………and long may that continue for a thousand generations!………
Should grown ups enjoy a kids’ movie? Sure! Should they immerse themselves in it? Maybe not but the difference with Star Wars is that its universe is at once an escape from the world and a confrontation of it.
If you lose your place in reality, you can recalibrate via the avatar of your fantasy counterpart and the morality they navigate.
The Force = Religion /spirituality; a need to connect, redeem, heal, feel and meditate but also keep in touch with the edgier grey areas through which pure light is protected.
Han Solo = commerce, class and the impossibility of avoiding responsibility or accepting your genuine talent and role in the universe, all while being super-cool and competent but also full of it.
Princess Leia is every girl you fancied when you were a young romantic in your school days (sixth form, debating club..that sorta thing) 😉 . Daisy Ridley/ Rey is the girl you’d be honoured to turn out as a daughter.
The Empire /Sith = lure of militarised evil, posing as civilisation, relative to the equal menace of gangster filth like Jabba the Hutt. Ewoks, Yoda (baby and senior) and wookies are pets. Space ships inspire curiosity about real world boats and planes.
Kylo Ren is every person of the last two generations, still living in the shadow of grandparents who did better, whilst leaving, above all, like Vader before, HOPE for redemption and reconciliation, for all.
So yes, whilst we must all vary our watching patterns and never sink entirely into childlike regression? Star Wars IS cinema. It IS storytelling. And it IS still..good! Did Disney drop the ball a few times? Sure.
Force Awakens is lazy; Last Jedi is pretentious; Rise of Skywalker is pointless; Rogue One is boring and Solo is just ok. But much like the prequels, at least we HAVE that material at visual level to pick and choose favourite scenes etc.
Television is the way forward for the moment. Yes, Patty Jenkins has the Rogue Squadron film. But it’s BAD BATCH, Book of Boba Fett and OBI WAN KENOBI that are sustaining the brand, brilliantly, for now. And perhaps that was the series’ destiny all along? It started with serials and so it ends up in same format, all the stronger for it, much like being one with the force..
Star Wars: I love you. You know 😉Â
