“A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away…”
To my generation, that preamble was our first step, into a bigger world. Since its explosion onto the cinematic landscape in May 1977, Star Wars has continued to be, much like Obi-Wan’s description of The Force, that which “surrounds us; penetrates us. [It] binds the galaxy together…” in ways that are both beautifully simplistic and maddeningly frustrating. It had clear heroes, and villains; a beautiful princess, and a daring rogue. There were plucky sidekicks to be found, and ancient magic to be learned. When people left those theaters there was a craving, an unsated desire to continue the exploits of their beloved characters. Over time, Lucasfilm would oblige, of course. Comics, Books, and Video Games made their way into the public’s hands. I’d venture to guess that even though concepts like: Expanded Universes and canon may have existed previously; they did not enter the cultural landscape until the era of Star Wars. But therein lies some of people’s more frustrating experiences. There were things that could cause any follower of the Jedi Order to develop a lack of faith. Disturbing or not, we had to come to peace with certain…decisions. For the longest time, I had difficulty in expressing my struggles with The Saga. Recently, however, thanks to Netflix’s algorithms, I think I finally have my context. Over the last week, I have been fortunate enough to view Gravitas Docufilms’ “These Amazing Shadows” followed up with Exhibit A Pictures’ “The People Vs. George Lucas”. The former a visual history over the formation and development of the National Film Registry, the latter, as IMDB would conclude: “An examination of the widespread fan disenchantment with George Lucas.” After watching both films, and then watching “These Amazing Shadows” a second time, only now with my teenager beside me, the idea finally started to form. One would have to cite the irony of the formation of an idea taking shape, as the director of the film “Inception” was on-screen, discussing what is now known as “A New Hope”. In 1989, Star Wars was selected as one of the inaugural titles for preservation by the newly commissioned National Film Registry. Conversely, in The People Vs. George Lucas, we were presented with excerpts from Mr. Lucas’ testimony before Congress, in March of 1988. After both films bounced around in my head, percolating the reality, it became clear; I had to make my peace with Star Wars on one issue: The Special Editions.
Thinking on the issue, I thought at first that there was a second challenge, under the surface. That being The Prequels. The more I got to thinking on it; however, I came to realize that from a certain point of view I was at peace with the story of “what came before”. The reason I could tolerate Jar-Jar, suffer through Midichlorians and endure more of that stilted dialogue (I’m sorry, but “Hold me, like you did that time, by that lake on Naboo” is garbage-in/garbage-out) was because I had the context for those films. Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, Revenge of the Sith. All of them had their place. Available AFTER one had completed watching Return of the Jedi, and were still curious. These films weren’t meant to be viewed I-VI, I don’t believe it. No, I made my peace with the prequels by making sure that when I passed these films down to my children that they saw it as it was meant to be seen. Episode IV, V, and VI, followed by the back story of Episodes I, II, III. You can’t care about Anakin or Padme or Obi-Wan in the Original Trilogy. There is no mention of Padme by name in the Original Trilogy, Obi-Wan is dead by the end of “A New Hope”, and you don’t realize Vader is really Anakin until the closing minutes of “Empire Strikes Back”. Even at that, Darth Vader may have claimed to be Luke Skywalker’s father during that fateful encounter on Bespin, but filmgoers waited three years for the confirmation by a then-departing Yoda, that his father, he was. When Ghost-Kenobi appeared, he explained his word choice, and it was at that time that Luke had made up his mind: Anakin had to still exist beneath that evil visage, and it fell upon him and him alone to rescue his father. It is my belief that because the audience shares Luke’s relief that he rescued his father, it made Anakin’s rise and fall that much more powerful. Had we witnessed young Anakin rise to power, succumb to evil, and receive fateful salvation at his end, I think all of us would have expected Luke’s final statement to his father to be: “Now you’re going to answer for what you did to my mother!”
