Re: Salinger turns to the Dark Side

Camille Scaysbrook (verona_beach@geocities.com)
Sat, 26 Jun 1999 11:10:56 +1000 

Jim wrote:
> 1. The original movies weren't all that great artistically to begin with.
>  They're melodrama and intended for fun.  

Yes, I agree totally. I went to see Star Wars with a critical eye when it
was re-released and I thought it was a piece of crap. However, I went to
see it again with a Saturday Matinee eye and came out thoroughly
exhilarated and enjoyed it totally - it was a good story with resonances
for everybody and it was a whole lot of fun. The Phantom Menace I thought
was a lousy lumbering story and not very much fun at all. Characters acted
as if they were working off a cue sheet full of plot-turns. Who believes
Anakin and Princess Amilada are going to get it on for any other reason
that the plot dictates it? Not me.

> 2. Part of their original impact was the heart stopping special effects. 
> The sheer gradeur of them brought us in to the story.  There's no going
> back to that now.  It's all been done.

Yes - but would the effects have worked without a solid backbone? Would we
have cared that the Death Star was being blown up even if it was a silver
ping pong ball on a string? I would have. On the other hand, my boyfriend
and I thought the saddest part of Phantom Menace was when those little
droids got blown off the front of the ship at the beginning (: Which is a
worry.

> 3. The Phantom Meance is about political intrigue and posturing, we
> haven't yet reached the grand scale good vs. evil conflict we had in the
> first three movies, or even the family drama.  Course, we do see the
> stage being set for all this. . .

Ultimately, that's what it should be about, not Question Time in the Senate
(which is boring no matter what fancy pants they're wearing). Good vs. evil
is something everyone understands. I understood it in Star Wars, I didn't
even come near in P.M. and I'm sure any five year old wouldn't have. Where
was the mythical quality? Where was the heart? There is no good and evil in
mediocrity.

> 4. Therefore, seeing the Phantom Meance now couldn't possibly have the
> same effect on us that our first viewing of Star Wars had (if we got
> sucked in to the whole thing...)  

Yeah, like I said, cause Star Wars was good and Phantom Menace was boring,
overlong, indulgent, and confusing, which you could never say about S.W.

> 5. But, given that the whole thing is supposed to be Fun and nothing more
> to begin with, putting aside all the impossible expectations, I had fun
> seeing it :)

Yeah ... but it could have been more fun.  A reviewer over here said that
the anticipation built up when you hear the music and see the `A long time
ago ...' you're reared up to see something fantastic, and you don't, which
is a shame. I know nothing could meet the hype, but it could have come a
lot closer had it had the heart, humanity and just plain hokeyness (I mean
it, S.W. is the world's greatest B-movie) of the original.

May the force .... aw, you know it (:

Camille
verona_beach@geocities.com
@ THE ARTS HOLE http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Theater/6442
@ THE INVERTED FOREST http://www.angelfire.com/pa/invertedforest