through the trilogy. Would the story of the prodigal son be made any “cleaner” if the son never rebelled or acted inappropriately?
The strongest thing about Star Wars is its story. Only a few of its adventure-movie descendants have taken such care in storytelling and character development (Raiders of the Lost Ark and Blade Runner, to name two.) After all, at one year old, commercial Hollywood Star Wars-wannabes like Independence Day are almost as flimsy as episodes of Star Trek: Voyager. Star Wars is an incredible moviegoing experience even twenty years later. Let’s hope that when Lucas releases the first new episode in 1999, we can sigh with relief “Thank God, they still DO make ‘em like they used to!”
Tags: Literature
May 25th, 2004 at 4:07 pm
Is this REALLY one of the reasons you married Anne? ;-)