My assessment of the Prequel Trilogy aside, the real root of my rambling stems from the argument over the Original Trilogy versus The Special Edition re-releases. While watching the aforementioned “These Amazing Shadows” and “The People Vs. George Lucas” documentaries, it occurred to me: could we be to blame, too? You ask many of the people of my ilk, and they can steadfastly recount where they were in the summers of 1977, 1980, & 1983. They were queued up around the building to get their chance to be carried away (or back away as the case may be), to that alien, yet familiar, binary-sun skyline stretched across the arid Tatooine desert. What made Star Wars so special, mind you, was that more so than with any other movie of the time; an impressionable youth could leave the theater and, at a $1.49 a pop, could then recreate the events that had just unfolded in front of them. It was this concept, which, while brilliant from a merchandising perspective, has been one of the catalysts for the contempt that people have formed over the last three decades. It’s true that before Star Wars, the ideas of Expanded Universes and uses of the word ‘canon’ were present, but I don’t think it was any more relevant, than in supporting the Star Wars saga. For the younger, less initiated amongst us, I offer you a condensed history:
Having secured the majority of merchandising rights from the film’s distributor, 20th Century Fox, Lucas brought on a man by the name of Charles Lippincott, to be the Marketing Director for Star Wars. Having secured deals for licensing with Marvel Comics and Del Rey Books, Lippincott turned his attention to the toy industry, but negotiations went nowhere with Mego in 1976. The license was subsequently negotiated with Kenner, who was unable to have the product in place in time for the holiday season of 1977. In a risky position of missing the first holiday, following the film’s release, Kenner made the decision to offer an “Early Bird Package”. Parents could pick the package up from their local retailer, give it to the child, and then the child had an envelope to open on Christmas morning that instructed them to complete the included form and, between February and June of 1978, the bundled package of Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Chewbacca, and R2-D2 would be sent to their door. You kids reading this on your fancy-shmancy internet enabled device comprehending this? Mom and Dad would give you an envelope with a picture in it, and then it could be as much as 6 months later before you actually got your Christmas present! Look:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05cK5srUNn4
With that bit of unpleasantness behind them, Kenner would, early in 1978 go on to release an additional eight figures, bringing the first wave’s headcount to 12. By year’s end, the line would see the character assortment expanded to 20. 1978 also saw the release of location-based playsets and vehicles, which would actually support a figure seated at the console. With the line well-established, and immediately becoming one of the hottest “gotta-have” items, remaining so, even a full year after the film was released, and with Empire Strikes Back not coming out until 1980, that I think is the basis for most purist’s recollections.
It is my opinion that, following the film’s release, Star Wars transcended Pop-Culture, and thanks to the availability of those 3 ¾” figures, Star Wars became a matter of Participatory Culture. When that happened, the films became the springboard for the ongoing adventures that we created, in the most random of atmospheres. Be it our bedrooms, or our backyards. It could be our grandma’s house or a camping trip. Anywhere that we could take those figures with us, was an opportunity for us to create the story of “what happens next”. More importantly, we didn’t create these adventures on our own, we had collaborators. We sought out the kids on our block, which we could see on their front step, lumbering that Darth Vader carrying case around. We heard the rallying cry of a kid running across the driveway with an X-Wing at the end of their outstretched arms, S-Foils locked in attack position. It was the greatest feeling in the world, to be surrounded by our friends, once the decision was made for “who-got-to-be-who”, of course. We’d play for hours with those things. Couldn’t find Han’s blaster? No worries, take the Stormtrooper’s rifle. Lightsaber slid out? Don’t worry about it right now; I’ll go get you a colored toothpick from my mom, those fit. For many of us, those moments are our precious “go-to”, for when we think about that naiveté of our youth. Imagine my surprise when listening to Kevin Smith’s “Fatman on Batman” podcast with Mark Hamill, as Mr. Hamill is anecdotally referencing finding those kids similarly geeked-out over comics in his adolescence, thereby knowing which kids he would be more inclined to then strike up a conversation, Kevin, almost in a perfectly sublime whisper, informs him: for our generation, that grand-unifier those moments were forged with, were our Star Wars figures. This brings us to our conflict, central to every debate on the subject: Original Trilogy or Special Editions.
