Star Wars Philosophy, another installment
DID PALPATINE THROW THE FIGHT?
The following is a sample entry of the new Set Diary series now available for Hyperspace members.
In the summer of 2003, correspondent Pablo Hidalgo filed daily reports on the making of Episode III, but by necessity most of the plot details were obscured as to not spoil any secrets.
Now that the movie is out, much of what was too hot in 2003 can be discussed, with further insight into the making of Revenge of the Sith. EDITOR’S NOTE: THE DOWNSIDE? THE PARTY’S OVER. THE UPSIDE? WE CAN DWEEB-MICRODISCUSS TILL THOSE BANTHAS COME HOME.
It's one of the fieriest debates of online fan forums: when Palpatine was cornered in his office's giant window-frame, was he really overpowered by Mace? Or was he faking to lure Anakin? Could Mace really have gotten the upper hand on the Sith Lord?
George Lucas is the ultimate keeper of the true answer, and he's not telling... yet, anyway.EDITOR’S NOTE: UNCLE G…WHY DO YOU STILL TEASE US THIS WAY?
If you had asked me in the Summer of '03, when the sequence was first shot, I would have had a solid answer. But, if you asked me in the Fall of '04, when the sequence was re-shot, well... for those who want to debate, it's best to know more of the story of how this scene came to be.
This entire sequence changed significantly during postproduction. What we witnessed in Sydney told a different story. Anakin did not earn Mace's trust by ratting out Sidious right away. He did not agonize over his decisions while sitting alone in the Jedi Council chamber. He did not rush in at the last minute to witness a questionable balance of power. Instead, he stayed at Palpatine's side, in the Chancellor's private office, as Mace and his posse of Jedi barged in.
"Stand behind me," ordered Mace, in Sam Jackson's demanding tones. But Anakin didn't budge. Instead, he watched passively as Palpatine used the Force to snatch Anakin's lightsaber from his belt and attacks Mace and the Jedi. There's ample evidence of this original version for those with sharp eyes and behind-the-scenes photos. Heck, even Hasbro action figures with Palpatine packaged with Anakin's lightsaber got out there in the initial shipments.
So, if Sidious' entire duel played out before Anakin's stunned eyes, I'd be inclined to think that his fall was just for show. This changed after a screening George Lucas held for a few key colleagues. Their reactions underscored the shortcomings of the way this duel was constructed. Anakin's inaction was hard to justify cinematically. "The story was there, but it wasn't clear," said Lucas at the time it came to rebuild this scene. "It was too abstract. We opened up that part and looked at what we could do."
When word of the change came down, the keepers of continuities started carefully tracking the evolving consequences. Palpatine had two lightsabers, then, since he loses this one in the duel with Mace. I still have in my inbox a tentative email from one of the authors asking, "um, have we figured out yet whose lightsaber Palpatine uses in the fight with the Jedi?"
At first, it was feared it was impossible to CG the small svelte-handled weapon over Anakin's relatively chunky handle, but nonetheless, that was the lightsaber given to McDiarmid for the pickup photography. The shots of Palpatine rising from his chair and extending the weapon were reshot. The bulk of the duel between Sidious and Mace stayed from principal photography, except for a new touch -- a kick to Palpatine's face, done with stunt double Michael Byrne. This was shot on a partial set of just a piece of window-frame on Friday, August 27.
So... with this revised duel, if Sidious threw the fight, it places an awful lot of faith on Anakin's timing ...and he suffered a kicked-in face to boot. For what it's worth to those arguing, I doubt there's anyone who thinks Palpatine's serious when he claims he's too weak. That's obviously a lie. But was the fall into the corner that preceded his pleas for help a lie as well?
What else changed in this scene?
There are a few more interesting details, particularly where it moved in the sequencing of the story. But that will have to wait for another entry. EDITOR’S NOTE: THE PART WHERE SIDIOUS APPEARS TO HAVE INITIALLY LOST TO WINDU…YES, SIDIOUS WAS DEFINITELY GOADING ANAKIN. BUT THE REST? DISCUSSION?
Cosmic Struggles of Cultural Proportions
By CARYN JAMES
LIFE is complicated enough without having to keep track of "Star Wars" mythology, in its infinite nerdiness EDITOR’S NOTE: 1) FOR THOSE OF US WHO CAN MULTI-TASK (AS IN KEEP TRACK OF MYTHOLGIES FOR MULTIPLE FRANCHISES, OR EVEN PAY ATTENTION TO THIS GALAXY….ALTHOUGH, THAT GETS PRETTY DEPRESSING), IT’S NOT TOO COMPLICATED AT ALL. BUT THEN, DWEEBS ARE SMARTER THAN YOU MUNDANES (AS THEY SAY IN B5). AND 2) DWEEBINESS, IF YOU PLEASE., or the history of Batman. (Now he's campy, now he's not.)
But the darkly psychological "Batman Begins" is a summer fantasy film for people who don't like summer fantasy films, and "Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith" - well, what can you say except at least it has an idea in its head. EDITOR’S NOTE: NO, YOU ARE NOT BETTER THAN WE ARE. AND NO, YOU PROBABLY SHOULDN’T BE SO PROUD OF BEING IGNORANT.
Both films concern how heroes and villains take shape, and they include astonishingly similar transformation scenes that hinge on a life-changing moral question: to behead or not to behead? EDITOR’S NOTE: WHO KNEW THIS WAS A BIG DEAL, HUH?
