Stah Vaws

I cry when I watch a Star Wars film on the screen. I could negatively cite some reasons I do this; for example I do this not because I love Mark Hammil nor to show my great affection for the Dykstraflex camera system for that matter. No. I cry because of all that I associate with Star Wars - the innocence of being in fifth grade, seeing that trailer for the first time; those quick clips of Chewbacca screaming, Vader as he turns his head toward the camera, and so on. My friends and I were completely mesmerized and overwhelmed with the "omigosh, what is that!?!?!?" feeling which the trailer elicited. And to top it off, the movie delivered. It was quite simply a quantum leap in filmmaking. I cry because it works in its simple, 10 million dollar budget, scrappy way. It was an extraordinary moment which George Lucas seized upon. And both charmingly and effectively, where he didn't have the time, money or technology to pull off some trick, he made due - and it worked.

In fact, that is one of the reasons it worked so well. Because where his team artfully juxtaposed, say the large mock up of a Duback (completing the illusion that this was a real place, and that these things do exist without having to show them lumbering along) with a shot of C-3PO complaining that Jawas are disgusting creatures - that's all we needed in order to have history, time, and story meld into one marvelous illusion. He made the most important step in filmmaking the last 30 years by turning film from a two-dimensional into a 3-dimensional experience. Of course it's his choice to make the film over into what he dreamed. In fact I think he did so because he lost track of what was truly magical and yes, important about Star Wars. He overcooked the proverbial sauce. It's spicier now, but it doesn't taste as good.

In my opinion he could have done two, no three things: 1) digitally remove the pancake makeup from the chest plate on Han Solo's uniform in the detention block scene, 2) lift out that silly little medium shot of Vader's mimed gesticulation to Tarkin, and finally 3) clean up those frames where Obi-Wan's light saber 'shuts off' during the final duel with Vader. That's all it really needed. But then again, one doesn't create hoopla over fix-up and touch-up scenes. And does any one of us really need the newly concocted, annoying little robot interaction when the landspeeder whizzes into Mos Eisly? Feh! That's not what Star Wars was about. No way. This is about moolah!