Star Wars and its faithful

[CarlZog]

I've never been able to get into Star Wars. I always thought the first movie was a lot of fun, but that was pretty much it.

I've always asserted that the first movie was nothing more than a great take-off/update of the old 1930s Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers serials. My folks grew up on the serials and passed them on to me. By the time Star Wars was first released, I had enough late-night UHF reruns under belt to know a duck when it quacked.

For a long time, I've avoided expressing this opinion among the Star Wars faithful, because it generally annoys them. I've met so many fans who adhere to the belief that Lucas is some kind of sci-fi Tolkien, who had this expansive world and its structures already planned out in detail from the get-go.

"No wonder you're always disappointed when you've got those kind of expectations from a simple serial director," I think to myself. But except for strongly recommending that fans learn who Buster Crabbe is, I don't argue.

Then I read this excerpt from an article about Lucas at a big SW con:

Asked which idea came first... Anakin or Luke, Lucas explained the genesis of the series, "There was originally to be one film, I wanted it to be Episode IV of a serial (maybe out of 12 or something) that you would never see the first or last episodes of. That's what happened in the '30s, you had trailers, and a short cartoon, and then a cliffhanger. That serial-style is what Star Wars is based on."

"I started with Anakin Starkiller and his two kids, then I got to a draft that's kind of what we know now, but it was 200 pages. Then that became three films. I never thought I'd go back and do the original stories, regardless of what the press says or what's out there. But then the necessary film technology came along and I came to grips with being known forever as George 'Star Wars' Lucas."

Getting back to the point, Lucas summed up, "To answer your question, I started with the space battle. I thought that would be great."


Well, whaddya know? It was really just about the space battle after all.

Now before I start getting flamed, let me just say: If you really like the setting that sprung up around the Star Wars movies, more power to you. Discuss it, add to it, have fun with it. Enjoy all the material (games, books, TV, whatever) made for it. I do the same thing with far more obscure franchises.

But please stop treating it like biblical scripture. There is no "canon." It's just a simple movie that ended up way more successful than even its creator ever imagined.

When you realize that, you'll be able to drop all the angst and disappointment and "suffering" I keep hearing about, and you'll be able to just have some fun.

OK. That ends my rant on false gods. Thanks.

Carl

 

[Crothian]

Sure there is canon, there might not have been when it was orginally concieved but there is now. Let people treat it how they want to, just becasue you don't like it doesn't make it any less important to other people. I think most Star Wars fans do have fun, it is just the purpose of the interenet is to complain about movies.

edit: And I call Troll

 

[Ranger REG]

You haven't met Trek fans, who are notoriously clear on what is canon and non-canon.

BTW, don't always associate "canon" as "biblical" in the religious zeal fashion. By definition, it is simply accepted set of rules, principle, and history. Canon source applied to fiction like Star Wars give us a common "sandbox" for discussion.

Of course, every TV series production have what is called a "writer's bible," which is supposed to maintain the continuity of the show as more new episodes are being written. I'm certain that Lucas's outline for the Star Wars storeis would be consider it as such.

 

[Hand of Evil]

I guess I have been around...Lord of the Rings, Star Trek, some football and Baseball teams, etc..., they all have their fans and fantics, people who take it to another level. Star Wars is like that but it has to be given credit for its place in movie making history; changing the direction of movies, opening doors to new directors, bringing people back to theaters, if Star Wars failed, the last 30 years would have been different.

 

[mojo1701]

it is just the purpose of the interenet is to complain about movies.

And share pornography.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

You do realize that not all of us Star Wars fans run around griping and complaining about how Lucas ruined our childhoods, yes?

 

[mojo1701]

You do realize that not all of us Star Wars fans run around griping and complaining about how Lucas ruined our childhoods, yes?

I fall into that group. If I wanted to spend the money, I'd get a custom title aptly named 'Defender of the Prequels'.

 

[Jeremy Ackerman-Yost]

Now before I start getting flamed, let me just say: If you really like the setting that sprung up around the Star Wars movies, more power to you. Discuss it, add to it, have fun with it. Enjoy all the material (games, books, TV, whatever) made for it. I do the same thing with far more obscure franchises.

But please stop treating it like biblical scripture. There is no "canon." It's just a simple movie that ended up way more successful than even its creator ever imagined.

When you realize that, you'll be able to drop all the angst and disappointment and "suffering" I keep hearing about, and you'll be able to just have some fun.

OK. That ends my rant on false gods. Thanks.

Meh. People need their false gods. Arguably, what we really need is MORE of them, not less.

That said... did a Star Wars fan shoot your dog or something? That was a bit... unnecessary. And condescending. And factually inaccurate. ANYTHING can have a "canon." I recently went to a talk on the canon of Impressionism, for example. It is a word that is often applied to religious texts because of the various accepted/official vs apocryphal books, but the word itself carries no relationship to religious significance.

Plus, if you don't like what Star Wars "fans" have to say on the internet, don't read it. I'm bored to death of people jumping up and down and screaming about how much Lucas sucks (my favorite current incarnation is the "the TV series can only be good is Lucas himself is NOT INVOLVED AT ALL" crew), but I discovered that my life is easier when I just don't listen to it.

Unfortunately, I have not learned this lesson when it comes to other people's rudeness and condescension. Ah, well. I'll never achieve a state of Zen-like calm in this world, anyway. Maybe I should just accept my inner Lewis Black.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

I fall into that group. If I wanted to spend the money, I'd get a custom title aptly named 'Defender of the Prequels'.

I'd be willing to bet that the majority falls into that group.

I grew up on the originals. Sure, I'm too young to have seen them in the theaters when they were first released, but that doesn't change a thing. Sure, the Prequels aren't the same, but I still enjoy them and they're still fun movies.

Anyone that doesn't know that Star Wars really is as simple as a 30s serial and calls themself a big fan is lieing through their teeth. Its nothing new at all. Lucas has been saying that for YEARS. Long, long before the prequels ever came out.

But the thing is, the movie GREW into more than just a simple movie. Yes, it was a surprise to Lucas, but its definitely more than just a simple movie now. Not just in the underlying themes from the basic mythology, but from the way it completely changed filmaking. THAT is why Lucas is generally considered a Tolkien-like figure. Not because of this 'great world' he's created, but because of all he's done for the genre...and not only that, but for movies as a whole.

But still, in the end, its all about the action. Anyone that denies that is an idiot, simply put. So really, Carl, I don't see what you're trying to say, other than that the whole extreme "Lucas killed my childhood" is stupid and annoying. We've known that for a long time.

 

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

I don't think anyone ever (seriously) considered it anything but a modern-day Buck Rogers or Flash Gordon. Certainly Lucas didn't, or the film critics. It's a popcorn movie, perhaps one of the best ever made, but that's subjective. For those of us that saw it when it first came out, I don't think it hyperbole to claim that it changed how we looked at movies. I know most of my friends were awakened to science fiction (which led to fantasy fiction and then to gaming) by it. It was certainly remarkable for its time, and combined a myriad of sources in a pretty original way. Not to mention the fact that it completely revolutionized the movie industry in terms of marketing, promotion, and special effects, and almost single-handedly (with some help from Jaws) created the concept of the 'summer movie season'.

Sure, it's just a movie. So was Casablanca, The Godfather, and Citizen Kane. But as Roger Ebert says, it's not what it was about, it was how it was about it.