Siskel & Ebert Defend Star Wars on Nightline
By John DeNardo |
Saturday, August 11th, 2007 at
12:25 am
Oh, this is good….
[via Cynical-C]
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Filed under: Star Wars
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John Simon sounds like innumerable bloggers and forum denizens talking about Episodes I-III.
But do you think people will look back in 20-30 years and defend Episodes I-III?
“Dumber than they need to be…”?
I’d like a definition of how much they need.
Huck Finn was not a children’s book. But all classics become children’s book over time.
And if Simon found Jedi confusing, Clones & Sith must have made his head explode.
I agree with some of Simon’s criticisms, and disagree with a few of Siskel’s enthusiastic praises. Compared to the first two pictures, “Jedi” was unengaging, with an excess of hyperkenetic special effects flying about. The dreaded Lucas ActionFigure (TM) syndrome had started to set in.
Even Harrison Ford found the dialogue clumsy (“You can type this shit, George, but you sure can’t say it.”) The acting at times was sophomoric. The anti-scientific message underlying “The Force” was compelling but ultimately negative.
But Simon is way off the mark when he says the plotting was bad. The plotting, pacing and editing of the first two films were masterful. There are few other movies that take you on a roller coaster ride of mythical pastiche like Star Wars Part IV.
And Part IV was incredibly innovative in its sci fi vision. For the first time, a spaceship was a beater, a “hunk of junk.” All our preconceptions about the shining, perfect technological future were instantly destroyed and reconfigured. The good guys were the tinkerers, the improvisers, the patch-it-up-give-it-a-kick team. The only other movie with a similar attitude was “Dark Star,” but Star Wars was fundamentally optimistic where Dark Star was existentially hopeless.
But do you think people will look back in 20-30 years and defend Episodes I-III?
Are there people who defend them now?