Friday, December 7, 2012

For "Mature" Audiences Only

(Originally written for Jedi News)

If you are ever able to cajole a hater into begrudgingly admitting to liking any of the newer Star Wars films, they’re most likely to say they kind of enjoyed “Revenge of the Sith.” “Sith” is bar none the darkest Star Wars film of the saga (so far). It features Anakin’s turn to the Dark Side, including the murder of innocent children, his former friend, and even his own pregnant wife. Not to mention a show-stopping duel amidst a sea of lava ending with Anakin being essentially chopped into pieces and burned alive by liquid-hot magma, only to be saved by being entombed in the walking iron lung that is basically the Saga’s logo. It is the only film in the Saga to receive a PG-13 rating, even retroactively.

In a similar vein, when asked to pick a favorite film in the saga overall, the most common answer seems to be “The Empire Strikes Back.” While not as dark as “Sith” it’s certainly edgier than the other four films in the Saga. This one has lots of literally drab sets, a stunning revelation about character relationships, the Rebel Alliance beating a retreat, and Han Solo’s fate left uncertain.


There’s no doubt that a lot of people like their art gloomy and gritty. Anyone who has been through a film class is eventually told that "True Art is Angsty" and anything else is not worth your time as a serious artist or critic. Again, if you’ve paid any sort of attention to this space, you already know that I think that’s bunk. Not that the dark doesn’t have its place next to the light (in spite of what the Jedi might say), but the balance is what’s important. But why is this thought so pervasive?

I think it has a lot to do with wanting to feel grown up and adult.

For most people, it’s ingrained into us pretty early on that adults are super serious and children are super silly. Also, Adults get all the respect and nobody gives children’s ideas credence because they don’t know any better. This idea is reinforced when one gets into their teen years and finds out for the first time that not everything is okay. Sometimes, frequently in fact, there is no happy ending. Mom and Dad don’t know everything. A lot of people out there are simply interested in your money. Everything dies eventually. No wonder teens are seen as “moody.”

As people grow up, they want more and more to be recognized for growing up. Therefore, they want their tastes to grow with them so that they aren’t seen as childish for liking them. The near-universal praise for Christopher Nolan’s “Dark Knight” trilogy I think comes less from the actual merits of the films (of which there are admittedly plenty) and more from taking a character like Batman, who has seen sillier days, and making him far more “adult” (though those movies can get pretty silly themselves if you really think about it).

Another example of where this idea actually works perfectly is in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter novels. Each successive one is written with the idea that the reader will most likely be the age of the protagonist at any given moment. Hence, it truly does grow up with the reader.

Here’s the thing, though, not everything has to be like that. True art can be anything that touches you in a particular way. Monty Python is great without being serious. Most cartoons as well. Oh sure, you can have dark elements in there, but silliness does not a bad film make. Nor does engaging in your frivolous side make you less of an adult.

Star Wars is by its nature very silly. Every single one, even the “dark” ones. That’s why George Lucas has always said it was a children’s story, because they’re the audience best suited to accept that silliness. That being said, like any great children’s programming, there’s a lot of references and symbolism in the Saga (mostly to history, myth, and philosophy in this case) for the adults who bring the children and the adults that came into it as children to appreciate. The likes of Jar Jar and 3PO don’t make it any less of a work of art. In fact, I would argue they and characters like them are crucial to the timeless quality of the galaxy far, far away.

For those cynics and critics out there, here’s a parting thought: If the drama of our teen years has taught us anything, it’s that the more mature you try to appear, the less mature you reveal yourself to be. And for the kids out there, try not to grow up too fast.

17 comments:

  1. Which former friend of Anakin's is murdered in Episode III?

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    1. That's supposed to be "friends" plural, referring to the Jedi. My bad.

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  2. My favorite Star Wars film has always been Return of the Jedi, probably because it is the one where hope is the most present.

