Subject:
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Re: "Star Wars is racist"
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.fun
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Date:
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Wed, 29 May 2002 17:33:15 GMT
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Viewed:
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968 times
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In lugnet.off-topic.fun, Dave Schuler writes:
> Good God, that was awful. I actually laughed out loud at that scene. It's
> great that scenes intended to be moving, such as the sand:rough poetry, are
> invariably farcically comical, while George's flaccid attempts at humor,
> such as the entirety of Jar Jar or the C3PO/Battle Droid idiocy, are
> astonishingly unfunny.
Right. During my viewing, I was by no means alone in laughing
inappropriately at serious scenes and not laughing at all at the C3PO stuff
-- some people seemed just generally stunned by the end of the film. During
the movie people snickered about the Jedi "sixth sense" which is apparently
unable to sense anything of importance. I even heard a few people say things
like "What?!" and "This is SO wrong!" when the normally doddering Yoda
started flipping ninja tricks with his lightsaber. In fact, there was a
surprising amount of murmuring throughout the whole two hours or whatever.
My complaint about the Jedi sixth sense is that I don't really get what it
is or how it operates and I don't feel like filling in the gaps. If you saw
Spider-Man, there were several sequences in which one gets moving insight
into how "spider-sense", a kind of precognition, actually works. In
particular I would call attention to a sequence during which the main
character is simultaneously aware of several possible dangers to himself and
others during a seemingly frozen moment in time. Now maybe I missed
something, but I seem to be remembering an extreme close-up of a fly being
in this "frozen moment" sequence also -- fairly subtle humor amidst the
rushing action (spider-fly, see? -- its actually funnier today than when I
saw the movie). Raimi's spider-sense beats the never fully explained or
well-developed Jedi sense every way you can compare them. Lucas' Jedi sense
normally takes the form of "smell the fart" acting where actors respond to
an immediate future event by looking irked or suddenly in tune with unseen
forces.
The Yoda as bad-ass thing points up the widening rift between sycophantic SW
fans and the rest of the world. It is my understanding that SW fans love
this Yoda thing while it is my general feeling that everyone else is either
merely tolerant of it, or more likely -- openly disapproving. And yet I
realize that Yoda as bad-ass is first developed in the "classic" SW series,
Yoda must now be shown to have had the past that preceded him to episode V
(hoping I have this right). So maybe I should be more forgiving about the
ways that Lucas may have ham-strung himself in doing this prequel stuff, but
then again -- why should I be?
And while we are talking about episode V, I recall a lesson from the "Empire
Strikes Back" that it doesn't matter how big or heavy a thing is when you
are moving it with your mind, and yet this very thing becomes a pivotal
issue at the end of the current movie: one moment Yoda is forestalling the
collapse of the cave roof itself, and the next letting the bad guy get away
from him because he is mentally wrestling with some large piece of
machinery. Uh huh.
It's not my unwillingness to suspend disbelief long enough to enjoy a movie
that makes me dislike the SW thing -- it's the excessive internal
inconsistencies, the breaking of the fourth wall with bad humor (both
intentional and unintentional!), the appallingly insipid storyline, the
terrible dialogue, and the bad acting (which may be driven by a director who
doesn't know how to honor the available talent).
> I was wondering what happened, since you'd voiced your desire not to see
> that cinematic jewel.
It was the old "It'll be fun on the big screen" argument. I should have
known better.
-- Hop-Frog
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Message has 2 Replies:
 | | Re: "Star Wars is racist"
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| (...) Where in the classic trilogy does anyone say anything about Yoda's prowess in battle? He is referred to as wise, and powerful- but with the Force, powerful could mean anything. Certainly his clairvoyance with the whole Cloud City thing was (...) (23 years ago, 29-May-02, to lugnet.off-topic.fun)
| | | Re: "Star Wars is silly"
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| (...) What a bunch of fuddy-duddies you went with. Everyone cheered at that scene when I went (it helps to tag along with my eleven year old to get me through scenes with Jar-Jar or Hayden Christensen). Moreover, that is probably the best liked (...) (23 years ago, 30-May-02, to lugnet.off-topic.fun)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: "Star Wars is racist"
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| (...) Good God, that was awful. I actually laughed out loud at that scene. It's great that scenes intended to be moving, such as the sand:rough poetry, are invariably farcically comical, while George's flaccid attempts at humor, such as the entirety (...) (23 years ago, 29-May-02, to lugnet.off-topic.fun)
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