In "Batman Begins," Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) is urged by his mysterious mentor - part spiritual adviser, part ninja master - to behead an enemy who is at his mercy. When Bruce refuses, he is on his way to becoming the heroic Batman, complete with a black mask and cape.
In "Revenge of the Sith," Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) is urged by his mysterious mentor to chop off the head of his enemy, Count Chocula EDITOR’S NOTE: OH DARN. I GIGGLED. I WILL GO (DOBBY’ESQUE) AND IRON MY HANDS. BE BACK IN SEC. - sorry, that's Count Dooku - and does. That is his crucial turn toward the dark side, and soon he's the villainous Darth Vader, complete with a black mask and cape to call his own. EDITORS’ NOTE: GO GET YOUR CAPE, BOB. WE’LL WAIT.
The films' conflicts are not simply about good guys and bad guys, or even good versus evil, always the elements of broadly framed fantasies. With spiritual overtones, and an emphasis on an eternal struggle between equally matched forces of darkness and light, the films suggest a kind of pop-culture Manichaeism. EDITOR’S NOTE: I HAD TO LOOK THIS ONE UP. TOO MUCH ADVERTISING WORK; LOSING MY HIGHER BRAIN FUNCTIONS. (FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO ALSO WENT TO SOUTHERN SCHOOLS OR WORK IN THE ‘LIGHTER’ PURSUITS HERE’S WHAT MY ONLINE DICTIONARY SAID: a believer in a syncretistic religious dualism originating in Persia in the 3d century A.D. and teaching the release of the spirit from matter through asceticism (THIS SOUNDS LIKE THE LIVING FORCE IDEA THAT QUI-GON GOT FROM THE JOURNAL OF THE WHILLS, THAT ENABLES HIM TO COMMUNICATE AFTER DEATH, DOESN’T IT?) 2 : a believer in religious or philosophical dualism And from another source: a dualistic religious system originating in the third century A.D., which attempts to unite elements from Gnostic Christianity, Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, and other sources, and which is considered by the Roman Catholic Church to be heretical. (OF COURSE, IF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH DOESN’T CONSIDER YOU HERETICAL, YOU AREN’T REALLY TRYING).
And as crowd-pleasing movies so often do, they reflect what's in the air, a climate in which the president speaks in terms of good and evil, and religion is increasingly part of the country's social and political conversation. EDITOR’S NOTE: WELL, YEAH. EXCEPT BOTH STAR WARS AND BATMAN HAVE HAD THEIR BASIC MYTHOLOGIES AND MOTIVATIONS ESTABLISHED FOR 30 YEARS OR MORE.
There are similar Manichaean echoes in lesser-known movies that have come and gone (the recent Keanu Reeves disaster "Constantine" ) or are coming up (an ambitious Russian fantasy trilogy that begins with "Night Watch"). But "Batman" and "Star Wars" reveal most clearly that the zeitgeist lurks in apparent summer fluff. EDITOR’S NOTE: OOO….ZEITGEIST. BONUS BS WORD!
None of these quasi-spiritual films assume that some people are simply bad seeds. Their premise is that good and evil are warring in each of us, and that an individual must consciously choose darkness or light. The first part of "Batman Begins" is so astute and engaging as it deals with Bruce Wayne's transformation that it hardly seems like a Batman movie at all. EDITOR’S NOTE: TYPED BY SOMEONE WHO CLEARLY KNOWS NOTHING OF THE BATMAN ORIGIN STORY.
A needlessly guilt-ridden Bruce, having witnessed his parents' murder on the streets of Gotham, later decides to study criminals in order to defeat them. This lands him in prison in Bhutan, a setting that evokes a generic Himalayan mysticism. Released from prison, he encounters the urbane Henri Ducard (Liam Neeson),EDITOR’S NOTE: OR…AS WE KNOW HIM…QUI-GON JINN. (GIGGLE) who trains him to be part of the League of Shadows, a murky group that believes justice involves the balance of good and evil. "You have learned to bury your guilt in anger; I will teach you to confront it," Ducard says, recognizing the dueling forces in Bruce.
Part of the film's topicality and sophistication comes from the way it addresses another element of our time, fame. Ducard offers Bruce a chance to be, as he says, a legend, putting everlasting goodness and fame on the same lofty plane.
That's a lesson Bruce carries back to Gotham and refers to when he turns himself into the anonymous Batman. His moral choice not to murder his enemy may make him heroic, but his costume makes him eternal. "As a symbol," he says, "I can be everlasting." (Batman is endlessly replaceable, like Lassie, but that's probably not what he meant.)EDITOR’S NOTE: WELL, IN A WAY, THAT IS WHAT HE MEANT. THE FIGHT CAN GO ON, REGARDLESS OF WHO IS WEARING THE CAPE AND MASK (OR EATING THE KIBBLE, AS THE CASE MAY BE).
Batman becomes a symbol of justice for Gotham, in an apparently endless struggle; the film's circular structure suggests that the Manichaean EDITOR’S NOTE: SHE DO LIKE THIS WORD, DON’T SHE? (AND HOW OFTEN CAN IT BE USED OTHER THAN THIS PISSY ARTICLE, SO I’M GLAD SHE’S GIVING IT A NICE WORK-OUT). battle continues (if only in a sequel).
