tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-123805532024-03-18T19:52:26.524-04:00John Kenneth Muir's Reflections on Cult Movies and Classic TVCreator of the audio drama Enter The House Between. One of the horror genre's "most widely read critics" (Rue Morgue # 68), "an accomplished film journalist" (Comic Buyer's Guide #1535), and the award-winning author of Horror Films of the 1980s (2007), The Rock and Roll Film Encyclopedia (2007) and Horror Films of the 1970s (2002), John Kenneth Muir, presents his blog on film, television and nostalgia, named one of the Top 100 Film Studies Blog on the Net.John Kenneth Muirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15629979615332893780noreply@blogger.comBlogger11334125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12380553.post-77859045977039815982024-03-13T06:00:00.001-04:002024-03-13T06:00:00.135-04:00My Father's Journal: "Apologia"<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; margin: 0in 49pt 0in 0in; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: "American Typewriter", serif; font-size: 13pt;">Apologia<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; margin: 0in 49pt 0in 0in; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: "American Typewriter", serif; font-size: 13pt;">By Ken Muir</span></b><span style="font-family: "American Typewriter", serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 49pt 0in 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 49pt 0in 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">I am a person of my age, of my time in history. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 49pt 0in 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 49pt 0in 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">Born into an America that was on the verge of winning the greatest war in history, I and my generation were to be the beneficiaries of that great victory.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 49pt 0in 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 63.2pt 0in 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">The material fruits of that triumph were not evident to all Americans immediately, even though they were there from the outset. After all, we had not been pounded into rubble, burnt to a cinder, like so many of our erstwhile enemies. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 63.2pt 0in 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 63.2pt 0in 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">But over a few decades those material advantages became increasingly apparent. Commodious housing, excellent transportation, abundant food, ample heat for homes and workplaces and, increasingly, air-conditioned spaces-—these and many other advantages supporting a pleasant lifestyle came to be viewed as an American birthright.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 63.2pt 0in 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 63.2pt 0in 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">Timber, steel, cement, coal, oil, aluminum, food grains, natural resources and durable goods of great value underlay this huge flowering of American middle-class life.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 63.2pt 0in 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 63.2pt 0in 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">And the common element which drove them all forward, made their fabrication and exploitation possible, was the use of fossil fuels.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 63.2pt 0in 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 63.2pt 0in 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">Today we realize that this profligate use of fossil fuels, going back to the 18th century with the advent of the Industrial Revolution in England and France, has placed us on the precipice of a world-shattering climate crisis. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 63.2pt 0in 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 63.2pt 0in 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">The evidence of this sweeping change has already made itself apparent, and volumes of insight much greater than mine flow at us very day.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 63.2pt 0in 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 63.2pt 0in 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">Environmentalism is as close to a religion for me as anything is. My issuing a warning here can only be termed trite. But I can look back over my adult life and assess it, critique it, and, hopefully, see in it some positive steps to use as models.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 63.2pt 0in 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 63.2pt 0in 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">Where did Ken Muir the “water miser” come from? <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 63.2pt 0in 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 63.2pt 0in 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">He originated with studies published by the U S Department of the Interior in the late 1960s and available (cheaply) from the U S Superintendent of Documents. Along with ballooning world population growth, the shrinking supplies of fresh water globally portended a troubled future.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 63.2pt 0in 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 63.2pt 0in 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">We took our first small steps at water conservation while living in Glen Ridge. Using flow-restricter shower heads, re-using sink water to nourish our few plants and shrubs during times of sparse rainfall, avoiding the use of lawn sprinklers and industrial car washes—- these were our first small steps.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 63.2pt 0in 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 63.2pt 0in 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">It was at the house in Charlotte NC that I really began to focus on water issues and energy use. While the house itself was a major “transgression,” given its size, none of that ever occurred to us in 1987 when we first committed to a spacious home.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 63.2pt 0in 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 63.2pt 0in 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">However, once we were settled there and began to watch climate trends unfold, our attention became focused on minimizing our carbon footprint. We saved trees wherever possible and extended the life of perhaps 150 trees by twenty-five years. We culled the sick and dying but preserved almost all the healthy trees. On the two main lots most of those trees still survive now, thirty-six years after we became owners.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 63.2pt 0in 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 63.2pt 0in 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">Our rain barrel operation was a major contribution. We had at least a hundred and fifty shrubs on the property, and all were watered and sustained by roof run-off for our last eight years. Adding in our supplemental (twenty 7 gal. spackle buckets) storage we most always had 300 gallons of reserve for dry spells. This water was hand-carried to the plants all around the property throughout the warm weather seasons. After 2005, the year we put in the grassed “lower forty” area, we almost never used sprinklers down there. Our original 1997 irrigation system used trickle-feed distribution in large part.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 63.2pt 0in 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 63.2pt 0in 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">Of course, automotive emissions are a major part of the global warming issue. Starting in 1977 with our first Honda Civic (36 mpg) we focused on fuel efficient vehicles. In 1978 we purchased our Ford Econoline van as a six-cylinder vehicle in order to save fuel. Both of our later Honda CRVs are highly efficient vehicles when driven properly. Both are capable of well over 30 mpg on trips. Loretta’s Lexus hybrid routinely gets 32 mpg in our driving mix, and more on a trip.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 63.2pt 0in 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 63.2pt 0in 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">The chief offenders are the two pick-up trucks we purchased. While both were fuel efficient “in their class” they did consume more fuel than I would have liked. I broke my own rules because we needed each to perform some serious carrying and towing chores.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 63.2pt 0in 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 63.2pt 0in 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">A last category for consideration, and a very important one, is home heating/air conditioning usage In addition to keeping the house(s) very near the “not comfortable” level in hot and cold seasons, we became early adopters of heat pump technology. The use of heat pumps and the maintenance of interior temperatures at “barely comfortable” levels seems to be the best we can do for now.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 63.2pt 0in 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 63.2pt 0in 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">Solar panels, which we first explored as an option at Clinton Rd. in the ‘70s, were not affordable for us then and cannot be used here because of HOA codes. Clearly they are the wave of the future. At Clinton Rd. we took a first step in this direction by converting the home furnace from oil to gas in 1978, both a cheaper and more environmentally friendly solution.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 63.2pt 0in 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 63.2pt 0in 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">The steps listed above along with vigorous recycling constitute the measures we have taken across fifty years to be good stewards of the earth’s gifts. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 63.2pt 0in 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 63.2pt 0in 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">I know that it is a mixed record.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 63.2pt 0in 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 63.2pt 0in 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">Outside our personal life, school settings often gave me the chance to affirm these values. As “Mr. Earth Day” at MLHS I spearheaded very ambitious April clean-ups on both high school grounds, nearby woods, and the town as a whole. I also ran the HS paper recycling operation. Paterson Connection gave us a great opportunity to clean the canals below the Great Falls in the historic Alexander Hamilton “Society for Useful Manufactures” district. We worked hard and fruitfully.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 63.2pt 0in 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 63.2pt 0in 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">My first Earth Day clean-up was in a patch of woods just below and east of Verona HS. I had to overcome significant resistance from our new asshole principal, who required a lengthy curriculum-based rationale as to why I should be permitted to take a group of my world history students out to do this work for forty-five minutes.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 63.2pt 0in 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 63.2pt 0in 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">And the school circle was completed when I convinced the administration at Garinger HS, in about 1998, to allow me and a couple of fellow teachers to take students into an enclosed courtyard at GHS to clean up and thin out the jungle-like growth there which had accumulated during decades of neglect.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 63.2pt 0in 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 63.2pt 0in 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">That’s all that comes to mind as I reflect on this vital concern. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 63.2pt 0in 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 63.2pt 0in 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">It is not enough but it is something. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 63.2pt 0in 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 63.2pt 0in 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">I hope that it will serve as a directional sign as we move into the coming turbulent years of climate dislocation.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><o:p><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></o:p></p>John Kenneth Muirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15629979615332893780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12380553.post-7014763820617666782024-03-09T07:24:00.003-05:002024-03-09T07:24:34.354-05:00Return to the Planet of the Apes: "Tunnel of Fear" (1975)<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-wimv90nZOjY/Umpb_D8ExHI/AAAAAAAAjkI/2SWQlGFm5Dc/s1600/returntotheplanetoftheapeslogo.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="220" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-wimv90nZOjY/Umpb_D8ExHI/AAAAAAAAjkI/2SWQlGFm5Dc/s320/returntotheplanetoftheapeslogo.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">In “Tunnel of Fear,” this week’s episode of the animated series <b><i>Return to the Planet of the Apes</i></b> (1975), General Urko plans a new hunt that will eliminate the humanoid threat forever. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Jeff (Austin Stoker), meanwhile, wants to move the jeopardized and primitive humanoids to a new location where they can be protected from this and all future ape aggression.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Accordingly, Jeff and Bill seek assistance from Cornelius and Zira in Ape City. The astronauts from Earth’s </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">past return to the city they recently escaped from and encounter a giant spider in the sewer system.</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">After they reach the chimpanzee’s lab, the astronauts ask for help, and Cornelius, after grappling with his conscience, realizes he can help the astronauts get the humanoids to a new home. He knows just the place too. His archaeological dig in the Forbidden Zone runs near an underground river, and leads into a serene, hidden valley. It would be the perfect home for the humanoids.<o:p></o:p></span><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-OJ-G-E_FuOw/UmpbzUu2MZI/AAAAAAAAjjo/eFoyvX5XwHs/s1600/tunnel1.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="297" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-OJ-G-E_FuOw/UmpbzUu2MZI/AAAAAAAAjjo/eFoyvX5XwHs/s400/tunnel1.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">“Tunnel of Fear” opens with two gorilla sentries talking about General Urko and his plans for total ape domination of the planet, while they sip hot coffee by chilly moonlight. This scene is one of the (many) reasons I appreciate this particular Saturday morning series. It would have been just as easy to create a scene with Urko himself making his plans (before the council, or his troops, perhaps), but instead we get this boots-on-the-ground discussion of strategy between “grunts” and it seems more like a scene from Shakespeare’s <b><i>Henry V</i></b> than a moment on a 1970s cartoon. Urko’s efforts, after all, impact the men -- er apes -- he leads into battle.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">The episode also presents a nice moral dilemma for Cornelius and Zira. Dr. Zaius trusts the pacifist chimps, and solicits their help in capturing Blue Eyes and the humanoids. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Meanwhile, Bill and Jeff want the same individuals to help them get the humanoids to safety. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Thus Cornelius and Zira need to determine the “higher” morality in this case, and must grapple with feelings that they are betraying Zaius, and therefore their own people. The scene wherein Cornelius sort of “waffles” -- going back-and-forth from side-to-side -- is especially well-presented t and showcases both perspectives ably. This scene is especially good for children to watch, as it involves decision-making, and ways to choose when both options might rightly cause harm to some party. In this case, Cornelius realizes it is better to betray Zaius than to let the innocent humanoids die, and he speculates that someday Zaius and the Planet of the Apes might even be happy that he chose this way.<o:p></o:p></span><br /><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><br /></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Q1iSZiK03vI/Umpb5oHWUaI/AAAAAAAAjkE/lXfkGmRh0yc/s1600/tunnel4.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="298" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Q1iSZiK03vI/Umpb5oHWUaI/AAAAAAAAjkE/lXfkGmRh0yc/s400/tunnel4.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">“Tunnel of Fear” features only one overtly juvenile moment. In the sewers, Bill and Jeff encounter the aforementioned giant spider and get trapped in its web, before breaking free. This is the first outbreak of pulp childishness on a TV series that otherwise avoids such clichés. The whole idea of a giant spider in the sewers is a silly one. If there were really spiders of this size in Ape City’s sewers, certainly it would be a public health crisis. And besides, the encounter with the giant arachnid adds nothing to the overall story. It’s just a “danger” for the kiddies to enjoy between scenes of dialogue.<o:p></o:p></span><br /><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><br /></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UHnCR9EW1Fk/UmpbzWA8DpI/AAAAAAAAjjs/GX8dhSxjrUY/s1600/tunnel2.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="302" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UHnCR9EW1Fk/UmpbzWA8DpI/AAAAAAAAjjs/GX8dhSxjrUY/s400/tunnel2.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-WImWpNK5MCo/Umpb5uVtvJI/AAAAAAAAjj8/owehHpiem4E/s1600/tunnel3.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="282" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-WImWpNK5MCo/Umpb5uVtvJI/AAAAAAAAjj8/owehHpiem4E/s400/tunnel3.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Next week, Bill and Jeff go off in pursuit of the laser drill in “Lagoon of Peril.”</span></div>John Kenneth Muirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15629979615332893780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12380553.post-35225625454192259842024-03-07T07:33:00.000-05:002024-03-07T07:33:11.121-05:00Guest Post: Mean Girls (2024)<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHVM70Vdx2HrdUZbC9gTrMKHIvawOX6rAgAFvjkEqGc6bZ9Uuq2_gnOTFTixZqt3GeZkDOz66x8X3hmHMiAFdnDx597TRhwSziQYW_2_mI6RgR6mEJNwfHI-_HjrV5PVSG7W-ArEvomxfFY4H5zJimeWLBwGJIYDrQpurD5ppRG0sOQxcN-KmxHg/s280/mean1.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="280" data-original-width="180" height="405" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHVM70Vdx2HrdUZbC9gTrMKHIvawOX6rAgAFvjkEqGc6bZ9Uuq2_gnOTFTixZqt3GeZkDOz66x8X3hmHMiAFdnDx597TRhwSziQYW_2_mI6RgR6mEJNwfHI-_HjrV5PVSG7W-ArEvomxfFY4H5zJimeWLBwGJIYDrQpurD5ppRG0sOQxcN-KmxHg/w261-h405/mean1.jpeg" width="261" /></a></div><p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"> </span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">The Mean Girls Musical Can’t Find Its Note<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"> </span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">By Jonas Schwartz-Owens<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><o:p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">Remakes have enough trouble competing with the original, especially when it’s a classic. <b><i>Mean Girls </i></b>(2024) was not only blinded by the shadow of the treasured 2004 comedy with Lindsay Lohan and Rachel McAdams, but also the 2018 Broadway musical that adapted the story with clever songs and striking choreography by Casey Nicholow. This movie remake adda nothing of value to the first film and cannot convey the excitement and freshness of the Broadway show, leaving it redundant.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">Following the original story to a tee, <b><i>Mean Girls</i></b> (2024) explores young, home-schooled Kady (Angourie Rice) as she leaves Kenya for the jungles of the modern American school system, with dangerous turns – of phrases from two-faced friends – and master predators, The Plastics, led by the alpha herself, Regina George (Reneé Rapp). Kady’s new outcast friends, Janis (Auliʻi Cravalho, the voice of Moana) and Damien (Jaquel Spivey), convince Kady to snuggle up to the Plastics and bring them down from the inside. But as often happens, some of the contagion contaminates Kady, and her own plasticity begins to shine through as well.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimjY9ecAYt-7NK7DCy537KS2FA20Fg0EvFt8ragPFKs_loazxXGf1_Etc6IXpk7BnZlZz2HHu98U3-O7PGcQ5u2ZDH232IbVdnygT4me97tliOAjLIUuvvhTVe6YfmvAwDNA3Kov5XwZrDjw5CErbc2vytJ17KdX00n3GRej1RSraack9jupdaog/s500/mean2.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="500" height="248" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimjY9ecAYt-7NK7DCy537KS2FA20Fg0EvFt8ragPFKs_loazxXGf1_Etc6IXpk7BnZlZz2HHu98U3-O7PGcQ5u2ZDH232IbVdnygT4me97tliOAjLIUuvvhTVe6YfmvAwDNA3Kov5XwZrDjw5CErbc2vytJ17KdX00n3GRej1RSraack9jupdaog/w441-h248/mean2.jpeg" width="441" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: #202122;"><o:p><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">There is consistency in that Tina Fey <i>(<b>30 Rock</b></i>) wrote the screenplay for the original, the Broadway Musical, and this latest version. In both movies, she plays the same role, Kady’s teacher, and brings the same everyman delivery that makes Fey ever-endearing. The script feels rushed in this version, with the shortlist songs (abbreviated from the Broadway score) limiting the audience’s understanding and connection to the characters.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">Rice captures none of the endearing traits that made Lindsay Lohan so good in the role. She has a wispy singing voice, and never becomes the lead in her own movie. Spivey is very funny as the audience’s inlet Damien, peppering his performance with clever asides. Rapp, who played Regina on Broadway for a period, conveys that ethereal, bitchy allure that makes a prom queen so tantalizing. Unfortunately, no one can make you forget the 2004 originals. Lohan, McAdams, Amanda Seyfried, Lacey Chabert, Daniel Franzese and Lizzy Caplan are indelibly iconic. Although it was fun to see Tim Meadows repeating his role as the put-upon principal and Lohan as a mathlete judge. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">Relative newcomer directors Samantha Jayne and Arturo Perez Jr. bring a lackadaisical approach to the visuals. Cell phone social media is used throughout to check in on characters, but even when not inside the phone, the movie looks like it was shot on a handheld. The camera overutilizes zooms, the tone is haphazard, and the whole project appears to be made with no understanding of movie musical mechanics. Most sequences were (perhaps intentionally) shot like TikTok videos.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">The score, when on Broadway, was inventive and intoxicating. In a musical comedy, the songs should be infectious, people should want to join in. Here, the numbers are shot so statically that it distances the audience. All the songs are whispered like the characters are afraid to wake someone — the audience, perhaps?—up.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">When I first saw the reviews coming out about the recent movie (whose advertising campaign wallpapered over the fact that it’s a musical), I assumed that critics may not have seen or appreciated the Broadway production. I saw the show in Los Angeles last year and it was a highlight. After catching <b><i>Mean Girls</i> </b>(2024), it’s not the newness that catches people off guard, it’s the slipshoddiness. </span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>John Kenneth Muirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15629979615332893780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12380553.post-27283953278012957632024-03-06T06:00:00.005-05:002024-03-06T06:00:00.242-05:00My Father's Journal: "The Future"<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><b>The Future<o:p></o:p></b></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><b>By Ken Muir</b><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Always, when I was a younger man, “the future” was an amorphous notion for me, something I had, but could not get a firm grip on. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">It was assumed to be large, commodious, full of promise...but who really knew how large? <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">It was a question mark, but it held comfort, nonetheless.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Today, “the future” is waking up and looking across into my wife’s eyes……<i>.one more day together. </i><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">It is walking into the kitchen and starting a pot of coffee. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">It is running over in my mind the (now rather short...) list of things we have planned for this day. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">It is putting in place the list of activities we will engage in, knowing that I am able accomplish them and that they will round out another day. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">It is near term —very near term—plans to see loved ones.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Each day is now a small bet on something more to come. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Each awakening is a hopeful down payment toward a tightly circumscribed future.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">I’m game.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>John Kenneth Muirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15629979615332893780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12380553.post-39279839276424704592024-03-05T07:45:00.009-05:002024-03-05T07:45:00.133-05:00Guest Post: The Iron Claw (2024)<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij8m_4BKq_dnwLnsQZydES0cRsK1SWeHwYcp-26825bcOL9NChONKDcYpxiIsFvg6Ud-0EgDrFzI63SyJO7vs0zpP-eEp5SRqHaR3u7vGo0xwhoxkSy48e9NW_TU5GCItdGsy9yBFtW0QsAzLLIoO6QnT8q5FkXvuCebuu6JvcTI_2zI4izgX_Ig/s2000/claw1.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2000" data-original-width="1333" height="440" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij8m_4BKq_dnwLnsQZydES0cRsK1SWeHwYcp-26825bcOL9NChONKDcYpxiIsFvg6Ud-0EgDrFzI63SyJO7vs0zpP-eEp5SRqHaR3u7vGo0xwhoxkSy48e9NW_TU5GCItdGsy9yBFtW0QsAzLLIoO6QnT8q5FkXvuCebuu6JvcTI_2zI4izgX_Ig/w293-h440/claw1.jpeg" width="293" /></a></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">The Iron Claw Comes At A Cost For One Family.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"> </span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: times;">By Jonas Schwartz-Owen<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;"><b><i>The Iron Claw</i></b>, Sean Durkin’s biography of legendary wrestling family The Von Erichs, is a refreshingly methodical film with many quiet moments, harkening back to the New Hollywood films of the 1970s. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">The Von Erich patriarch (Holt McCallany from Netflix’s <b><i>Mindhunter</i></b>) owns the World Class Championship Wrestling company. A former wrestler himself, where he utilized the Iron Claw move, he has passed his compulsion about wrestling onto his boys. The adult sons do not even have time to form their own passions before they dive headfirst into the ring. His most successful, Kevin (Zac Efron), takes on the family burdens and everything comes at a cost. The tragic tale of the family is part superstition, part the brutality of the sport. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoBFFaMJZhyphenhyphenWcbILTUditUXldb0_bo9wFY0iCTh29YKegEAE9B3hxCSvVQ0WR9hk3MDZUxsQlF3lzP3_HJ2dm7iMWkwsT4w9rSjXhVB_gMFtpan_TGmSCud7kW_wSO87xmaXt0DzwAb63nXvMIYbIOA0YGos3uWMh_9-nYHMLnBKes7ZCxXp3kpg/s2797/claw2.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2797" data-original-width="2048" height="428" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoBFFaMJZhyphenhyphenWcbILTUditUXldb0_bo9wFY0iCTh29YKegEAE9B3hxCSvVQ0WR9hk3MDZUxsQlF3lzP3_HJ2dm7iMWkwsT4w9rSjXhVB_gMFtpan_TGmSCud7kW_wSO87xmaXt0DzwAb63nXvMIYbIOA0YGos3uWMh_9-nYHMLnBKes7ZCxXp3kpg/w313-h428/claw2.jpeg" width="313" /></a></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">Efron is unrecognizable as the wrestler. Bulked up in both his body and his face, fashioned with a bowl cut, Efron leaves behind any teen idol pretentions for the role. He brings an earnestness and sweetness that hits the heartstrings successfully like Sylvester Stallone’s performance in the inaugural <i>Rocky </i>(1976). <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">McCallany is intense as the wrestling world version of <i>Gypsy‘</i>s Mama Rose. Single-minded, he treats his boys as an extension of his legacy. They are his second, third, fourth, and fifth chance, and it’s almost a Greek tragedy how he pays (as an original story, it would seem contrived, but this was real life).<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">Huge fans of Jeremy Allen White (from his award winning <b><i>The Bear</i></b>) may be disappointed by his minor role in the film. Though he is not featured for much of the two-and-a-quarter hour running time, his determination and frustrations as brother Kerry are well done. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">Lily James (<b><i>Cinderella</i></b>) is given little to work with in the nominal wife role, but as the matriarch, Maura Tierney (Showtime’s <b><i>The Affair</i></b>) is heartbreaking, representing an overly supportive wife who quietly laments her constant loss.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">Durkin, who made a splash with the contemplative <b><i>Martha Marcy May Marlene</i></b> creates a very ‘70s Americana feel: the deliberate, un-splashy pace, the washed-out hues, the deglamorization of a beloved American tradition, that are reminiscent of the films of Academy Award winner Hal Ashby (<b><i>Bound for Glory</i></b><i>)</i>. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">Along with the exciting, well-choreographed wrestling scenes, Durkin has presented a poignant slice of life. <b><i>The Iron Claw </i></b>interprets the famed lives of people foreign to many audience members and captures the commonality of their struggles. </span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>John Kenneth Muirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15629979615332893780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12380553.post-72787831428385868312024-03-02T07:44:00.003-05:002024-03-02T07:44:20.004-05:00Return to the Planet of the Apes: "The Unearthly Prophecy" (1975)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fpht9qr83jc/Ul8CGRqbTlI/AAAAAAAAjD4/CGXgcKvXu_E/s1600/returntotheplanetoftheapeslogo.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="275" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fpht9qr83jc/Ul8CGRqbTlI/AAAAAAAAjD4/CGXgcKvXu_E/s400/returntotheplanetoftheapeslogo.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">The third episode of the Saturday morning series <b><i>Return to the Planet of the Apes</i></b> (1975) introduces a critical element to the animated production: <i>the Under Dwellers.</i><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">In “The Unearthly Prophecy,” human astronauts Jeff and Bill travel through the arid Forbidden Zone, and spy gorilla soldiers on the march. Specifically, General Urko’s army is hunting an unknown enemy nearby. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">When a hatch suddenly opens up in the ground, Jeff and Bill travel through it and discover the secret of the apes’ nemesis. Beneath the planet of the apes live cloaked human mutants, the aforementioned Under Dwellers.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Hr9hyA5No3s/Ul8CE1Oo5fI/AAAAAAAAjDo/vgffnzjTgms/s1600/prophecy1.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="312" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Hr9hyA5No3s/Ul8CE1Oo5fI/AAAAAAAAjDo/vgffnzjTgms/s400/prophecy1.png" width="400" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">And, making matters worse, these Under Dwellers are holding, Judy -- the third astronaut from the 20<sup>th</sup> century -- as their captive. She seems to have amnesia, and the Under Dwellers revere her as some kind of God because she resembles a statue bust found in their subterranean caverns. In a crazy twist of fate, that is actually a statue of Judy, a 20<sup>th</sup> century statue honoring one of the missing astronauts. On the bottom of the bust are inscribed the letters “U.S.A,” and the Under Dwellers pronounce it “Oosa.” They believe “Oosa” is Judy’s name and that she is the answer to a dark prophecy.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sRI0eWPqRAk/Ul8CGayBPlI/AAAAAAAAjEQ/NByzaLvRz8A/s1600/prophecy5.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="297" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sRI0eWPqRAk/Ul8CGayBPlI/AAAAAAAAjEQ/NByzaLvRz8A/s400/prophecy5.png" width="400" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">This episode -- which creatively re-imagines elements of the saga spearheaded first in <b><i>Beneath the Planet of the Apes</i></b> (1970) -- features some fantastic and very memorable post-apocalyptic imagery. We see the ruins of the New York Library, Wall Street, the subway, and other New York sights, as well as scraps of twisted, half-melted metal. Again, this kind of post-apocalyptic, post-nuclear war visual is hardly par for the course for a kid’s show, circa 1975, but the art-work is splendid, and wonderfully detailed. It may be true that the animation on this series is limited, but the background paintings and settings are beyond reproach.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-AbtD-nFjSFs/Ul8CF4kmGsI/AAAAAAAAjD8/2TTmIAKDiRc/s1600/prophecy2.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="305" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-AbtD-nFjSFs/Ul8CF4kmGsI/AAAAAAAAjD8/2TTmIAKDiRc/s400/prophecy2.png" width="400" /></a></div><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bhXjnuLZX48/Ul8CF7H9uUI/AAAAAAAAjEE/vT215NfMeis/s1600/prophecy3.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="278" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bhXjnuLZX48/Ul8CF7H9uUI/AAAAAAAAjEE/vT215NfMeis/s400/prophecy3.png" width="400" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">When Jeff and Bill discover the Public Library ruins, they also get their Charlton Heston-Statue of Liberty moment.</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">The astronauts realize that they have returned to Earth, only in their own distant future.</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">“</span><i style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">What could have happened?”</i><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"> they wonder, but the ruins surely tell the story.</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">Man destroyed himself.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">“The Unearthly Prophecy” also introduces the leader of the Under Dwellers, Krador, and much detail regarding Under Dweller Technology. In <b><i>Beneath the Planet of the Apes,</i></b> the mutants in New York City had the Alpha-Omega Bomb and the “defensive” weapon of mental telepathy, which could create illusions, but precious little in terms of advanced technology. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-1Z-nPfh8kJM/Ul8CF7O3UTI/AAAAAAAAjEA/kPOyrmo0_cg/s1600/prophecy4.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-1Z-nPfh8kJM/Ul8CF7O3UTI/AAAAAAAAjEA/kPOyrmo0_cg/s400/prophecy4.png" width="400" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Here, the Under Dwellers don’t actually create illusions, but can nonetheless move mountains up and down on the surface. They also boast huge, high-tech, energy generators in their caverns, as well as control panels by the dozen. The animated series seems to be setting-up the Under Dwellers as a highly technological race then, and a different kind of foe for the apes.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><br /></span></div>John Kenneth Muirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15629979615332893780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12380553.post-31994579354897062402024-02-28T06:00:00.002-05:002024-02-28T06:00:00.264-05:00My Father's Journal: "T N T"<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; margin: 0in 49pt 0in 0in; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;">T N T<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; margin: 0in 49pt 0in 0in; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;">By Ken Muir</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0.2in 0in 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 11pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.2in 0in 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">[John's Note: My dad, K<span style="caret-color: rgb(29, 34, 40); color: #1d2228; text-align: left;">en, a sophomore when this early December, 1963, championship game was played. The participants wore no protective equipment.]</span></span></p><div dir="ltr" style="caret-color: rgb(29, 34, 40); color: #1d2228; font-family: arial; outline: currentcolor !important;"><br /></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0.2in 0in 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">TNT was the name of the social club (fraternity) that I pledged and belonged to during my two years at Harding College in Searcy, Arkansas. (’62-64)</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0.2in 0in 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0.2in 0in 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">A “small club,” we had only twenty-five members. After the rigors of pledge week and initiation we came together primarily for team sports events (flag football, basketball, softball, and track) and for social events, dinners, and outings, which were scripted once or twice in each semester. We had a club queen and a sorority (Zeta Rho) with whom we were officially linked. We were not pressured to date Zeta Rho girls but there was a friendship bridge there.