written in May 1999 upon the release of "Star Wars: Phantom Menace." This is just as important and relative now, in the wake of "The Clone Wars," written and directed by padawan youngling apprentices of the dark side.
“The Empire Has No Clothes”
or
“A Phantom Menace to Society!”
by
Bill Lae, Couch Critic
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George Lucas: “I Don’t Have to Listen….Star Wars is Mine.”
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Star Wars creator George Lucas is so confident about his abilities as a filmmaker, he refuses to listen to moviegoers. The movies in the Star Wars series have attracted a massive worldwide audience, but Lucas insists he never listens to what fans say about his films. The 57-year-old director says, “I’m able to tell the story the way it’s meant to be told, and I don’t have to listen to what [studio] market research does. They would be listening to the fans - and these people think you should be doing this, and these people think you should have that character in there. These [stories] are not put together by a marketing department. They’re purely sort of a creative act that was created to tell a great story.”
A long time ago (approximately 25 years) in a theater not so far away... It was a time of revolution. Star Wars hit the screen. The movie changed the face of film-making with a visual and technical revolution and brought forth a story literally of mythic proportion. Star Wars ripped through our collective core as it became our society’s “global campfire fable”: our modern day myth depicting the hero’s journey: The journey that is depicted time and time again throughout every culture (See George Lucas’s mentor: Joseph Campbell: “The Hero with a Thousand Faces”.) It tapped in and re-connected us to our own deep down truths, desires, and quests. The story had a spiritual message in that it reminded us of the light and dark sides of the force: the mystery, energy, cause, and consciousness behind all action. It also reminded us of how using our feelings over relying on technology is the key to transcendence, success, and ”goodness”. Any of us can at any time choose the higher or lower road: the good or dark side.
CUT TO: Twenty Two Years Later.
It is a time of rebellion. He who once was the master has fallen. What once was the mythical story of the fall to and later redemption from the dark side has now left the realm of story and myth and incarnated into its own fall from good (redemption still withstanding.)
With Episode I, I expected George Lucas to choose the higher road, delivering yet another message, a responsible mythic story. Is that too much to expect? If it’s called STAR WARS, I expect it. Instead it was like Moses coming down from the mountain top (after 22 freaking years) and delivering a Jeff Foxworthy one-liner. You’ve probably heard all the criticism of the latest movies to date, and you either agree or disagree, but I submit something beyond criticism here. I submit that, in fact, this movie was created by Darth Lucas. Geroge is now Darth. My support is all based specifically on George Lucas’s own criteria, definitions, comments, and beliefs.
Here’s the simplest analogy to get: Like Anakin Skywalker, there once was a time when young George was inspired and created with his heart. But, now, like Vader using his technical prowess to survive, Darth Lucas created a “monster” revolving around and relying nearly completely on life-support from pure advanced technology. No one can contest the fact that if you remove the digital technology from “The Phantom Menace” and “Atttack of the Clones” there would be nothing left, short of a few apathetic actors in front of a blue screen. Truly, it is a prime example of complex, sophisticated, advanced technology OVER humanity. George’s original story is about humanity and machinery at odds. “Where does the machine leave off and the human begin?” “How much humanity needs to be lost before we no longer recognize the being as its true self but a machine?” “Like Luke, will George see that machinery is taking him over like Vader?” “How much CGI and special effects are too much when the heart/humanity is sacrificed?” “Is George now more machine than man?” His film certainly is.
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EXCERPT FROM WIRED MAGAZINE- MAY 1999:
Q: WIRED: How much of this film was created in the computer?
A: Lucas: Ninety-five percent. There are only 200 shots we didn't alter digitally,
and we're running them through the computer anyway to have an
all-digital master.
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EXCERPT FROM WIRED MAGAZINE- 1997:
Mark Hamill once remarked, "I have a sneaking suspicion that if there
were a way to make movies without actors, George would do it." He's
close now. On the digital backlot, acting is a distributed quantity,
parceled out among artists, CG animators, voice talent, motion capture
technicians, sound designers, and others. The primary actor becomes the
filmmaker's imagination.