Because "Batman Begins" wears these ideas lightly, they never interfere with its raucous action.
But the entire "Star Wars" series has become ever more ponderous, burdened by its moral weight and its leaden dialogue. Some in that series's far-far-away galaxy believe that Anakin was born to bring balance to the Force. And like Bruce Wayne, Anakin Skywalker has to confront his own dueling nature. "You have hate, you have anger, but you don't use them," Count Dooku taunts him during their life-changing battle.
Urged by his evil master, Palpatine, to kill Dooku, Anakin says, "It's not the Jedi way." Yet he violates his own conscience by taking his light sabers and slicing off Dooku's head. EDITOR’S NOTE: WELL. YEAH. I MEAN, IT’S FUN!
The film's present-day allusions are just as heavy-handed. There was a flurry of attention to Anakin's Bush-evoking line, "If you're not with me, you're my enemy," but less notice for a blunt line from his wife about unrest in the galaxy, "This war represents a failure to listen." EDITOR’S NOTE: THE STORY WAS BIRTHED IN THE EARLY 1970’S. PAY ATTENTION, PLEASE!
And despite the series's devotion to the epic struggle between the light and dark sides of the Force, chronologically the saga wraps up with a neat happy ending. In Episode VI, "Return of the Jedi" (for those of us still attached to Earth EDITOR’S NOTE: WHY?, that was the third "Star Wars" movie, from 1983), Darth Vader is restored to goodness when he kills Palpatine to save the life of his son, Luke.
But that's hardly the end of "Star Wars" and its Manichaean influence.EDITOR’S NOTE: NOW I'M NO LONGER IMPRESSED. IT'S A BIG WORD. BUT THERE ARE OTHERS, YES?
Although the "Night Watch" trilogy is based on a series of Russian novels, it has definite "Star Wars" overtones.
Fox Searchlight is banking so heavily on the Russian series's appeal that the company plans to release the entire trilogy, even though the first movie won't arrive here until later this year at the earliest. (The second installment, "Day Watch," is being made now, also in Russian; the third, "Dusk Watch," will be filmed in English. Fox came into the project only in time to change the language on the third.) EDITOR’S NOTE: I’M THINKING THE BOX OFFICE MIGHT BE PULLED DOWN A LITTLE BY THIS?
The first film, "Night Watch," is a visually arresting 21st-century vampire movie, filled with subways and cellphones along with the undead. Some of its people are Others, described as "soldiers in the eternal war, the struggle between dark and light," and there will come a special Other to "change the balance forever," pretty much like a Russian Anakin Skywalker. Each of the Others has to choose the dark or light side freely. "I am not a killer," says Anton, the vampire-hunter at the center of "Night Watch" as he makes the moral choice that his pals Bruce and Anakin faced before him.
When "Night Watch" was released in Russia last year, it quickly became the highest-grossing film in that country's history. It's hard to predict how an action-fantasy with subtitles will do here, but its eternal battle between good and evil is simple to translate, and its language is familiar from statements like this: "We are in a conflict between good and evil, and America will call evil by its name." Those words weren't spoken on the planet Tatooine, but by President Bush at West Point in 2002 (considering the lag time of movies, practically yesterday).
By now, whether the real-life rhetoric of good and evil reminds us of the movies, or the other way around, is probably impossible to guess. EDITOR’S NOTE: AS WELL AS COMPLETELY IRRELEVANT.
OTHER BLOGGERS:
EDITOR’S NOTE: VISITING OTHER STAR WARS BLOGS FOR THEIR WORDS OF WISDOM-----------
STAR WARS: SCIFI OR SPACE FANTASY?
It's space fantasy. The answer is space fantasy.
I love Star Wars, and I love science.
But at times it's helpful to be reminded that the true beating heart of SW doesn't lie in calculating mass tonnage .
Here's the "Lil' Library of Space Fantasy Quotes" I've assembled over the years:
Time magazine, May 30, 1977 issue:
"But as Lucas and Producer Kurtz quickly point out, Star Wars is not science fiction but space fantasy. 'Space fantasy allows you more rein to say what you want to say,' explains Kurtz. 'So that's what we call it.'
"Irvin Kershner, from The Making of the Empire Strikes Back documentary:
"Science fiction has certain qualities that you have to respect. All kinds of scientific jargon. We've eliminated all scientific jargon. There's almost none. Just a touch, like salt and pepper. It's not a science-fiction movie.
"From Star Wars Insider issue #49:"...
I had seen a trailer George made that he showed at a New Year's party at Coppola's house in San Francisco. We were all baffled, to tell you the truth. We did not believe that he was going to get away with this. We all had little conversations on the side -- 'What do we say to him? It's a cartoon, not a real science-fiction picture!' We didn't realize, of course, that it wasn't supposed to be a science-fiction picture. It was supposed to be a fairy tale, with mythic qualities, using the qualities of science fiction. But scientifically, it's full of baloney! It's a joke -- which was wonderful, which is what makes it work."
George Lucas, from Behind the Magic:
"Basically I was saying, you know, 'A long time ago in a kingdom far away.' That was my way of saying this is really more like a fairy tale than it is a piece of science fiction. And I really thought you needed to do that, to say 'Don't worry about the scientific part of this, cause there isn't any.' In this world, it's a world I've made up, and in this world spaceships can have noise and you can do anything you want." EDITOR’S NOTE: AMEN. AND FROM THE MOUTH OF THE RULER OF THIS KINGDOM HIMSELF.
