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In Reply to: Re: Did your kid like it? (nt) posted by Victor Khomenko on May 19, 2002 at 16:46:39:
Vic,While I will agree that Star Wars: Episode II is not exactly Nevsky or Rashomon, Lucas has been very important for one important reason;
He opened my eyes at the age of 7 to the wonderful world of film.
I was fairly sheltered as a kid, but movies changed that for me. Yes, I read a lot as a kid and was totally seduced by the dark side (television), but movies were always numero uno!
If not for Lucas, I never would investigated Kurosawa, Ford, Eisenstein, Capra, Wilder, etc...
I got so into samurai stuff thanks to Lucas that I took up Kendo as an adult. I went out and bought every book that I could find on Kurosawa, and the other directors listed above and read. I've seen so many "good" Japanese movies, that I can't bother to waste time on the anime crap that everyone likes today.
I began to read mythology thanks to Lucas and became more interested in politics and still consider Orwell to be my favorite author.
While Sarah might hate the 3,000+ recordings in my music collection, she loves the fact that we have hundreds of movies and that is something that we both share. She can't stand Lucas either, but she does laugh a lot when I come out of the shower imitating the Emperor in Jedi...So be it...Jedi"
He's done a lot for movies, and that is more than I can say about the majority of modern directors.
Tosh
Follow Ups:
Well said.
Where is our scale? Where is the proportion?His contribution was in making a rather entertaining film that blazed some new trails - the original SW. A somewhat notable contribution, yes, but more than a "majority"? Cut me a break.
The "majority" could of course be as bad as you want it to be, and in that context you may be right. But by saying this you are ignoring perhaps hunderds of great directors who have done perhaps many times more for the film industry.
Lucas should have left after the first one, as this apparently was his level of incompetency.
But you know what? Lucas doesn't concern me much at all. He is simply a barometer, or our rectal thermometer, if you will. His films - and their HUGE monetary success - simply indicate the state of health of our society.
The miserable state, to be sure.
What excites us, what grabbs our minds, is getting more and more primitive every decade. If you look at that people went to see and enjoy in say, the fifties, and compare it to what the wide audience sees today you will see what I mean.
We slid from Ninochka to Titanic in just few short - VERY short in any historical tirms - years.
If that is not a sign of decay then I don't know what is.
However, we are sliding down on a logarithmic scale, meaning that we are never going to hit the bottom.
Instead, the quality of films that get us going is going to contnue getting more and more ridiculous.
Yes, going ga-ga over something like SW is ridiculous, degrading thing for ANY society.
But not sliding into home!N. is one of the funniest movies ever made, and not a single joke! I wonder if your critic Mr. Murphy has ever seen it. And if he had read how good it be, would he have therefore put it at the bottom of his to-see list?
clark
There IS one joke in it - dontcha remember the "coffee without milk" - it is hilarious by any standard.A wonderful film with many underlining things, some of which will escape the casual viewer the first time around. Shame - the director didn't even get a nomination!
I simply picked it as the first great old film that came to my mind. Without a question there have been others, but one thing is for sure: if we look at the trend in our (using this losely... ) viewing tastes, there has been a horrible slide.
From films to video games. Some day we will have a direct wire into our brain from the monitor, and popcorn will be fed intravenously.
Vic,I think you are missing the point about Lucas. Anyone who watches the Star Wars films and thinks that he can direct, clearly hasn't seen too many good films. Lucas is not even a good storyteller.
Star Wars pushed boundaries that others were afraid to push, in terms of visual effects, sound, animation, set design.
I agree that standards have fallen off of the chart and that we find moronic shit to be entertaining. Star Wars is nothing more than a Saturday morning cartoon with some cool characters and a lot of action and wonderful special effects. Take it for what it is...a cheap thrill.
However, as I said before, Star Wars opened a lot of eyes and in a good way.
Would you prefer that I don't seek out obscure foreign films and only watch the crap that Hollywood comes up with?
I think you also have to divide up films that are entertaining and those that are really above and beyond the norm.
Fine, I consider Rashomon, Seven Samurai, Yojimbo to be some of my favorite films but that doesn't mean that one can't enjoy stuff like Slap Shot, Empire Strikes Back, Bridge on the River Kwai, Great Escape, Stalag 17,....
Movies being a form of art, has a few masterpieces and a lot of dreck. Unfortunately, dreck has been "in" for more than 30 years.
Tosh Medved
neither Vic nor Clark can understand what you are saying. Neither can get off of their high horse and see Lucas and his movies for what they really are -- entertainment. Lucas didn't and doesn't set out to make any of his films Shakespeare, Fitzgerald, Poe, Dikinson, etc. He makes the films that a young George wants to see. He takes his "dreams" and paints them on the big screen to entertain those that want to be entertained. As for paving the way, you're right on this too. Someone had to push the envelope. Someone had to take the risk. He did. I think Michael Coate summed it up best in his Star Wars update...
Did you bother to read my post in which I say the problem is not lucas? No? Lucas is just a mediocre director, no one asks him to be Dikinson, and he doesn't bother me one bit.But... well, just read what I said.
I like that.Tosh, the problem is not that people watch and like films like SW. It certainly has its place in the Universe. It is not the worst film ever made, far from it. Lucas is not the worst director to ever walk this Earth, by far.
The point is the Great Hoopla that surrounds it.
You probably recall how many people comment on what they call "art" film vs. the rest (it is really good films vs. bad ones). They tend to say: "Well, OK, on some days I eat at the best French restaurant, on others I just get a Big Mac!"
Put that way there is no problem. But "just a big Mac" is NOT what we are having here.
Instead we are having people getting dressed up, reserve the tables, hire limo's, all the stuff you normally associate with some ritzy place, only to go and get that dreaded Big Mac.
In other words, like it or not, the SW becomes the "fine cuisine" of 2002 America.
It is NOT what is served, it is how you treat it. And treating this mediocre work as if it were some great event does make it into an event.
It teaches the kids that this "stuff" is what movie making is all about.
So they grow up having watched each episode twenty times, and knowing nothing else.
So the SW would not do any harm to someone who already has some knowledge. But in our time it is pretty much the choice of SW vs. the Titanic vs. the Gladiator...
> > >
But in our time it is pretty much the choice of SW vs. the Titanic vs. the Gladiator...
< < <Vic, I think you still don't get Toshiro; I don't; one would have to be Toshiro. SW is not Titanic nor Gladiator. Its cultural, it associates with the childhoods of alot of people. Its like the Beatles. Its not just about artistry and content. Many Americans appear to like 'Crouching Tigers Hidden Dragons", but if you know the references it makes, and grow up with the stories and epics from which it took excerpts, you will love it the way many love SW. I just saw "Iron Monkey" a few days ago, which if you're not into nor familiar with what Ive said, it would appear extremely odd. For me, it was extremely refreshing. These things are not just summer flicks; Lucas was very elaborate to create this cultural phenomenon.
But why do people seem to love it more than it appears to deserve? Show me a child who grows up with and fatacizing about arts films, I'll show you one who does.
v
George Locas inside the Wicker Man.
nt
;^)
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