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So, there goes the humanity, and in comes total control. It may sound good disguised as “the filmmaker’s imagination” but there is now no room for participation, collective vision, or balance. And I also submit that it is not the job of the director to be an actor. That is, oddly enough, the actor’s job. What a loss if these human beings (the very reason that we can relate at all to a film) are not allowed to contribute in unpredictable, spontaneous, soulful, real, unique ways. Ways that are the very nature of life itself. Where is the compassion, comradery and consensus?
And I am reminded of the bit of Star Wars trivia and philosophy that I read on the back of a Pepsi Can (part of the Star Wars Collector’s series.) “Qui-Gon Jinn: A compassionate Jedi Master, he is highly attuned to the force. But he shuns consensus and follows his own path, despite the consequences.” Sound familiar? And we all know the shit that hit the Empire’s fan when Qui-Gon did his own thing. In “Attack of the Clones” Yoda speaks of his reservations for Anakin because of the boy’s arrogance. He even mentions that he sees it showing up in the older Jedis (Obi-Wan.)
I cannot help but look at what occurs to me as a complete breach of integrity. Not that I am saying right or wrong, I’m just pointing out what looks like hypocrisy to me.
Lucas’s own words describing how arrogance is the unraveling of mastery.
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EXCERPT FROM WIRED MAGAZINE- MAY 1999:
Q: WIRED: This newest story seems more mature - a more ambiguous chronicling of
Anakin's drift to the dark side of the Force. Have you ever been tempted
by the dark side?
A: Lucas: Everyone has the dark side within, so there's a constant struggle to do
the right thing. The good side is compassion and caring about other
people, the dark side is greed and self-centeredness.
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Greed and self-centeredness! He said it, I didn’t.....
In the next paragraph George goes on to talk about LUCAS ARTS and LUCAS LEARNING. LUCAS this and LUCAS that. I would venture a guess that he also has several other LUCAS companies. This strikes me at least a tad self-centered. Me, mine, my, myself, and I.
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EXCERPT FROM WIRED MAGAZINE- MAY 1999:
Q: WIRED: Would you consider handing the Star Wars reins to someone else?
A: Lucas: Nope. Even for Episode 5 and 6, which I did not direct, I was very
involved - basically the same as directing. This is my thing.
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Alrighty then. MY thing! My my my my my my mine! Hey, ok. Then don’t sit there and lecture me (even subtly or humbly) about greed and self-centeredness. And I propose that STAR WARS no longer belongs to George Lucas. We can go back and forth about artists’ rights and all that stuff, but let’s take a bigger step back and look at the whole picture, from a mythic point of view. Stories are brought forth from the collective sub-consciousness into the collective consciousness. You don’t have to believe this, but I am telling you that this is what myth revolves around (the 'same' story told over and over)...ask Lucas’s “Yoda”, his mentor: Joseph Campbell. (Ok, I know he’s dead...is that a problem? Believe me, he at minimum lives on in his works. His spirit must be rolling over seeing what's happening.) Star Wars is now a part of our society. My God, it is a part of every media-based culture on the earth now. It has taken on a life of its own (like any authentic, active myth.) Ignore the fact that thousands of artisans and creators have ALSO contributed to its birth (not just father George). It now lives on beyond them. Does a living, growing, evolving child BELONG to the parent? (In any case, I believe that the “Menace” was child abuse, and I move we take that child away now...before God knows what happens to it. We’ve already been betrayed in that the force itself has been de-frocked..the mystery evaporated...the magic gone. )
In an interview with Bill Moyers, Lucas further commented on the good versus dark sides of the force. Paraphrasing Lucas he said that his depiction of the good side (or the good side itself) is to remind you that you are part of a community, and you must think about the welfare of the community above the welfare of yourself....you can treat people with dignity or Not....You can be a part of the problem.
So this gets right back to the argument that STAR WARS belongs to the community now (if we truly are interested in the welfare of the community...not the welfare of the “little self.”