Grand Admirals: What Do They Have in their Pocketsses?
A few years back, Abel Pena and I wrote an article for Star Wars Gamer magazine in which we laid out the names and identities of the Emperor's twelve Grand Admirals.
The concept was created by Timothy Zahn in his novels Heir to the Empire, Dark Force Rising, and The Last Command.
Zahn's key villain, the blue-skinned Grand Admiral Thrawn, was the last of a breed, heretofore unknown to the Republic (and by default, the 13th Grand Admiral).
But who were the others? Zahn didn't say, other than to state that by the time of Thrawn's reemergence 5 years after ROJ, all the other Grand Admirals had been "accounted for" by the New Republic.
A few later sources named some of the other Grand Admirals, but nobody had assembled them all in once place. It was fun pulling together the article. It was less fun when Star Wars Gamer was cancelled and the article went unpublished. Abel and I eventually repurposed EDITORS’ NOTE: BIZ BS….EEK…..NOT IN DWEEBING. HEAVEN FORFEND! most of the content for Star Wars Insider, but lost in translation were the RPG "crunchy bits" -- the stats that allowed the readers of Star Wars Gamer to incorporate the Grand Admirals into their role-playing games.
I'm not going to post the stats because I think we calculated them wrong anyway, but I thought the "equipment" lists were kind of cool. Here's the unpublished (and thus unofficial) list of the Grand Admirals' stuff. Man, they sure love their comlinks and code cylinders!
EDITOR’S NOTE: THIS LIST SERVES SEVERAL PURPOSES. 1) FOR OUR BUDDING RPG CROWD, WE CAN SEE A LITTLE MORE OF HOW THIS ALL WORKS. 2) FOR YOU COMPLETEISTS (LIKE ME) WHO LOVE LISTS OF EU CHARACTERS. AND 3) FOR YOU VOCABULARLY BUFFS WHO WANT TO SEE HOW HARD SOME DWEEBS HAVE BEEN WORKING ON THE EDUCATIONAL SIDE OF THINGS WHEN THEY NAMED ALL THESE GRAND TURKEYS’ STAR DESTROYERS. (SHEESH….IF I’D KNOWN I’D HAVE TO STUDY MORE…..)
Grand Admiral Tigellinus Equipment: Blaster pistol, comlink, code cylinder, pendant (canted circle), Imperial-class Star Destroyer Avatar.
Grand Admiral Batch Equipment: Comlink, code cylinder, datapad, blaster pistol, stygium splinter, Imperial-class Star Destroyer Meniscus.
NOTE: "Meniscus" is a type of lens, which we thought was appropriate since Batch was responsible for invisibility research.
Grand Admiral Zaarin Equipment: Comlink, code cylinder, datapad, blaster pistol, Imperial-class Star Destroyer Glory. Grand Admiral Teshik Equipment: Built-in blaster cannon, code cylinder, comlink, datapad, Imperial-class Star Destroyer Eleemosynary.
NOTE: "Eleemosynary" means "supported by charity." (I had to look that up in the dictionary and have no idea how it relates to Teshik, so that must have been one of Abel's.)
Grand Admiral Syn Equipment: Blaster pistol, charm (Sacred Way), code cylinder, comlink, Imperial-class Star Destroyer (The Fi; later renamed Silooth).
NOTE: "Fi" is Old High Galactic for "son" (a bit of trivia from the old Marvel comics). "Silooth" is the name of a Sith animal.
Grand Admiral Makati Equipment: Blaster pistol, code cylinder, comlink, ring (Corusca-gem), Imperial-class Star Destroyer Steadfast. Grand Admiral Grunger Equipment: Code cylinder, comlink, riot gun, Super-class Star Destroyer Aggressor.
Grand Admiral Il-Raz Equipment: Comlink, code cylinder, COMPNOR handbook, datapad, blaster pistol, Imperial-class Star Destroyer Emperor's Disciple.
Grand Admiral Pitta Equipment: Comlink, code cylinder, datapad, blaster pistol, electrum-plated surgical scalpel, Imperial-class Star Destroyer Impenetrable.
Grand Admiral Takel Equipment: Bag of glitterstim, blaster pistol, code cylinder, comlink, Twi'lek slave girl, Zeltron cafarel, Imperial-class Star Destroyer Magic Dragon.
NOTE: Takel was portrayed as a drug user, hence the bag of glitterstim spice and Abel's decision to name his Star Destroyer Magic Dragon, which as Peter, Paul and Mary (or at least Meet the Parents) can tell you, has a reputation for hidden meaning. It killed me to cut this gag.
Grand Admiral Declann Equipment: Comlink, code cylinder, lightsaber, blaster pistol, Imperial-class Star Destroyer Recondite.
NOTE: "Recondite" can mean "concealed, hidden," which seemed appropriate for the moody Declann.
Grand Admiral Grant Equipment: Comlink, code cylinder, datapad, blaster pistol, Imperial-class Star Destroyer Oriflamme.
NOTE: "Oriflamme" means an inspiring symbol, named after the red flag of the Abbey of Saint Denis in France.
Grand Admiral Thrawn Equipment: Comlink, code cylinder, blaster pistol, datapad, Imperial-class Star Destroyer Chimaera.