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0.2in 0in 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0.2in 0in 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Being a TNT member was the first time in my life that I had been truly<i> part<u> </u></i>of something other than my family. And with the later exception of marriage, it would be the only time. It came to be the most meaningful development in my life during those two years other than my close friendship with my roommate, Delmer, for three semesters. And the intensity of that relationship was heightened significantly during my sophomore year when, because of my steadfast commitment to becoming a skilled “rag-tag” (flag football) player, I found myself sometimes included in the inner circle of club leadership….with the president, Eddy, his roommate Dave, and their suite-mate Gary. These three comprised the dynamic heart of the rag-tag squad and I felt privileged to be among them.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0.2in 0in 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0.2in 0in 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Our outings and initiation events in the “wilds of Arkansas” (farmlands, woods, etc.) are a story unto themselves, and I will not bore the reader with them here. But the sporting competitions were in a separate world of importance, and I will detail one of them.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0.2in 0in 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0.2in 0in 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">While I played rag-tag, baseball, and volleyball during the intramural season and ran a leg of the 880-yard relay for TNT during the club season, it was flag football that was my -- and the club’s -- passion. I was a starter at defensive end in our four-man line and, on occasion if someone was injured, I played offensive end as well. Eight young men were on the field for each team.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0.2in 0in 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.2in 0in 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">TNT played so well, so dominantly, that it was determined that we couldn’t compete in the small club tournament. We were forced to compete for the school championship in the Big Club league (big clubs had forty or more members) throughout the season. Our opponent in this final game was Mohican, a storied group of guys who included in their rag-tag squad a large handful of varsity athletes who were “out of season,” that is, they were not varsity football players but rather varsity baseball, track, or basketball athletes. They were formidable opponents.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0.2in 0in 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0.2in 0in 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">We were so sky high before the game that we could barely eat, flooded with adrenalin and noisy team spirit.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0.2in 0in 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0.2in 0in 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">In a blood-soaked match that put four guys in the hospital, including our quarterback Gary, we prevailed over Mohican by a single touchdown. I defended my patch of corner ground as if my life depended on it, and several times as a play ended I lay on my back looking up at the night sky and the flood lights —having been steamrolled by a pair of Mohican blockers.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0.2in 0in 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0.2in 0in 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">When Gary was pulled out late in the game to be taken to the hospital —bleeding heavily from the mouth because of a 90% severed tongue— I was called in to take over the offensive end spot. The regular end had moved to quarterback. Lining up opposite me was Larry, a mean and rangy junior who had delivered the chin-slug that put Gary in the hospital. </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0.2in 0in 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.2in 0in 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">On the first play from scrimmage Larry slammed me in the nose with the base of his hand…..all I could feel after that was blood draining across my lips and chin. I spent the remaining offensive plays of the game —fortunately they were few— diving across the line as the ball was snapped, doing my best to tangle him up, slow him down, and keep him out of our backfield.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0.2in 0in 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0.2in 0in 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Reading about the game days later (I still have the clipping in my ’64 yearbook) was one of the most exquisite moments of joy I had ever experienced until that time in my life. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0.2in 0in 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0.2in 0in 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Looking back in subsequent years I came to understand full well why the armed forces want young men in the 18-22 years age bracket. </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0.2in 0in 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0.2in 0in 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">We would have died for each other that night.</span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>John Kenneth Muirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15629979615332893780noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12380553.post-23376244074104229692024-02-26T06:10:00.000-05:002024-02-26T06:10:01.312-05:00Guest Post: The Star Wars Sequel Trilogy Part IV - This Has All Happened Before...<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><br /></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><b><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /> </span></i></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQ2oqlppgsXLHfeUwz5c_ndxOb5W1cVEj7BoJeGGZ4hO8WgVzRWeRy7dKVfH4CeSQc6cOqhWYarJOaVJRJi-EjDQ8fq5x7EsyYKrqNZXadJWJD5hhwpOJe__JvglDe7XInFiPWqWB_np0zuR_GVxP28C6nDmTP9n_vFYKMkpybH90GW2IJjWGKSA/s4096/am4u2cl62qt91.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2302" data-original-width="4096" height="263" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQ2oqlppgsXLHfeUwz5c_ndxOb5W1cVEj7BoJeGGZ4hO8WgVzRWeRy7dKVfH4CeSQc6cOqhWYarJOaVJRJi-EjDQ8fq5x7EsyYKrqNZXadJWJD5hhwpOJe__JvglDe7XInFiPWqWB_np0zuR_GVxP28C6nDmTP9n_vFYKMkpybH90GW2IJjWGKSA/w468-h263/am4u2cl62qt91.jpg" width="468" /></a></div><p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><b><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></i></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><b><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span></i></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">This Has All Happened Before, And It Will All Happen Again: The </span></i></b><b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Star Wars<i> Sequel Trilogy</i></span></b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">by Michael Giammarino</span><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">4. Here There Be Legends: The Plain and Simple Truth About the <i>Star Wars </i>Expanded Universe</span></b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Star Wars</span></i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> gets strikes from discontented fans for punching up plot points in ancillary material (books, comics, games, even descriptions on action figure packaging) which might go unexplained in the movies. It has even caused those fans to accuse Lucasfilm of "filling in plot holes." The <i>Star Wars </i>sequels get accused of this a lot. A popular criticism of this has been, "If you need to publish a book to make the movie work, then the movie failed." <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I don't agree with this attitude at all. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">If I go to a movie, and find myself taken in by the movie, it's going to make me want to learn everything I can about that movie once the movie is over. It doesn't mean the movie failed. It means the movie succeeded. It made me interested enough, not only to go deeper inside the story, but to learn a little something about the history of the movie's production, the filmmakers involved, and anything and anyone connected to it. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The same goes for any art form.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">If I go to an art gallery and find myself drawn to a painting that attracts me, I'm going to want to find out everything I can about that painting, and the artist who painted it. It doesn't mean the painting failed. It means the painting succeeded. It made me interested in the history of that painting. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">For the life of me, I've never understood this conceit that the attraction to learn more about any artwork is an indication of failure in that art. Maybe it's because I've always been engaged by the movies I've seen, the music I've listened to, and the books I've read, ever since I was a child, to always want to learn more about the things I like. Sometimes even the things I don't like. There's nothing wrong with having an informed opinion about something. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I don't think it's unfair for a film or a franchise to impel viewers to seek out more information in order to have a well-rounded understanding of its universe. Filmmakers want their audience to engage with their work. They don't want the work to simply glaze over the viewer's eyes. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Movies always work in broad strokes, and you can only fill in as much informational detail into the story as the pace, structure, and running time will allow. If I may reiterate: movies aren't isolated phenomenon; they're experiential events. It's not just what's on the screen. It's what we bring to it. It's what we take away from it. And it's what we gather from it afterwards. It's what we learn from it. It's also what we learn about the movies from ancillary markets, cast and crew commentary, and film analysis, which can or will inform and alter our experience with the movies the next time we watch them, and could possibly give us a deeper appreciation of the movies in the long run. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">But I would also argue the movies can – and do – work fine on their own. Movies either work on their own merits, on what we bring to them, or a combination of the two. And when a movie works on its own merits, those merits may also depend on other subject matter, existing in the periphery of that movie's text. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">And you know what? <i>Star Wars </i>has always worked this way. This isn't something that has only happened recently during this new sequel era. It isn't something Disney adopted themselves. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">This is Lucasfilm's status quo. This was <i>George's </i>status quo.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgULB0zzs2u_P7MYYJKqGg_RYB1RYB_ftT76TfNrNAIm-5N_L-eNmL4xh9O1icOK2_IkXm9OnWKwCbRR9JwJhEdasAIUZ5yaVk9Tp3CdFRwjsRN3Vo3SQPOyFw7g0t0_Rltjj0TbFmwCRl6Jx6NdAOQfwQGZ8NSvGEZsJ4n3lj6J4nJAuCs7KA0HA/s1000/71zCCE5cenL._AC_UF1000,1000_QL80_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="597" height="521" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgULB0zzs2u_P7MYYJKqGg_RYB1RYB_ftT76TfNrNAIm-5N_L-eNmL4xh9O1icOK2_IkXm9OnWKwCbRR9JwJhEdasAIUZ5yaVk9Tp3CdFRwjsRN3Vo3SQPOyFw7g0t0_Rltjj0TbFmwCRl6Jx6NdAOQfwQGZ8NSvGEZsJ4n3lj6J4nJAuCs7KA0HA/w311-h521/71zCCE5cenL._AC_UF1000,1000_QL80_.jpg" width="311" /></span></a></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Since 1976 (because the <i>Star Wars </i>novelization was published in 1976), <i>Star Wars</i> ancillary material (back then we called them movie tie-ins) have always added finer points to whatever we see in the movies. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Following the <i>Star Wars </i>novelization came <i>Splinter of the Mind’s Eye</i>, potentially a cheap sequel of <i>Star Wars </i>in book form, in case the original film had been a dud financially. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Splinter of the Mind’s Eye </span></i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">reduces our returning cast of characters from 1977's <i>Star Wars </i>down to five: Luke, Leia, Threepio and Artoo crash land on the planet Mimban, where the Empire is mining “Kaiburr” crystals. Luke and Leia have to deal with Imperials and Darth Vader, who, following a lightsaber duel with Luke and Leia (in which he loses an arm), falls into a pit. Luke and Leia depart, but Luke has a sense they have not heard the last of Vader. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY61Sq_HmUoKwxd1KmxVYXpCoIsLbpxmT82fo6z3cLeGkBlTCvon2TMRVDpaLQ5R4Zd4ekNoCDOgdzEdlbezO4tFW0ZwLO90ImTbaeesI4Uhvbr_yz4LFpP3DX_mdikYEWg1U7fDt5Jr9Mmyx49zn42pQihPpTxDaiooJTJQXSqtg719hPhNMzXg/s1399/ADF-SotME-1978-White-Cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1399" data-original-width="850" height="472" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY61Sq_HmUoKwxd1KmxVYXpCoIsLbpxmT82fo6z3cLeGkBlTCvon2TMRVDpaLQ5R4Zd4ekNoCDOgdzEdlbezO4tFW0ZwLO90ImTbaeesI4Uhvbr_yz4LFpP3DX_mdikYEWg1U7fDt5Jr9Mmyx49zn42pQihPpTxDaiooJTJQXSqtg719hPhNMzXg/w286-h472/ADF-SotME-1978-White-Cover.jpg" width="286" /></span></a></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">The Han Solo Adventures </span></i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">book series followed, consisting of <i>Han Solo at Stars' End</i>, published in 1978<i>, Han Solo's Revenge</i>, published<i> </i>in 1979, and <i>Han Solo and the Lost Legacy, </i>published<i> </i>in August of 1980, three months after the initial theatrical release of <i>The Empire Strikes Back. </i><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">These were followed by <i>The Lando Calrissian Adventures </i>book series in 1983, consisting of <i>Lando Calrissian and the Mindharp of Sharu, </i>published close to two months after the initial theatrical release of <i>Return of the Jedi</i> on May 25, 1983, <i>Lando Calrissian and the Flamewind of Oseon, </i>published in October of 1983, and <i>Lando Calrissian and the Starcave of ThonBoka, </i>published in December of 1983. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">This was followed, in pronounced fashion, in 1991, with the emergence of the Expanded Universe. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">So, it's a foregone conclusion, after the announcement in 2012 of new <i>Star Wars </i>films, that more ancillary novels were going to be published, whether Disney owned Lucasfilm or not, and they were always going to expand on what the movies give us. It has nothing to do with what anyone might believe the movies failed to accomplish. All the ancillary material does is add depth to whatever information we've already gotten from the movies, miniscule as it may or may not be, and if you choose not to consult any of that ancillary material, the movies can still get their point across perfectly fine without it. But if you do choose to consult the ancillary material, it can help expand your outlook on what happens in the movies with added context. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">What kind of added context?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The <i>Star Wars </i>novelization, credited to George Lucas but ghostwritten by Alan Dean Foster, and titled <i>Star Wars</i>: <i>From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker </i>before it was rechristened <i>Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope</i>, opens with an excerpt “from the first saga,” <i>The Journal of the Whills</i>, giving us pertinent information on the Old Republic, the Senate, the Jedi, and Senator Palpatine, who co-opted the Old Republic to get himself elected Chancellor, then concocted a scheme to declare himself Emperor, exterminate the Jedi and subjugate the galaxy. Basically, this was the plot for the prequels. No one knew anything about any prequels in 1977, though. If you wanted to receive any of this background, you needed to read this prologue. Scenes shot but left out of the film were also chronicled in the novelization. In one scene, Luke rushes to Anchorhead to tell his friends Camie and Laze about the ensuing space battle he noticed above Tatooine, bumping into best friend Biggs Darklighter along the way. As the scene progresses, Biggs admits to Luke his plan to join the rebellion against the Empire. Yet another scene (a scene that was reinstated in the <i>Star Wars</i>Special Edition) involves Han and Chewie coming across Jabba the Hutt and his entourage on their way to the <i>Millennium Falcon</i>, in which Jabba threatens Han with a price on his head for dumping contraband. In the novelization, Jabba was just a big, shaggy, humanoid tough guy, as he was in the early, unused footage. It wasn't until <i>Return of the Jedi </i>when he'd be reconceived as a slug-like creature modeled after the actor Sydney Greenstreet (<i>Casablanca, The Maltese Falcon).</i><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">There are aspects to <i>Star Wars </i>all fans seem to take for granted today, that you really wouldn't know unless you read novelizations, read comic books, collected the action figures, or listened to the radio. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">We all know Princess Leia's ship, the one being chased by Vader's Star Destroyer when <i>A New Hope </i>begins, as either the <i>Tantive IV, </i>the blockade runner or the Corellian Corvette. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The ship is never referred to as the <i>Tantive IV</i>, the blockade runner or the Corellian Corvette in <i>A New Hope. </i>It is referred to as the <i>Tantive IV </i>in the <i>Star Wars </i>novelization, West End Games refers to it as a Corellian Corvette, and several marketing materials refer to the ship as the blockade runner. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Sith Lord</span></i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> is very common <i>Star Wars </i>terminology. It refers to a master in the dark side of the Force. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The term <i>Sith Lord </i>never appeared once in the entire original <i>Star Wars </i>trilogy. It almost did. In the senior staff meeting on the Death Star in <i>A New Hope</i>, when Grand Moff Tarkin (whose rank is never mentioned in the film, and we wouldn't know what a Grand Moff was even if it were) announces the dissolution of the Senate, General Tagge (whose name and rank is never uttered in the film) had a line where he would've said, “This Sith Lord sent by the Emperor will be our undoing,” before saying, “Until this battle station is fully operational, we are vulnerable,” but the line was cut. Until the prequels officially canonized it, the term could be found in novelizations, Marvel Comics, and virtually all other forms of ancillary material, including action figure packaging. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdYJVncE1Ab4R99GdGfmyoJt7phJJPJCiMOG8zgUYyxiHcRYkYBXAmNpfQn3XKb1OwJlqEtyAeDQreVFY6Sgz6ghEXWhmyg9Y146C8-LAKOilWW1gU_04AmOpSJCbAUdMcyilLljk7i4z1jHtn2Z6uW6tHuP_6NX05GXWFhOTQ2q4zZcCQRKoQsw/s4000/Star-Wars-Cantina.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2000" data-original-width="4000" height="205" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdYJVncE1Ab4R99GdGfmyoJt7phJJPJCiMOG8zgUYyxiHcRYkYBXAmNpfQn3XKb1OwJlqEtyAeDQreVFY6Sgz6ghEXWhmyg9Y146C8-LAKOilWW1gU_04AmOpSJCbAUdMcyilLljk7i4z1jHtn2Z6uW6tHuP_6NX05GXWFhOTQ2q4zZcCQRKoQsw/w410-h205/Star-Wars-Cantina.jpg" width="410" /></span></a></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">All the fascinating denizens of the Mos Eisley cantina in <i>A New Hope</i> had names. All the bounty hunters Darth Vader hired to track down the <i>Millenium Falcon </i>in <i>The Empire Strikes Back </i>have names. Save for Boba Fett, you wouldn't know any of them (at the time both films were released, and for years afterwards) unless you consulted the ancillary materials or collected the action figures. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Vader's flagship is the Star Destroyer <i>Devastator </i>in <i>A New Hope </i>and the Super Star Destroyer <i>Executor </i>in <i>The Empire Strikes Back </i>and <i>Return of the Jedi</i>. They are never mentioned by name in either film. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The novelization of <i>The Phantom Menace </i>gives us a history of the Sith and establishes Darth Bane as the originator of the Sith Rule of Two. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Also in the <i>Phantom Menace </i>novelization is a moment where Anakin comes across an injured Tusken Raider, stuck under a boulder. Anakin helps the wounded Tusken, sets his broken leg in a splint, stays with him overnight while he recuperates, and even has Threepio translate to him that he means him no harm. It makes for an interesting dichotomy once we get to Anakin's massacre at the Tusken camp in <i>Attack of the Clones. <o:p></o:p></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">We even get a much more detailed introduction to the Lars family in the <i>Attack of the Clones </i>novelization.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The <i>Revenge of the Sith </i>novelization suggests the way Palpatine's face changes is not due to an effect Force lightning ricocheted off Mace Windu's lightsaber has on the Chancellor. Rather, it reveals Palpatine's true appearance. Once Palpatine disposes of Mace, he tells Anakin, <span style="background: white; color: #202122;">"I shall miss the face of Palpatine, but the face of Sidious will serve."<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWw7T1K3kAsv9_rugC6ZcxGxunWXBSngw8_UbRcW5gVQrnBy4taZGIR_DFBaSeWW1kKRU3Mi4Pm0vrUgsdjHIksVyi8V-Y_c-RHYMmwbKKHT_Y-j_ua_r1APZvUTggi79HKWvFyDfoIAa-MoV8T6-Nt5BM4_W0XocmG-iiCvu_uvP_kG7G6r5F7w/s1200/s-l1200%20(3).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><img border="0" data-original-height="794" data-original-width="1200" height="272" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWw7T1K3kAsv9_rugC6ZcxGxunWXBSngw8_UbRcW5gVQrnBy4taZGIR_DFBaSeWW1kKRU3Mi4Pm0vrUgsdjHIksVyi8V-Y_c-RHYMmwbKKHT_Y-j_ua_r1APZvUTggi79HKWvFyDfoIAa-MoV8T6-Nt5BM4_W0XocmG-iiCvu_uvP_kG7G6r5F7w/w411-h272/s-l1200%20(3).jpg" width="411" /></span></a></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Ian McDiarmid confirms this is what happened in an interview with <i>Empire </i>magazine in 2005:<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">"[George Lucas] said this casually, 'You should think of Palpatine's eyes as contact lenses...' So there's Palpatine's eyes and my eyes and that was very interesting. So, in fact, his face, which is the same as mine, was the unreal aspect. My own face was the mask. And then when I get into the mask, that is the evil person - that's the real face.”</span></i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The question becomes: Do we need any of this information in the films for the films to work? Is it necessary? Is it vital? Not really. It would've been nice if certain things had been included, but the movies still work without their inclusion. Would it be beneficial to know these things, at least peripherally? Absolutely! <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">And that's why it's nice to have ancillary material. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Not only that, some of the backstory you'd find in the novelizations also found itself being retconned once the prequels rolled around. In the <i>Return of the Jedi</i> novelization, for instance, Obi-Wan calls Owen Lars his brother, which isn't the case at all once we get to <i>Attack of the Clones</i>. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">So, that's one thing I can say about ancillary material: It is always subject to change. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Like the Expanded Universe. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Roughly ten years after <i>Return of the Jedi</i> was released, George Lucas commissioned a whole new book series chronicling Luke, Han and Leia's adventures following the events of the original trilogy, beginning with Timothy Zahn's Thrawn books: <i>Heir to the Empire, Dark Force Rising </i>and <i>The Last Command</i>. Dark Horse Comics acquired the comics license around the same time. This Expanded Universe encompassed any form of the franchise that wasn't the movies. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The principle here was the same as the principle behind <i>Splinter of the Mind’s Eye. </i>If George was never going to be able to produce <i>Star Wars </i>sequels, this Expanded Universe would suffice. Let's not pretend otherwise, the Expanded Universe was never what George had in mind for his intended sequels. He kept those ideas to himself just in case the time came when he could use them. Just like <i>Splinter of the Mind’s Eye, </i>in lieu of <i>The Empire Strikes Back </i>and <i>Return of the Jedi. </i><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">This has all happened before</span></i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">, you know? <i>And it was all happening</i> <i>again. <o:p></o:p></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">In the Expanded Universe, we're introduced to many new exotic villains. Han and Leia get married and have kids. Luke gets married to Mara Jade, the Emperor's personal assassin. The Emperor is cloned. Luke turns to the dark side. And Chewbacca dies when a moon falls on him. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Quite an interesting turn of events, wouldn't you say?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Here's the thing, though: <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">George NEVER considered the Expanded Universe canon. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Not at all. Not even a little bit.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The only purpose of the Expanded Universe was to continue the stories of those characters in lieu of possible prequels and sequels. According to the guest editorial <i>Did George Lucas Consider the Expanded Universe Canon?</i> on StarWarsNewsNet.com, Val Trichkov points out, not only was the Expanded Universe never officially spoken of as canon, when Disney bought Lucasfilm and issued a press release saying no new films would be dependent upon anything in the EU, nowhere does it say anything was being decanonized. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">And why not? <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Because it was <i>never</i> canon. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Trichkov says:<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Rather than announcing the decanonization of the EU (after all, you can’t “decanonize” what was never canon to begin with), Lucasfilm simply announced that the EU would be rebranded as Legends, and from then on, all novels, comic books, video games, and television shows will be on the same level of canon as the films and </span></i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">The<i> </i>Clone<i> </i>Wars<i>.<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The misunderstanding that “Disney decanonized the EU” seems to be the result of two factors; people getting their information from second-hand sources (rather than read the press release itself), and the long-standing myth that George Lucas himself gave tacit approval for the canonical status of the Expanded Universe.<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">The argument typically goes; Lucas set guidelines for what not to cover in licensed media (for example; prior to the prequels, authors weren’t allowed to write about Anakin Skywalker prior to becoming Darth Vader). Anything that fell within those guidelines thus received Lucas’ blessing as a canonical part of the </span></i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Star Wars<i> universe.<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">But to get the most authoritative answer, one would have to seek out the maker himself. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Val Trichkov points out:<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">However, one Lucasfilm employee is very rarely quoted in the above compilation; George Lucas himself. Of the many quotes compiled to “arm [EU defenders] with facts”, George Lucas is only quoted twice; in a foreword to a reprinting of </span></i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Splinter of the Mind’s Eye<i> (where he expresses amazement in the fact that “so many gifted writers are contributing new stories to the </i>Star Wars<i>Saga”), and a foreword to “Monsters and Aliens from George Lucas” (where he doesn’t bring up the EU at all; the quote was about concept art and modeling for creatures described in film/television scripts).<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">In isolation, the quote from the </span></i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Splinter<i> foreword does appear to indicate that the various stories of the EU do indeed contribute to Lucas’ </i>Star Wars<i> Saga. Had this been the only thing he ever said about the subject, there would be no reason to cast doubt on any of the statements made by those who work in Lucas Licensing.<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">However, this was far from the only statement made by George Lucas about whether or not the EU fit into his conception of the </span></i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Star Wars<i> universe; Whenever he’s explicitly asked about his views on the EU, Lucas makes it clear that he views the Expanded Universe as separate from the one he created.<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">"There are two worlds here; There’s my world, which is the movies, and there’s this other world that has been created, which I say is the parallel universe—the licensing world of the books, games and comic books.”</span></i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> – George Lucas, <i>Cinescape</i>, July 2001<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">“<i>I don’t read that stuff. I haven’t read any of the novels. I don’t know anything about that world. That’s a different world than my world. But I do try to keep it consistent. The way I do it now is they have a </i>Star Wars Encyclopedia<i>. So if I come up with a name or something else, I look it up and see if it has already been used. When I said [other people] could make their own </i>Star Wars<i> stories, we decided that, like </i>Star Trek<i>, we would have two universes: My universe and then this other one. They try to make their universe as consistent with mine as possible, but obviously they get enthusiastic and want to go off in other directions.”</i> – George Lucas, <i>Starlog</i>, August 2005<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The “we” Lucas referred to in the Starlog interview likely refers to himself and Howard Roffman, President of Lucas Licensing from 1999 to 2012, as Lucas recounts here:<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">“<i>Howard tries to be consistent but sometimes he goes off on tangents and it’s hard to hold him back. He once said to me that there are two </i>Star Trek<i> universes: there’s the TV show and then there’s all the spin-offs. He said that these were completely different and didn’t have anything to do with each other. So I said, ‘OK, go ahead.’</i>” – George Lucas, <i>Total Film</i>, May 2007<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Keep in mind, this is the same Howard Roffman who had said that the books and games all contributed to the same </span></i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Star Wars <i>Saga! In private, he assured Lucas that, like </i>Star Trek<i>, the universes of the Expanded Universe and Lucas’ universe would be kept separate, yet publicly, he’s saying that the universes are one and the same. Clearly, there’s some deception taking place, either against Lucas, or against fans</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Leland Chee, the Keeper of the Holocron (</span></i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Star Wars<i> internal encyclopedia manager), who was previously adamant that there was no “parallel </i>Star Wars<i> universes” (in direct contradiction to Lucas’ statements), later conceded that George Lucas’ canon was separate from what he was overseeing with the licensing world.<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">“[Lucas’] <i>canon – and when I say, ‘his canon’, I’m talking about what he was doing in the films and what he was doing in </i>The Clone Wars<i> – was hugely important. But what we were doing in the books really wasn’t on his radar.”</i> –Leland Chee, <i>SyFy’s</i> “Fandom Files #13”, January 2018<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">While many EU fans cite Lucas’ involvement with the EU as evidence for his canonical support, these claims are largely exaggerated, with Chee stating that Lucas “for the most part, was hands off.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Despite being the moderator of all </span></i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Star Wars<i> lore, and having once argued in favor of the EU being part of Lucas’ world, Leland did not work very closely with Lucas himself, unlike Dave Filoni (supervising director on </i>The Clone Wars<i>, and Lucas’ padawan learner):<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">“I did not have direct contact with George about </span></i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Star Wars<i> continuity. Dave Filoni, who worked on </i>Clone Wars<i>, definitely did. So for me, the spirit of George’s work is what’s in the films, and it doesn’t go too far beyond that.”</i> –Leland Chee, <i>SyFy’s</i> “Fandom Files #13”, January 2018<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Which would make Dave Filoni better equipped to relay Lucas’ true feelings about the EU:<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">“<i>For me and my training here at Lucasfilm, working with George, he and I always thought the Expanded Universe was just that. It was an expanded universe. Basically it’s stories that are really fun and really exciting, but they’re a view on Star Wars, not necessarily canon to him.That was the way it was from the day I walked into Lucasfilm with him all through </i>Clone Wars<i>, everything we worked on, he felt the </i>Clone Wars<i> series and his movies were what was actually the reality of it all, the canon, then there was everything else. So it wasn’t a big dynamic shift for me mentally when there was this big announcement saying the EU is now Legends. I’m like, ‘Okay, well, it’s kind of the same thing to me because that's the way I work.’”</i> –Dave Filoni, ComicBook.com, September 2017 <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">In 2019, on <i>The Star Wars Show</i>, Dave explained further:<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">“It's a funny thing having been here a while and actually telling </span></i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Star Wars<i> stories. I'm in a very odd, unique position, which is that there's this notion that everything changed when everything became </i>Legends<i>, and I can see why people think that, but you know, having worked with George, I can tell you that he made it very clear that the films and the tv shows were the only thing that he considered canon. That was it. So everything else was a world of fun ideas, exciting characters, great possibilities, but the EU was created to explore all those things, and I know and I fully respect people's opinions. But from the filmmaking world that I was brought into, the tv series, the films, were it. They were set in stone. So it was not a big change for me when Lucasfilm was saying everything was Legends status now. I'm, like, yeah, that's what I’ve always understood. It's all Legends status. But what I've been able to do on </i>Clone Wars <i>is the same thing George was doing in the prequels. Which is… Aayla Secura. Aayla Secura is pulled out of the comics and now she's walking around the Jedi temple. In </i>Clone Wars <i>there were several things from the Expanded Universe, that, you know, we need a gang… we need another kind of mafia group, not just the Hutts. Okay… Black Sun. What about Black Sun? Let's look at that. That exists. And I've always leaned towards the… if we're going to create something, we should check to see if it existed already for the fans. Because it has way more value if we bring that in. Why would I just replace it with something new? So if we're going to do an Admiral, if we're going to do a big military leader, yeah, I could create a new guy, sure. But what about Thrawn? Thrawn is great. Thrawn is a character we all know. Thrawn has a lot of credibility. So then you ask yourself: Is it right to use him, and can we use him in a way that's similar to the books? Or are we using him and is it going to go all the way into left field? And there have been times when we've wanted to use things from the EU, and I said, yeah, but we can use it that way, so I'm not going to use it and change it. I don't want to use it and do something that's completely different. That's rude. <o:p></o:p></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">But for many devoutly passionate Expanded Universe fans, this is hard to accept. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> <i>A conspiracy theory, common among EU purists, claims that the reason Lucasfilm employees, such as Leland Chee, began backtracking from their previous assertions (that Lucas’ world and the licensing world were one and the same) is due to a deliberate misinformation campaign by Disney and Kathleen Kennedy, to sweep the EU under the rug.