The time is 1988. Ted Turner, having purchased the rights to a number of film classics, has set off an Excelsior-Class shit storm by announcing to the world his intent to inject color into the films. Lucas, speaking before Congress, delivered an impassioned plea – speaking to the damage of altering films. Amongst the many things said in his delivery (See: Here)
…A copyright is held in trust by its owner until it ultimately reverts to public domain. American works of art belong to the American public; they are part of our cultural history.
People who alter or destroy works of art and our cultural heritage for profit or as an exercise of power are barbarians…
…These current defacements are just the beginning. Today, engineers with their computers can add color to black-and-white movies, change the soundtrack, speed up the pace, and add or subtract material to the philosophical tastes of the copyright holder. Tomorrow, more advanced technology will be able to replace actors with “fresher faces,” or alter dialogue and change the movement of the actor’s lips to match. It will soon be possible to create a new “original” negative with whatever changes or alterations the copyright holder of the moment desires…
…In the future it will become even easier for old negatives to become lost and be “replaced” by new altered negatives. This would be a great loss to our society. Our cultural history must not be allowed to be rewritten…
You get the idea. I’ve provided the link above if you’d like to read the complete transcript. Thanks to Slashfilm.com and SaveStarWars.com for providing the reference material. But you get where he’s going with that, right? Keep in mind, this was in 1988. By 1989, there existed a National Film Registry, dedicated to the task of identifying “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant films” and preserving them in their natural state. On that inaugural list in 1989? You guessed it: Star Wars. You would think that it would then make the issue of Special Editions a non-issue, but you would be wrong. While the Special Editions would include a number of artistic changes, the films required restoration, and in the case of the original Star Wars, by this time the title expanded to reflect “Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope”, the internegative film was in bad shape. With the extensive cleaning complete, the negative was scanned and digitally printed, thereby altering the films from their original, theatrical print. A New Hope, or A Hope Lost?
Adding insult to injury was Lucas’ positioning that these altered products were now the standard for viewing those films. Technically superior to their original presentations, it were these “Special Editions” that were now the status quo. Given Lucas’ position before Congress, some people viewed it as the ultimate betrayal, one of hypocrisy. Reading the context of his words again, it was clear that Lucas’ concern wasn’t over the revisionist tendency of the artist responsible for the vision, it was concern over the copyright holders who were quick with a checkbook. The Ted Turner’s, if you will, of the world. The people who used expressions like “where art meets commerce”. Only these were the same people who wanted to push the commerce border a foot deeper, into art’s territory. Lucas, as both artist AND entrepreneur laying claims to these films makes sense. As does the Registry’s decision to respectfully decline these now-enhanced prints of both “A New Hope” and “The Empire Strikes Back” for archiving. Why did we give such a damn? We cared SO much for the decision, because our memories are intensified by our participation. While only a select few were ever able to make the films, anyone who had those Kenner action figures were able to make something better. We were able to make it our own. To go back and change the films that served as the catalyst for our own imaginations, somehow invalidated things we may have enacted in our mom’s garden. The irony of it all, when we had to reconcile our adventures post-Empire as a result of Jedi, we didn’t give it a second thought. We owned the figures, we ret-conned our story, no problem. Yet, when Lucas, who owned both the characters and the stories, decided to make Mos Eisley bigger or ghost-Anakin look like young-Anakin, all hell broke loose. 30 years ago, Kenner gave us an “in” to this universe that helped make us a part of it. Because of that, we’re mad as hell that we can’t play in the sandbox anymore, and all we can do is bitch about the park-owner.
Harvey Dent was right. You either die the hero, or live long enough to see yourself the villain. When Kenner discontinued the line in 1985, they had to suspect they would be allowed to fade into memory. With Star Wars, they should have realized: if you strike us down, we shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine…
How Many Can You Name?
TALKIN' GEEK 