Lucas in Wired states: (EXCERPT FROM WIRED MAGAZINE- MAY 1999:)
“But I don't judge my movies by how well the public accepts them. My own
yardstick is how much have I enjoyed the process, and am I proud of the
results?” And George has said time again that he does not make the movies for the public, he makes them for himself. Ok, fine, but then they clearly are not made with any responsibility to the welfare of the community.
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EXCERPT FROM WIRED MAGAZINE- MAY 1999:
Q: WIRED: Is it hard to astound moviegoers who've grown up on a steady diet of
films like Starship Troopers?
A: LUCAS: Astounding them is not my job. My job is to tell a story.
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I suppose one could argue if there was a story told here. In my opinion, nothing was served.
In a sad commentary, I believe a powerful forum for truth, meaning, and message was missed. What an opportunity...the biggest “campfire” ever. People from all walks of this world will see this film. I ask you: “Is it not irresponsible to not deliver to the welfare of the community?” Yes, as author-creator Lucas has defended himself and claimed that he could do darn well whatever entertaining thing he wanted to do, but I say that’s exactly what the “DARK ME” would say...not the “LIGHT ME”...the good side of me. Making an extended video-game with silly violence and boxcar loads of superficial shallow commercialized characters is not something that would be delivered by “the good side” of anything. This is irresponsible to the welfare of the community. (You could say it is a “Menace to Society!”) It doesn’t nourish anything. I’d say it fosters aggressiveness in children....those cool competitive pod racers...those cool light sabers and fights.... Am I alone here? Qui-Gon, the Jedi master, even goes so far as to cheat on a throw of the dice. There’s a role-model.
I might also add that the dark side is total control at the expense of all openness and vulnerability.
No other movie in history (especially a multi-million blockbuster-power movie) has so been controlled by one man. One vision. The Phantom menace is completely owned, written, directed, and controlled by Lucas. With his early success, he bought his freedom, but he also created his wall, his control, his regression from participation and feedback. I also heard that he only handed out one page of the script per day so that even the actors were kept totally in the dark. (Dark!) Talk about control...and we need not even talk about how that affected performance. Freedom sounds good, and it is. Yet we are also able to easily choose a lower road in freedom. In response to a question about digital film-making (In WIRED MAY 1999), Lucas responds with a statement that sums up the fact that with freedom comes responsibility:
LUCAS:” ..... Now the huge amount of freedom ultimately demands a lot more discipline.”
I believe this, but did Lucas exercise discipline in “The Menace”? It was more like a spoiled kid throwing all of his toys everywhere in a big “look at me” and “this is mine” fit. A difference between becoming an adult versus staying a child (this is a natural evolution and a key arc to every mythic tale) is responsibility and discipline:
responsible creation. And how can one ever really be free if he is holding on so tightly to what is “his”?
What a monumental bit of irony....the man to bringforth the hugest modern day myth outlining the struggles of good versus evil, light versus dark, falls into the darkness himself. He literally does not hear what he is saying or see what he is doing.
I personally do not subscribe to the Bible as direct truth. In fact, it is a perfect example of Myth: stories that deliver truths as metaphor: A guide to evolving in life. Good thing LUCAS FILMS doesn’t own that one. The prequel to the Bible would be a slap-stick rally, but oh wouldn’t that funny whimsical side-kick to Adam and Eve be funny! And just wait ‘til you see the all new CGI creatures on the arc!
Anakin was ultimately freed by his son, Luke. Will George be freed from the Darkside? Will he return? In the Bill Moyers interview Moyers commented that Star Wars is the story about Darth Vader...How do we get Darth Vader back to that little boy...with a good heart?”
As for me.....I just want to restore freedom to the galaxy....
SIDE BAR:
Oddly enough, when Star Wars hit in 1977, It totally changed my life. There is no exaggeration in stating that it created who I am in Hollywood today. In ‘77 I became a student of movies and myth and the apprentice of special effects. Now, 22 years later, I am an accomplished special effects artist, and yet I completely see how effects and technology can be used at the expense of a story, rather than being used to tell a story. I dare not say I am a master of film and stories. I will always be a student.
P.S. One can only truly hate something that one cares about and once loved (and deeply albeit hopelessly wants to love again.) I think hope here now resides in the same ranks as that of abused children or battered wives.