<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">However, weeks before the Disney deal was announced, and before Kathleen Kennedy officially became President of Lucasfilm, Del Rey published “The Essential Reader’s Companion”, a reference guide that summarized all Expanded Universe books in chronological order. In it, author Pablo Hidalgo reiterated what Lucas had been saying all along:<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">“<i>The most definitive canon of the </i>Star Wars<i> universe is encompassed by the feature films and television productions in which George Lucas is directly involved. The movies and the Clone Wars television series are what he and his handpicked writers reference when adding cinematic adventures to the </i>Star Wars<i> oeuvre. But Lucas allows for an Expanded Universe that exists parallel to the one he directly oversees. […] Though these [Expanded Universe] stories may get his stamp of approval, they don’t enter his canon unless they are depicted cinematically in one of his projects.</i>” – Pablo Hidalgo, <i>Star Wars: The Essential Reader’s Companion</i> October 2nd, 2012<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">George has also been quoted by other sources about how he differentiated between the films and the EU:<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">And now there have been novels about the events after </span></i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Episode VI<i>, which isn’t at all what I would have done with it. The </i>Star Wars<i>story is really the tragedy of Darth Vader. That is the story. Once Vader dies, he doesn’t come back to life, the Emperor doesn’t get cloned and Luke doesn’t get married… -</i>- George Lucas, Flannelled One, 2008<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">TV Guide: <i>Yet novelists have written “</i>Star Wars<i>” sequels using the same characters and extending their stories.<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">George Lucas: <i>Oh, sure. They’re done outside my little universe. “</i>Star Wars<i>” has had a lot of different lives that have been worked on by a lot of different people. It works without me.” -</i>- George Lucas, Flannelled One, November 2001 — TV Guide interview<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">“Q: <i>Do you supervise the development of all the off-movie stories? After all, </i>Star Wars<i> exists in books, comics.<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">A: <i>“You know, I try not to think about that. I have my own world in movies, and I follow it.”</i> — George Lucas, Flannelled One, July 2002 — From TheForce.Net<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">“<i>Everybody said, ‘Oh, well, there was a war between the Jedi and the Sith.’ Well, that never happened. That’s just made up by fans or somebody. What really happened is, the Sith ruled the universe for a while, 2000 years ago. Each Sith has an apprentice, but the problem was, each Sith Lord got to be powerful. And the Sith Lords would try to kill each other because they all wanted to be the most powerful. So in the end they killed each other off, and there wasn’t anything left.<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">“But anyway, there’s a whole matrix of backstory that has never really come out. It’s really just history that I gathered up along the way.<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">“It’s all based on backstories that I’d written setting up what the Jedi were, setting up what the Sith were, setting up what the Empire was, setting up what the Republic was, and how it all fit together.<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">”I don’t even read the offshoot books that come out based on </span></i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Star Wars<i>.” -</i>- George Lucas, Flannelled One, July 1999 — Film Night interview<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">“So if we’ll never see it onscreen, what does happen to Princess Leia and Han Solo after they fall in love?”<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">”Han and Leia probably did get married,” Lucas conceded. ”They settled down. She became a senator, and they got a nice little house with a white picket fence. Han Solo is out there cooking burgers on the grill. Is that a movie? I don’t think so.” -</span></i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">- George Lucas, Flannelled One, May 2005 — MTV interview<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The Expanded Universe was never canon at any point in time. Lucas made it very clear that he was not beholden to the EU, and it was literally a different, parallel <i>Star Wars</i> universe. He did occasionally take elements from the EU, however, peppering them into the canon wherever they might fit, when the need arose. Names, planets, an alien race… that sort of thing. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The Rodian species, from which Greedo is derived, appeared in <i>Galaxy Guide 1</i>, and appeared in George’s handwritten <i>Phantom</i><i>Menace </i>scripts and <i>Phantom Menace</i> production notes. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvvJv9VTDIOT9mSe9JqxuCddtGkNspkT8Gn3oNm11PeoXyL4WU-ecqWo6zJvGuevSKwEvN2meAPopN-JAmeNxTNDl73otKbpEEAQG706Gwip-4WGticFhez7gCLvhy-kmd6gKpSvJdrSN3PqPIM41tFrT2cybdSiZweqMywXc8gfC98iqiWwgJlQ/s800/d1c8bc3e-04e7-481f-8517-4da4bd4af456.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="800" height="377" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvvJv9VTDIOT9mSe9JqxuCddtGkNspkT8Gn3oNm11PeoXyL4WU-ecqWo6zJvGuevSKwEvN2meAPopN-JAmeNxTNDl73otKbpEEAQG706Gwip-4WGticFhez7gCLvhy-kmd6gKpSvJdrSN3PqPIM41tFrT2cybdSiZweqMywXc8gfC98iqiWwgJlQ/w377-h377/d1c8bc3e-04e7-481f-8517-4da4bd4af456.jpeg" width="377" /></span></a></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The planet Coruscant comes from Timothy Zahn’s <i>Thrawn Trilogy. </i>Before the Thrawn books, George called the central world of the Republic Had Abbadon.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The Aurebesh language form and the Jedi Code come from West End Games. The Hutts being a species rather than a gangster designation also comes from West End Games.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">There is a Boonta Speeder Race in an episode of the <i>Droids </i>cartoon, “A Race to the Finish,” which is certainly where the Boonta Eve podrace in <i>The Phantom Menace </i>was derived.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Prince Xizor from <i>Shadows of the Empire </i>is a spectator at the Boonta Eve podrace. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Ben Quadinaros’ species, the Toong, comes from <i>Droids, </i>and his home planet, Tund, gets namedropped in <i>The Lando Calrissian Adventures </i>book series, and appears in <i>Lando Calrissian and the Starcave of ThonBoka.</i><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Shmi, Qui-Gon, Padme, and Jar Jar watch the podrace on a datapad. Datapads were used in <i>Heir to the Empire</i> and have been in other Expanded Universe novels since.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Exar Kun, from <i>Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi - Dark Lords of the Sith a</i>nd <i>Tales of the Jedi: The Sith War</i> comic books, was the first to wield a double-bladed lightsaber. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">In <i>The Phantom Menace, </i>Mace Windu refers to the "mystery of the Sith," which harkens back to the video game <i>Star Wars: Jedi Knight: Mysteries of the Sith</i>. In that game, Mara Jade wields a purple lightsaber, as we see Mace Windu use in the prequels, although this was due to a personal request made by Samuel L. Jackson to George Lucas. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Aayla Secura was introduced in <i>Star Wars: Republic: Twilight</i>, released after <i>The Phantom Menace</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Action VI transports were established in <i>Heir to the Empire </i>with the Wild Karrde, Talon Karrde's flagship. Action VI transports can also be seen arriving at the Theed Spaceport in <i>Attack of the Clones.<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Obi-Wan refers to the Rishi Maze in <i>Attack of the Clones. </i>Rishi is a planet introduced in <i>Dark Force Rising. <o:p></o:p></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Jango Fett refers to the swamp planet of Bogden. The swamp planet of Bogden comes from the <i>Droids </i>episode, “The Revenge of Kybo Ren.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Jedi Knights Luminara Unduli and Barriss Offee were introduced in the novels <i>Cloak of Deception</i> by James Luceno and <i>The Approaching Storm</i> by Alan Dean Foster. They appear in <i>Attack of the Clones</i> as part of the team sent to rescue Anakin, Obi-Wan and Padmé.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Obi-Wan blocks Dooku's Force lightning with his lightsaber. Luke blocks Joruus C'baoth's lightning in <i>The Last Command.<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Swoop bikes from <i>Shadows of the Empire </i>turn up in the <i>Star Wars </i>Special Edition. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">And those are only a few examples. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Nevertheless, George remained very outspoken about how he regarded Expanded Universe elements. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">STARLOG: <i>“The </i>Star Wars<i> Universe is so large and diverse. Do you ever find yourself confused by the subsidiary material that’s in the novels, comics, and other offshoots?”</i><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">LUCAS:<i> “I don’t read that stuff. I haven’t read any of the novels. I don’t know anything about that world. That’s a different world than my world.… When I said [other people] could make their own </i>Star Wars<i> stories, we decided that, like </i>Star Trek<i>, we would have two universes: My universe and then this other one. They try to make their universe as consistent with mine as possible, but obviously they get enthusiastic and want to go off in other directions. </i>(Starlog, August 2005)<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">“There are two worlds here,” explained Lucas. “There’s my world, which is the movies, and there’s this other world that has been created, which I say is the parallel universe — the licensing world of the books, games, and comic books. They don’t intrude on my world, which is a select period of time, [but] they do intrude in between the movies.[In their universe. Even in their Universe he did not permit them to do anything that took place at the same time as his things, as his things also took place in their universe] I don’t get too involved in the parallel universe” </span></i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">– George Lucas, Cinescape, 2002<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">”<i>And now there have been novels about the events after </i>Episode VI<i>, which isn’t at all what I would have done with it. The </i>Star Wars<i>story is really the tragedy of Darth Vader. That is the story. Once Vader dies, he doesn’t come back to life, the Emperor doesn’t get cloned and Luke doesn’t get married…</i>” – George Lucas, Flannelled One, 2008 <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">”<i>The novels and comic books are other authors’ interpretations of my creation. Sometimes, I tell them what they can, and can’t do, but I just don’t have the time to read them all. They’re not my vision of what </i>Star Wars<i> is</i>.” – George Lucas 2004<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">George was never sure there would be prequels or sequels after the original trilogy. If there were, he had ideas on what they'd entail. The ideas were always going to deviate from what the Expanded Universe covered, at least in most respects. That's not to say George wouldn't cherry pick aspects of the Expanded Universe he decided he liked, or elements he knew the fans liked. He did that liberally, with the prequels and with his animated series. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">But major, expanded story elements from the EU were never going to be the overarching stories for the sequels, or elements of the backstory for the prequels. And when Disney acquired Lucasfilm, they wanted to make it clear to fans the Expanded Universe wasn't canon, so they made a public announcement to cement the point, and not only was the Expanded Universe stopped and any new pressings of that cycle rechristened Legends, any new ancillary material released after that would be considered official canon. But ancillary material can be a complicated thing. Sometimes what you read in new canon books isn't always followed explicitly in the movies. I've come to look at it this way: If the books say it, it's ancillary canon. If the movies contradict ancillary canon, it isn't canon anymore. Because the movies will always be canon, while ancillary material is only cannon pursuant to the movies recognizing them as canon. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Trichkov is very explicit about where George drew a line:<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">While it’s true that Lucas included many elements from the EU in the films and </span></i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">The Clone Wars<i> (the city planet of Coruscant, featured prominently in the prequels, was taken from Timothy Zahn’s Thrawn Trilogy), it’s also true that Lucas ignored large swaths of what the EU established (the very same Thrawn Trilogy established that the clones were fighting against the Republic in the Clone Wars). Jedi Master Even Piel died during the Season 3 </i>Clone Wars<i> episode “</i>Citadel Rescue<i>” (2011), despite appearing in the post-EPIII novel </i>Coruscant Nights I: Jedi Twilight<i> (2008). Most egregiously, </i>The Clone Wars’<i> portrayal of the planet Mandalore was wildly different from what Karen Traviss had previously established in her then-ongoing </i>Republic/Imperial Commando<i> series of novels, leading to the series’ cancellation, as well as outcry from fans.<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Whereas Lucas had been very explicit in how the licensing world of the EU was a “parallel universe” from his film universe, George Lucas took a very different attitude when it came to <i>The Clone Wars</i> animated series:<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">“<i>This is </i>Star Wars<i>, and I don’t make a distinction between [</i>The Clone Wars<i>] series and the films.” </i>–George Lucas, SciFiNow, October 2011<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">As vocal as George has been about how he viewed the Expanded Universe, and as often as Dave Filoni and others at Lucasfilm have been vocal about how George deemed the Expanded Universe, it all seems to have either fallen on deaf ears, or the fan base congregating on the social media space has just decided not to believe it; as if they believe Disney has forced all of them – including George, who doesn't even work for Disney and is currently retired – to lie and participate in a campaign of revisionist history. The popular opinion on social media has skewed to the conspiratorial perspective, that the Expanded Universe <i>was </i>canon, and Disney just bum-rushed Lucasfilm indiscriminately and decanonized it to spite the fans, who they depend on to keep their jobs. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">That's a fascinating perspective… except it isn't true. Because those of us who have been around since the beginning know that the historical record hasn't changed… hasn't been rewritten, either. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">In 2019, after <i>The Rise of Skywalker </i>was released in theaters, in an interview with <i>Rolling Stone, </i>Kathleen Kennedy commented on the creative process involved in forging new stories in the <i>Star Wars </i>universe:<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Every </span></i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">one<i> of these movies is a particularly hard nut to crack. There’s no source material. We don’t have comic books. We don’t have 800-page novels. We don’t have anything other than passionate storytellers who get together and talk about what the next iteration might be. <o:p></o:p></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Pundits, armchair critics, and extremely vocal fans took immediate umbrage with her comment, taking her to task, presuming Kennedy had somehow forgotten there was a treasure trove of ancillary material under the <i>Star Wars </i>umbrella they thought was ripe for mining. What she said has since been mocked and memed to death. And while I think what she said and how she chose to say it was worded rather poorly…<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">She isn't wrong. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">There <i>isn't </i>any source material under the <i>Star Wars </i>umbrella ripe for mining. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">There's <i>canon </i>material. There's <i>non-canon </i>material. But there's no <i>source</i> material. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">And by source material, I mean any ancillary material that is freely available to adapt faithfully and completely as a movie or episodic series. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Are there comic books? Sure, there are comic books. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Are there eight-hundred-page novels? Sure, there are novels. I don't have them all lying out in front of me to clarify their page counts, but there are certainly novels. A veritable <i>ton </i>of them. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">But they're not <i>source </i>material.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I've already covered how George regarded the Expanded Universe. He never considered the Expanded Universe canon, and the scenarios presented in the Expanded Universe were never what he would have done or what he has done while working on projects within the <i>Star Wars </i>milieu. Judging by what we've heard Dave Filoni and other creatives at Lucasfilm say, there's no indication anyone involved isn't interested in continuing to honor George’s wishes or his philosophy on how <i>Star Wars </i>is treated. Adapting any full novel or full comic in the Expanded Universe <i>verbatim</i> would go against everything George ever wanted <i>Star Wars </i>to be. And by now, it would be impossible to cover anything in the Expanded Universe verbatim, because <i>Star Wars </i>has already begun to forge its new path. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">But George <i>has</i> cherry-picked from the EU. Cherry-picking elements from the EU is totally fair because George has done that in the past. And that's why we continue to notice EU elements turn up in new movies and shows. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">For instance:<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Han and Leia's son turns to the dark side.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">There's a New Republic. In the Expanded Universe, the New Republic remains on Coruscant. In canon, it has moved to Hosnian Prime. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The New Republic turns a blind eye to a radicalized Imperial uprising, in the Expanded Universe and in canon. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Darth Vader’s castle – on Vjun in the Expanded Universe, on Mustafar in the movies and shows, and part of Ralph McQuarrie's unused concept art for decades – is finally canon now. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Luke Skywalker opens a new Jedi Academy, in the Expanded Universe and in canon.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Interdictor-</span></i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">class Star Destroyers are seen in <i>Rebels </i>and <i>The Last Jedi. <o:p></o:p></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Gilad Pallaeon, Grand Admiral Thrawn's second in command in the novel <i>Heir to the Empire, </i>appears in <i>Rebels </i>and <i>The Mandalorian. <o:p></o:p></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Rukh, Grand Admiral Thrawn's personal bodyguard, featured in the Thrawn Trilogy of novels, has now appeared in <i>Rebels. </i><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The TIE/D starfighter from the LucasArts video game <i>Star Wars: TIE Fighter </i>has now appeared on <i>Rebels </i>and new canon video games. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Sith world Malachor, featured in <i>Rebels </i>and in canon novels, first appeared in <i>Knights of the Old Republic</i> video games. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">A Mon Calamari engineer has been credited with designing the B-wing starfighter, a respectable nod Admiral Ackbar, who designed the B-wing in the Expanded Universe. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">In the Expanded Universe, the theft of the Death Star plans was laid out in a series of missions known as Operation Skyhook, which culminated in the Battle of Toprawa in the <i>Star Wars </i>radio dramas, the book <i>Rebel Dawn, </i>written by A.C. Crispin, and the role-playing game <i>Jedi Dawn.</i> This has been simplified by the prequel film <i>Rogue One: A Star Wars Story</i>, with the Battle of Scarif. Both battles involve a Rebel team infiltrating an Imperial base, transmitting the plans to an orbiting Rebel ship, and the Rebel team dying before they can escape. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">In the <i>Dark Empire </i>comic, Luke astral projects onto the <i>Millenium Falcon </i>while he's simultaneously on the Deep Core world of Byss. This ability is also documented in a book, <i>The Jedi Path</i>. In <i>The Last Jedi, </i>Luke uses this ability to confront and distract Kylo Ren, and dies as a result.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Solo: A Star Wars Story </span></i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">dips into the EU quite a bit. Han was a member of the Imperial Starfighter Corps in both <i>Solo</i> and the Expanded Universe. He's reassigned to the Imperial Army in <i>Solo </i>and shipped off to Mimban, named after the planet Luke, Leia, Threepio and Artoo land on in <i>Splinter</i> <i>of the Mind’s Eye.</i> Han's mentor in the Expanded Universe, Garris Shrike, inspired two characters in <i>Solo </i>that lead Han along his path: Lady Proxima and Tobias Beckett. Han's successful navigation of the Kessel Run and the Maw in <i>Solo </i>also come from the <i>Han Solo Adventures. </i>In the Expanded Universe, the Maw is a series of black holes, whereas in <i>Solo</i>, it's a single black hole. Han's Expanded Universe love interest, Bria Tharen, seems to have been the basis for not only Jyn Erso in <i>Rogue One, </i>but Qi'Ra in <i>Solo </i>as well. Bria joined the Rebellion, while Qi'Ra joined Crimson Dawn. Bria is involved with the team that steals the Death Star plans on Toprawa, transmits the data to Princess Leia's Corellian Corvette, and dies, just like Jyn. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Palpatine is resurrected into a clone body in <i>Dark Empire, </i>as well as in the sequel trilogy. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The Emperor is the father of a human-Umbaran hybrid in the Expanded Universe, who rejects the Sith and has a child that becomes a Jedi. In <i>The Rise of Skywalker </i>(film and novelization)<i>, </i>it's established that a strandcast of the Emperor, a clone treated as a son, named Dathan, rejects the Sith and has a daughter, Rey, who becomes a Jedi and confronts her grandfather, ultimately (and presumably) killing him. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">In <i>Dark Empire</i>, Palpatine has been hiding a backup Imperial fringe group, called, appropriately enough, the Dark Empire, on the Deep Core world of Byss. In <i>The Rise of Skywalker, </i>Palpatine has been hiding a backup Imperial fringe group, called <i>The Final Order</i>, on the Sith world Exegol, in the Unknown Regions, where they have built world-destroying Xyston-class Star Destroyers, as opposed to the Eclipse flagships in the Expanded Universe. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Sith acolyte Asajj Ventress (who is now a Dathomir native instead of a Rattataki), the Death Watch terrorist faction, V-19 Torrent starfighters, and reimagined versions of the battles of Kamino and Mon Calamari, have all become canon in <i>The Clone Wars. <o:p></o:p></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Grand Admiral Thrawn, the central antagonist of Timothy Zahn’s sequel novel trilogy, became a canonical character with his introduction in <i>The Clone Wars, </i>and has since become a live-action canonical character in the series <i>Ahsoka. <o:p></o:p></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">It is revealed in <i>Dark Empire</i> that Boba Fett survived the Sarlacc pit. Boba Fett's survival is made canonical in <i>The Mandalorian </i>and<i>The Book of Boba Fett </i>series. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Dathomir, home to the Sith witches, comes from the PC game <i>Star Wars: Rebellion</i>. It features heavily in <i>Star Wars: Rebels </i>as the homeworld of Darth Maul and Asajj Ventress. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Kaiburr crystals in the Expanded Universe became kyber crystals in canon. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Dark Troopers, introduced in the game <i>Star Wars: Dark Forces</i>, have now been featured in <i>The Mandalorian. <o:p></o:p></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Mandalore, the homeworld of the Mandalorians, first appeared in the 1983 Marvel comic <i>Star Wars #68</i> and was introduced into canon with “The Mandalore Plot,” the twelfth episode in Season Two of <i>The Clone Wars</i>. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Beskar, the blaster-resistant and lightsaber-proof Mandalorian iron, was first mentioned in a 2006 <i>Star Wars Insider</i> article, <i>The Mandalorians: People and Culture</i>, written by Karen Traviss. Before that, it was known as Mandalorian iron in the comic<i> Freedon Nadd Uprising</i>. It was first introduced unnamed, appearing as nothing more than Mandalorian manacles, in the comic <i>Tales of the Jedi 5</i>. Boba Fett's armor was previously established as being made of durasteel, but <i>The</i> <i>Mandalorian</i> Chapter 14, “The Tragedy,” retconned the Fett armor into being made of beskar.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Force healing first appeared in <i>Splinter of the Mind’s Eye. <o:p></o:p></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Force drain, healing ability of the Sith, first appeared in the Dark Horse Comic<i> Darth Maul—Son of Dathomir, Part Four. <o:p></o:p></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Immobilizer 418 Cruisers, which use gravity-well projectors to prevent hyperspace travel, were first mentioned in the <i>Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game</i> supplement <i>The Star Wars Rules Companion</i>, then <i>Heir to the Empire</i>, and was first mentioned in canon continuity with the novel <i>Tarkin</i>. <i><o:p></o:p></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Ryloth, the homeworld of the Twi’lek species, was first mentioned in the 1987's <i>The Star Wars Sourcebook. <o:p></o:p></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Holocrons first appeared in <i>Dark Empire.<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Life Day, the Wookie holiday made famous by the <i>Star Wars Holiday Special, </i>has now been mentioned in canon novels and <i>The Mandalorian. <o:p></o:p></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Mag-Pulse warheads, appeared in the video game <i>Star Wars: TIE Fighter</i>, and have since been mentioned in canon novels and <i>The Force Awakens</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Crossguard lightsabers first appeared in the 2002 comic <i>Jango Fett: Open</i> <i>Seasons</i> Issue #3 and the 2004<i> </i>comic book<i> Republic #61. </i><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Hammerhead Corvettes, basically a Corellian Corvette with a hammerhead, appeared in <i>Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic</i>, and featured in <i>Rogue One</i> and <i>Rebels.<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Teräs Käsi, a deadly martial art established in the novel <i>Shadows of the Empire</i>, and became the basis of its own video game, <i>Masters of Teras Kasi. <o:p></o:p></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Sovereign Protectors were Palpatine’s guards in <i>Dark Empire</i> and were featured in <i>The Rise of Skywalker</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">TIE Scouts, hyperspace-equipped TIE fighters, were introduced in <i>Heir to the Empire </i>and made their canon debut in <i>The Rise of Skywalker.<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">And, of course, we're going to notice <i>canon</i> ancillary elements as well. Since they're canon, there's a necessity to maintain a sense of continuity, so referencing ancillary canon is expected and legitimate. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">But <i>adapting</i> ancillary canon would be redundant, and there's a good reason why it's redundant.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">It's redundant because it's already canon. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The argument I hear frequently is this one: Why can't <i>Star Wars </i>do what Marvel does? Marvel Studios adapts the comics all the time! Can't they follow the Marvel model?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">No. They can't. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Why?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Because it's not the same thing. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Marvel Comics aren't part of Marvel Studios canon. That's what frees Marvel Studios up and allows them to adapt comic runs and comic story arcs into their own movies. The comics are separate from the movies, which makes it easier for the stories in the comics to become adaptable material for movies. <i>Star Wars</i> doesn't have that luxury because their ancillary material is <i>already</i> <i>canon</i>. And that being said, Marvel doesn't even adapt the comics faithfully half the time. The movies follow their own path, and when they've decided to cover popular story arcs in the comics in the movies, they tweak those stories to work within the framework of the movies. Because the movies have forged their own path outside of the comics, so when they want to cover something from the comics, it has to conform to the stories already established in the movies. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">So no, it's not the same thing. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">And besides…<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Why would Lucasfilm waste the time and money and resources to transfer what's already canon within the <i>Star Wars </i>universe in one canonical form to another canonical form, when it's already part of the canon? Is it somehow not official if it's not a movie or a show? Look, it's as official as it's gonna get -- it's <i>canon. </i>Whether it's a movie or TV show, a novel, a comic, or a video game: it's <i>canon. </i>And unless whatever somebody wants to do in the movies or the shows contradicts what appears in a novel, comic, or game, they’re all going to remain canon. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Is it really so against the grain to read a book, read a comic, or indulge in video games? <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">A universe as vast as the <i>Star Wars </i>universe should be able to cross over into other platforms. It allows us to <i>engage</i> with what we love, rather than just letting it glaze over us lazily. Eventually it all ties into the movies anyway, so adapting it isn't really an imperative. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Star Wars</span></i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> has always worked this way. This isn't something that has only happened recently during this new sequel era. It isn't something Disney adopted themselves. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">This is Lucasfilm's status quo. This was George's status quo.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">It's ancillary material. Let it stay ancillary material. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">We'll touch on ancillary material again moving forward, but for now let's get back to <i>The Force</i> <i>Awakens</i> and Lor San Tekka. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p>John Kenneth Muirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15629979615332893780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12380553.post-72781919193852693922024-02-24T06:00:00.001-05:002024-02-24T06:00:00.341-05:00Return to the Planet of the Apes: (1975) "Escape from Ape City"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-i3YMmatPksY/UlR3xhfq23I/AAAAAAAAipE/aoV9uRD7rOQ/s1600/returntotheplanetoftheapeslogo.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="275" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-i3YMmatPksY/UlR3xhfq23I/AAAAAAAAipE/aoV9uRD7rOQ/s400/returntotheplanetoftheapeslogo.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">In the second episode of the animated series <b><i>Return to the Planet of the Apes,</i></b> which aired on NBC in 1975, displaced human astronaut Bill Hudson is captured by gorilla soldiers and taken with other “humanoids” to Ape City. There, Zira and Cornelius hope to study this human -- whom they name “Blue Eyes” -- over Urko’s protestation that all humanoid subjects are required for soldier training. Thanks to Zaius, the chimpanzees prevail. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">After Bill reveals himself capable of intelligent speech, Zira and Cornelius realize just how unusual their new subject really is. A gorilla guard also overhears him talking, and alerts the authorities. Bill escapes with the help of his two friends, and meets up with Nova and Jeff. They burn up the gorilla wagons so that no more humans can be captured by the apes, and then flee to the wilderness.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Jeff and Bill realize that the humanoids on the planet are defenseless, but a new sanctuary could be provided in the mountains if only they can retrieve their laser drill from their downed spacecraft, still stuck at the bottom of the dead lake in the Forbidden Zone… <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-r6v2va0KSe0/UlR3vE76MdI/AAAAAAAAio0/9mAQGY7Mc_A/s1600/escape2.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="296" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-r6v2va0KSe0/UlR3vE76MdI/AAAAAAAAio0/9mAQGY7Mc_A/s400/escape2.png" width="400" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">“Escape from Ape City” feels very much like a re-imagination of the middle section of the 1968 original film, and the early section of its first sequel, 1970’s <b><i>Beneath the Planet of the Apes</i></b>. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Specifically, the story here involves an astronaut from the 20<sup>th</sup> century coming into the custody of Zira and Cornelius, and their dedicated efforts to help him escape. In the film, Taylor was “Bright Eyes” and here Bill is, similarly, “Blue Eyes.” <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">At least Taylor didn’t have to reckon with General Urko, however, and here Bill must also contend with that power-hungry military leader, as Brent did in <b><i>Beneath.</i></b> In both scenarios, the ranking ape general is rounding-up all captured humans for use in military training or war game exercises. Also, one of the most intriguing parts of this episode involves Zaius decision to dole the humanoids out to various interest groups and locations, including pet shops, labor camps, and even a nature preserve. As Zaius makes his decision, the episode cuts to a montage revealing each locale he describes. We see a humanoid woman sitting in a pet shop window, for instance. <o:p></o:p></span><br /><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-TzVtAHgdDvs/UlR3v66HwYI/AAAAAAAAio8/RgFrJF7avP0/s1600/escape4.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="298" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-TzVtAHgdDvs/UlR3v66HwYI/AAAAAAAAio8/RgFrJF7avP0/s400/escape4.png" width="400" /></a></div><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Tl42367JZYY/UlR3wPsdlfI/AAAAAAAAipA/4dFbaayj0sQ/s1600/escape5.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Tl42367JZYY/UlR3wPsdlfI/AAAAAAAAipA/4dFbaayj0sQ/s400/escape5.png" width="400" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">In a splendid bit of continuity between original film and animated re-imagination, Zira suggests in “Escape from Ape City” using the “<i>Hopkins Manual Dexterity Test”</i> on Hudson; something her corollary also suggested in the 1968 Schaffner production. Another faithful touch: in the spirit of Ursus, Urko declares in this episode that the only good human is a “caged” or “dead” one. Ursus spoke an almost identical line (“<i>the only good human is a dead human</i>”) during his rabble-rousing speech in <b><i>Beneath</i></b>.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Although a retread of so much familiar material from the <b><i>Apes </i></b>mythos, this second episode proves worthwhile mainly because of the close-up detail it provides on the Council of Elders in the “Simian Nation,” as well as that body’s motivations. Dr. Zaius heads this governing council, which is populated by orangutans, and reports here the reason for the edict regarding the extermination of all mankind, should even a single man prove himself capable of speech. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-hpxbiwe2Jno/UlR3vHfB-RI/AAAAAAAAios/xvUXJHsJjb4/s1600/escape3.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="302" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-hpxbiwe2Jno/UlR3vHfB-RI/AAAAAAAAios/xvUXJHsJjb4/s400/escape3.png" width="400" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">In particular, Zaius reveals the history of the planet: that mankind rose to prominence on Earth but then destroyed himself and nearly the entire planet with him before his fall to utter barbarism. The apes now live in fear that if man once again becomes intelligent, the whole world is at risk. This information “humanizes” Dr. Zaius and his ilk since it explains the reasons for ape fear regarding mankind. Damningly, you can’t say the apes don’t have a cause for concern.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">“Escape from Ape City” also features the weird verbal quirk of every character calling humans “humanoids,” which seems like a misnomer. Aren’t the apes also, technically, humanoid? Perhaps the series creators changed the moniker “human” to “humanoid” in anticipation of the Under Dwellers, another human-like enemy depicted in upcoming episodes.