Star Wars (1977) On Further Review

Unseen? Of course not...except from the standpoint that many people fail to see just how BAD of a film this actually is. Yes, Star Wars is very entertaining. Yes, it's fun to watch. I don't hate the film, I actually enjoy it. But if you REALLY analyze it, really look at it, you realize that, well, it is pretty bad. Where to start...

Reader's Digest version of why it's bad? The dialogue is stilted and terrible, the acting is god-awful, the plot is basically non-existent,...the best thing in the movie are the special effects, which by today's standards are not so hot either. Now, let's move on to specific examples...

The actors themselves have pointed out how ridiculous the dialogue in that film was. Carrie Fisher says in the documentary on the making of Star Wars that, "We used to say you can type this stuff, but you can't say it", a quote that may originally be attributed to Harrison Ford, using slightly more colorful language. Fisher points out a specific line her character says to Governor Tarkin; "I recognized your foul stench when I was brought on board." She very sarcastically says in the documentary, "...I don't know about you, but I'm ALWAYS talking like that...". Another of her favorite lines is, "I have placed information vital to the survival of the Rebellion into the memory systems of this R2 unit." As bad as that reads, go back and try saying it out loud. Go ahead, I'll wait while you try to untie your tongue and/or catch your breath...

Ford complained about the technical dialogue, such as lines like, "It'll take a few moments to get the coordinates from the navi-computer", which is clumsy, easy to trip over verbally, and just something no ordinary human would ever say. The film is filled with dialogue like that. It's all very forced prose, and while it may convey information, it's just not done in a manner that anyone would actually use.

The fact that the dialogue is so bad, and gave the actors so much of a hard time, contributes to the bad performances as well. The near total lack of range in any of the performances is very prevalent. Each character is limited to one emotion, and that's what they play for the entire film. Feelings are very lacking in many scenes, and the character whose emotions are most greatly on display is actually R2-D2, a ROBOT! R2 is the only one to successfully convey happiness, sadness, fear AND anger over the course of the film. Coming in a close second in the emotional range category is C-3PO, ANOTHER ROBOT! A gay robot, granted, but a robot nonetheless...

An entire PLANET, Alderaan, is destroyed, killing the millions upon millions of inhabitants...and it garners a couple of passing references, both of dismissal (Obi-Wan Kenobi tells Luke Skywalker to get on with his training, Princess Leia Organa aloofly states we have no time for our sorrows...AND IT'S HER HOME FUCKING PLANET!!!). Skywalker, after seeing the remains of his murdered aunt and uncle, who had raised him since infancy, coldly tells Kenobi that, "...there's nothing here for me now...", and that is the FULL EXTENT of his "mourning" for them! When Kenobi is killed later on, a man that Skywalker hadn't even MET at the beginning of the film, in fact had barely even HEARD OF, this sends him into a funk of depression far exceeding that of his previous sulking. In terms of passage of time, Skywalker had known Kenobi for all of roughly a day, probably even less than a full 24 hours, when Darth Vader struck him down. Uncle Owen and Aunt Who?

Which brings up another point. Why is it that the main character of the film (well, before Lucas changed the entire perspective with the newer trilogy, which I'm proud to say I've not ever seen), spends his entire time on screen whining and sulking? Young Skywalker is like having a tired 5 year old around; "But I was going into Toshii Station to pick up some power convertors!" "But it's a whole 'nother year!" "It just isn't fair! Aah, Biggs is right, I'm NEVER gonna get outta here!" Shut up, ya whiny brat...

As for the plot, well, there isn't exactly a hell of a lot going on. There's 2 robots on the run from the bad guys who, very luckily, get the plans to the enemy's floating battle station into the hands of the right good guys, who then send some ships in to blow it up. That's pretty much it. With this thin of a plot, one would expect some MAJOR character develpoment to pad the film out to the 2 hours it runs, but none of the characters displays anything more than a mere skeleton of a personality, each having the depth that a plastic knife would be able to cut into an asphalt highway in the middle of winter in New York. I would have used a goofy Star Wars universe metaphor here, but I'm not THAT much of a geek...

As I say, I don't hate the film, I just severely question the amount of blind devotion and reverence that is placed upon it. While the fun spirit of the film is undeniable, it really isn't as well made as most fans seem to think it is. People tend to look at it fondly thru the rose-colored glasses of nostalgia. Its legacy is more in the way that it changed how films are made and marketed...which, unfortunately, has been in an adverse way. This movie opened the door for marketing to be more important than the actual film. George Lucas is the movie industry's equivalent of George Steinbrenner in professional sports, in that while both completely revolutionized the way their respective industries approached how the product was handled, in the grand scheme of things, it was in a tremendously negative way. They became just that, an industry and a product, instead of just escapism and fun. Both industries are now about business and profits first, and stressing the importance of licensing and merchandising over the actual material. The real reasons for the existence of those industries, the love of telling stories and the love of playing a game, have been buried so far underneath profit margins and business ledgers that it is nearly impossible to just enjoy them anymore. When the cost of making and marketing a film or running a ballclub exceeds the annual Gross National Product of many small, and even mid-sized, countries, it's time to step back and take a look at whether what we as humans are placing our priorites on should be re-evaluated. I'm just sayin.