The following is a sample entry of the new Set Diary series now available for Hyperspace members.
In the summer of 2003, correspondent Pablo Hidalgo filed daily reports on the making of Episode III, but by necessity most of the plot details were obscured as to not spoil any secrets.
Now that the movie is out, much of what was too hot in 2003 can be discussed, with further insight into the making of Revenge of the Sith. EDITOR’S NOTE: THE DOWNSIDE? THE PARTY’S OVER. THE UPSIDE? WE CAN DWEEB-MICRODISCUSS TILL THOSE BANTHAS COME HOME.
It's one of the fieriest debates of online fan forums: when Palpatine was cornered in his office's giant window-frame, was he really overpowered by Mace? Or was he faking to lure Anakin? Could Mace really have gotten the upper hand on the Sith Lord?
George Lucas is the ultimate keeper of the true answer, and he's not telling... yet, anyway.EDITOR’S NOTE: UNCLE G…WHY DO YOU STILL TEASE US THIS WAY?
If you had asked me in the Summer of '03, when the sequence was first shot, I would have had a solid answer. But, if you asked me in the Fall of '04, when the sequence was re-shot, well... for those who want to debate, it's best to know more of the story of how this scene came to be.
This entire sequence changed significantly during postproduction. What we witnessed in Sydney told a different story. Anakin did not earn Mace's trust by ratting out Sidious right away. He did not agonize over his decisions while sitting alone in the Jedi Council chamber. He did not rush in at the last minute to witness a questionable balance of power. Instead, he stayed at Palpatine's side, in the Chancellor's private office, as Mace and his posse of Jedi barged in.
"Stand behind me," ordered Mace, in Sam Jackson's demanding tones. But Anakin didn't budge. Instead, he watched passively as Palpatine used the Force to snatch Anakin's lightsaber from his belt and attacks Mace and the Jedi. There's ample evidence of this original version for those with sharp eyes and behind-the-scenes photos. Heck, even Hasbro action figures with Palpatine packaged with Anakin's lightsaber got out there in the initial shipments.
So, if Sidious' entire duel played out before Anakin's stunned eyes, I'd be inclined to think that his fall was just for show. This changed after a screening George Lucas held for a few key colleagues. Their reactions underscored the shortcomings of the way this duel was constructed. Anakin's inaction was hard to justify cinematically. "The story was there, but it wasn't clear," said Lucas at the time it came to rebuild this scene. "It was too abstract. We opened up that part and looked at what we could do."
When word of the change came down, the keepers of continuities started carefully tracking the evolving consequences. Palpatine had two lightsabers, then, since he loses this one in the duel with Mace. I still have in my inbox a tentative email from one of the authors asking, "um, have we figured out yet whose lightsaber Palpatine uses in the fight with the Jedi?"
At first, it was feared it was impossible to CG the small svelte-handled weapon over Anakin's relatively chunky handle, but nonetheless, that was the lightsaber given to McDiarmid for the pickup photography. The shots of Palpatine rising from his chair and extending the weapon were reshot. The bulk of the duel between Sidious and Mace stayed from principal photography, except for a new touch -- a kick to Palpatine's face, done with stunt double Michael Byrne. This was shot on a partial set of just a piece of window-frame on Friday, August 27.
So... with this revised duel, if Sidious threw the fight, it places an awful lot of faith on Anakin's timing ...and he suffered a kicked-in face to boot. For what it's worth to those arguing, I doubt there's anyone who thinks Palpatine's serious when he claims he's too weak. That's obviously a lie. But was the fall into the corner that preceded his pleas for help a lie as well?
What else changed in this scene?
There are a few more interesting details, particularly where it moved in the sequencing of the story. But that will have to wait for another entry. EDITOR’S NOTE: THE PART WHERE SIDIOUS APPEARS TO HAVE INITIALLY LOST TO WINDU…YES, SIDIOUS WAS DEFINITELY GOADING ANAKIN. BUT THE REST? DISCUSSION?
Cosmic Struggles of Cultural Proportions
By CARYN JAMES
LIFE is complicated enough without having to keep track of "Star Wars" mythology, in its infinite nerdiness EDITOR’S NOTE: 1) FOR THOSE OF US WHO CAN MULTI-TASK (AS IN KEEP TRACK OF MYTHOLGIES FOR MULTIPLE FRANCHISES, OR EVEN PAY ATTENTION TO THIS GALAXY….ALTHOUGH, THAT GETS PRETTY DEPRESSING), IT’S NOT TOO COMPLICATED AT ALL. BUT THEN, DWEEBS ARE SMARTER THAN YOU MUNDANES (AS THEY SAY IN B5). AND 2) DWEEBINESS, IF YOU PLEASE., or the history of Batman. (Now he's campy, now he's not.)
But the darkly psychological "Batman Begins" is a summer fantasy film for people who don't like summer fantasy films, and "Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith" - well, what can you say except at least it has an idea in its head. EDITOR’S NOTE: NO, YOU ARE NOT BETTER THAN WE ARE. AND NO, YOU PROBABLY SHOULDN’T BE SO PROUD OF BEING IGNORANT.
Both films concern how heroes and villains take shape, and they include astonishingly similar transformation scenes that hinge on a life-changing moral question: to behead or not to behead? EDITOR’S NOTE: WHO KNEW THIS WAS A BIG DEAL, HUH?