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">The tail end of “Escape from Ape City” also clearly points to a plot-line of future importance. The astronauts need a device -- a laser drill -- from their ship, and will attempt to recover it.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">But first, we meet the Under Dwellers in the next installment: “The Unearthly Prophecy.”</span></div>John Kenneth Muirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15629979615332893780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12380553.post-70457671620363197332024-02-23T06:00:00.056-05:002024-02-23T06:00:00.141-05:0050 Years Ago: From Beyond the Grave (1974)<div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-color: currentcolor; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-style: none; border-top: medium none; border-width: medium; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_mpBGa4P5jUo/TUdTUO5wffI/AAAAAAAAGSU/QpLeubVERj0/s1600/connor6.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="288" s5="true" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_mpBGa4P5jUo/TUdTUO5wffI/AAAAAAAAGSU/QpLeubVERj0/w513-h288/connor6.png" width="513" /></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-color: currentcolor; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-style: none; border-top: medium none; border-width: medium;"><br /></div><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><div style="text-align: justify;">One of the greatest Amicus horror anthologies, <i><b>From Beyond the Grave</b></i> (1974) was released in America fifty years ago today.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Directed by first-timer Kevin Connor, the film involves a strange shop, Temptations Ltd., (think Curious Goods or Needful Things) and its shopkeeper (Peter Cushing) dispatching cursed objects to a quartet of patrons. The first tale involves a haunted mirror, the second a cursed war medal , the third a snuff box, and the last story involves an antique door that opens a gateway to the dimension of a dastardly sadist.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In 2024, the film holds up remarkably well, and the first story plays like a spiritual predecessor to Clive Barker's <i><b>Hellraiser </b></i>(1987), featuring a spinning camera and blood splatter galore. The second story and third stories feel more lighthearted in comparison, and the last tale is the real showstopper:a spiritual predecessor perhaps, to <i><b>A Nightmare on Elm Street</b></i>, and anearly step into rubber reality-type horror.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="font-weight: bold; text-align: justify;"><div style="font-family: -webkit-standard;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: 400;">I had the great pleasure of meeting film director Kevin Connor at the <em><strong>Space:1999</strong></em> Main Mission Convention in Manhattan in the year 2000. We sat on at least one panel together, and late one evening, a group of fans and I got together with Mr. Connor at the hotel bar and he recounted some amazing stories of his film and TV career. </span></div><div style="font-family: -webkit-standard;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: 400;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: -webkit-standard;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: 400;">A few years later, I interviewed Mr. Connor for</span><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: 400;"> </span><em style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: 400;"><strong>Horror Films of the 1980s </strong></em><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: 400;">(2007), and for</span><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: 400;"> </span><em style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: 400;">Filmfax</em><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: 400;"> </span><em style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: 400;">Magazine</em><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-weight: 400;"> </span><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">(2008). One subject we discussed is the now 50-year old </span><i>From Beyond the Grave</i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> (1974)</span></span></div></div><div style="font-weight: bold; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><strong><br /></strong></span></div><b>MUIR</b>: How and when did you become involved with the Amicus anthology <em><strong>From Beyond the Grave</strong></em></span><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">?</span><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><strong>KEVIN CONNOR:</strong> I purchased an option on a book called <em><strong>The Undead</strong></em> by Chetwynd-Hayes (1919- 2001) and took twelve of the best short stories and turned them into a half-hour TV series. I couldn't sell them for love nor money until they fell into the hands of Milton Subotsky of Amicus Films. He took them to Warner Bros. who bought the idea as a feature film. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Milton took four of the best stories and devised a link using Peter Cushing as a sort of a narrator. Milton then suggested I direct the piece which hadn't been my intention, but he said that editors make good directors because they know what is required to make a scene. So I am ever thankful to Milton for giving me my break. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><strong>MUIR:</strong> What are your memories of working with David Warner on the first story, (which involves a man luring unsuspecting prostitutes back to his apartment, and an evil mirror)? </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><strong>KEVIN CONNOR</strong>: I was very lucky to have such a wonderful cast for my first movie, and David Warner is a marvelous actor. I'm not sure whether he really enjoyed doing a horror film, but he gave his all and was to me, as a first-time director, extremely supportive and not difficult. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><strong>MUIR:</strong> What about the second story, involving Donald Pleasence? </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><strong>KEVIN CONNOR:</strong> The fun thing in this story was that Donald's real daughter, Angela, played his daughter in the movie. They were a really spooky pair. In this section I also had the wonderful Ian Bannen and Diana Dors. The third story had Maggie Leighton and Ian Carmichael. It was a tongue-in-cheek spoof. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><strong>MUIR:</strong> The fourth story, about a doorway into the realm of an undead sadist, is quite terrifying. What are your memories of working on this installment? </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><strong>KEVIN CONNOR</strong>: In this story we had Lesley Anne Down (her first feature film) and the exceptional Ian Ogilvy. This did have a bloody element, but it worked out very well. My cameraman was the excellent Alan Hume and we had great fun creating some stop-motion tricks with a disintegrating body. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><strong>MUIR:</strong> The wraparound segments involved Peter Cushing as a shopkeeper selling cursed antiques. What was it like working with Cushing? </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><strong>KEVIN CONNOR:</strong> Peter Cushing was a gentleman and really supportive of me as a first-time director. I worked with him on several other movies and he became a good friend. Peter was a very particular actor and took his craft very seriously. He was very detail-conscious and didn't look down on the genre. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><strong>MUIR:</strong> Did you know that this very premise later became the format of a TV show (<em><strong>Friday the 13th: The Series</strong></em>). </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><strong>KEVIN CONNOR:</strong> I didn't know that it became a format for the TV show. Although the compilation film is nothing new. I seem to recall two black-and-white movies of Somerset Maugham short stories called <em><strong>Trio</strong></em> and <em><strong>Quartet, </strong></em>and of course Amicus made several films along this format. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><strong>MUIR:</strong> Do you think that your background in editing helped make <em><strong>From Beyond the Grave</strong></em> move along at such a good clip, and tell short stories more effectively? </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><strong>KEVIN CONNOR</strong>: Yes, editing really helps. As an editor, I learned more from bad directors than I did from good directors. When a scene had been badly shot and I didn't have the material to speed up the action you realize very quickly that cover can get you out of a lot of trouble. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span></div>John Kenneth Muirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15629979615332893780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12380553.post-31864088692996554882024-02-21T06:00:00.007-05:002024-02-21T06:00:00.138-05:00My Father's Journal: "Striving"<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Striving<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">(Or “Giants”)<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">By Ken Muir<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">How we drive ourselves to excel. How we push to distance ourselves from the competition, to be relative giants among our more dwarfish peers.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">Is it just to make a better living than the next guy, to be a better provider for our loved ones than he is for his? Or is there something more subtle and insidious at work? Are we intrinsically competitive? If so, where does that get us? Does it just make us faster runners than most in the game of American capitalism?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">After seventy-nine years I still do not have a satisfactory answer. Yes, being an ample provider for our families is an estimable goal. And the delights of a comfortable material existence are undeniable…….what billions around the globe would not give to have them! <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">But are there not people just as happy as we who live with less, live closer to Nature and who distance themselves from “the grind” but still find inner poise and happiness?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">Perhaps all we need is to be adequate to the times, to find a way to function amicably and effectively in the era that we find ourselves in. Looking at the grand sweep of history, do we truly need to rise above the mass of our fellow citizens? Does our attempt to stand higher just make us the taller toadstool in the damp forest mass of toadstools?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">Billions have lived and died before us. Ninety-nine per cent of them are unknown, unremarked. Who knows today which were giants and which dwarves, except for those few noted in history? Is striving all it’s cracked up to be?</span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>John Kenneth Muirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15629979615332893780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12380553.post-49737922155486013352024-02-20T06:00:00.001-05:002024-02-20T06:00:00.346-05:00Nonsense or Dream Sense? David Lynch's Inland Empire (2006)<div align="justify"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_mpBGa4P5jUo/TBIlOyDLZWI/AAAAAAAAErw/45Xyb7E8-Is/s1600/200px-Inpos.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5481484632346813794" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/_mpBGa4P5jUo/TBIlOyDLZWI/AAAAAAAAErw/45Xyb7E8-Is/s400/200px-Inpos.jpg" style="cursor: hand; float: left; height: 304px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 200px;" /></a><span style="font-family: times;"></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><strong><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><span>"</span><span>I can't seem to remember if it's today, two days from now, or yesterday. I suppose if it was 9:45, I'd think it was after midnight! For instance, if today was tomorrow, you wouldn't even remember that you owed on an unpaid bill. Actions do have consequences. <em>And yet, there is the magic</em>. If it was tomorrow, you would be sitting over there..."</span></span></strong></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: times;">-- A strange Gypsy woman (Grace Zabriskie) discusses the vicissitudes of time (and "dream" time) with actress Nikki Grace (Laura Dern) in David Lynch's <em><strong>Inland Empire</strong></em> (2006).<br /><br />This is an entirely personal assessment, but <em><strong>Inland Empire</strong></em> is the David Lynch movie that appears to make the least amount of "concrete," conventional sense and the most amount of "<em>dream sense</em>," if that is no paradox.<br /><br /><em><strong>Inland Empire</strong></em> is a film in which logical,<em> conscious</em> connections between scenes are negligible and therefore almost fruitless to discuss or assess. Instead, the logic of dreams holds sway (<em>powerful</em> sway...) and Lynch's dream sense sweeps viewers from one emotional and terrifying moment to the next. </span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: times;">For nearly three hours...</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /><div><span style="text-align: left;">Like many of the artist's previous films, this is a "story" we can understand on emotional terms almost instantly, but not always on a clear, intellectual and practical level.</span></div></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">To truly comprehend<em> <strong>Inland Empire</strong></em> we are required once more to undertake the process of "<em>dream distillation.</em>" We must open ourselves up to Lynch's visual <em>representations</em> (dreams translated to images, via Freud's <em><strong>Interpretation</strong></em> <em><strong>of Dreams</strong></em>), and<em> symbols,</em> which in dreams replace action, persons and ideas. <span style="text-align: left;">Before we get that far, a pseudo synopsis of what "appears" to occur in the film may prove helpful. </span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><strong style="text-align: left;"><em><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_mpBGa4P5jUo/TBIwxak5i_I/AAAAAAAAEsI/7eQUWPfdoQM/s1600/inlandempire1.jpg"><span style="font-family: times;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5481497321969126386" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/_mpBGa4P5jUo/TBIwxak5i_I/AAAAAAAAEsI/7eQUWPfdoQM/s400/inlandempire1.jpg" style="cursor: hand; float: left; height: 261px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 400px;" /></span></a></em></strong></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">In <em><strong>Inland Empire's</strong></em> first scene (after a scratchy record on a gramophone announces the introduction of history's <em>"longest-running radio show,</em> <em>"AXXoNN</em>,") two figures are depicted in expressionist, <em>film-noirish</em> black-and-white photography. They speak Polish.</span></div><p><span style="font-family: times;"></span><span style="font-family: times;"></span></p><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;"><span><br />Both personalities are "blurred" out so that viewers can't make out their faces (or even, in fact, that they <em>have </em>faces). This disquieting blurring effect cloaks their identities but also grants these mystery figures a strange timeless quality, <em>as though their identities have been smudged and stretched (bled actually...) beyond the boundaries of the immediate context</em> (a dark, seedy hotel at night).<br /><br />Very soon, the man broaches sex with the woman ("<em>do you know what whores do</em>?") and the duo engages in it. During the act -- which is obscured by the blurry faces -- the woman asks fearfully "<em>where am I</em>?" and admits that she is "<em>afraid</em>."<br /><br />Following this sequence Lynch cuts to shots of a crying woman in close-up, trapped in another hotel room and watching a banal TV sitcom replete with laugh track. The actors in this TV program are horribly creepy, humanoid bunnies. "<em>What time is it</em>?" asks one of the nicely-dressed bunnies. </span><span><em><br /><br />"I have a secret</em>..." says another ominously.</span><span><br /></span></span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /><span>Next, in modern Los Angeles, we meet Nikki Grace (Dern) an actress up for a leading role in a new Hollywood film called "<strong><em>On High in Blue Tomorrows</em>."</strong> A strange, foreign (Polish...) neighbor, a Gypsy played by Grace Zabriskie, shows up and introduces herself . She reports that Nikki <em>will</em> get the coveted movie part, specifically that she has a "<em>new role to play</em>." In sinister fashion, she also informs Nikki that the new role involves a "<em>brutal murder"</em> and that it has something to do with <em>marriage.</em><br /><br />The strange gypsy then tells Nikki a story, an "<em>old tale</em>" about a little girl, and it carries faintly diabolical overtones: "<em>A little girl went out to play. Lost in the marketplace, as if half-born. Then, not through the marketplace - you see that, don't you? - but through the alley behind the marketplace. This is the way to the palace. But it isn't something you remember,</em>" she says.</span></span></div><span style="font-family: times;"></span><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: times;"><span><br /></span><span>Nikki is appropriately disturbed by her neighbor's creepy demeanor, but the woman continues to chatter. She informs Nikki that actions have consequences, that there is "<em>magic,</em>" and that if it were "<em>tomorrow</em>" Nikki would be sitting on her sofa...over there.</span></span></div><span style="font-family: times;"><span><br />Cut to Nikki, already seated on the sofa, as though time has indeed bent to the neighbor's will. <em>It is tomorrow</em>.</span><br /></span><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: times;"><br />Promptly, NIkki learns that she got the part and that she will be starring in the film with an actor named Devon (Justin Theroux). Disturbingly, Nikki and Devon also learn from the film's director, Halsey (Jeremy Irons), that "<strong><em>On High in Blue Tomorrows</em>"</strong> is actually a remake of a film that was never completed, a Polish film called "<em><strong>47</strong></em>." Like the current screenplay, it was the tale of two illicit lovers ,and one based on an old Folk Tale. "<em>Something happened before it was finished</em>" says Halsey enigmatically, and the implication is that the story itself is cursed.</span></div><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: times;">Before long, Nikki and Devon begin to unwittingly take on the characteristics of their characters, Sue and Billy, respectively. They become illicit lovers despite the fact that Nikki's husband is exceedingly jealous. He warns Devon/Billy that his wife "<em>is not a free agent</em>" and that the bonds of marriage will be "<em>enforced</em>.</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: times;"><br />And then Nikki seems to slip between realities, inhabiting other lives. And this is where the movie<em> really</em> gets complicated. </span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: times;">The <em><strong>San Francisco's Chronicle</strong></em> Walter Addiego <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/02/09/DDG0GO0L6D1.DTL">explains</a>: "Dern seems to be two other characters as well: a housewife living in a white-trash environment (possibly the Inland Empire region, east of Los Angeles) and also a hardened young woman who vents her anger at length about being abused by men (in this guise she delivers an extended and quite powerful monologue to a mysterious fellow with crooked glasses).<br /><br />As we eventually suss out, Nikki's journey is part film making illusion and part reality. But the final destination is frightening and sinister. She ends up at a hotel room labeled <em><strong>47</strong></em>, where must pass a malevolent "<em>Shadow</em>" to free the woman we saw earlier -- <em>perhaps the real Sue</em> -- trapped in that hotel room (and still watching TV bunnies...).</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: times;"><span></span><br /><em>Got it?</em></span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_mpBGa4P5jUo/TBIuv7rrFKI/AAAAAAAAEsA/tOm2B_4hGhI/s1600/inlandempire2.jpg"><span style="font-family: times;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5481495097472914594" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/_mpBGa4P5jUo/TBIuv7rrFKI/AAAAAAAAEsA/tOm2B_4hGhI/s400/inlandempire2.jpg" style="cursor: hand; float: left; height: 216px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 400px;" /></span></a><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: times;"><span>A close watching of <em><strong>Inland Empire</strong></em> reveals several familiar David Lynch obsessions, including sexual violence against women (an important factor in <em><strong>Blue Velvet</strong></em> [1986], <em><strong>Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me</strong></em> [1992], and <em><strong>Lost Highway</strong></em> [1997], an excavation of Hollywood illusion (<em><strong>Mulholland Drive</strong></em> [2001]), and Evil as a symbol contained in one possibly supernatural individual (Bob of <em><strong>Twin Peaks</strong></em>; Robert Blake's bi locating videographer in <em><strong>Lost Highway</strong></em>).<br /><br />Also, the 2006 film showcases the <em>"gateway</em>" to other worlds, other realities, like the Black Lodge of <em><strong>Twin Peaks </strong></em>or the world-opening/changing "box" of <em><strong>Mulholland Drive</strong></em>. Here, there's a gateway tagged with the legend <em><strong>AXXoNN</strong></em> that transports the protagonist, Nikki Grace, from one reality to another; from one state of being to another. On the surface it's just a door, with those letters scrawled roughly in chalk on it.<br /><br />However, if we interpret the nonsense word "<em><strong>AXXoNN</strong></em></span><span><em><strong>,"</strong></em> we come up with a close approximation in science: the word "<em>axon</em>."<br /><br />And, biologically-speaking, an axon is a crucial part of our mental landscape. It is (</span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axon"><span>by Wikipedia</span></a><span><span>) "a long, slender projection of a nerve cell, or neuron, that conducts electrical impulses away from the neuron's cell body or soma."<br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_mpBGa4P5jUo/TBJNOyynxpI/AAAAAAAAEsg/8yvN5GXnYFo/s1600/400px-Neuron_Hand-tuned_svg.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5481528613010917010" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/_mpBGa4P5jUo/TBJNOyynxpI/AAAAAAAAEsg/8yvN5GXnYFo/s400/400px-Neuron_Hand-tuned_svg.png" style="cursor: hand; float: left; height: 215px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 400px;" /></a><br />The diagram from Wikipedia (left) actually proves quite helpful here: it diagrams "axons" linking sections of the brain, closing the gulf between synapses and carrying <em>"thoughts</em>" from one point to another. </span></span><span><span><br /><br />The <em><strong>AXXoNN</strong></em> gate in <em><strong>Inland Empire</strong></em> fulfills much the same function. In the film, it links realities, identities, dreams and even disparate time periods together. Nikki navigates this gate and taps not into something personal (the "<em>day residue"</em> of dreams described Freud) but something much more Jungian in concept: an unconscious idea hidden in the conscious mind <em>of the race itself</em>; something about the "genetic" memory of women; of womanhood/sisterhood itself.<br /><br />I discussed in my review of Lynch's <em><strong>Dune</strong></em> how Paul Atreides' dreams seemed to originate with the Divine, one important school of dream interpretation. In <em><strong>Inland Empire,</strong></em> the dream sense of David Lynch suggests <em>supernatural communication</em> instead; the magical linking of at least two women (Sue and Nikki), and perhaps more, across time and space.<br /><br />The magical <em><strong>AXXoNN</strong></em> gate is a symbol for the human mind. The "<em>longest running show</em>" in human history is the human <em>collective memory</em>, in this case the female of the species' collective memory of sexual violence and abuse through the ages, across the globe.<br /><br />The perpetrators of such violence are symbolized in <em><strong>Inland Empire</strong></em> as one male uber-being or presence, the <em>"Shadow</em>," a recurring monster figure. The Shadow <em>is</em> the Blurry Man in the film's opening scene who demands sex, and also an unseen killer on the prowl in Poland. Finally, he is monstrous man "guarding" room <em><strong>47</strong></em> and keeping a woman locked up there.</span></span></span></div><div align="justify"><span><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: times;"><span><span>When Nikki shoots this Shadow, he changes shape. First he is a horrible female thing (an amalgam of many female faces; pictured above), but then he shows his <em>true</em> visage and it is both monstrous and terrifying.</span></span><br /><span><span><br /></span></span><span><span>The Gypsy (Zabriskie) has prepared us for the presence of this thing in her first scene: "<em>A little boy went out to play. When he opened his door, he saw the world. As he passed through the doorway, he caused a reflection. Evil was born. Evil was born, and followed the boy."</em></span></span></span></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: times;"><span><span><br /></span></span><span><span>The Evil that has followed thus "little boy" is the mistreatment of women; the "<em>dark side</em>" (or reflection) of manhood.</span></span><br /><span><span><br /></span></span><span><span>But by taking on the role of "Sue" in the movie, by becoming the receptacle for the remake's "curse," Nikki has crossed the gate and become aware of the collective memory of abuse in the "<em>sisterhood</em>" of women, and it is up to her to free the woman in the hotel (again, perhaps Sue herself...) who has been trapped there, unable to return to her husband and son because of the "box" (of sexuality?) where the Shadow has locked her up.</span></span></span></div><span><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">In very simple, horror movie terms, Nikki "exorcises" the ghost of Sue/the trapped spirit from the haunted tale of </span><em style="font-family: times;"><strong>"On High in Blue Tomorrows</strong></em><span style="font-family: times;">." That "old tale" is about how men treat women poorly, like Billy treats Sue, or like Nikki's husband threatens her. In much the same fashion that Nancy Thompson takes away Freddy's power in a</span><em style="font-family: times;"><strong> Nightmare on Elm Street</strong></em><span style="font-family: times;">, Nikki takes away the Shadow's power in</span><em style="font-family: times;"><strong> Inland Empire.</strong></em></div></span><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /><em><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_mpBGa4P5jUo/TBI9rITXoFI/AAAAAAAAEsQ/pyCzc-KT-GA/s1600/inland3.bmp"><span><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5481511507635707986" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/_mpBGa4P5jUo/TBI9rITXoFI/AAAAAAAAEsQ/pyCzc-KT-GA/s400/inland3.bmp" style="cursor: hand; float: left; height: 266px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 400px;" /></span></a></em><span>One of the most significant aspects of <em><strong>Inland Empire</strong></em> is Lynch's complete negation --<em> nay annihilation</em> -- of any coherent "timeline" of events. The film's dialogue constantly refers to time as meaningless or, at the very least, circular. Examples:<br /><br />"In the future, you'll be dreaming,"<br /><br />"I figured one day I'd just wake up and and find out what the hell yesterday was all about. I'm not too keen on thinkin' about tomorrow. And today's slipping by."<br /><br />"This is a story that happened yesterday. But I know it's tomorrow."<br /><br />"I'll show you light now. It burns bright forever. No more blue tomorrows. You on high now, love."<br /><br />And, one of the creepiest incidents in the film involves Nikki passing through the first <em><strong>AXXoNN</strong></em> gate and coming upon...<em>herself</em>. </span></span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: times;">Early in the film, Halsey, Devon and Nicki rehearse a scene from the movie on a darkened, apparently empty sound stage. But a noise is heard in the shadowy distance, and Devon investigates. The film later reveals Nikki herself is the source of that noise, observing <em>herself,</em> Halsey and Devon from a distance. Has she time traveled, or is all but we see or seem but a dream within a dream?<br /><br />Once more, we must delve into dream interpretation or dream distillation to afford ourselves an understanding of what's happening in a Lynch film. Consider that, as dreamers, we do not experience time. In dreams, there is no past and no future, just the eternal moment of now (to coin a phrase). <em>Time moves differently in the world of dreams</em>, if it moves at all. More likely we -- the dreamers -- are the ones that "move;" from one vision or idea to another; from one phantasm to the next. But we don't "drive" or "fly or otherwise travel to new ideas in any conventional fashion On the contrary, we miraculously, <em>seamlessly transition</em> from things that happened, to things that might happen, to things that will happen. And they all seem to be happening <strong>NOW.</strong><br /><br />This is the dream sense of David Lynch, translated to film. We jump from one reality to another without conventional physical travel. The connections forged in the film are the connections of the mind, the subway path of the axons, the <strong><em>AXXoNN</em></strong> gate. A thought triggers another thought and we witness this progression of ideas played out. Only here, an idea in a scene (like the abuse of women) triggers another scene that's a variation on that theme, and on and on. The connections are the light-speed connections of cognition itself, of <em>thought. </em>David Lynch is an artist who knows his own mind, and <em><strong>Inland Empire</strong></em> is his mind's eye brought to the surface...dreaming on film for us.</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: times;"><span><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_mpBGa4P5jUo/TBI_SeWdZiI/AAAAAAAAEsY/JMXxgKOkCKI/s1600/inlandempire4.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5481513283080775202" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/_mpBGa4P5jUo/TBI_SeWdZiI/AAAAAAAAEsY/JMXxgKOkCKI/s400/inlandempire4.jpg" style="cursor: hand; float: left; height: 267px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 400px;" /></a></span><em style="text-align: left;"><strong>Inland Empire</strong> </em><span style="text-align: left;">also gazes specifically at Hollywood, the land where dreams come true for some and manifestly don't for others. This is the surface/underneath dichotomy that David Lynch often utilizes in his films.</span></span></div><span style="font-family: times;"><em><strong></strong></em><br /></span><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: times;"><em><strong><span>Inland Empire </span></strong></em><span style="text-align: left;">cuts between the wealth and opulence of a movie star's life (Nikki) and life on the streets for several Los Angeles hookers. Importantly, the streetwalkers ply their trade on mean streets decorated with Walk of Fame "</span><em style="text-align: left;">stars</em><span style="text-align: left;">," a startling conjunction of wealth and desperation.</span></span></div><span style="font-family: times;"><br />It's more than that, too. The film very much concerns the way that Hollywood (and film making in general) can take a horrifying, upsetting tale (like Sue's) and put a shiny gloss over it; "<em>remaking it</em>" as a palatable entertainment that pleases the masses. The underneath -- <em>the darkness</em> -- is buried beneath the mainstream, MPAA-authorized surface.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">So, hookers -- <em>preparing to meet their "johns</em>" -- burst into a musical number featuring Carole King's 1962 hit "The Loco-Motion." Something seedy and demeaning has been turned into entertainment, a cavalcade of <em>"tits and ass</em>" as one hooker notes (after showing off her artificially augmented bosom).</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">As <em><strong>Inland Empire</strong></em> also notes, actors in Hollywood become buried in their parts, lost in other lives (the way Nikki becomes lost in other lives.) Accordingly, the film is literally packed with incidents wherein characters state "<em>I'm not who you think I am."</em> This could be a reference to many things. Like the fact that, as viewers, we often mistake actors for the roles they play (in other words assuming that Shatner is actually Captain Kirk-like; or that Harrison Ford is Indiana Jones-esque). </div></span><span style="font-family: times;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><span><div style="text-align: justify;">On a deeper level, this notation that "<em>I'm not who you think I am</em>" could refer to any number of important dualities in human nature The conscious/subconscious mind, the waking/dreaming state, or the idea of the <em><strong>AXXoNN</strong></em> gate again: that our brains can hold both our contemporary "identity" and the <em>collective or genetic memory</em> of those who came before, which we can access.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Two characters -- in two time periods and two different cities in <em><strong>Inland Empire</strong></em> -- also say <em>"Look at me and tell me if you've known me before.</em>" It's a desperate kind of demand; one designed to foster understanding of <em>who you are</em> and moreso, get an <em>exterior verification</em> that can anchor you in the present, in your identity. Dreams are like tides...<em>they can carry you away</em> and sometimes you need to know what <em>others</em> see.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">David Lynch shoots<em> <strong>Inland Empire</strong></em> in standard definition video, a controversial decision which seems to highlight the seedy, lurid aspects of theis particulartale. Unlike most Lynch pictures, this is not a beautiful one in terms of color and crispness. The typical greens and reds we associate with Lynch are here in spades, but they bleed all over into human faces...and faces often look haggard and worn out, suffused with ugliness. The underlying notion seems to be of a "now" (a presenttime) exhausted by the cumulative weight of the past, of the collective unconscious. There can't be beauty here when the past is so often ugly.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Laura Dern is literally the anchor of the film -- the <em>only person we can really hold onto while we're unstuck in time, as it were</em> -- and she gives a courageous performance. By the end of the film, all artifice and notions even of technique are stripped away and we are looking at a person<em> exposed</em>, raw. It's a great achievement in terms of screen acting and actually one of the finest performances I've witnessed in some time.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Although I am looking back at <em><strong>Inland Empire</strong></em> after my review of <em><strong>Dune </strong></em>(1984) last week, I bear a deep and abiding sense that this movie is actually the mountain that David Lynch has been climbing for some time. From <em><strong>Blue Velvet</strong></em> through <em><strong>Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me</strong></em>, from <em><strong>Lost Highway</strong></em> to <em><strong>Mulholland Drive,</strong></em> the artist has been ascending towards a film that speaks entirely in the language of dreams, towards a pinnacle of formalistic, expressionistic film making that can't be understood in any traditional, "conscious" fashion.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span>Some viewers Lynch will likely lose on the twisting mountain path leading up to<em><strong> Inland Empire.</strong></em> For instance,<em><strong> </strong></em>It has been called (by the <em><strong>Village Voice</strong></em>) "</span><a href="http://www.villagevoice.com/2006-11-28/film/wild-at-heart/"><span>Lynch's most experimental film since <em><strong>Eraserhead</strong></em>." </span></a></div></span><span><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><span><div style="text-align: justify;">But for other fellow travelers, however, this movie represents the apex of a long and intriguing journey; the summation of a career and a world view. <em>You're on high now.</em> Or, as one of the characters in the film notes, this movie is really a "<em>mind fuck</em>."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">My advice to you, the prospective audience, is make it a consensual one.</div></span></span></span></div>John Kenneth Muirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15629979615332893780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12380553.post-36128268770167244842024-02-19T06:00:00.014-05:002024-02-19T06:00:00.132-05:00Lost Highway (1997) and the Dream Sense of David Lynch<div align="justify"><span style="font-family: times;"><strong><span><br /></span></strong></span></div><div align="justify"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_mpBGa4P5jUo/TB9ojAvS0VI/AAAAAAAAEuQ/42hmC32Qtfk/s1600/200px-Lost-Higway-01.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="382" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5485217821863629138" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_mpBGa4P5jUo/TB9ojAvS0VI/AAAAAAAAEuQ/42hmC32Qtfk/w270-h382/200px-Lost-Higway-01.jpg" style="cursor: hand; float: left; height: 283px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 200px;" width="270" /></a><span style="font-family: times;"></span></div><div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: times;"><span><strong><span>"</span><span>Waking dreams are the ones that are important, the ones that come when I'm quietly sitting in a chair, gently letting my mind wander. When you sleep, you don't control your dreams. I like to dive into a dream world that I've made or discovered, a world I choose."