TL DR: Star Wars has
always been presented as a work-in-progress with all of the creative decisions
(included rejected ideas) available to the audience. That is why we, as fans, are so quick and
passionate on our own ideas of how it could have been improved. And that’s to be expected. And that’s okay.
Han Shot First!
The Old Trilogy Was
Boring!
Jar Jar Must Die!
Mark Hamill Was A
Whiney Baby!
Hayden Christensen
Was A Whiney Baby!
Lucas shouldn’t
killed off Boba Fett!
Lucas shouldn’t have
focused on Darth Vader as a 10 year old kid!
Lucas shouldn’t have
created the Ewoks!
Lucas shouldn’t have killed
off Maul!
The Old Trilogy is
the only “true” Star Wars!
The Prequel Trilogy
is the best!
It was Lucas’s story…you
don’t have the right to comment!
If you think you
could do better…then make your own movies!
Why do we, as fans, engage is this destructive
conflict? Why do we resist order in the
galaxy?
Because it’s freakin’ Star Wars…that’s why!!
I have ranted on more than one occasion as to why we cling
to the original versions of the film, and to what the benefits are for the
director’s cuts. But I’d like to explore
a different aspect of the collaborative nature of Star Wars.
From the very beginning, Star Wars had a communal and very
open-source feel to it. In 1977, Star
Wars launched us into a fully-formed lived in universe. The settings, the institutions, the
characters were all living in an established society. Perhaps more actualized than had even been
before in media.
Basically, there are several types of fiction available:
|
Setting
|
Characters
|
|
Real
|
Real
|
|
Real
|
Invented (but
realistic)
|
|
Real
|
Invented (but fantastical)
|
|
Invented (but
realistic)
|
Real
|
|
Invented (but
realistic)
|
Invented (but
realistic)
|
|
Invented (but
realistic)
|
Invented (but fantastical)
|
|
Invented (but fantastical)
|
Real
|
|
Invented (but fantastical)
|
Invented (but
realistic)
|
|
Invented (but fantastical)
|
Invented (but fantastical)
|
So, why is it worth mentioning this? Well, when you are working with any of the “Real”
or “Invented (but realistic)” settings and characters, the audience already has
a starting off point to tie into the narrative.
A good fantastical setting or character will eventually tie back into
the real world in one of two ways...as a direct speculative examination of
current or past events, or as a metaphor to describe past, current or
speculative imaginings of future events.
The bottom line is that it all ties back to reality in one
way or another. Otherwise, it is so
foreign that it becomes incomprehensible, or so distant as to have no meaning for
or impact on the audience. So, in 1977,
George Lucas introduced the world to a Galaxy partially of his invention. The Galaxy That Lucas Built was instantly
recognizable because it would built from the essence of thousands of stories that
came before it.
It was the way that Lucas crafted and combined it that made
it so magical. But that crafting was the
result of specific decisions during the extremely collaborative process that it
took to make the film. All film is
collaboration, so Star Wars was no exception.
As soon as the completely fabricated world flickered on the
blank canvasses of movie houses around the world, immediate interest in “How
did they DO that?” arose. And the
audience was not left wanting. The initial
novel and comic book adaptations gave glimpses in the not-quite finality of a
script that got changed due to narrative, budgetary and logistical
concerns. Editorial decisions like
removing early scenes with Biggs Darklighter and an encounter with Jabba the
Hutt from the movie were known to the public.
And for even earlier visions of from where The Star Wars would originate, concept
sketches from the great Ralph McQuarrie gave us glimpses of an older statesmen-like
Luke Skywalker dazzled the imagination.
A heroic Annakin Starkiller. Talking droids.
Vast sketchbooks of concept art were devoured by fans who
enjoyed making-of-documentaries showing blue-screen models and vast matte
paintings that held to give substance to a galaxy far, far away.
But with this behind the scenes fascination, comes the inevitable
fallibility of the entire process. Once
a decision is made, the rejected option remains in the mind…in the
imagination. It is imagination that
gives gravitas and import to the backstory of this newly discovered lived-in
universe in the first place. We cared about this foreign
world, because we could imagine each character and building and ship having a
vast history both before and after their moments on screen.
And that same imagination applied itself to the images on
the screen, itself. Things as simple as
Chewbacca being brown and hairy rather than green and scaly were up for a debate. How would the movie have played differently
with a different aesthetic? How would the
movie have played differently if Obi-wan had lived to be at Leia’s side in the
command center?
What I’m getting at is that the audience has always been
involved with (or at least aware of) the iterative and collaborative process. So, why wouldn’t we have an opinion on what
choices were or weren’t made? The
fabricated fantastical settings and characters were presented as the deliberate
selection of specific decisions made by hundreds of skilled and talented
craftsmen…be it the narrative, the visual effects, the sound choices, the
musical score.
All of it was the result of choices. And the choices not selected are no less
interesting than the choices that were.
When we rage against changes the like Greedo shooting first or Vader
shown murdering children, not hunting down and destroying Jedi Knights we do
so, because we know that this fiction comes from the decisions of the
artists. It is not a non-fiction documentary were an
outcome is presented as the fact that it is based upon. It is a made-up story about a made-up
world.
And that’s okay. But
to say that we, as the audience, does not have the right to comment on the
decisions made by the artists, is just silly.
No other art form receives a free-pass for criticism. Painting, literature, music, photography, film…all are
sparks for discussion and for expanding the mind. What else does art provide?
So, when Star Wars fans have an opinion, be it good or bad…of
course, they have the right. And to
expect anything otherwise, is just silly.
In my humble opinion.
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