In "Batman Begins," Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) is urged by his mysterious mentor - part spiritual adviser, part ninja master - to behead an enemy who is at his mercy. When Bruce refuses, he is on his way to becoming the heroic Batman, complete with a black mask and cape.
In "Revenge of the Sith," Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) is urged by his mysterious mentor to chop off the head of his enemy, Count Chocula EDITOR’S NOTE: OH DARN. I GIGGLED. I WILL GO (DOBBY’ESQUE) AND IRON MY HANDS. BE BACK IN SEC. - sorry, that's Count Dooku - and does. That is his crucial turn toward the dark side, and soon he's the villainous Darth Vader, complete with a black mask and cape to call his own. EDITORS’ NOTE: GO GET YOUR CAPE, BOB. WE’LL WAIT.
The films' conflicts are not simply about good guys and bad guys, or even good versus evil, always the elements of broadly framed fantasies. With spiritual overtones, and an emphasis on an eternal struggle between equally matched forces of darkness and light, the films suggest a kind of pop-culture Manichaeism. EDITOR’S NOTE: I HAD TO LOOK THIS ONE UP. TOO MUCH ADVERTISING WORK; LOSING MY HIGHER BRAIN FUNCTIONS. (FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO ALSO WENT TO SOUTHERN SCHOOLS OR WORK IN THE ‘LIGHTER’ PURSUITS HERE’S WHAT MY ONLINE DICTIONARY SAID: a believer in a syncretistic religious dualism originating in Persia in the 3d century A.D. and teaching the release of the spirit from matter through asceticism (THIS SOUNDS LIKE THE LIVING FORCE IDEA THAT QUI-GON GOT FROM THE JOURNAL OF THE WHILLS, THAT ENABLES HIM TO COMMUNICATE AFTER DEATH, DOESN’T IT?) 2 : a believer in religious or philosophical dualism And from another source: a dualistic religious system originating in the third century A.D., which attempts to unite elements from Gnostic Christianity, Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, and other sources, and which is considered by the Roman Catholic Church to be heretical. (OF COURSE, IF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH DOESN’T CONSIDER YOU HERETICAL, YOU AREN’T REALLY TRYING).
And as crowd-pleasing movies so often do, they reflect what's in the air, a climate in which the president speaks in terms of good and evil, and religion is increasingly part of the country's social and political conversation. EDITOR’S NOTE: WELL, YEAH. EXCEPT BOTH STAR WARS AND BATMAN HAVE HAD THEIR BASIC MYTHOLOGIES AND MOTIVATIONS ESTABLISHED FOR 30 YEARS OR MORE.
There are similar Manichaean echoes in lesser-known movies that have come and gone (the recent Keanu Reeves disaster "Constantine" ) or are coming up (an ambitious Russian fantasy trilogy that begins with "Night Watch"). But "Batman" and "Star Wars" reveal most clearly that the zeitgeist lurks in apparent summer fluff. EDITOR’S NOTE: OOO….ZEITGEIST. BONUS BS WORD!
None of these quasi-spiritual films assume that some people are simply bad seeds. Their premise is that good and evil are warring in each of us, and that an individual must consciously choose darkness or light. The first part of "Batman Begins" is so astute and engaging as it deals with Bruce Wayne's transformation that it hardly seems like a Batman movie at all. EDITOR’S NOTE: TYPED BY SOMEONE WHO CLEARLY KNOWS NOTHING OF THE BATMAN ORIGIN STORY.
A needlessly guilt-ridden Bruce, having witnessed his parents' murder on the streets of Gotham, later decides to study criminals in order to defeat them. This lands him in prison in Bhutan, a setting that evokes a generic Himalayan mysticism. Released from prison, he encounters the urbane Henri Ducard (Liam Neeson),EDITOR’S NOTE: OR…AS WE KNOW HIM…QUI-GON JINN. (GIGGLE) who trains him to be part of the League of Shadows, a murky group that believes justice involves the balance of good and evil. "You have learned to bury your guilt in anger; I will teach you to confront it," Ducard says, recognizing the dueling forces in Bruce.
Part of the film's topicality and sophistication comes from the way it addresses another element of our time, fame. Ducard offers Bruce a chance to be, as he says, a legend, putting everlasting goodness and fame on the same lofty plane.
That's a lesson Bruce carries back to Gotham and refers to when he turns himself into the anonymous Batman. His moral choice not to murder his enemy may make him heroic, but his costume makes him eternal. "As a symbol," he says, "I can be everlasting." (Batman is endlessly replaceable, like Lassie, but that's probably not what he meant.)EDITOR’S NOTE: WELL, IN A WAY, THAT IS WHAT HE MEANT. THE FIGHT CAN GO ON, REGARDLESS OF WHO IS WEARING THE CAPE AND MASK (OR EATING THE KIBBLE, AS THE CASE MAY BE).
Batman becomes a symbol of justice for Gotham, in an apparently endless struggle; the film's circular structure suggests that the Manichaean EDITOR’S NOTE: SHE DO LIKE THIS WORD, DON’T SHE? (AND HOW OFTEN CAN IT BE USED OTHER THAN THIS PISSY ARTICLE, SO I’M GLAD SHE’S GIVING IT A NICE WORK-OUT). battle continues (if only in a sequel).
Because "Batman Begins" wears these ideas lightly, they never interfere with its raucous action.