</span></strong><br /></span><strong><span><br /><span>- David Lynch<em>. Lynch on Lynch,</em> Faber & Faber Ltd., 1997, page 15.</span></span></strong><br /><span><br />What interests me most about David Lynch is the artist's unnerving and unerring capacity to express what I term "dream sense." </span></span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: times;">Movie viewing has often been likened to dreaming with "eyes open," and human dreams convey a certain logic, flow, rhyme and reason. The Lynchian dream-sense, honed by the filmmaker's waking dreams, taps into this rich and subconscious language of phantasms.<br /><br />Our dreams come in a variety of forms, and Lynch's films often mimic these shapes. </span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: times;"><span>Consider that dreams may be interpreted, in both myth and literature, as predictions or prophecies of the future (<em><strong>Dune</strong></em> [1984]), messages from Gods or otherworldly creatures (<strong><em>Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me</em></strong> [1992]), reflections of the repressed subconscious (<em><strong>Mulholland Drive</strong></em> [2001]) and even outlets for psychic guilt (<em><strong>Lost Highway</strong></em> [1997]). Lynch's films frequently deploy "the dream sense" to carry such thematic concepts; so much so that film criticism in regards to this artist becomes a study in symbols and oneirology. </span><br /></span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: times;"><br />And to what purpose does Lynch often apply his "dream sense" in his works? </span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: times;">Well, that's the question of considerable interest to me. As many critics and scholars before have suggested over the decades, the director seems very concerned with the gulf between appearance and meaning; between surface and underneath. The Lynchian dream-sense is a way at getting at that gulf; of traversing it.</span></div></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: times;">Let's look at this idea as it applies to<i><b> Lost Highway</b></i> (1997).</span></div><div><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: times;">"It should be acknowledged, straightaway," opined critic Eric Bryant Rhodes in <em><strong>Film Quarterly</strong></em> (Spring 1998, page 57), "that <em><strong>Lost Highway</strong></em> is, by design, extremely resistant to reduction into a definitive narrative account; by the film's end it is evident that Lynch has intentionally withheld the answers to questions inevitably provoked by the narrative's elusive and elliptical plot. It is virtually impossible to reconstruct a definitive and rational account of what happens in <em><strong>Lost Highway</strong></em>."<br /><br />Critic Kenneth Turan called David Lynch's film the director's "most accomplished work since <em><strong>Blue Velvet</strong></em>" and termed it a "metaphysical stag film," (<strong><em>Los Angeles Times</em>,</strong> February 21, 1997, page 10), while David Denby noted that the film is a "virtuoso exercise in spooky unintelligibility" (<em><strong>New York</strong></em>, March 3, 197, page 53).<br /><br />Meanwhile, Jack Kroll at <em><strong>Newsweek</strong></em> suggested insightfully that with <em><strong>Lost Highway</strong></em> Lynch had become "the Heisenberg of cinema, telling us that the uncertainty principle rules our lives" (February 24, 1997, page 68).<br /><br /><em>Elusive. Metaphysical. Spooky. Uncertain.</em><br /><br />All of these critical descriptors highlight the confounding essence of this beloved and beguiling David Lynch <em>film noir</em>. It's a movie that can't be intellectually "understood," perhaps, only "interpreted" in relation to the director's style and singular voice, in particular his pervasive use of "<em>dream sense</em>," the surreal language of dreams.<br /><br />Specifically, Lynch has has publicly likened<em><strong> Lost Highway </strong></em>to a <em>Psychogenic Fugue</em>...a mental state of disassociation from oneself. That comparison could be the very key that unlocks a few of the film's most enduring and baffling mysteries.<br /><br /><strong><em>We've met before, haven't we?</em> Or <em>We Got Some Spooky Shit Here...</em></strong></span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: times;"><b><i><br /></i></b><strong><em><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_mpBGa4P5jUo/TB9p2_7_AlI/AAAAAAAAEuY/f0_UlY4BW3k/s1600/losthighway4.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5485219264757432914" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_mpBGa4P5jUo/TB9p2_7_AlI/AAAAAAAAEuY/f0_UlY4BW3k/s400/losthighway4.jpg" style="cursor: hand; float: left; height: 168px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 400px;" /></a>Lost Highway </em></strong>depicts the startling descent into madness of a jealous saxophonist named Fred Madison (Bill Pullman).<br /><br />Experiencing strange dreams about his wife, Renee (Patricia Arquette) -- <em>whom he suspects is having an adulterous affair</em> -- Fred also comes to believe that someone is watching him inside his own home; videotaping him as he sleeps. Fred is a paranoid man, and even his house -- painted in deep, dark shades of crimson and scarlet -- appears to reflect his intemperate, suspicious nature.<br /><br />When Renee is discovered murdered, Fred is arrested for the bloody crime, but then something truly strange occurs.<br /><br />In his jail cell: another man seems to take his physical place. Fred wakes up...and is <em>different.</em> He is now Peter (Balthazar Getty), a young fellow, a car mechanic, associated with gangster Mr. Eddy/Dick Laurent (Loggia). And Eddy/Laurent’s girlfriend is Alice (Arquette)...<em>a dead ringer</em> for the murdered Renee. </span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: times;"></span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: times;"><br />Behind this strange metamorphosis --<em> and this strange new life</em> -- is a terrifying and ubiquitous "Mystery Man" (Robert Blake) with a video camera...a man who can apparently be in two places simultaneously.<br /><br /><strong><em>In the Far East, when a person is sentenced to death, they're sent to a place where they can't Escape:</em> Or The Splintered Psyche as Madison's "Escape" Valve. </strong></span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: times;"><b><br /></b><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_mpBGa4P5jUo/TB9s1Zbrh0I/AAAAAAAAEug/ir3Hkt7IfKc/s1600/losthighway1.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5485222535776405314" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_mpBGa4P5jUo/TB9s1Zbrh0I/AAAAAAAAEug/ir3Hkt7IfKc/s400/losthighway1.jpg" style="cursor: hand; float: left; height: 218px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 400px;" /></a>A restless spirit of madness seems to haunt angry Fred Madison in <strong><em>Lost Highway.</em></strong> That spirit, while actually a part of Fred's psyche, is manifested <em>externally</em> in the film; as another "being" he physically encounters. </span></div><div align="justify"><br />Specifically, this specter of violence, revenge and madness takes the form of the pasty-faced, grinning maniac portrayed by Robert Blake.<br /><br />In the film’s most deeply unsettling, most dream-like sequence, this specter of violence and guilt confronts Fred at a party and informs the saxophonist that he, the Mystery Man, is at his house <em>right now</em>, killing his wife.<br /><br />Of course, a person can’t be in two places at the same time but the Mystery Man urges Fred to call his own house to confirm his disturbing story. Fred does so, and at his house the Mystery Man answers the phone.<em> “I told you I was here</em>,” he says.<br /><br />The idea underlining this horrific, surreal sequence is that Fred has effectively <em>disassociated</em> from himself, from his personal identity, in order to carry out an evil, brutal deed: the murder of Renee. Fred has created a Boogeyman, a monster, to complete the task for him, since -- as a rational, evolved human being -- murder is not an acceptable act. Instead, Madison has reached deep down into his reptilian brain and created this thing, this monster.<br /><br />Psychogenic fugues or dissociative orders are often precipitated by intense stress, and there's plenty of that to go around in the early scenes of this Lynch film. Sexual intercourse between Fred and the gorgeous Renee goes poorly, for instance. After some slow-motion photography and the exaggerated sounds of panting, Fred loses his erection, and Renee appears frustrated. The impression is of a troubled marriage and of Fred's looming, impulsive rage, ready to be sated. The Mystery Man appears briefly in this scene too: superimposed over Renee's lovely face. The monster's sudden appearance here is Fred's "flash" of violent intent, of rage, when he proves impotent.<br /><br />Jealousy and looming rage are manifested again in the film's very color scheme, in Lynch's presentation of another important sequence. After a public musical performance, Fred rings Renee up on a <em>red </em>telephone and he's likewise bathed in <em>hellish</em> neon-sort of red light. She’s not home, and Madison's conviction that she is cheating on him grows exponentially. His very world seems to visualize this “red” streak of jealousy. Unable to get satisfaction from her husband, Renee has sought fulfillment outside the relationship...or so he imagines.</div><div align="justify"><br />After creating the "mystery man" as an alternate identity from which to commit the murder of cheating Renee, Fred then disassociates again after the crime, creating an additional personality, Peter Dayton, where he can hide from his intense feelings of guilt and responsibility. Those unlucky souls who experience psychogenic fugues in real life often create totally new personalities, in new environs, with no memory of their real personalities or histories.</div><div align="justify"><br />Of great significance, Madison's new personality, Dayton, is a heroic, young character who liberates Renee (now Alice...) from sexual humiliation and slavery at the hands of a powerful exploiter and abuser, Eddy/Dick Laurent.<br /><br />Where Fred is impotent, Dayton is virile, engaging in satisfying sexual intercourse with Alice on a beach by night. He is the "dream" persona of Fred, as an unspoiled, vigorous, desirable youth. Fred Madison does not "snap back into being" until the film's conclusion when his Peter Dayton identity closes the loop and informs him that "<em>Dick Laurent is dead."</em> The death of his competitor for Renee's/Alice's affections allows Fred to be restored to his "real" state.<br /><br />Importantly, this scene represents a kind of cinematic Möbius strip, relating back to one of the first scenes in the film. There are two ways to interpret it. The first is the psychogenic fugue approach. The early appearance of an unseen "stranger" at the door, informing Fred that "<em>Dick Laurent is dead</em>" is actually the fledgling start of Madison's dissociative mania; the sort of mental canary in the coal mine that pushes Fred to kill his wife and his competitor for her affections.<br /><br />Or contrarily, one might read the <em>entirety of the film</em> as a murderous, disassociated fantasy occurring in Fred's dreams as he awakens to receive that cryptic message. He is only told once that "<em>Dick Laurent is dead</em>," and every event that happens in the film seems to occur in that very instant; his dream of murder; his escape into another identity, etc. This is the <em><strong>Jacob's Ladder</strong></em> (1990) reading of the film, I suppose.<br /><br />David Lynch's description of the film as a Psychogenic Fugue also relates, in fascinating fashion, to musical terminology. A fugue is defined as a piece of music consisting of "<em>two or more voices</em>." Fred Madison, the Mystery Man, and Peter Dayton are all different voices inhabiting one psyche and their tale might appropriately be described as a musical fugue as well as a psychogenic one. For instance, a "fugue" often begins with an opening key (here, the "key" in which Fred Madison exists). Then, further episodes establish additional notes or keys (the Mystery Man, Dayton...). Finally, after expressing these "new" notes, the opening key in a musical fugue is re-asserted as the piece ends.<br /><br />That is precisely the structure of <em><strong>Lost Highway</strong></em>, with Fred Madison -- our opening "key" -- brought back for the film's conclusion. A fugue (psychological dream state) explains the movie's narrative, and a fugue (piece of music) explains the movie's structure.<br /><br /><strong><em>I swear I love that girl to death:</em> The O.J. Simpson Connection?</strong></div><div align="justify"><b><br /></b><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_mpBGa4P5jUo/TB9zq5Gcy3I/AAAAAAAAEuo/3fjCn4GFU0U/s1600/losthighway3.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5485230051880127346" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_mpBGa4P5jUo/TB9zq5Gcy3I/AAAAAAAAEuo/3fjCn4GFU0U/s400/losthighway3.jpg" style="cursor: hand; float: left; height: 170px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 400px;" /></a>Those associated with this Lynch film have reported that <em><strong>Lost Highway</strong></em> represents the director's free-association meditation on the O.J. Simpson trial which occurred mid-decade, shortly before the production of the film. </div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"><br />This clue helps us discern another layer of the film. Pullman plays a public figure (a musician, not a sports hero), who becomes irrevocably connected to the murder of his beautiful wife.<br /><br />The opening shot, a point-of-view from the dashboard of a car rocketing down a lonely highway by night --<em> the pavement illuminated only by headlights </em>-- even recalls O.J.’s famous freeway chase in the white bronco. </div><div align="justify"><br /></div><div align="justify">Like O.J., Fred Madison also loudly proclaims his innocence, but he’s not necessarily a reliable witness. For one thing, Fred doesn’t like the prying eye of the video camera. “<em>I like to remember things my own way</em>,” he complains <em>“not necessarily the way they happened...”</em> </div><div align="justify"><br /></div><div align="justify">But go deeper<em>. If the glove does not fit, you must acquit.</em> And if Fred Madison is Peter Dayton...who do you arrest for the crime?<br /><br />A true appreciation of David Lynch’s cinematic work arises from interpreting his symbols and reading carefully his powerful, subconscious dream imagery. In the case of <em><strong>Lost Highway </strong></em>it feels like Lynch is attempting to capture the psychological condition of instinctual, unconscious, reptilian<em> rage</em>, the utter madness and insanity of a jealous husband who is destined to kill his wife. Even the settings reflect this rage, in shades of terracotta, crimson and blood red.<br /><br />The<strong><em> Lost Highway </em></strong>of the film's title is, perhaps Fred Madison's threadbare sanity; his psyche now fractured into blind alleys, dead-ends and avenues that go, approximately, nowhere. Lynch takes us into this nightmarish fugue state, showing us pieces of the splintered psyche and making us feel Fred's impotent, bubbling rage.<br /><br />And some real "spooky shit."</div>John Kenneth Muirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15629979615332893780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12380553.post-77708055536843500412024-02-17T07:35:00.002-05:002024-02-17T07:35:25.459-05:00Saturday Morning Cult TV Blogging: Return to the Planet of the Apes (1975): "Flames of Doom"<div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-3xhd2WEFSLg/Tjnhtruvx8I/AAAAAAAAHYU/_Vc938QDVPE/s1600/apescartoon3.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="275" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-3xhd2WEFSLg/Tjnhtruvx8I/AAAAAAAAHYU/_Vc938QDVPE/s400/apescartoon3.jpg" t="" true="" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-color: currentcolor; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-style: none; border-top: medium none; border-width: medium;"><span>With <b><i>Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes </i></b>(2024) due in theaters in a few short weeks, it seems an appropriate time to remember a more obscure corner of the simian-verse.</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-color: currentcolor; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-style: none; border-top: medium none; border-width: medium;"><b style="font-style: italic;"><br /></b></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-color: currentcolor; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-style: none; border-top: medium none; border-width: medium;"><b style="font-style: italic;">Return to the Planet of the Apes </b>(1975) is a Saturday morning TV program developed for television by David De Patrie and Fritz Freleng. </div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-color: currentcolor; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-style: none; border-top: medium none; border-width: medium;"><br /></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-color: currentcolor; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-style: none; border-top: medium none; border-width: medium;">It assimilates and re-invents characters, plot lines, devices and technology from all previous incarnations of the franchise, including the Pierre Boulle novel, the 1968 film and sequels (<em><strong>Beneath</strong></em>, in particular), and even the short-lived 1974 live-action TV series.</div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The result is an invigorating and unique shot in the arm for the franchise.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-color: currentcolor; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-style: none; border-top: medium none; border-width: medium; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-TGI2M8Hma60/Tjnh65B145I/AAAAAAAAHYo/ss95MR2pwR0/s1600/apescartoon8.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="276" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-TGI2M8Hma60/Tjnh65B145I/AAAAAAAAHYo/ss95MR2pwR0/s400/apescartoon8.jpg" t="" true="" width="400" /></a></div><br />The premiere episode of <em><strong>Return to the Planet of the Apes,</strong></em> “Flames of Doom,” (by Larry Spiegel), finds a NASA space capsule called the “Venture” traveling on a routine deep space mission on August 6, 1976. <br /><br />Aboard are three astronauts: Bill Hudson (a white man), Jeff Allen (an African-American man) and Judy Franklin (a woman). <br /><br />Bill narrates the captain’s log and confirms Dr. Stanton’s theory of <em>“time thrust</em>;” that man can utilize faster-than-light speeds to propel himself into the future. Admirers of the 1968 film will recognize this comment as a reflection of Chuck Heston’s opening narration, and Dr. Hasslein’s theory named there. It’s been simplified for children in this cartoon, but the idea is the same.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">No sooner has Hudson informed us about this scientific theory than the ship’s chronometer goes wild and the Venture plunges into a time warp. The “Earth Clock” goes crazy, and the Venture arrives battered and bruised in the year 3979, where it crashes on a strange planet, and into a dead lake.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-color: currentcolor; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-style: none; border-top: medium none; border-width: medium; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0KApI9TxPPI/Tjnh0xY2GII/AAAAAAAAHYg/Th6zay7nA4I/s1600/apescartoon6.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="275" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0KApI9TxPPI/Tjnh0xY2GII/AAAAAAAAHYg/Th6zay7nA4I/s400/apescartoon6.jpg" t="" true="" width="400" /></a></div><br />Meanwhile, elsewhere on the surface – <em>in a city</em> <em>ruled by intelligent apes</em> – General Urko, a gorilla power-monger, addresses the Supreme Council of Ape City and demands genocide against all humans. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Arguing the opposite case is the kindly chimpanzee Cornelius, who pleads for a “<em>different course</em>.” He and his wife, a behavioral scientist named Zira, wish to study humans as the key to “<em>simian origins</em>.” Arbitrating this dispute of national importance is the ruler of the apes, an orangutan named Dr. Zaius. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">I must note that the level of attention to detail in this scene is remarkable. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">For as Zaius issues his decision on the matter at hand, the edit cuts to a stone relief on the wall behind him which reveals the long history of ape-human relations. There are images of apes hunting humans and even domesticating them.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Humans may be hunted as legitimate sport, Zaius concludes, or brought into the city to perform “<em>menial tasks</em>.” They may even serve as domestic pets, but Zaius will not demand their total destruction.<br /><br />However, on an ominous note, he warns that Article 18 of the “<em>Book of Simian Prophecy</em>” demands that man must be destroyed at any cost if he develops the power of speech. In other words, this is a temporary victory for Cornelius’s cause, and for the primitive, mute, stone-age humans who populate caves outside the technologically advanced ape-city.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-color: currentcolor; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-style: none; border-top: medium none; border-width: medium; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-a12TwmMnNwE/Tjnhy3HIICI/AAAAAAAAHYc/ZyCzL61VUPU/s1600/apescartoon5.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="277" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-a12TwmMnNwE/Tjnhy3HIICI/AAAAAAAAHYc/ZyCzL61VUPU/s400/apescartoon5.jpg" t="" true="" width="400" /></a></div><br />Watching this portion of the episode, a few matters become plain. First and foremost, the franchise has returned to the ape society as depicted in Boulle’s original novel. In other words, the apes dwell in<em> a twentieth century city</em> with television, radio, automobiles and the like. <br /><br />Their city is not a rock-outcropping like in the popular original movie, but rather a contemporary metropolis with buildings and skyscrapers that resemble those from human history in a wonderful nod to the adage “monkey see, monkey do.” The ape culture of the original film was almost medieval, despite the presence of guns and such medical advances as brain surgery. Not so here.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">For instance, the imposing ape council building resembles nothing so much as our own Capitol Building where Congress deliberates when it isn't shutdown. Since this is a re-imagination and updating of <em><strong>Planet of the Apes</strong></em> for the mid-1970s, not only is there the burgeoning nod to gender and racial diversity (this was the era of the equal rights amendment...) in the make-up of the astronauts, but the focus on the Council and its proceedings reveals a more bureaucratic bent to the apes.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Instead of ape culture being essentially of one mind (as in the see-no-evil/hear-no-evil/speak-no-evil triumvirate of the Schaffner film showcases), here Ape society is bedeviled by partisan politics, with chimpanzees representing the pacifist left, gorillas the militant right, and orangutans the sensible center. This is especially important considering the context of <em><strong>Return to the Planet of the Apes</strong></em>: immediately post-Watergate and soon after the Vietnam conflict. Again, this is an example of updating and changing a franchise, but not throwing out the baby with the bath water.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Continuing with the story, Bill, Jeff (voiced by Austin Stoker of <em><strong>Battle for the Planet of the Apes</strong></em> and <em><strong>Assault on Precinct 13</strong></em>), and Judy abandon their sinking spaceship and flee into the Forbidden Zone. Recalling the portions of the original film shot in Death Valley, the series offers an artistic montage here as the three astronauts search for water and food under the glaring sun of what they believe is an alien world.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-color: currentcolor; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-style: none; border-top: medium none; border-width: medium;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dvVWpTZqMAc/Tjnh9GYnd2I/AAAAAAAAHYs/ni4pKZG9KtY/s1600/apescartoon9.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="276" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dvVWpTZqMAc/Tjnh9GYnd2I/AAAAAAAAHYs/ni4pKZG9KtY/s400/apescartoon9.jpg" t="" true="" width="400" /></a></div><br />The animated frames turn a bright scarlet hue to represent the heat of the desert and there are close-ups of human faces caked in sweat. Close-ups of tired feet marching in the sand also appear. This montage doesn’t rely on dialogue, but rather on clever images that express an emotion. </div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-color: currentcolor; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-style: none; border-top: medium none; border-width: medium;"><br /></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-color: currentcolor; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-style: none; border-top: medium none; border-width: medium;">The animation is limited perhaps, even crude but these limitations are marshaled as a strength on the program. Overlapping views, double exposures, intense close-ups, insert shots and first person subjective point-of-view shots all provide <em>a texture</em> to the desperate march through the wasteland. </div></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-color: currentcolor; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-style: none; border-top: medium none; border-width: medium; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-color: currentcolor; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-style: none; border-top: medium none; border-width: medium;">This march ends, appropriately, with the sighting of an Ape Mount Rushmore. Another new touch, but again one that along with the ape metropolis reveals the ape talent for mimicry (monkey see, monkey do) and is therefore thematically valuable; a subconscious reminder that all of the simian accomplishments are built on “aping” human society.<br /><br />Later episodes go further with this idea, visiting "The Tomb of the Unknown Ape" or mentioning the famous author, William Apespeare. One episode, "Invasion of the Underdwellers," even casts eyes on -- <em>at least briefly</em> -- a simian Mona Lisa.</div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-color: currentcolor; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-style: none; border-top: medium none; border-width: medium; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jYJXGZYuzxM/TjnhwnFBQWI/AAAAAAAAHYY/IOLcSB0OLWs/s1600/apescartoon2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="272" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jYJXGZYuzxM/TjnhwnFBQWI/AAAAAAAAHYY/IOLcSB0OLWs/s400/apescartoon2.jpg" t="" true="" width="400" /></a></div><br />In the desert, Jeff and Bill lose Judy when fires spontaneously erupts in front of them, and an earthquake splits the ground in a series of lovely frames that reveal a high degree of fidelity to images from <em><strong>Beneath the Planet of the Apes</strong></em> (particularly Taylor’s abduction by the underground mutants). <br /><br />The astronauts have little time to ponder the loss of their companion, however, as Bill and Jeff encounter a tribe of stone age humans, including the beautiful Nova.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Suggesting an interesting mystery, Nova wears the dog tags of another astronaut, someone named Brent (again, a reference to <em><strong>Beneath the Planet of the Apes</strong></em>). </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">His birth date was May 2, 2079, so Jeff and Bill are forced to ponder the notion that an astronaut who was born <em>after</em> them arrived on the planet of the apes before they did. <em>Boggles the mind, no?</em> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">This is a pretty advanced concept for a kid’s show, and it also provides an underlying mystery for adults to enjoy. <em>Where is Brent? What happened to him? </em></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />Before long, the apes arrive, on the hunt, in tanks, jeeps and with heavy artillery. The gorillas even lob gas grenades at the primitive humans. Here, the series utilizes zooms inside individual frames (not actual motion, but rather <em>camera</em> motion…) to suggest the frenetic pace of the hunt. Jeff and Bill are separated, and Bill is captured and taken to Ape City.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />That’s where the first episode ends, but already, the attentive viewer can detect how this canny re-imagination assimilates the critical aspects of the <em><strong>Planet of the Apes</strong></em> mythos with something akin to 20/20 hindsight.<br /><br />Instead of making up the saga as it goes (a deficit of the otherwise outstanding motion picture series…), <em><strong>Return to the Planet of the Apes</strong></em> accounts for -- from the very beginning -- the mutants in the Forbidden Zone (here termed “The Underdwellers.”) It also employs familiar characters in new ways and in new situations, and even incorporates movie imagery to vet the story. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-color: currentcolor; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-style: none; border-top: medium none; border-width: medium; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-JpzHt7ihM4A/Tjnh_dg5mRI/AAAAAAAAHYw/c1huf6tS13A/s1600/apescartoon10.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="272" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-JpzHt7ihM4A/Tjnh_dg5mRI/AAAAAAAAHYw/c1huf6tS13A/s400/apescartoon10.jpg" t="" true="" width="400" /></a></div><br />In terms of characters, Urko derives from Mark Lenard’s character on the 1974 TV series. In <em><strong>Beneath</strong></em>, a similar character was known as “Ursus.” He is essentially the same ape here, as are Zira and Cornelius, but Dr. Zaius has changed the most. <br /><br />Zaius is no longer a hypocritical religious zealot, but rather an equalizing force of moderation in Ape Society…almost heroic, actually.<br /><br />“<em>The free ape is he who does not fear to go to the end of his thought,”</em> he even states; an ideal that the original movie’s “chief defender of the faith” could never get behind.<br /><br />This is actually a significant structural change as well as a symbolic representation of the left/right divide in our culture. Why? Because with Zaius moderating pacifists and war-mongers, we can more logically believe that humans (particularly the astronauts) can continue to escape and outmaneuver a technologically advanced simian culture. The whole planet isn’t out to kill them; they do have allies. Dr. Zaius is even referred to by his enemies, the Underdwellers, as being "<em>just...for an ape</em>," and again, this is a sea change in the character's depiction.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">From the original <em><strong>Planet of the Apes</strong></em> movie, “Flames of Doom” also incorporates other powerful visuals. We see the ape scarecrows on the border of the Forbidden Zone again, and, on a connected note, hear the same gorilla “hunt” horn on the soundtrack. We see a small, yellow rubber raft and a U.S. flag planted in the Forbidden Zone too, as well as the discovery of a first green plant indicating life on the fringe of the desert.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Again, the approach here seems to be to this:<em> take what worked in the apes movie, book and TV series, and then put them all together in a more coherent, cohesive story, smoothing out the bumps and making everything jibe. </em><br /><br />That’s important, because long time <em><strong>Planet of the Apes</strong></em> fans will remember some of the more dramatic gaps fouling continuity in the film series. In <em><strong>Planet of the Apes</strong></em>, for instance, it is the year 3978 when Taylor arrives, but when Brent arrives on his heels in the follow-up,<em><strong> Beneath,</strong></em> it is magically 3955.<br /><br />Similarly, there are discrepancies between <em><strong>Escape</strong></em> and <em><strong>Conquest</strong></em> in the story of how the apes ascended to superiority in man’s world. Cornelius’s story involves an ape named Aldo (whom we meet in <em><strong>Battle</strong></em>), but does not take into account the true ape revolutionary, Caesar. Coming at essentially the end of the apes cycle, <em><strong>Return to the Planet of the</strong></em> <em><strong>Apes</strong></em> benefits from knowing everything that came before.</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-color: currentcolor; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-style: none; border-top: medium none; border-width: medium; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-color: currentcolor; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-style: none; border-top: medium none; border-width: medium; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Skt5Th5wB_I/Tjnh4FBdzrI/AAAAAAAAHYk/YAZk-7hSQ6w/s1600/apescartoon7.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="277" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Skt5Th5wB_I/Tjnh4FBdzrI/AAAAAAAAHYk/YAZk-7hSQ6w/s400/apescartoon7.jpg" t="" true="" width="400" /></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-color: currentcolor; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-style: none; border-top: medium none; border-width: medium;"><br />Indeed, this is the only valid reason for the re-imagination of a franchise. <em>Taking what worked in one production and maintaining it; and taking what didn’t work and improving upon it.</em> It must be done, however, with a degree of love, patience and restraint involving the material. I feel like I see all that here.</div><br />Notice that there is not merely change for the sake of change; that characters have not miraculously and randomly switched sexes, and whole swaths of mythology have not been removed or altered to suit a developer"s ego, or need to be "creative."<br /><br />What I’m suggesting is that fundamentally there is a <em>respect</em> in evidence here for the the productions that came before, for the Apes mythos. So yes, a re-imagination<strong> can</strong> work, and this dedicated animated series is one example, at least in its first chapter, where it did so.<br /><br />None of this means, however, that <strong><em>Return to the Planet of the Apes </em></strong>doesn't sometimes lapse into childishness and silliness. The series was made, after all, to air on Saturday mornings in the 1970s. The intended demographic was young children. This factor plays out in some funny ways throughout the series.</div>John Kenneth Muirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15629979615332893780noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12380553.post-73875986208526266852024-02-14T06:00:00.001-05:002024-02-14T06:00:00.260-05:00My Father's Journal: "Under My Hands"<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><b>Under My Hands<o:p></o:p></b></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><b>By Ken Muir</b><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">So much of memory is images locked in my brain, recollections flipping one to another in that cerebral footlocker. How vivid, how strong they are.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">Oddly, I find that among the strongest are tactile memories, the feel of so many materials, so many jobs, under my hands. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">Wood, sheetrock, PVC, stone, tools, wires, paint, leaves, soil….</span><span style="font-family: times;">the list is nearly endless.</span><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">I can still feel them there, each one, each substance, each a connection to work performed. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">For a man who made a decent living as a manipulator of ideas and words, this fascination with works of the hands is a bit odd, I guess. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">But somehow it completed me, it was a side of me that needed to find expression. It gave me an inner balance, a breadth which I somehow required.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">And at bottom, I suppose, it gave small flesh to the idea of my being a pale, paltry imitation of the Renaissance Man………always a goal of mine but an outcome never achieved. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">Perhaps, however, I’ve made a good run at “jack of all trades.”</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>John Kenneth Muirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15629979615332893780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12380553.post-71612780525928099972024-02-12T06:00:00.032-05:002024-02-12T06:00:00.133-05:0070 Years Ago: Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)<div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8BhkGgfwVOo/UmfFHBLYJfI/AAAAAAAAjXQ/88d-H8nTyC8/s1600/lagoon1.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="306" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8BhkGgfwVOo/UmfFHBLYJfI/AAAAAAAAjXQ/88d-H8nTyC8/s400/lagoon1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><strong><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></strong><strong><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></strong></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Seventy years since the rise of The Gill-Man? </span><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Impossible to believe. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Yet one thing is for certain, <i><b>The Creature from the Black Lagoon</b></i> has been a touchstone for several generations of movie fans and monster kids.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">When he wrote the foreword for my 2013 book <i>Horror Films FAQ,</i> <i><b>The X-Files</b></i> creator Chris Carter said the Jack Arnold film might "<i>just be the original X-File</i>," and discussed the film's impact on him.