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    1. Mine has jumped around a bit before landing on Phantom Menace again (it was my fave when it came out, but I baffled for a few years after the Saga was supposedly complete). I'll go into where I rank the rest later this month.

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  3. I think most people like Empire the best because it's objectively the best directed and best written of the six films. Dark doesn't really have much to do with it.

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    1. It's actually not objectively anything. It was VERY polarizing when it came out, getting blasted for the same things I-III gets blasted for now. I know people to this day who think it doesn't fit with the rest of the films.

      Now, naturally, I'm against the notion that any of the six films don't belong, and I do love Empire. But the only thing you can say objectively is that it's darker, but otherwise has the same strengths and weaknesses as the rest. Everything else is COMPLETELY subjective.

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    2. No, it isn't. There are objective measures to the direction, acting, dialogue, etc. that place it above the rest (most of it is down to the direction, which is miles above the rest of the saga (Kirshner was a very talented man)). It's also a matter of the film being able to pull of a large number of very difficult things (the Han/Leia relationship, the Yoda subplot, the Vader reveal) and do it very well.

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    3. No, there aren't. It looks like Star Wars and quacks like Star Wars. And I don't think Han/Leia was pulled off well AT all. But that's SUBjective. YOU may like the way certain things came out more than others. But any argument you can make about why it's "objectively" the best or "objectively" the worst are the same arguments anybody can use to varying degrees to say the same about any of the entries in the Saga. And you can believe they have. And it all comes down in the end to personal taste.

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    4. There are always objective measures when it comes to art, and ways of judging them on those measures- without regarding personal taste. That's how we have film criticism in the first place- because film can be viewed objectively as well as subjectively (I'm interested to hear your complains about the film, incidentally).

      And their are objective reasons to praise the direction in Empire Strikes Back, and rank it above the others (just look at the example I gave a while back about the expository scene and how the direction handles it, or how it makes the most of an incomplete Wampa costume in the original cut, or how subdued most of the romance and comedy is throughout, etc.)

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    5. I actually struggled lately to come up with things I genuinely dislike about the Saga. Empire doesn't escape, and that'll all be in a later blog post. But I still love them all.

      However, my esteemed colleague at "A Certain Point of View" found a 1980 issue of Starlog magazine that gave a review of Empire nearly identical to modern I-III bashing. I can't post the link from my phone, but it's not hard to find from my links section.

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    6. Well, that doesn't really mean much of anything- so some people in 1980 had the same opinion of Empire as people now have of the prequels. That doesn't give credence or take away credibility from either viewpoint- In terms of objective criticism it's absolutely meaningless.

      Though honestly, as far as defenses go, saying "the old films were just as bad" is a pretty weak one ('cause it kind of fails to actually defend the movie they're talking about).

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    7. I'm a bit between Nilbog and Flynn here... there are "objective" criteria how to judge a work of art, but I also think that art has always something subjective to it. (For instance, you may not agree with some of the "objective" criteria.) You may explain why something is good and support it by arguments, but someone else may not share them or may not fully agree.
      And I think that people who prefer TESB prefer it because of "True Art is Angsty", but also because they really think that the direction was better etc.

      Yeah, I'm nitpicking, but isn't Irvin Kershner spelled, well, Kershner? ;-)

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    8. That's why I just keep calling him Kersh. It was his nickname, right?

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  4. And I just noticed this- in what way are the sets in Empire 'drab'? 'Cause they're some of the most visually potent that the saga has. They're not as pretty as other sets (as far as pure visual lushness I'd probably say Episode 1 or 6), but they're far from being dull or uninteresting.

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    1. That's your opinion. But Both is a white wasteland, Dagobah is a dark swamp, and Bespin is dull and claustrophobic for a city in the clouds, even after the SE expanded it. Again, I love it all (except Bespin), but it's visually dark and not colorful. That's what I meant by "drab" = everything is dark and muted.

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    2. Hoth! I wrote Hoth and you know it, autocorrect!

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