But the entire "Star Wars" series has become ever more ponderous, burdened by its moral weight and its leaden dialogue. Some in that series's far-far-away galaxy believe that Anakin was born to bring balance to the Force. And like Bruce Wayne, Anakin Skywalker has to confront his own dueling nature. "You have hate, you have anger, but you don't use them," Count Dooku taunts him during their life-changing battle.
Urged by his evil master, Palpatine, to kill Dooku, Anakin says, "It's not the Jedi way." Yet he violates his own conscience by taking his light sabers and slicing off Dooku's head. EDITOR’S NOTE: WELL. YEAH. I MEAN, IT’S FUN!
The film's present-day allusions are just as heavy-handed. There was a flurry of attention to Anakin's Bush-evoking line, "If you're not with me, you're my enemy," but less notice for a blunt line from his wife about unrest in the galaxy, "This war represents a failure to listen." EDITOR’S NOTE: THE STORY WAS BIRTHED IN THE EARLY 1970’S. PAY ATTENTION, PLEASE!
And despite the series's devotion to the epic struggle between the light and dark sides of the Force, chronologically the saga wraps up with a neat happy ending. In Episode VI, "Return of the Jedi" (for those of us still attached to Earth EDITOR’S NOTE: WHY?, that was the third "Star Wars" movie, from 1983), Darth Vader is restored to goodness when he kills Palpatine to save the life of his son, Luke.
But that's hardly the end of "Star Wars" and its Manichaean influence.EDITOR’S NOTE: NOW I'M NO LONGER IMPRESSED. IT'S A BIG WORD. BUT THERE ARE OTHERS, YES?
Although the "Night Watch" trilogy is based on a series of Russian novels, it has definite "Star Wars" overtones.
Fox Searchlight is banking so heavily on the Russian series's appeal that the company plans to release the entire trilogy, even though the first movie won't arrive here until later this year at the earliest. (The second installment, "Day Watch," is being made now, also in Russian; the third, "Dusk Watch," will be filmed in English. Fox came into the project only in time to change the language on the third.) EDITOR’S NOTE: I’M THINKING THE BOX OFFICE MIGHT BE PULLED DOWN A LITTLE BY THIS?
The first film, "Night Watch," is a visually arresting 21st-century vampire movie, filled with subways and cellphones along with the undead. Some of its people are Others, described as "soldiers in the eternal war, the struggle between dark and light," and there will come a special Other to "change the balance forever," pretty much like a Russian Anakin Skywalker. Each of the Others has to choose the dark or light side freely. "I am not a killer," says Anton, the vampire-hunter at the center of "Night Watch" as he makes the moral choice that his pals Bruce and Anakin faced before him.
When "Night Watch" was released in Russia last year, it quickly became the highest-grossing film in that country's history. It's hard to predict how an action-fantasy with subtitles will do here, but its eternal battle between good and evil is simple to translate, and its language is familiar from statements like this: "We are in a conflict between good and evil, and America will call evil by its name." Those words weren't spoken on the planet Tatooine, but by President Bush at West Point in 2002 (considering the lag time of movies, practically yesterday).
By now, whether the real-life rhetoric of good and evil reminds us of the movies, or the other way around, is probably impossible to guess. EDITOR’S NOTE: AS WELL AS COMPLETELY IRRELEVANT.
OTHER BLOGGERS:
EDITOR’S NOTE: VISITING OTHER STAR WARS BLOGS FOR THEIR WORDS OF WISDOM-----------
STAR WARS: SCIFI OR SPACE FANTASY?
It's space fantasy. The answer is space fantasy.
I love Star Wars, and I love science.
But at times it's helpful to be reminded that the true beating heart of SW doesn't lie in calculating mass tonnage .
Here's the "Lil' Library of Space Fantasy Quotes" I've assembled over the years:
Time magazine, May 30, 1977 issue:
"But as Lucas and Producer Kurtz quickly point out, Star Wars is not science fiction but space fantasy. 'Space fantasy allows you more rein to say what you want to say,' explains Kurtz. 'So that's what we call it.'
"Irvin Kershner, from The Making of the Empire Strikes Back documentary:
"Science fiction has certain qualities that you have to respect. All kinds of scientific jargon. We've eliminated all scientific jargon. There's almost none. Just a touch, like salt and pepper. It's not a science-fiction movie.
"From Star Wars Insider issue #49:"...
I had seen a trailer George made that he showed at a New Year's party at Coppola's house in San Francisco. We were all baffled, to tell you the truth. We did not believe that he was going to get away with this. We all had little conversations on the side -- 'What do we say to him? It's a cartoon, not a real science-fiction picture!' We didn't realize, of course, that it wasn't supposed to be a science-fiction picture. It was supposed to be a fairy tale, with mythic qualities, using the qualities of science fiction. But scientifically, it's full of baloney! It's a joke -- which was wonderful, which is what makes it work."
George Lucas, from Behind the Magic:
"Basically I was saying, you know, 'A long time ago in a kingdom far away.' That was my way of saying this is really more like a fairy tale than it is a piece of science fiction. And I really thought you needed to do that, to say 'Don't worry about the scientific part of this, cause there isn't any.' In this world, it's a world I've made up, and in this world spaceships can have noise and you can do anything you want." EDITOR’S NOTE: AMEN. AND FROM THE MOUTH OF THE RULER OF THIS KINGDOM HIMSELF.