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">"It did...like the best horror movies, prey on my impressionable mind," Carter writes. "So moved, I got my parents to buy me a Revell model kit of the creature that I built and painted and stared at on my shelf on my way to untold nightmares..."</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Today, let's remember that original nightmare, and start with the following words:</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><strong><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></strong></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><strong><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">"In the beginning, God created Heaven and Earth...this is the planet Earth, newly born...the heat rises, meets the atmosphere...the restless seas rise..."</span></strong><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">With a few sentences omitted for space, Jack Arnold's 1954 feature, <em><strong>Creature from the Black Lagoon </strong></em>begins with a narrator speaking the words displayed above. The ominous-toned speaker thus commences the film with an aura of grand eloquence, and more critically, a sense of context, history, and perspective. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The voice-over narration reminds us that there is a connection --<i> a link</i> -- between past and present, between the beginning of life on Earth, and the Anthropocene Epoch. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">This is an important point, because the film explores a clash between Ages, a clash which excavates not only the differences in life forms...but the similarities as well.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><strong><em><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></em></strong><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-yK_m4zTlidM/UmfFG5a3Q9I/AAAAAAAAjXU/sZnib9FG7tE/s1600/lagoon2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-yK_m4zTlidM/UmfFG5a3Q9I/AAAAAAAAjXU/sZnib9FG7tE/s400/lagoon2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><strong><em>Creature from the Black Lagoon</em></strong> opens in the Amazon. A strangely human-like fossilized hand/wrist is discovered in the rocks by an archaeologist named Carl Maia (Antonio Morena). Hoping he has unearthed a previously unrecorded life-form - <em>a missing link between life in the seas and life on land</em> - he seeks the help of a friend, Dr. David Reed (Richard Carlson) at the nearby Instituto de Biologia Maritima.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">David and his beautiful girlfriend (also a scientist), Kay (Julia Adams) are intrigued by the discovery and petition their publicity-minded boss, Mark Williams (Richard Denny) to authorize an expedition. William agrees and they all head up the Amazon River on an old barge called the<em> Rita</em>. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">There, on a tributary leading to a black lagoon, a place that remains "<em>exactly as it was 150 million years ago</em>," the scientists confront the Gill Man: a strange life form that can move easily from the black depths of the water to dry land. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">A battle is waged between Reed and Williams over how to handle the creature --<i> pure research vs. killing/capture</i> -- and in the end, the hunt for the "monster" proves deadly to more than one crew-member.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9jU2OvferIg/UmfGKZvyY4I/AAAAAAAAjXY/OHneU-LGT7A/s1600/lagoon3.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="301" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9jU2OvferIg/UmfGKZvyY4I/AAAAAAAAjXY/OHneU-LGT7A/s400/lagoon3.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Though <em><strong>Creature from the Black Lagoon</strong></em> runs a scant eighty-something minutes, director Jack Arnold proves adept at finding the quickest, most efficient, and most cinematic way of expressing ideas and themes. In other words, his visuals pack maximum punch.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Early on, for instance, it is necessary to introduce Reed, and Arnold does so by taking his camera straight down underwater, following a line of depth markers -- 20 feet, 25 feet, 30 feet, 35 feet -- all the way down until his camera lands on a busy swimmer: Reed, conducting research at the bottom of the sea. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">It would have been easier and much less costly, no doubt, simply to cut from the surface to Reed far below it, at the ocean floor, but instead -- <i>and this is the essence of good dramatic filmmaking </i>-- Arnold utilizes an unbroken, single shot that preserves space to reveal <em>visually </em>that David is a hands-on kind of guy, doing the difficult and dangerous work himself. We wouldn't have understood that facet of his character so quickly and so easily with a cut or a series of cuts, and so this unbroken shot not only establishes location, but also something important about the heroic quality of the lead. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">And indeed, when the film reaches its denouement, it is David out in the water clearing debris from the Rita's path, living up to his introductory scene, doing the difficult labor himself.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Similarly, the long plunge down into the water to locate Reed visually reminds us of the gulf between land and sea; of the distance separating life in the two realms. As this is a key leitmotif in the film, Arnold's shot expresses this notion beautifully -- and simply -- as well.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br />The underwater photography throughout <em><strong>Creature From the Black Lagoon</strong></em> is nothing less than extraordinary, and one classic sequence immediately jumps to mind. The lovely Julia Adams -- <i>adorned in a white one-piece bathing suit</i> -- swims across the black lagoon alone. Her shapely figure cuts the placid surface, and far below, in utter darkness, the creature mirrors her every move, entranced by her grace.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br />There's much material of interest in this famous sequence, both thematically and visually. Since the gorgeous Adams is adorned in white, the traditional color of a <em>wedding gown</em>, it is easy to view her as the creature's intended bride. The Gill Man is tantalized by this visitor in his domain and keeps returning to the Rita not merely to kill crew-members, but to claim his beautiful prize, one senses. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br />Furthermore, this relationship is viewed differently by each character during the swimming sequence. Kay believes she's swimming a solo and revels in her every graceful motion, but deep in the darkness below (a blackness <em>opposite</em> to Kay's shining white) the monster believes differently. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">He sees them as a duo, as partners sharing something special: a dance just for two. Perhaps this dance even reflects the creature's mating rituals in some fashion we can't understand. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">And as Kay spins sensuously in the water, the males in the audience no doubt sympathize and share the creature's longing for her. Why else the fascination with this movie monster over the years? He's a guy who doesn't get the girl,despite his deep desire for her, despite the fact that he is captivated by her beauty.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br />Adams is quite an athletic beauty and there is an unfettered and uninhibited quality about the water dance she performs when Kay believes she's alone. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">But then the scene ratchets up the suspense as the Gill Man --<i> no longer content to admire Kay from afar</i> --moves in to touch her, his webbed hands growing ever closer to her kicking, dangling naked feet. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Thus the Gill Man goes from an obsession with Kay to something much more dangerous: <i>the need to possess her.</i> </span><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Again, this is the dynamic of many a love relationship, isn't it? With an unrequited love leading to increasingly desperate behavior.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-nPg41F1xs1k/UmfIJL0GyII/AAAAAAAAjXg/C0umNjtqbqc/s1600/blacklagoon.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-nPg41F1xs1k/UmfIJL0GyII/AAAAAAAAjXg/C0umNjtqbqc/s400/blacklagoon.jpg" width="346" /></a></div><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">In many regards, Kay is the film's central and most important character. Every important conflict in <em><strong>Creature from the Black Lagoon</strong></em> involves possessing her, at least to some extent.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">She is the love object for not only the Gill Man, but for rivals Mark and David. Each of the three "men" in her life wants her for himself, and indeed, acts to win her. If you're so inclined, you can even look at these men as equaling a rough ladder of evolutionary development. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">On the bottom rung is the Gill Man, using brute force, murder, and killing to win his female prize and take her. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Next up the ladder is Mark, who shows off his machismo with - <em>ahem </em>- a very large spear gun. Notice how he keeps drawing attention to the weapon, and wants so desperately to use it. He's a human male, unlike the Gill Man, but one still driven by such qualities as pride (the need to show off) and vanity (the need to prove to the world that he captured the creature). </span><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">On the top rung of the movie's male characters is David. The most evolved of Kay's suitors, he demonstrates his respect for science and his opponent, and works for the communal good...knowing when to give up the hunt and seek escape. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">However -- finally and ultimately -- it is up to Kay to choose which kind of man she will favor (a demonstration of Darwin's survival of the fittest?), and in a film about dead ends and blind alleys of evolution, this character dynamic represents a fascinating subtext, a mirror to the external adventure.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br />For Kay will not merely decide which man to favor as her mate, but is also the most diplomatic and evolved of all the film's characters, a comment, perhaps, on women and the role they play in human civilization.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Early on, Kay defends Mark to David. "<i>Publicity brings endowments, and without money, there wouldn't be any research</i>," she notes, explaining apparently indefensible behavior. In other words, it is <em>the woman</em> who is able to see all sides, to bridge the gap between evolved and un-evolved, and ultimately, that's why she's the film's most valuable prize. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><em><br />"There are many strange legends in the Amazon,"</em> a character in <em><strong>Creature from the Black Lagoon</strong></em> reminds us at one point. This film concerns the discovery of something legendary, something wild, and the need of the human race to understand and possess it, much as the men in the film seek to possess Kay. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The film has maintained its popularity with horror fans over the years because, like King Kong, The Creature is thoroughly understandable and therefore thoroughly pitiable. He's a beast in love, and so we see something of ourselves in him. He may be a relic from a long-gone age, but the desire to love and be loved -- <i>to procreate and thus attain the only immortality available to life forms on this mortal coil</i> -- is universal.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">If you ask me, the real villain in the film is not the Gill Man, but Mark. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The creature works by instinct alone, and who can blame him for that? David is evolved enough to let his intelligence and intellect dominate his choices and decisions. But Mark should know better than to pursue and kill that which he doesn't understand. Ultimately he pays for this mistake with his life. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">A man should be evolved enough to know that there are things in this universe that deserve better than to be trophies on a wall, whether it be a woman...or a creature from the black lagoon.</span></div>John Kenneth Muirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15629979615332893780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12380553.post-2179366917531979902024-02-11T06:00:00.077-05:002024-02-11T06:00:00.245-05:0060 Years Ago: Seven Days In May (1964)<p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0VMTEHK8DBE/V8ClxGRnnPI/AAAAAAABKjg/gzofIpGdSJQdPuLSCGHgqeHVBl0zEGpsACLcB/s1600/seven1.jpg"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0VMTEHK8DBE/V8ClxGRnnPI/AAAAAAABKjg/gzofIpGdSJQdPuLSCGHgqeHVBl0zEGpsACLcB/s400/seven1.jpg" width="260" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">“There’s been abroad in this land in recent months a whisper that we have somehow lost our greatness; that we do not have the strength to win without war the struggles for liberty throughout the world. This is slander, because our country is strong. Strong enough to be a peacemaker. It is proud. Proud enough to be patient. The whisperers and the detractors, the violent men are wrong. We will remain strong and proud, proud and patient, and we will see a day when on this Earth all men will walk out of the tunnels of tyranny into the bright sunshine of freedom.”<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">-<i>Seven Days in May</i> (1964)</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">,<b> </b>written by Rod Serling; directed by John Frankenheimer.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">This sixty year old film, penned by <b><i>Twilight Zone</i></b> (1959-1961) creator Rod Serling is based on a 1962 best-selling novel that concerns an attempted military coup of the U.S. government by an extreme right-wing, four star general.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Like the tale depicted in <b><i>The Manchurian Candidate, Seven Days in May </i></b>is actually an unusual -- and often uncomfortable -- fusion of historical inspiration, and speculation that, given the vantage point of time, reads like prophecy in 2024.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Specifically, <b><i>Seven Days in May</i></b> looks to historical figures and events for the nature and details of its villain, the treasonous General Scott (Burt Lancaster). <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">But simultaneously, the 1964 film forecasts the future (or rather, </span><i style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">the now</i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">…) in terms of far right-wing outrage over any U.S. President or agenda not to its ideological preference. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">As you may have noticed if you’ve been conscious for the last decade it’s not just that the President’s agenda is wrong to these folks, it is that <i>it is illegitimate and dangerous</i>, and that the Commander-in-chief is actually traitor (or “other”) for possessing non-extremist right values and beliefs.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">We have seen this very dynamic recur in at least three presidencies in modern times, and <b><i>Seven Days in May </i></b>-- in a brilliantly-worded finale -- exposes such narcissistic “patriotism” for what it really often is: sedition and treason. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">You simply can’t lay claim to being a patriotic American citizen if your sole mission in life is to destroy the legally elected U.S. President. What are you instead? You are a usurper seeking to replace democracy with authoritarianism.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></i></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Seven Days in May</span></i></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"> gives us two right-wing military men, but juxtaposes them brilliantly, allowing us to compare them, side-by-side (much as <b><i>The Manchurian Candidate</i></b> provided us two right wing senators -- Harding and Iselin -- and afforded audiences the same type of comparison).<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">One right-wing soldier in <b><i>Seven Days in May</i></b>, played by Kirk Douglas is a true patriot. He understands his duty, and obligation under the law, to serve the Commander-in-Chief, even though he disagrees with the current president’s politics. Douglas’s Casey is able to put his personal belief system aside and trust in the people, who sent the President to office.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">And then there is the second right-wing soldier, the aforementioned Scott (Lancaster), who plots a revolution to substitute his own judgment for that of the lawfully elected U.S. President. Duty is not what calls Scott. Evangelical certainty, and moral self-righteousness are his guideposts.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></i></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Seven Days in May</span></i></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"> is a battle between these two right-wing men and their competing visions of America. One man serves his country, and realizes that to be President is to see things in a different light than a general, or soldier, might. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">The other man serves only his ideology (and thus his vanity). In serving this idol, he steps over the will expressed by the American people.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></i></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Seven Days in May</span></i></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"> is disturbing -- and tautly edited -- as the screenplay by Serling fleshes out the details of the coup attempt, and the President’s last-ditch attempt to hold onto the sacred responsibility that “<i>We the People</i>” entrusted him with.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Like <b><i>The Manchurian Candidate</i></b>, this film may feel dated today, in part because the Halls of Power featured in <b><i>Seven Days in Men</i></b> are populated exclusively by white men, and in part because the depiction of Eleanor Holbrooke (Ava Gardner) is patronizing. She is treated like a child; one who can’t select for herself how she should live, or who she should be.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">But again -- as I always point out -- films are made in a historical context. You can't separate them for "presentism," as William Shatner might (quite rightly) remind us at this juncture. To expect historic films to comply with modern values and mores is simply...not logical.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">It’s true that <b><i>Seven Days in May</i></b> has seen time pass it by in some ways. But like <b><i>The Manchurian Candidate</i></b><i>,</i> it resonates more fully today, in 2024, than it has in recent years. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">In some fashion, it has been passed by modern contexts, and in other ways <b><i>Seven Days in May</i></b> is again frighteningly timely. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">After all, we saw many representatives in our Congress refuse to certify the legal election of a president they didn't agree with in 2020. And we saw a desperate, losing president, foster insurrection to stay in office and thwart the will of the people. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Seven hours on January 6?<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-aAl32kF40fo/V8Clc0dADWI/AAAAAAABKjA/Qb4czM2hCY41UguBlqzyL-_0GyludQTwQCEw/s1600/seven4.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-aAl32kF40fo/V8Clc0dADWI/AAAAAAABKjA/Qb4czM2hCY41UguBlqzyL-_0GyludQTwQCEw/s400/seven4.png" width="400" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span style="background: repeat white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></i></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span style="background: repeat white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">“Why, in God's name, do we elect a man president and then try to see how fast we can kill him…”<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Marine Colonel Jiggs Casey (Kirk Douglas), through happenstance and coincidence, discovers that his superior, the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Scott (Lancaster) is moving men and equipment in preparation for a coup in just a matter of days.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">In just a week, Scott and those he commands will seize all television and radio communication in the United States, using a secretly-funded and secretly-manned unit, ECOMCON (Emergency Communications Control) to usurp authority from the historically unpopular President, Jordan Lyman (Fredric March).<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Scott’s reason for the coup is simple. He disagrees with a disarmament treaty between the Soviet Union and the United States that the President supports and wishes to see ratified. Many Americans feel just as he does, and many of them protest outside the White House.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Casey reports everything he knows about the coup attempt to the President, and Lyman’s chief of staff, Paul Girard (Martin Balsam). Girard rejects the tale as paranoid fantasy, but the President realizes he can’t afford to be caught flat-footed, and organizes a brigade of trusted aides to help him determine his options.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">As everyone is quick to realize, General Scott controls the military, and therefore possesses force. The President’s great power, by contrast, is the moral authority of his office, and the Constitution.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Girard is killed in a suspicious plane crash while soliciting the aid of a Navy officer (John Houseman) who refused to be part of the coup. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Meanwhile, the President’s friend, Senator Raymond Clark of Georgia (Edmond O’Brien) is held in custody by Scott’s men when he attempts to find the secret ECOMCON base.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Casey is ordered, against his will, to hunt down incriminating love letters from Scott to his former lover, Eleanor (Ava Gardner), so that the President, if necessary, can “slime” his enemy with them. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">The President absolutely resists this option -- realizing it works against his moral authority -- and instead demands, in a face-to-face meeting, Scott’s resignation.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">But Scott is not ready to give up his grab for power just yet…<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-A_1sIDeXvzY/V8CldJankOI/AAAAAAABKjQ/gIMVFLYnEGAATg0gcog64l6aPH6lloBmQCEw/s1600/seven7.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="221" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-A_1sIDeXvzY/V8CldJankOI/AAAAAAABKjQ/gIMVFLYnEGAATg0gcog64l6aPH6lloBmQCEw/s400/seven7.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span style="background: repeat white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">“And from this…desperation we look for a champion in red, white and blue. Every now and then, a man on a white horse rides by, and we appoint him to be our personal god for the duration.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><i><span style="background: repeat white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></i></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><i><span style="background: repeat white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Seven Days in May</span></i></b><span style="background: repeat white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"> opens with a pan down across the United States Constitution. The writing on the </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">document is large enough, and clear enough, that we can read it.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">As the camera pans down this founding document, the numerals 1 to 7 are scrawled hastily and awkwardly over it, in black writing. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">This writing suggests that in just seven days, the Constitution can be desecrated, if Scott’s plan is carried out.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">The writing over the founding document is thus akin to graffiti, despoiling the image of the Constitution.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-qsPHaB3lCVk/V8ClclpVM1I/AAAAAAABKjI/eJUxGwoGr-QHFxpLPgyIklwTark2i8zyQCEw/s1600/seven3.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="227" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-qsPHaB3lCVk/V8ClclpVM1I/AAAAAAABKjI/eJUxGwoGr-QHFxpLPgyIklwTark2i8zyQCEw/s400/seven3.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">And this optical “superimposition” of graffiti, of writing, over our Constitution also serves as a metaphor for Scott’s actions. By planning to take power from the President, and from the people who elected him, he is similarly spoiling or betraying America. We see the Constitution literally soiled. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">And we see Scott’s plan to trample it.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">After this dynamic and effective opening, <b><i>Seven Days in May</i></b> cuts to a protest outside the White House as it becomes violent. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">On one side of the divide are the folks who see the disarmament treaty as a cowardly, treacherous act. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">On the other are those who agree with Lyman, and view the treaty as a way to help secure peace in our (nuclear) age. Frankenheimer’s camera takes us right into the scuffle with a shaky cam, quick cuts, and very informal camera work. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">This approach makes the protest surprisingly visceral, and also has the effect of making us feel under siege; like we are there, experiencing the protest and the blows ourselves.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3jnsb8D3LRk/V8Clcl4CUvI/AAAAAAABKi8/uCFtFT-fepM6YVxU83eyMBRWSsmLbvLzACEw/s1600/seven2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3jnsb8D3LRk/V8Clcl4CUvI/AAAAAAABKi8/uCFtFT-fepM6YVxU83eyMBRWSsmLbvLzACEw/s400/seven2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">This technique is perfect because, of course, we <i>are </i>there. We all grapple with issues like this, on a daily basis. We all stand to win or lose, depending on how things turn out, depending on what our leaders decide.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">These two scenes, in tandem, create quite an ominous or tense mood right out of the gate. First, we see our most revered founding document desecrated, and then we see civil debate break down into irreconcilable violence. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Together, these two moments light the match, the fuse that burns throughout <b><i>Seven Days in May </i></b>right up until the film’s cathartic and uplifting final speech by Lyman, a true statesman.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">In terms of its approach to history, <b><i>Seven Days in May</i></b> has clearly selected some historical inspirations for Scott, the self-aggrandizing “patriot” who is convinced, primarily, of his own greatness/correctness.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-EYwb0tU20M4/V8CmkMtZB0I/AAAAAAABKjk/M1CVkJDdOEQilrdj7na_n--g1yEPdMUqACEw/s1600/seven8.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="231" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-EYwb0tU20M4/V8CmkMtZB0I/AAAAAAABKjk/M1CVkJDdOEQilrdj7na_n--g1yEPdMUqACEw/s400/seven8.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Some critics (and indeed, Frankenheimer himself), view Scott as a Senator McCarthy figure. McCarthy led a witch-hunt against “Communist infiltrators” in the U.S. Government to make, actually, a name for himself. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Other see Scott as a corollary for General Edwin Walker, a man whom President Eisenhower chastised for putting his own personal politics above his duty. Eisenhower asked for, and received, Walker’s resignation.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: repeat white; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><span style="color: #252525;">Today, men of this stripe </span><a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/jerry-boykin-edits-obama-quote-claim-he-ignored-murder-iraqi-christians"><span style="color: black;"><b>are still with us</b></span></a><span style="color: white;"><b>,</b> </span></span><span style="background: repeat white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">putting their personal religious beliefs and views on ideology ahead of their job as military men or advisors to the government. So,<b><i> Seven Days in May </i></b>has not created Scott out of whole cloth in some attempt to discredit people on the right side of the political spectrum. Instead, a straight line can be drawn from men like McCarthy, and Walker to Scott…and then people in the present time.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">And again, we have the example of Casey. He is from the same political party and belief system as Scott, but he is not a demagogue or an ideologue.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">What <b><i>Seven Days in May</i></b> also gets right is the long, historical -- and let’s face it -- disgraceful attempt to dismiss and diminish peace efforts (and treaties, specifically) as insidious weak-kneed methods by which Presidents plan to destroy America. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Think this is a belief that only occurs in fiction? <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Consider the skepticism with which President Reagan was greeted, by right-wingers in his own party in 1988, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1988/01/17/magazine/the-right-against-reagan.html?pagewanted=all">when attempting to get a disarmament treaty with Russia through the Senate.</a> One senator said, almost word for word, in that meeting, what Scott says to Lyman in <b><i>Seven Days in May</i></b>, beginning with the assertion “</span><i><span style="background: repeat white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">The Soviets have broken most every treaty they have ever signed</span></i><span style="background: repeat white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">.”</span><span style="background: repeat white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">If you require a more recent historical example of the principle and scenario spelled out in the Frankenheimer film, recall the response to the U.S.’s attempt to make peace with Iran in 2015-2016. Some 47 senators signed a letter warning Iran that they would not consider any such treaty binding. Essentially, they were <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2015/03/13/tom-cotton-picked-apart-by-army-general-over-mutinous-iran-letter/?utm_term=.14719cea3454">circumventing the prerogatives of the U.S. President, in an act that some have called “mutinous” and “traitorous</a>.” <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><i><span style="background: repeat white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></i></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #252525; font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">Or in the lingo of the film, why do elect a (person) president and then try, as fast as we can, to kill them?</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UimP8KTZDlA/V8CldKaSnoI/AAAAAAABKjs/LXkF1njK8NY7O90wQL4T4u0vWf0kDybRgCEw/s1600/seven6.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UimP8KTZDlA/V8CldKaSnoI/AAAAAAABKjs/LXkF1njK8NY7O90wQL4T4u0vWf0kDybRgCEw/s400/seven6.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Most deftly, however, <b><i>Seven Days in May</i></b> gets right the notion we see so often in our national discourse; that people are loudly patriotic only so long as their party and beliefs are in power. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">When they are not in power, what do they do? How do they act? What do they say?<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i><span style="background: repeat white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i><span style="background: repeat white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">They talk down America</span></i><span style="background: repeat white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">They say specifically, that America is no longer great. They say it is weak. (And only they can make it great again. Not with their action, but with their “beliefs.”) </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">They wish for the stock market to crash, so they will benefit on Election Day. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">They tell Senators of their party not to work with the president to fix a crisis at the border, so they can have it as an issue in November. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Posted at the top of the review is the speech by President Lyman in <b><i>Seven Days in May</i></b>, which addresses this terrible quality, the diminishing of America to score political point even when the whole world is listening. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">President Lyman rightly reports exactly what this kind of talk really is.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">It is “slander,” he declares. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">America <i>is</i> great. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Great enough to be both strong and patient, and to seek ways out of wars, rather than finding excuses for fighting them.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">That speech calls out men who purport to be patriots but actually root against America when their team isn’t in power. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Lyman has another great moment in the film. He is baffled -- as often I am -- by the hatred of these so-called patriots for the very government they claim to revere.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-yfBmbv1f8dk/V8Clcx24ctI/AAAAAAABKjs/4s46h_SK5GsuOtEShISQs0OLcozLa5hpgCEw/s1600/seven5.PNG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="246" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-yfBmbv1f8dk/V8Clcx24ctI/AAAAAAABKjs/4s46h_SK5GsuOtEShISQs0OLcozLa5hpgCEw/s400/seven5.PNG" width="400" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">He reports: “<i>You have such a fervent, passionate, evangelical faith in this country. Why in the name of God don’t you have any faith in the system of government you’re so hell bent to protect?”</i><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #252525; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">That’s a good question. That's an important question.</span></div><p><span style="background: repeat white; color: #252525; font-family: times; line-height: 15.693334px; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">And one we should all still be asking ourselves today, sixty years since <b><i>Seven Days in May’s</i></b> premiere.</span></p>John Kenneth Muirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15629979615332893780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12380553.post-73580951476790425742024-02-09T06:00:00.001-05:002024-02-09T06:00:00.133-05:0050 Years Ago: Killdozer (1974)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-RUA4IVk5zhQ/WB-dCI5fkgI/AAAAAAABLyk/d03We4skKTorMHbnzTEImhbeUddEr4bRgCLcB/s1600/killdozer3.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="298" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-RUA4IVk5zhQ/WB-dCI5fkgI/AAAAAAABLyk/d03We4skKTorMHbnzTEImhbeUddEr4bRgCLcB/s400/killdozer3.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Some old "gems" (both cinematic and earthen...) are better left un-excavated. Or to put it another way: <i>not everything you remember from your youth is a treasure.</i><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">The 1974 TV-movie <b><i>Killdozer</i></b> -- another touchstone from the disco decade and my mis-spent youth -- proves a prime example of this axiom.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">I'm sad and disappointed to report that under the microscope of critical viewing, this old made-for-television movie doesn’t hold up too well.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">Yes, I'm as disappointed as you are.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">And no, I was not expecting great art upon my recent viewing. On the contrary, I was simply expecting to have a good time; to be entertained on the level of a production such as <b><i>Duel,</i></b> <b><i>Trilogy of Terror, Gargoyles, Snowbeast, Someone's Watching Me, </i></b>or <b><i>Don't Be Afraid of the Dark.</i></b> <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-soKcelDkK3c/WB-dCNU9zXI/AAAAAAABLyo/__aauy8D-GwvbAfucY2XXWPjse4t_zCNQCEw/s1600/killdozer2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="261" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-soKcelDkK3c/WB-dCNU9zXI/AAAAAAABLyo/__aauy8D-GwvbAfucY2XXWPjse4t_zCNQCEw/s400/killdozer2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Those are all 1970s TV-movies that hold up in 2024 given budgetary and censorious limitations. Unfortunately, <b><i>Killdozer</i></b> doesn't make the grade. By a long shot.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">That's a bit of surprise, because the source material is strong stuff. <b><i>Killdozer</i></b> is based on a great and highly-suspenseful Theodore Sturgeon novella first published in<b><i> Astounding Magazine </i></b>back in 1944. Sturgeon's tale concerned a malevolent alien intelligence waging war against humanity (particularly a small work crew) by possessing a bulldozer.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-JV08KSmtkTA/WB-dCRhwbAI/AAAAAAABLy0/PFv8K6xmMQEwBELSUU4KfV443TJdn4sFACEw/s1600/killdozer5.