Star Wars Legacy revealed

[Ghoulish Delight]

Any catch this on the History Channel last night?

We tried to watch it. I had to turn it off within the first 10 minutes. I hadn't seen anything about it, didn't know about it until TiVo started recording it. What a steaming pile of crap.

There were essentially two things wrong with it.

* It was filled with talking heads that had absolutely nothing to do with Star Wars. Psychiatrists, philosophy professors, sociologists. Not a single primary source, it was nothing but, almost literally, "I once read that George Lucas read a book that mentioned Carl Jung. I know a lot about Carl Jung."

* It might still have been interesting despite that, but they were insisting on equating the prequels with the trilogy. It was total propaganda for the prequels, trying pathetically to show that Anikin's story paralleled Luke's story, therefore all 6 movies are part of some great modern myth.

Maybe it got better after the first 10 minutes, but I didn't have the stomach to sit around and find out.

[Capt Jack]

as I feared.
the commercials alone seemed to tout is as 'where our new religion began' sort of thing.
I mean....even with its following....it WAS just a movie(s), wasnt it?

glad I decided to pass.

[blueerica]

Well, from what I understood (was reading about mythology and story types a few years ago), George Lucas was influenced by the writings of Joseph Campbell when Star Wars was created. In addition, Campbell's writings about mythic archetypes has influenced a number of directors, writers, etc - in that mythology relates to life challenges, struggles, lessons, etc, not just Lucas. While a movie is a movie, and a book is a book, often we reach to the heroic, the mythic and beyond for inspiration. It wasn't about likening Star Wars to a religion or the beginning of time, but to show how these stories carry through time. Father-son issues, etc.

The History Channel's special on it featured a number of directors - off the top of my head, Kevin Smith was on it, as was Peter Jackson, and a couple of others I just can't think of right now. What I didn't care for was that it was a bit over the top with some of the academics that were featured - they went on and on and on about the same thing, which got a little old. Influencing someone is one thing, but dissecting each and every single moment was just bleh. I liked how they related it to Greek tragedy and classic storytelling models, but it was tiresome.

I turned it off about halfway through. Not because I didn't like it (I like comparisons and connections), not because it was hooey (the Joseph Campbell stuff is true, at least)... but because it was stuff that's been acknowledged for decades and I knew a lot of it already. I watch the History Channel to learn, not re-hash stuff I knew already.

[Ghoulish Delight]

Originally Posted by blueerica

I turned it off about halfway through. Not because I didn't like it (I like comparisons and connections), not because it was hooey (the Joseph Campbell stuff is true, at least)...

I'm not saying the stuff was hooey, it was just shaping up to be such a pointless, surface level analysis masquerading as brilliant insight.

[blueerica]

In relating to your first post - I should say, the stuff that bothered me the most was how they related the story lines from the prequels. I think there was an attempt (failed, in my opinion - whether that was bad acting or bad directing, I don't know, nor do I care any longer) to show the parallel story lines, but it just didn't pan out.

The special, in fact, focused more on the prequels than I would have liked. The mythic stuff was really in full-play for the original trilogy. Plus, it was blah blah blah blah - if you someone was really into mythology and classic story telling, they probably knew a lot of it and got bored - if they weren't into that stuff already, then they were probably bored from the start.

[innerSpaceman]

I heard there was also a big segment about the technological possiblities of StarWars-postulated technology ... that bothered to focus large attention on the fact that, with no atmosphere in space, X-Wing fighters could not really maneuver like airplanes.

D'uh.


I'm glad I didn't bother to watch.

[BarTopDancer]

Originally Posted by innerSpaceman

I heard there was also a big segment about the technological possiblities of StarWars-postulated technology ... that bothered to focus large attention on the fact that, with no atmosphere in space, X-Wing fighters could not really maneuver like airplanes.

And unless they discussed it after I left my friends house, they didn't bother to explain how Luke (or anyone) could breathe in space. But I'm focusing on Luke in Empire after Darth comes clean about paternity and he's hanging on for dear life. In space.

[mousepod]

I really think that the whole idea that Lucas was influenced by Joseph Campbell is a case of history rewriting itself. If you look at any of the early Star Wars scripts, the story is very different than the one we eventually saw on the screen. If anything, Georgie cribbed from movies more than anything.

Darn! I meant to rewatch "The Hidden Fortress" over the weekend.

[Capt Jack]

Originally Posted by BarTopDancer

they didn't bother to explain how Luke (or anyone) could breathe in space.

while not what one could call the biggest SW fan on earth, when was this?

[mousepod]

Maybe there was air all around the Cloud City, so that maintenance crews didn't have to carry oxygen.