Grand Admirals: What Do They Have in their Pocketsses?
A few years back, Abel Pena and I wrote an article for Star Wars Gamer magazine in which we laid out the names and identities of the Emperor's twelve Grand Admirals.
The concept was created by Timothy Zahn in his novels Heir to the Empire, Dark Force Rising, and The Last Command.
Zahn's key villain, the blue-skinned Grand Admiral Thrawn, was the last of a breed, heretofore unknown to the Republic (and by default, the 13th Grand Admiral).
But who were the others? Zahn didn't say, other than to state that by the time of Thrawn's reemergence 5 years after ROJ, all the other Grand Admirals had been "accounted for" by the New Republic.
A few later sources named some of the other Grand Admirals, but nobody had assembled them all in once place. It was fun pulling together the article. It was less fun when Star Wars Gamer was cancelled and the article went unpublished. Abel and I eventually repurposed EDITORS’ NOTE: BIZ BS….EEK…..NOT IN DWEEBING. HEAVEN FORFEND! most of the content for Star Wars Insider, but lost in translation were the RPG "crunchy bits" -- the stats that allowed the readers of Star Wars Gamer to incorporate the Grand Admirals into their role-playing games.
I'm not going to post the stats because I think we calculated them wrong anyway, but I thought the "equipment" lists were kind of cool. Here's the unpublished (and thus unofficial) list of the Grand Admirals' stuff. Man, they sure love their comlinks and code cylinders!
EDITOR’S NOTE: THIS LIST SERVES SEVERAL PURPOSES. 1) FOR OUR BUDDING RPG CROWD, WE CAN SEE A LITTLE MORE OF HOW THIS ALL WORKS. 2) FOR YOU COMPLETEISTS (LIKE ME) WHO LOVE LISTS OF EU CHARACTERS. AND 3) FOR YOU VOCABULARLY BUFFS WHO WANT TO SEE HOW HARD SOME DWEEBS HAVE BEEN WORKING ON THE EDUCATIONAL SIDE OF THINGS WHEN THEY NAMED ALL THESE GRAND TURKEYS’ STAR DESTROYERS. (SHEESH….IF I’D KNOWN I’D HAVE TO STUDY MORE…..)
Grand Admiral Tigellinus Equipment: Blaster pistol, comlink, code cylinder, pendant (canted circle), Imperial-class Star Destroyer Avatar.
Grand Admiral Batch Equipment: Comlink, code cylinder, datapad, blaster pistol, stygium splinter, Imperial-class Star Destroyer Meniscus.
NOTE: "Meniscus" is a type of lens, which we thought was appropriate since Batch was responsible for invisibility research.
Grand Admiral Zaarin Equipment: Comlink, code cylinder, datapad, blaster pistol, Imperial-class Star Destroyer Glory. Grand Admiral Teshik Equipment: Built-in blaster cannon, code cylinder, comlink, datapad, Imperial-class Star Destroyer Eleemosynary.
NOTE: "Eleemosynary" means "supported by charity." (I had to look that up in the dictionary and have no idea how it relates to Teshik, so that must have been one of Abel's.)
Grand Admiral Syn Equipment: Blaster pistol, charm (Sacred Way), code cylinder, comlink, Imperial-class Star Destroyer (The Fi; later renamed Silooth).
NOTE: "Fi" is Old High Galactic for "son" (a bit of trivia from the old Marvel comics). "Silooth" is the name of a Sith animal.
Grand Admiral Makati Equipment: Blaster pistol, code cylinder, comlink, ring (Corusca-gem), Imperial-class Star Destroyer Steadfast. Grand Admiral Grunger Equipment: Code cylinder, comlink, riot gun, Super-class Star Destroyer Aggressor.
Grand Admiral Il-Raz Equipment: Comlink, code cylinder, COMPNOR handbook, datapad, blaster pistol, Imperial-class Star Destroyer Emperor's Disciple.
Grand Admiral Pitta Equipment: Comlink, code cylinder, datapad, blaster pistol, electrum-plated surgical scalpel, Imperial-class Star Destroyer Impenetrable.
Grand Admiral Takel Equipment: Bag of glitterstim, blaster pistol, code cylinder, comlink, Twi'lek slave girl, Zeltron cafarel, Imperial-class Star Destroyer Magic Dragon.
NOTE: Takel was portrayed as a drug user, hence the bag of glitterstim spice and Abel's decision to name his Star Destroyer Magic Dragon, which as Peter, Paul and Mary (or at least Meet the Parents) can tell you, has a reputation for hidden meaning. It killed me to cut this gag.
Grand Admiral Declann Equipment: Comlink, code cylinder, lightsaber, blaster pistol, Imperial-class Star Destroyer Recondite.
NOTE: "Recondite" can mean "concealed, hidden," which seemed appropriate for the moody Declann.
Grand Admiral Grant Equipment: Comlink, code cylinder, datapad, blaster pistol, Imperial-class Star Destroyer Oriflamme.
NOTE: "Oriflamme" means an inspiring symbol, named after the red flag of the Abbey of Saint Denis in France.
Grand Admiral Thrawn Equipment: Comlink, code cylinder, blaster pistol, datapad, Imperial-class Star Destroyer Chimaera.
posted by QOTD (the Queen of the Dweebs) at 8:38 AM
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