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-JV08KSmtkTA/WB-dCRhwbAI/AAAAAAABLy0/PFv8K6xmMQEwBELSUU4KfV443TJdn4sFACEw/s400/killdozer5.jpg" width="281" /></a></div><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-OBqtr3gS4Ms/WB-dCCRO6_I/AAAAAAABLys/2r5uKaXoXpUhPRjyCN6klndAsGAqndhQwCEw/s1600/killdozer1.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-OBqtr3gS4Ms/WB-dCCRO6_I/AAAAAAABLys/2r5uKaXoXpUhPRjyCN6klndAsGAqndhQwCEw/s400/killdozer1.jpg" width="266" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">The TV-movie pretty closely hews to that simple outline, but lacks the most basic sense of craft to bring to life the bizarre premise. Instead, <b><i>Killdozer </i></b>features a dearth of action, impossible-to-distinguish characters, and is poorly filmed.<b><i><o:p></o:p></i></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><br />Think of <b><i>The Thing</i></b> by way of comparing the ingredients: <i>isolated location</i> (here an island two hundred miles off the coast of Africa), <i>few characters</i> (all male...),<i> an alien menace</i> (not a shape shifter but "pure energy"), <i>and a fierce battle for survival. <o:p></o:p></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><br />In fact, <b><i>Killdozer's</i></b> opening shot is one quite similar to John Carpenter's vastly superior <b><i>The Thing</i></b> (1982) remake. It's set in Earth's near-orbital space. Instead of a flying saucer crashing into the Antarctic snow 200,000 years ago, we see a meteor crash to Earth on that isolated island shore...time indeterminate.<br /><br />We then cut to a small construction team working for Warburton Oil Resources. There are six men on the team, led by a recovering alcoholic named Kelly (Clint Walker). Before long, one of the workers, Mac (Robert Urich) spies an eerie blue glow transfer from the meteor to a bulldozer...and then he promptly dies of something like radiation poisoning.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><br />An alien hum (like one emanating from the meteor), is soon detected in the bulldozer's bucket blade, but gritty mechanic Chub (Neville "Eaten Alive" Brand) can't pinpoint the source. Before long, the alien-controlled bulldozer goes out of control. Its first act is to crush the team's one and only radio.<br /><br />The next thing the bull dozer does is go after the film's only African-American, Al (James Watson). Al's death is an especially absurd scene. <i>I mean, how hard is it to outrun a slow-moving bulldozer, when there are trees not far distant?</i><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><br />And answer me this: if you were being chased by a malevolent construction vehicle, would you stop in the vehicle's path to hide in a hollow pipe?<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><br />The remainder of the film's seemingly eternal running time (74 minutes) is devoted to a lackadaisically-paced and poorly-orchestrated man vs. machine war. Unfortunately, the machine seems to possess the upper hand here in terms of intelligence, and the construction team members are killed one-at-a-time in mostly idiotic fashion. For instance, the bulldozer pushes an avalanche of rocks down a mountainside onto one unlucky man who doesn't have the wherewithal to look up.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><br />Then another character spontaneously decides to go joy-riding in a jeep on the beach...only to be surprised that the bulldozer is waiting on the shore for him, having sprung a trap.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-DXjjY1pDuI4/WB-dCSG9StI/AAAAAAABLyw/V9LgSquYkUkdIEQcil26HYQPsztBd3dDgCEw/s1600/killdozer4.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-DXjjY1pDuI4/WB-dCSG9StI/AAAAAAABLyw/V9LgSquYkUkdIEQcil26HYQPsztBd3dDgCEw/s400/killdozer4.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">I have to admit, this latter moment is unintentionally funny. Staged as a shocking surprise, the film cuts suddenly to the bulldozer on the beach... just waiting to strike as the joy-rider appears on the scene. You have to ask yourself: how did the malevolent bulldozer know <i>exactly</i> where the jeep would show up on the vast shore line, and then park there undetected? <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">How, precisely, can a loud bulldozer "sneak up" on someone?<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><br />I often joke that in horror movies, human beings do not possess peripheral vision. In<b><i> Killdozer</i></b>, human beings also do not have the capacity to hear, apparently. For example, there's a moment in which the parked bulldozer raises its mechanical blade (to smash a worker), while an imperiled character stands in front of the machine, <i>just inches away.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Does he hear anything and turn around? <i>Nope.</i> <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">The dialogue in <b><i>Killdozer </i></b>is mostly atrocious too, a stream of endless lines like<i> "machines don't just run by themselves!"<o:p></o:p></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><br />Well, if you are trapped on an island and your comrades are being murdered at an alarming rate, are you going to cling to that particular theory or believe your own lying eyes? <i><br /><br />Obviously the damn bulldozer is running itself. </i>How many people do you have to see crushed by a self-operating bulldozer before realization starts to dawn?<i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-NBWFxs-6ufc/WB-dCWiXPwI/AAAAAAABLy4/evd9jk1hOtIXJALTw2DCiRFmdPS7kFTEACEw/s1600/killdozer6.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-NBWFxs-6ufc/WB-dCWiXPwI/AAAAAAABLy4/evd9jk1hOtIXJALTw2DCiRFmdPS7kFTEACEw/s400/killdozer6.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">But <b><i>Killdozer's</i></b> biggest deficit remains that, from a visual standpoint, it is a remarkably ugly film. The island setting is chalky and dusty -- not exotic at all -- and there is no variation (therefore <i>no relief</i>) whatsoever in location. From start to finish, the movie looks as though it were filmed in a quarry somewhere. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">The scared work men drive back and forth from one chalk pit to another, trying to come up with a plan to kill their nemesis. After dynamite doesn't do the trick, electrocution proves efficacious (a nod to Hawks' <b><i>The Thing</i></b>?) But even the iconic battle between crane and bulldozer is visually underwhelming. A clever filmmaker might have tried to play up the beauty of the location; making a distinction between the natural beauty of the island and the mechanical ugliness of the bulldozer.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><br />Total honesty requires that I admit one thing. I did feel a pleasant flush of nostalgia while watching <b><i>Killdozer</i></b>, especially during the yellow-lettered, Universal Studios, 70s-style opening credits. In particular, I remember how I first encountered it as a little kid: as a Saturday Afternoon Super Spectacular or some such thing. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">But the happy glow of nostalgia fades quickly during this monotonous TV-movie and the audience is left with the realization that these interchangeable characters are so dumb, so slow-witted, that they deserve to die at the hands (or gears) of the killdozer.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><br />The best part of <b><i>Killdozer</i></b> is the clever title. However, the operative syllable there just might be "doze."</span></div>John Kenneth Muirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15629979615332893780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12380553.post-31527043602678501622024-02-08T06:00:00.001-05:002024-02-08T06:00:00.146-05:0050 Years Ago: Dan Curtis' Dracula (1974)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-V8qHIC2QlSk/WcfVnqqzBXI/AAAAAAABPus/kLAIR2n3QDwpFYm7c2gxj5YxQsdLkO20ACEwYBhgL/s1600/curtis7.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="350" height="640" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-V8qHIC2QlSk/WcfVnqqzBXI/AAAAAAABPus/kLAIR2n3QDwpFYm7c2gxj5YxQsdLkO20ACEwYBhgL/s640/curtis7.jpg" width="448" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">In 1897, Jonathan Harker (Murray Brown) travels to Hungary, and meets with his client, Count Dracula (Jack Palance), at the count’s castle in the Carpathians. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">After entering the estate freely -- of his “<i>own will</i>” -- Harker attempts to secure property in England for his host: dilapidated Carfax Abbey. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Meanwhile, Dracula shows a suspicious interest in Harker’s photograph of his fiancé, Mina Murray (Penelope Horner), and her friend, Lucy (Fiona Lewis).<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">The undead Dracula unlooses his three vampire brides on Harker, and leaves for England. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Five weeks later, there are reports in Whitby, England of the arrival of a ghost ship, the Demeter, and its dead crew. Soon, Lucy falls ill, the victim of some apparent mystery illness.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">In truth, Dracula is draining Lucy’s blood, a little each night. A brilliant scientist, Van Helsing (Nigel Davenport) arrives to help, and evidence leads him to the conclusion that a vampire is responsible for her suffering. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0aOUwzhWUOY/WcfVmVRhM0I/AAAAAAABPuk/mEWi-EpzUgwrnQIW_bnrP3T0EpsNT7VaQCEwYBhgL/s1600/curtis5.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="826" height="290" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0aOUwzhWUOY/WcfVmVRhM0I/AAAAAAABPuk/mEWi-EpzUgwrnQIW_bnrP3T0EpsNT7VaQCEwYBhgL/s400/curtis5.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">This Dan Curtis TV-movie from 1974 is not the most notable production of Bram Stoker’s novel, <b><i>Dracula,</i></b> perhaps, but it certainly earns points for a grim atmosphere of seriousness in its depiction of the famous “<i>preternatural being</i>,” and his campaign of terror in Victorian England.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">The tele-film starts out as an uber-faithful adaptation of Stoker’s work, beginning with the Harker interlude, but as it goes on, it becomes less and less faithful to the source material. This is a result, perhaps, of budgetary or time restraints. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">For instance, Renfield is absent from this version entirely. Lucy’s three suitors are not present either, replaced by the character named Arthur (Sion Ward) instead.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">And yet surprisingly -- since this was broadcast on network television -- the film doesn’t shy away from the sexual implication of the story. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">There is a scene here, for example, of Lucy dropping to her knees before a standing Dracula, which, when coupled with the disrobing of her bandaged neck, suggests wanton, sensual abandon.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">The film's photography, by Oswald Morris, is quite powerful, and director Curtis shows a facility with film grammar when it comes to establishing Dracula's frightful power.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-bh_nxQBb33A/WcfVlmEfz5I/AAAAAAABPuY/KnNGmwdbiDI_TOjgGp2OsXtDhLUy4nBYwCEwYBhgL/s1600/curtis2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="403" data-original-width="717" height="223" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-bh_nxQBb33A/WcfVlmEfz5I/AAAAAAABPuY/KnNGmwdbiDI_TOjgGp2OsXtDhLUy4nBYwCEwYBhgL/s400/curtis2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">But any production of Dracula rises and falls on its depiction of the titular character.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Here Jack </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Palance plays the count squinty-eyed and labored,</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> an approach </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">which suggests that Dracula is often in terrible physical pain, perhaps from his yearning for blood; or perhaps because of his yearning for companionship.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WLoKtOQKQEc/WcfVltziuyI/AAAAAAABPu0/QKYaxE2zro0sqPCJ2YzVdgKJFYTHd0FUACEwYBhgL/s1600/curtis1.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="320" data-original-width="600" height="212" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WLoKtOQKQEc/WcfVltziuyI/AAAAAAABPu0/QKYaxE2zro0sqPCJ2YzVdgKJFYTHd0FUACEwYBhgL/s400/curtis1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Even Dracula’s death feels highly personal here. We (the audience) are on the receiving end of the wooden stake, looking right into Van Helsing’s eyes as the death blow is delivered.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">From this perspective, it’s as though we are being murdered.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-RkcLeyB6s7k/WcfVmGaBptI/AAAAAAABPu0/qffmkXy8SY4tqC3yGQBp0LjRQqJ_sxBywCEwYBhgL/s1600/curtis3.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="320" data-original-width="600" height="212" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-RkcLeyB6s7k/WcfVmGaBptI/AAAAAAABPu0/qffmkXy8SY4tqC3yGQBp0LjRQqJ_sxBywCEwYBhgL/s400/curtis3.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">The story, adapted by Richard Matheson, dispenses with some of Stoker’s more nightmarish (but expensive) imagery such as the blue rings of fire on the path to Dracula’s castle, or the dark count scaling the tower walls of his home. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">The teleplay also invents a “human” motivation for Dracula’s campaign of terror, his invasion of England. In this case, Lucy is a dead ringer for the vampire’s long lost wife, whom he misses desperately. Intriguingly, this subplot (though changed to Mina...) is also included in Coppola’s 1992 <b><i>Bram Stoker’s Dracula</i></b>, though it is not a facet of Stoker’s original work in any way, shape, or form..<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">The epistolary structure of the novel is also missing here, but the core of Stoker’s work -- the “new” technology and science of the Victorian era (such as hypnosis…) of England vs the old world magic and romanticism of Dracula’s world -- remains largely intact. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Van Helsing is portrayed as a particularly pragmatic sort of scientist, noting that he accepts “<i>what is</i>,” whether science agrees with the idea or not. The underlying notion is of a world of mysteries that mankind is conquering, one at a time. Advances in science, philosophy and technology are making that happen, so that the Draculas of the world are becoming fewer, or less dangerous.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-0QVatNgY0PI/WcfVmF1cqvI/AAAAAAABPu0/yU6mFbhHJD4-TnrGTWq7jmRa9-XJs0BZACEwYBhgL/s1600/curtis4.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="320" data-original-width="600" height="212" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-0QVatNgY0PI/WcfVmF1cqvI/AAAAAAABPu0/yU6mFbhHJD4-TnrGTWq7jmRa9-XJs0BZACEwYBhgL/s400/curtis4.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">It’s also illuminating, I hope, to note that there seems to be no appetite here for some of Stoker’s over-exposed dialogue (“<i>creatures of the night</i>….”). Instead the focus is on a very physically-intimidating Dracula. This Dracula doesn’t rely on transformations into mist or wolves --<i> again, too expensive</i> -- but instead throws people out of windows and engages physically with his nemeses.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><i><b>Dan Curtis’s Dracula</b> </i>is generally high-regarded among critics and fans of the vampire, and it’s easy to see why this is the case.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2y1q827EnuM/WcfVm4J8MOI/AAAAAAABPu0/R3VGLvMnIWMFJsBwRoyQ-uc8XJD4RHL-gCEwYBhgL/s1600/curtis6.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="193" data-original-width="261" height="295" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2y1q827EnuM/WcfVm4J8MOI/AAAAAAABPu0/R3VGLvMnIWMFJsBwRoyQ-uc8XJD4RHL-gCEwYBhgL/s400/curtis6.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">The tele-film is much more faithful to the source material than many of the 1930’s or 1950’s films were, and the Dan Curtis production seems grounded in a way that other dramatizations do not. Today, the film feels a bit restricted by its origin and nature as a TV-movie, but still impresses, on more than one occasion. On paper, Palance doesn't seem a good choice for the title role, but he is able to project the power, anger, and tragedy of the count in a way that is worth remembering. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>John Kenneth Muirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15629979615332893780noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12380553.post-38825184622610893562024-02-07T06:00:00.014-05:002024-02-07T10:22:24.464-05:00My Father's Journal: "Under Blue Skies & Canvas"<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">(<span style="font-family: times;"><b>JKM's Note: </b>This week in my dad's journal, he ponders the pull of the Great Outdoors, and the impact of nature on his life).</span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: times;">Under Blue Skies & Canvas<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><b>By Ken Muir</b><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">If we are fortunate in life there is a place where an arrival lifts our spirits immediately. For me that place is the woods. Ever since I was quite young, arrival in a patch of woods lifted my spirits and raised prospects of fun.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">I mull the possibility that my very early experiences on my grandmother’s farm in Gore, Oklahoma, kindled in me a love for being outdoors. (This part of my life would have been during 1944-45 while my father was still in combat in Italy.) According to family lore, I was given a measure of freedom in roaming the farm property. Robert’s return to Gore in June, 1945, changed everything and set in motion our family life.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">Settling in our rented spaces, first on Fairfield Ave. in West Caldwell (the house, barn and outhouse are long gone) and then at 212 Baldwin St. in Glen Ridge, allowed this penchant for “woodsy wandering” to grow even further. But our 1952 relocation to 115 Winding Way in Cedar Grove (the first house the family owned) gave wide room to my desire to explore undeveloped and forested areas. There was a small patch of woods literally a stone’s throw from our backyard, as well as a larger one at the north end of the block.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">Peckman’s Brook, which winds through much of the center of Cedar Grove, along with the large, open acreage around the Essex County Mental Hospital (Overbrook), gave us spacious areas to discover and use for imaginative play and for hunting down poor amphibious & reptilian creatures. “Playing guns” was our default activity, with either WW II or the Cowboy West being our chosen milieu. Using my father’s cast-off military bits and the German Army helmet he brought home from Italy; a spice of historical reality inspired our combative fantasies.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">As we were permitted to roam further and further from home, the large, forested area west of Fairview Avenue became our favored playground. While on a map this is “Second Watchung Mountain,” we knew it simply as “the mountain.” Comprised of scores of acres of woodland, the area was completely undev-eloped as late as the 1970s. The climb was demanding, quite steep in places….rock strewn, vine entangled. During the 1930s there had been a competitive motorcycle climb here. Carrying our hunting knives, we climbed and ran about joyously.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">Nestled in this mid-fifties time frame was the event which likely had the greatest influence; one month at Camp Hunt during the summer of 1955. Situated in the rolling hills and farm country outside Hubbards-ville, NY, this first stay at camp was the happiest month of my life up to that point……new friends and experiences, Nature close at hand all around, freedom from Ellen’s repressive regime….There was a subtle magic here for me.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">The boy campers stayed in army surplus, eight-man pyramidal tents, sleeping on wire-spring, steel-frame cots. The mattress was 2-3 inches thick, covered in cotton ticking. A sheet and an army blanket from home completed the accommodations, and the bed had to be made up for a demanding inspection each morning, a quarter made to bounce from mid-bed. When not in the daily Bible-based classes and worship services, I amused myself with <u>Huckleberry Finn</u>and <u>Goodbye Mr. Chips</u>.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">The greatest joy, however, came from our daily activities, most of them out of doors. We swam in a true, mud-bottomed, reed- filled, frog-equipped swimming hole almost every day. Softball and other group games were frequent, but the games of “capture the flag” with more than seventy participants were the greatest joy. Frequent trips, on foot or by auto, spiced our daily routine; Chenango County waterfalls, wilderness fire towers, swim spots in the Finger Lakes region, “snipe hunts,” and just plain old hikes through the woods by day or by night——-all entertained us and made the days pass quickly. And every night the canopy of brilliant stars soared above us, undimmed by light pollution.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">And the end of each day was unvarying; the playing of ”Taps” by the bugler and the settling down under canvas fragrant with the paraffin solution used to preserve it and keep it waterproof.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">Thus began my lifelong love of tenting.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">A return to Camp Hunt three years later, this time with Jerry accompanying me and for only a two-week stay, lacked the magic of that first sojourn. But that first month, in July, 1955, was jewel-like, garnished with bumptious “canteen” visits every afternoon where candy and “soda-pop” could be purchased via our personal accounts.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">And sweetest of all was my first romantic crush…on Millie Summerlin, a student from Freed-Hardeman College who worked as a camp counselor. She was eighteen and I eleven, but what the heck….I could dream..…!<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">My returning home with the “Best Camper Boy” medal—-and the <u>Verona-Cedar Grove Times</u> article it triggered—-was sweet also. My Dad said little but was proud.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">Seven years later, TNT club outings at Harding College just reinforced this love of living outdoors, even if I had only a single blanket for ground sleeping in late October. Farmlands and woods hosted our adventures.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">An eleven-year hiatus then intervened as “our life” took on whole new directions. Marriage, jobs, children, housing ——a host of more important concerns shouldered aside any possibilities of camping out.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">Brookdale Park and the other lovely Essex County parks (Edgemont Park and Verona Park were also among our favorites) subbed in as outdoor spaces when Lara and John were very young. Each park possessed its own beauty and wonder.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">But soon the kids were old enough to carry stuff, and we were off to parts and parks previously unexplored!! Hacklebarney State Park, Stokes State Forest, Tillman’s Ravine, Ringwood Manor Park<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">and many lesser woodsy and historic places soon joined our list of destinations.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">The acquisition of the “old blue truck” (1955 International Harvester Step-van) from our neighbors the Alts again changed the rotational axis of our world.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">While no truly smart person would ever have purchased the “old blue truck,” Ken forged ahead with the idea in hope that it would open up a camping future for the family. It did…after a fashion. Despite its intermittent mechanical problems, the truck, now equipped with a home-built tent storage box overhead, made possible trips to Allaire State Park, Newport, RI, the Adirondack Mountains, Williamsburg, VA, Wilmington, NC and other locations. We pitched our tents in each of these scenic spots and ..usually.. came home with dry canvas. Iconic historical sites were central to each trip, as three years of blue truck travel sped quickly by. Our appetite for truck-based camping was now fully whetted, and we waited anxiously until we could afford a new truck to extend our range and comfort.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">In April of 1978 we purchased our very empty Ford Econoline. 150 van in two-tone green($5800) Its only interior amenity was a driver’s seat on a pedestal. We promptly went to work cutting holes everywhere…..for sliding, screened side windows, for a roof scoop air vent, for a commodious roof rack and for an iconic Iron Cross window in the sliding door. Long-fiber green carpet fastened to plywood soon lined all four surfaces of the truck interior, and a sofa bed and home-built cabinetry completed the rear cabin accommodations. In front, the driver and passenger relished the comfort and support of twin leatherette captain’s chairs. The engine was a “straight six.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">These improvements were bittersweet because much of the cost was underwritten by the $1,000 sale of our beloved 1968 Plymouth Barracuda ($3,400 new). But we needed the cash and no longer had room in the driveway for the new truck, the ’77 Honda Civic and the ‘Cuda.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">Our “shakedown trip” in the new truck was to North Carolina during the summer of 1978. Junkyard seats served in the rear because we had not yet acquired the faux leather sofa-bed. A state park near Wilmington was our destination, and we experienced the delight of 88-degree water temperatures for the first time……..not exactly the Jersey shore! <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">1978 also featured our camping trip to Orlando, Florida. We toured Disney World, learned to “live wet” in tents, and we loved Christopher Reeve in “Superman”!!<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">1979 turned out to be the culmination of all we had been working toward…….our inaugural cross-country camping trip! First pitching our tents on the shores of Lake Michigan, we moved steadily across the Upper Plains states and the Pacific Northwest. We ultimately camped in fourteen states and stayed out for six full weeks, putting 10,000 miles on the odometer. The weather was great and the scenery spectacular.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">I will not recall the details of this trip, as they are too manifold<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">Several hundred Kodak slides document our travels, and you kids were now old enough to remember many of the details…….and the occasional drama! Suffice to say, it was the greatest travel that I ever experienced. Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, the Badlands. and the dinosaur park in the Dakotas, the Devil’s Tower, Yellowstone National Park and the beauty of the Tetons, the Clearwater River Valley, the Snake River and the vast Columbia, Portland, the first views of the Pacific, our hideaway campsite in southern Oregon just in from the Coast, San Francisco with its myriad wonders, Yosemite National Park, redwood stands and “all things John Muir,” camping at Lake Tahoe, back to Utah for the Dinosaur National Monument and the Green River Gorge, the final descent through the Front Range of the Rockies, relaxing in the shadow of Long’s Peak beside crystal clear, snow-melt streams and waterfalls.. We filled our memory banks as well as slide trays with gorgeous images of America’s natural beauty.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">Our second cross-country trip three years later was but a pale imitation of the first. Crossing the country now from the 1982 World’s Fair in Knoxville, Tennessee to the Gulf in Alabama, and then west via New Orleans, Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. We arrived at the Pacific once again, this time in San Diego. Nevada regaled us with the beauties of Lake Mead and the Hoover Dam. Reno charmed us briefly, and then we headed east across Utah. Bryce and Zion national parks awed with their beauty. Colorado served once again as our gateway out of the West, and we headed for home. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">Camping in ten or more states, spending almost five weeks “on the road,” we again logged 10,000 miles and witnessed America and Americans at first hand…….doing our own version of the iconic book, “Blue Highways” by Wm. L H Moon.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">Inevitably, much of my enjoyment of these trips, especially the first, was informed by my considerable reading about the opening of the American West. The beautiful prose of Bernard DeVoto stands out especially here, and I am afraid that this internal, reading-based vision of the natural world around us led to seemingly interminable vistas of rock formations, lush forests, and mountain ranges. I apologize to you three fellow travelers….thanks for indulging me.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">Our tenting travel took a back seat for a while after 1982, as we spent several happy summers at Deer Lake in NJ. GRHS marching band and all the panoply of high school activities took center stage for several years, and then the 1987 purchase of a home building lot in Mint Hill changed the family’s life trajectory profoundly. College plans and aspirations, critical promotions at Ken’s job, house-painting summers, and the advent of romance and marriage in our children’s lives added whole new dimensions to our happy life journey. Only at Jekyll Island, Georgia, did we again put up our tents during these very busy years.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">Ken’s penchant for camping and “living under canvas” went through one more iteration following our move to North Carolina. In a first abortive attempt, we bought in Rutherford a used pop-up camper trailer which we towed down here with our F-150 Ford pick-up. It sat unused on the rear apron for eight years, as we were too busy with the new house and property and with our new jobs to find the time to use it.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">Finally, in 2005, a chance visit to a camping store in Matthews introduced us to a new idea…..a camping trailer with fold-out, canvas-shrouded sleeping areas at both ends. We spent several months searching NC for the “perfect” camper, and ultimately selected a 25’ Jayco model. $15,800 later we were ready to roll!!<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">Life, however, had its own plan, and two cancer diagnoses in ten years played havoc with our travel hopes. We managed to pull off several trips in NC along with one to Alabama and one to Virginia. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">And travel was made easier when we swapped the F-150 for a 2008 Toyota Tundra truck. It offered smooth towing power all day long!<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">Our new circumstances forced the sale of the Jayco in 2016, and our “life under canvas” came, too soon, to an end. The “blue skies,” however, remain!</span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>John Kenneth Muirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15629979615332893780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12380553.post-32784595566083198712024-02-06T06:00:00.067-05:002024-02-06T06:43:35.163-05:0050 Years Ago: Zardoz (1974)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_mpBGa4P5jUo/TOpyPXAJMGI/AAAAAAAAF6c/hjlKWxSgQIw/s1600/zardoz1.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><img border="0" height="230" ox="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_mpBGa4P5jUo/TOpyPXAJMGI/AAAAAAAAF6c/hjlKWxSgQIw/w533-h230/zardoz1.jpg" width="533" /></span></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">My friend and mentor, Johnny Byrne (27 November 1935 – 3 April 2008) -- an Irish poet, philosopher and writer on science fiction TV series such as <em><strong>Space: 1999</strong></em> and <em><strong>Doctor Who </strong></em>-- often termed the decade of the 1970s the "<em>wake-up from the hippie dream</em>" of the sixties. </span><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">The counter-culture revolution which was formed in large part due to opposition over the Vietnam War, failed to re-shape the world and the direction of the human species. The dreams of the post-Camelot world gave way to the hard realities of the disco decade. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Instead of a new social order, the world seemed on the verge of social breakdown instead. Words like "<em>malaise</em>," and terms like "<em>crisis of confidence</em>" dominated the debate. Gasoline shortages slowed down America, and garbage collection strikes left trash piled high in the streets of London. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">The dreams of finding a better way of living gave way to excessive consumption, personal decadence, hard drug use and even cult insanity, much like that exemplified by Charles Manson and his "family."</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">All of this description is but contextual prologue to my analysis of director John Boorman's challenging<em><strong> Zardoz</strong></em> (1974), a highly idiosyncratic science fiction production which, like its contemporary, <em><strong>Space:1999</strong></em> arrived smack-dab during the "<em>wake-up from the Hippie dream</em>."</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Specifically, the 1974 film concerns the serious problems of a post-apocalyptic counter-culture order of "Eternals" -- <em>essentially an egalitarian commune</em> -- and the eventual, violent re-assertion of the <em>conventional nuclear family unit</em> through the presence and actions of a revolutionary in the commune, a macho outsider and "Brutal" named Zed (Sean Connery).</span></div><div align="justify" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"></span></div><div align="justify" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span></div><div align="justify" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><strong><em>Chicago Sun Times</em></strong> critic </span><a href="http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19740101/REVIEWS/401010325/1023"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Roger Ebert termed</span></a><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"> <em><strong>Zardoz</strong></em> "<em>an exercise in self-indulgence (if often an interesting one) by Boorman, who more or less had carte blanche to do a personal project after his immensely successful <strong>Deliverance</strong>. Boorman seems fascinated by stories which are disconnected from the ordinary realist assumptions of most movies."</em></span></div><div align="justify" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span></div><div align="justify" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Film scholar Jay Cocks of <em><strong>Time Magazine</strong></em> appreciated the cinematic wizardry of the film, if not the details of the world Boorman created. </span><a href="http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,942780,00.html"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">He wrote</span></a><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">: "<em>The startling beauty and tension he can work into a single shot --say, of Connery rising out of a pile of dark grain holding a revolver -- are the work of a film maker who is rather a wizard himself."</em></span></div><div align="justify" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span></div><div align="justify" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">These critical snippets get at some of the trademark if controversial brilliance of <em><strong>Zardoz</strong></em>; both its unconventional manner of presentation in terms of traditional cinema narratives, and its unique ability to foster suspense through individual moments of resonant, powerful imagery. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Today, the film succeeds mainly <em>as a critique of the counter-culture</em>, of the commune experiment of the 1960s-1970s and, simultaneously an all-guns blazing defense of <em>the traditional family structure.</em></span></div><div align="justify" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span></div><div align="justify" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">The narrator of the film, the puppet-master behind the god Zardoz (the wi<strong><em>zard</em> </strong>of <em><strong>oz</strong></em> so-to-speak) introduces the film as "<em>rich in irony and deeply satirical</em>," and what he seems to suggest, simply, is that mankind's long search for a better way of living -- <em>for immortality itself</em> -- is a fruitless search. </span></div><div align="justify" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span></div><div align="justify" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Man has <em>already</em> discovered the way of life that works best for him, <em>and it is the conventional family structure</em>. Everything else is a dead end; a blind alley. By film's end, the unsuccessful "new" order has been invalidated and overturned, and tradition re-established.</span></div><div align="justify" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span></div><div align="justify" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">There's also an argument here against the evils of Communism. Zed and his macho, cowboy-styled Executioners (all men) ultimately rebel against their false God, Zardoz, and the hidden puppet masters, the Elders, when the advanced society turns the Brutals from hunters <em>to workers</em>:<em> </em>slaves cultivating crops and delivering them to the God Head. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">This is an unacceptable way of living to the formerly "free," savage, Brutals and so rebellion results. The Eternals interfered with their destiny to be killers...<em>turning them into farmers serving a higher class,</em> and populist revolt is the solution.</span></div><div align="justify" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /><em><strong><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">"Who conjured you out of the clay?"</span></strong></em></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_mpBGa4P5jUo/TOxl3uP_UII/AAAAAAAAF60/Zm-xzsOg86o/s1600/zardoz2.jpg" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><img border="0" height="230" ox="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_mpBGa4P5jUo/TOxl3uP_UII/AAAAAAAAF60/Zm-xzsOg86o/w544-h230/zardoz2.jpg" width="544" /></span></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">The false god, Zardoz calls to the Brutals in the futuristic landscape of <em><strong>Zardoz.</strong></em></span></td></tr></tbody></table></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><em><strong>Zardoz</strong></em> involves a futuristic society of the year 2293. A small egalitarian commune of "Eternals" has established a new order of life amidst the breakdown of civilization. After a new Dark Ages occurs, a group of scientists wall themselves off from the rest of barbaric humanity with a force field called "<em>The Vortex</em>," and then establish the control of an artificial intelligence called "<em>The Tabernacle</em>." </span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-color: currentcolor; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-style: none; border-top: medium none; border-width: medium; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-color: currentcolor; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-style: none; border-top: medium none; border-width: medium; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Each Eternal is surgically-implanted with a crystal in his or her forehead, and it can link to the Tabernacle and its vast repository of knowledge at the speed-of-thought. Each Eternal also carries a communication ring, for issuing orders and transmitting holograms about scientific and mercantile matters.</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-color: currentcolor; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-style: none; border-top: medium none; border-width: medium; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-color: currentcolor; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-style: none; border-top: medium none; border-width: medium; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Disease and death have been banished from everyday life in this futuristic commune, and the Eternals are truly immortal. <em>They have lived hundreds of years.</em> One cost of this immortality: Eternal males can no longer achieve erection, and therefore there is no possibility of children; of offspring. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">This is the last generation; but it shall last forever.</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-color: currentcolor; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-style: none; border-top: medium none; border-width: medium; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-color: currentcolor; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-style: none; border-top: medium none; border-width: medium; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Another dark sign: the Eternals mercilessly punish those who assert <em>individuality</em> amidst their democratic (Marxist?) community. They banish these "Renegades" to an old-folks home after rapid-aging them years, sometimes decades. The Renegades live in this home -- senile and lost -- forever banished.</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-color: currentcolor; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-style: none; border-top: medium none; border-width: medium; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-color: currentcolor; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-style: none; border-top: medium none; border-width: medium; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Even worse, the community of the Eternals has come to prize its own eternal continuance over the well-being of other communities, over other human beings. The rest of humanity dwells outside the force field "Vortex" in poverty and primitivism. The Eternals keep the "Brutals" in line by providing them a false god named Zardoz. Zardoz -- <em>a giant, floating stone head</em> -- orders these Brutals not to breed, telling them that "<em>the penis is evil</em>," lest the environment become unbalanced, with too many Brutal mouths-to-feed. </span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-color: currentcolor; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-style: none; border-top: medium none; border-width: medium; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-color: currentcolor; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-style: none; border-top: medium none; border-width: medium; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Similarly, Zardoz informs the Brutals that "<em>the gun is good</em>," because it can be utilized to reduce the Brutals' numbers. </span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-color: currentcolor; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-style: none; border-top: medium none; border-width: medium; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-color: currentcolor; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-style: none; border-top: medium none; border-width: medium; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Both the evil of the penis and the good of the gun are methods of <em>population control</em>; so that the Eternals may retain their grip on power, and a life of ease and luxury.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">In <em><strong>Zardoz,</strong></em> one curious Brutal, an executioner named "Zed" (Connery) sneaks into the floating Zardoz monument and thereby penetrates the Vortex. After Zardoz lands in a rural landscape, in the Eternal commune, he finds himself an object of both curiosity and hatred by the Eternals. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">One woman named May (Sara Kestelman) wants to study Zed, especially after learning that he is a genetic mutant with the potential of great intelligence (greater even than that of the Eternals). Another Eternal, Consuella (Charlotte Rampling) sees Zed as a primitive virus or disease who could pollute the commune and even destroy the Eternal way of life. A third, apparently disinterested party, Friend (John Alderton) sees Zed simply as a means of passing the time. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">"<em>Let's keep it</em>," he suggests, "<em>Anything to relieve the boredom..."</em></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Zed undergoes a kind of evolution or period of enlightenment in the Eternals' commune. Friend shows him the Renegades in the old folks home, as well as a breed of "Apathetics," Eternals who have slipped into <em>virtual catatonia</em> for lack of physical stimulation and any change in the same routine. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Then, Zed learns that he was actually bred and selected by the puppet master behind Zardoz, Frayne, to <em>destroy the Eternal way of life</em>; to defeat the Tabernacle and bring <em>the gift of death</em> back to a civilization that serves no purpose but its own, endless continuation. He is "The Chosen One."</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">At film's end, Zed breaches the Vortex and his fellow Brutals swarm into the commune on horseback, with guns blazing. In a scene that plays more like an orgy than a massacre, the Exterminators destroy the Eternals, who are grateful to see their endless, pointless lives finally come to end. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Meanwhile, May escapes to the outside world, carrying "knowledge" back to the ignorant Brutals. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">As for Zed, he and Consuella reconcile...and become lovers. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">In <em><strong>Zardoz's</strong></em> final time-lapse montage, we see this duo -- <em>this man and woman (Adam and Eve?)</em> - form the crux of a new family unit...one that will produce offspring, and ultimately a new, better chapter in human history.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span><br /><em><strong><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">"A better breed could prosper here. Given time..."</span></strong></em></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><em><strong><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></strong></em></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-color: currentcolor; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-style: none; border-top: medium none; border-width: medium;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_mpBGa4P5jUo/TOxmGPTXQKI/AAAAAAAAF64/7uNjN9dFPxU/s1600/zardoz6.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><img border="0" height="250" ox="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_mpBGa4P5jUo/TOxmGPTXQKI/AAAAAAAAF64/7uNjN9dFPxU/w567-h250/zardoz6.jpg" width="567" /></span></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Zed (Connery) sees his savage past replayed for Eternal consumption.</span></td></tr></tbody></table></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-color: currentcolor; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-style: none; border-top: medium none; border-width: medium;"><br /><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">It is not difficult to interpret<em><strong> Zardoz</strong></em> as director John Boorman’s carefully and occasionally humorous critique of the unconventional, untested "hippie" life-styles developing in the late 1960s and early 1970s. In particular, the film seems to take dead aim at the Zeitgeist of that period by presenting the Eternal Community as, essentially a 1960s-style commune run amok.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Let’s pause for a definition and history lesson there. Communes are <em>small groups</em> of people living together for a common purpose, but not in a traditional family unit. <em>Nearly a million people lived in communes in the early 1970s</em>, and the goal, largely was to keep the outside world at bay. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">In<em><strong> Zardoz</strong></em>, of course, the Eternals (a tribe of perhaps fifty) actually maintain a force field separator – <em>the Vortex</em> – between their commune and the outside world, a literalization of that goal of keeping the world at bay.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Timothy Miller, writer of <em><strong>The 60s Communes, Hippies and Beyond</strong></em>, wrote an illuminating definition of a commune in his 1999 book from Syracuse Press. In the introduction (pages xxii-xxiii,) he noted that communes feature <em>a sense of common purpose and separation from the dominant society</em>, some form or <em>level of self denial and suppression of individual choice in favor of the group</em>, a <em>geographic proximity</em>, and notions of <em>economic sharing</em> and <em>critical mass.</em> In this case, critical mass means simply that communes are relatively small in size, fifty or so individuals, as I already labeled the Eternals above..</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">The Eternals of <em><strong>Zardoz</strong></em> fit this definition perfectly, not just in terms of their separation from the Brutals, but in other important fashion. Like many communes, the Eternal society is <em>egalitarian in nature</em>, meaning that decision is <em>made by a group</em>, and all members of the commune have equal access to resources and decision-making. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Throughout the film, for instance, we see the Eternals “voting” on the final disposition of the intruder in their midst, Zed. <em>Should he be put down, outright, as Consuella desires?</em> Or held for further study, as May wishes? Everyone in the commune votes on it, and Zed is given a new lease on life, seven more days.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">In terms of <em>geographic proximity</em>, the commune in <em><strong>Zardoz</strong></em> consists largely of a single mansion and its out-buildings, though there is also an old folks’ home for “Renegades” and a stable for the “Apathetics” within walking distance</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">In addition, the Eternal mansion and grounds fit very much the pop culture <em>stereotype </em>of 1960s-1970s communes. They are </span><a href="http://www.thefarm.org/museum/californiacommunes.html"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">a place of</span></a><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"> “<em>strange music, weirdly dressed people, and psychedelically-fueled behavior</em>.” </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">In this case, however, the behavior is not psychedelic so much as <em>psychic</em>. Each Eternal is joined to an artificial intelligence (a super computer?) called the “Tabernacle” which sees to their needs and desires. It’s like having the Internet and a web search inside your own head, ready to be activated by vocal command. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">But more importantly, when Friend is labeled a "renegade," he is psychically assaulted --<em> with exaggerated hand gestures </em>-- by his former comrades. This is weird and trippy; and not entirely unlike some drug-fueled, hippie-styled dance.</span></div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><em><strong>Zardoz </strong></em>sees the unconventional structure of a commune as being <em>counter-productive</em> to a healthy human existence. The Eternals are immortal, but they have lost -- in their all-consuming quest for permanence -- any sense of the spontaneous, any sense of the moment. They are bored, and some of them, like Friend, actually long to die. For them, <em>that is the only possible release from a life of eternal, emotionless intellect. </em>The new form of the democratic commune has, in fact, made life stagnant and empty.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">The joys of sex and procreation have also been forsaken in this futuristic commune. Without children, there is no real sense of the future. Only the continuance of the present, the status quo. Without children, a culture cannot be healthy, because it can not look past its own selfish needs <em>at the needs of the race</em>; at the needs of a future generation. This is another example of the Eternal's stagnation.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Even sleep itself has been vanquished in the Eternal commune, replaced by <em>active, second-level meditation</em>. Interestingly, <em><strong>Zardoz</strong></em> positions sleep – <em>and dreaming</em> – as an essential quality of healthy humanity. Consuella observes Zed sleeping and then awaking from a dream, and it is clear that he finds dreaming <em>restorative.</em> It is a "changed" mind-state,<em> a release from the drudgery of the Eternal existence</em>, and without it, the Eternals are empty. They have no change; so they cannot brace transformation; transcendence.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">The Tabernacle informs Consuella that "<em>Sleep was necessary for Man when his waking and unconscious lives were separated. As Eternals achieved total consciousness, sleep became obsolete, and Second-Level meditation took its place. Sleep was closely connected with death.</em>"</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Sleep was closely connected with death; perhaps <em>that</em> is what makes life meaningful; <em>the omnipresent threat and presence of mortality in our daily cycle.</em> With this "state" of consciousness gone, the Eternals have forsaken some essential quality of humanity. Death has been banished not just from their physicality, but from their very psyche. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span></div><div align="justify" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-color: currentcolor; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-style: none; border-top: medium none; border-width: medium; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"><em><strong>"Every society had an elaborate subculture devoted to erotic stimulation." Or "The Penis is (not ) Evil." </strong></em></span></div><p> <br /></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_mpBGa4P5jUo/TOxmiLndkLI/AAAAAAAAF68/xdV1PNTjcJo/s1600/zardoz7.jpg" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><img border="0" height="238" ox="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_mpBGa4P5jUo/TOxmiLndkLI/AAAAAAAAF68/xdV1PNTjcJo/w551-h238/zardoz7.jpg" width="551" /></span></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Consuella sizes up Zed's manhood; while a screen behind her charts the trajectory of his erection.<br /><br /></span></td></tr></tbody></table><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-color: currentcolor; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-style: none; border-top: medium none; border-width: medium; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">In the film's most brazen sequence, Consuella <em>studies Zed's penis</em>, and looks for the connection between mental stimulation and physical erection. In fact, a large viewscreen behind her plays arousing, pornographic imagery for Zed to respond to. <em>But instead, he grows erect at her presence</em>...a fact which greatly disturbs the Eternal. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">And no, I'm not kidding about any of this. You'd never see a scene like this in a movie today.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">And that's kind of a shame.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">As I've written above, <em><strong>Zardoz</strong></em> creates a comparison between the unchanging, stagnant Eternals (a largely feminized culture, dominated by May and Consuella, I mean...) and Zed, the Brutal....<em>the male ideal</em>. The Eternals don't shift from consciousness to sleep. They don't dream. <em> Zed does both.</em> Zed is proud of his physicality, he doesn't discount it, and indeed, Sean Connery spends the bulk of the movie wearing nothing but a red jockstrap. He is a walking, talking phallic symbol.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">But importantly, Zed is able to change his body; as the movie explicitly points out int his sequence. Unlike the other Eternal men,<em> his penis goes from flaccid to erect</em> (and <em><strong>Zardoz</strong></em> accommodatingly -- <em>and amusingly</em> --shows us a view-screen diagram of this transition). </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Consuella reports clinically about the penis, and its role in human culture: <em>"There seems to be a correlation with violence, with fear</em>," she notes of male sexual arousal. "<em>Many hanged men died with an erection. You are all more or less aware of our intensive researches into this subject. Sexuality declined probably because we no longer needed to procreate. Eternals soon discovered that erection was impossible to achieve. And we are no longer victims of this violent, convulsive act which so debased women and betrayed men</em>."</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Again, Consuella sees sex as a <em>"violent, convulsive </em>act" which "<em>debased women and betrayed men</em>," yet the sex act is undeniably part of who we are as a species. It is the process through which life continues and evolves; the act of procreation.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><em><strong>Zardoz </strong></em>suggests in some ways that like sleeping/waking, flaccid/erect is a kind of miracle of the human imagination and ingenuity --<em> even if it can be linked to male violence</em> -- and that, well, it is the key to our future. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">The film makes no bones (*ahem*) about the fact that Zed is an unrepentant rapist of women during his life as a Brutal. But the film also seems to state that changeability (from flaccid to erect) is part of the <em>human process of transformation that is essential to a healthy human race</em>. And indeed, it precedes the most miraculous transformation of all: from an empty womb to the creation of a new human life. That's the (traditional) function of females in the reproductive process.</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-color: currentcolor; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-style: none; border-top: medium none; border-width: medium; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">In <em><strong>Zardoz</strong></em>, even the destruction of the Tabernacle is put in decisively masculine, sexual terms. <em>"You have penetrated me. There is no escape. You are within me,"</em> says the defeated machine<em>. "Come into my center. Come into the center of the crystal!"</em> </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">That's not the end of it, either. May desires Zed. She sees salvation through intercourse with this "superior" genetic specimen. "<em>Inseminate us all, and we'll teach you all we know, give you all we have. Perhaps you can break the Tabernacle."</em></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Again, I remember many reviewers being really, really offended by this idea, noting that the female Eternals longed for the potent "magic" underneath Zed's "loin cloth." That's a simple way of putting it, when the film is really about the process of change, and <em>how we can change even our physicality.</em> It's a metaphor. The idea of human evolution and change is ultimately what allows Zed to grow beyond being a simple savage, to defeating the Tabernacle and ending the Eternal culture. The dichotomy between sleeping/waking is just as important, but not as dramatic, I suppose.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">So, <em><strong>Zardoz,</strong></em> in simple terms, is a clash of cultures. In one, the penis is "evil" for what it brings (more babies!). In another, it is "good" because it represents the way man can change himself, and even continue himself. </span><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"> I encourage you to screen the film and come to your own conclusion about what </span><em style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><strong>Zardoz</strong></em><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"> means.</span><br /><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-color: currentcolor; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-style: none; border-top: medium none; border-width: medium;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-color: currentcolor; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-style: none; border-top: medium none; border-width: medium;"><em><strong><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">Zardoz and Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony</span></strong></em></div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-color: currentcolor; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-style: none; border-top: medium none; border-width: medium;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span><br /> <br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_mpBGa4P5jUo/TOxm3OehuEI/AAAAAAAAF7A/cU0kUAwLVTw/s1600/zardoz4.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><img border="0" height="217" ox="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_mpBGa4P5jUo/TOxm3OehuEI/AAAAAAAAF7A/cU0kUAwLVTw/w508-h217/zardoz4.jpg" width="508" /></span></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">The feminine gaze?</span></td></tr></tbody></table></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-color: currentcolor; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-style: none; border-top: medium none; border-width: medium;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><em><strong>Zardoz</strong></em> ends with the <em>traditional family structure</em> visually re-affirmed. Zed and Consuella move into the stone God head, Zardoz, mate with one another, and have a baby, a son. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">The film then cuts<em> to a time-lapse family portrait</em> featuring the couple and their boy over the years as they age, the son goes off to find his own family and destiny, and the long-lived parents finally die. Zed and Consuella -- <em>in the natural order of life</em> -- become bones, then dust. The implicit message: this is how it is supposed to be for human beings.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">This climactic time-lapse family portrait is scored to Beethoven’s impressive Symphony Number Seven, written in 1802. The master work is widely held out as a “perfect” symphony by critics, and is also known for reflecting a sense of <em>energetic spontaneity.</em></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Consider then, the conjunction of image and song in this finale. With the traditional family re-affirmed visually in the blocking: <em>the perfect triumvirate of father, mother and child</em>, the music serves the same purpose. The <em>perfect symphony</em> is heard, reinforcing the notion that this is <em>how things should be</em>. This is the family structure that will save mankind, going forward.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">And in terms of <em>spontaneity,</em> this is how we must face life, isn’t it? </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Not with all the knowledge in the universe in our possession; not as some kind of boring, stagnant egalitarian democracy…but as thinking, feeling <em>changeable</em> (transforming...) humans who live in the moment. This dazzling final sequence gets at that notion with the <em>spontaneous-sounding symphony</em>, and the idea of each moment lived most fully…<em>and then gone</em>.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">It’s a perfect, rousing note to go out on, and it reflects entirely Boorman’s critique of unconventional living arrangements (like communes) and <em>idolizes the traditional nuclear family as the vehicle for a productive future.</em> </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Again, I don't have to tell you that this idea is very unpopular with some. Stephanie Goldberg of <em><strong>Jump Cut</strong></em>, for instance, wrote: "</span><a href="http://www.ejumpcut.org/archive/onlinessays/JC01folder/GoldbergOnZardoz.html"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><strong><em>ZARDOZ</em> </strong>can be read as a wistful if handsome attempt to build a labyrinth around a crumbling male supremacist ideology."</span></a><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">She has a point. </span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-color: currentcolor; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-style: none; border-top: medium none; border-width: medium;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-color: currentcolor; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-style: none; border-top: medium none; border-width: medium;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">The film undeniably forwards a conservative argument, a return to traditional values as the key to continuing mankind in a healthy fashion. </span><a href="http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?_r=1&res=9C05E6DC153DE73ABC4F53DFB466838F669EDE"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">As <em><strong>The New York Times</strong></em> observed</span></a><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">: <em>"Zed...arrives to overthrow the élitists and bring mankind back some 300 years</em>." </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Yet the test of a great film (and a great science fiction film) is not so much whether we individually agree with every argument therein; but whether the film successfully makes its case. I would argue that<em><strong> Zardoz</strong></em> succeeds on this basis. It gorgeously, humorously, brazenly, erotically, skillfully presents its arguments about human nature.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">And Boorman directs the picture with his usual, incomparable sense of finesse. </span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-color: currentcolor; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-style: none; border-top: medium none; border-width: medium;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-color: currentcolor; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-style: none; border-top: medium none; border-width: medium;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">A director is "a<em> fake god by occupation - and a magician, by inclination,</em>" the film suggests, and in <em><strong>Zardoz</strong></em> Boorman masterfully presents this imaginative dystopian universe. There are few science fiction films as weird, wild, challenging and internally consistent as this one. </span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-color: currentcolor; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-style: none; border-top: medium none; border-width: medium;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-color: currentcolor; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-style: none; border-top: medium none; border-width: medium;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">So, if you feel like it, pull back the curtain...(or peek under the loin cloth).</span></div></div>John Kenneth Muirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15629979615332893780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12380553.post-75285133576601652072024-02-05T06:00:00.065-05:002024-02-05T06:00:00.155-05:00Guest Post: The Star Wars Sequel Trilogy Part III: This Has All Happened Before...<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><b><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span></i></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><b><i></i></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwwgQI6lS-Pu5ajwCS6bHAo_pC1ryGt0CBheLUNxG4ML6EXnxXYcnJLZLjxf7nubjUyIHEzFX-O2K37t_6rGVBhFWoebwn6trlozcdRmUG3Ze0Jleq5lGbxTxBrGetFNWWrSZykWT63KtAzqMJ_VBYL0GlvXFXz1jAL57r_w0UCkh3yr2mYKgpUQ/s3663/montage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3416" data-original-width="3663" height="346" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwwgQI6lS-Pu5ajwCS6bHAo_pC1ryGt0CBheLUNxG4ML6EXnxXYcnJLZLjxf7nubjUyIHEzFX-O2K37t_6rGVBhFWoebwn6trlozcdRmUG3Ze0Jleq5lGbxTxBrGetFNWWrSZykWT63KtAzqMJ_VBYL0GlvXFXz1jAL57r_w0UCkh3yr2mYKgpUQ/w372-h346/montage.jpg" width="372" /></a></i></b></div><b><i><br /><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span></i></b><p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><b><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span></i></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><b><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">This Has All Happened Before, And It Will All Happen Again: The </span></i></b><b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Star Wars<i> Sequel Trilogy</i></span></b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">by Michael Giammarino<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><b><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></i></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">3. <i>The Force Awakens </i>and The <i>Star Wars</i> Rosetta Stone <o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">The trick I have found to truly appreciate the <i>Star Wars </i>sequels is to watch them through the lens of George Lucas. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">I've already touched on some particular aspects of Lucas’s proposed sequels which didn't make it into the sequels we got (midi-chlorians, the Whills, a microbiotic universe, Darth Maul and Darth Talon). George elaborated further to Paul Duncan for <i>Star Wars Archives 1999-2005:<o:p></o:p></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">“<i><span style="background: white;">Episodes VII, VIII, and IX would take ideas from what happened after the Iraq War… Okay, you fought the war, you killed everybody, now what are you going to do? Rebuilding afterwards is harder than starting a rebellion or fighting the war.<o:p></o:p></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN" style="background: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN" style="background: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">“The movies are about how Leia — I mean, who else is going to be the leader? — is trying to build the Republic. They still have the apparatus of the Republic, but they have to get it under control from the gangsters. That was the main story. It starts out a few years after </span></i><span lang="EN" style="background: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Return of the Jedi<i> and we establish pretty quickly that there’s this underworld, there are these offshoot stormtroopers who started their own planets, and that Luke is trying to restart the Jedi.</i><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN" style="background: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN" style="background: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">“[Luke] puts the word out, so out of 100,000 Jedi, maybe 50 or 100 are left. The Jedi have to grow again from scratch, so Luke has to find two- and three-year-olds and train them. It’ll be 20 years before you have a new generation of Jedi.</span></i><span lang="EN" style="background: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN" style="background: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN" style="background: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">“By the end of the trilogy Luke would have rebuilt much of the Jedi, and we would have the renewal of the New Republic, with Leia, Senator Organa, becoming the Supreme Chancellor in charge of everything. So she ended up being the Chosen One.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN" style="background: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN" style="background: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">“When you win the war and you disband the opposing army, what do they do? The stormtroopers would be like Saddam Hussein’s Ba'athist fighters that joined ISIS and kept on fighting. The stormtroopers refuse to give up when the Republic win. They want to be stormtroopers forever, so they go to a far corner of the galaxy, start their own country and their own rebellion.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN" style="background: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN" style="background: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">“There’s a power vacuum so gangsters, like the Hutts, are taking advantage of the situation, and there is chaos. The key person is Darth Maul, who had been resurrected in </span></i><span lang="EN" style="background: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">The Clone Wars<i> cartoons — he brings all the gangs together. <o:p></o:p></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN" style="background: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN" style="background: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">“Darth Maul trained a girl, Darth Talon, who was in the comic books, as his apprentice. She was the new Darth Vader, and most of the action was with her. So these were the two main villains of the trilogy. Maul eventually becomes the godfather of crime in the universe because, as the Empire falls, he takes over.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">While Lucas’s intention was to steer political allusions to Iraq, the sequels we got continued to focus heavily on iconography from Vietnam, WWII, and Nazi Germany, maintaining a throughline we can follow along the entire saga. These “offshoot stormtroopers who started their own planets” became <i>The First Order</i>. As JJ Abrams puts it, they're like surviving Nazis who fled to Argentina after WWII.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Luke's mission to rebuild the Jedi Order had to wait until <i>The Mandalorian </i>Disney+ series covered it, while George's intention for Darth Maul to become the godfather of crime in the universe led to <i>The Book of Boba Fett</i>. Darth Maul and Darth Talon<i> </i>seem to have been swapped out for Boba Fett and Fennec Shand.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjABHxIHGpLFX3zksW8Py8Hq1mTf3qV-0LH-SXQ5QypI8TES8avDK4hZIuuv0LaRzCXL3hXMcCKBUaSbVTK29zeM2KD5kO2XDXx7vUBnvvQUgDhUO6kU6VPx8lrgCCZlgTKXKk6OYw5PyJZ-4bfOL8EnHesHg8W3ASGOsOJmhUqV-JdsX1GtHlZFA/s1800/boba.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1185" data-original-width="1800" height="242" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjABHxIHGpLFX3zksW8Py8Hq1mTf3qV-0LH-SXQ5QypI8TES8avDK4hZIuuv0LaRzCXL3hXMcCKBUaSbVTK29zeM2KD5kO2XDXx7vUBnvvQUgDhUO6kU6VPx8lrgCCZlgTKXKk6OYw5PyJZ-4bfOL8EnHesHg8W3ASGOsOJmhUqV-JdsX1GtHlZFA/w367-h242/boba.jpg" width="367" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">As for Leia becoming the Chosen One? I know several sequel detractors believe Rey stole Anakin's thunder, especially his mantle as the Chosen One. (She didn't, by the way.) George was very direct in his intention to rob Anakin of that title and award it to Leia. I suspect sequel detractors wouldn't have been into that. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">While George's work on the sequels was minimal at best, and his plot outlines for them were, if not completely scrubbed, then at least, in the broadest sense, indirectly cherry-picked from, his <i>presence</i> – to use a Force analogy – is still very much felt in every frame of these films. George may have been absent during the production process, but his philosophy, his sensibility, and his rules were still recognized and interpreted, if not directly followed. The way in which they weren't directly followed is in the choice to shoot on film and not to shoot digitally. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">We're also getting a fan perspective. JJ Abrams and Rian Johnson are lifelong <i>Star Wars </i>fans, so what we’re getting are George's sensibilities filtered through fans’ eyes. And Rey… Finn… Poe… even Kylo Ren… they're <i>Star Wars </i>fans! They all grew up on the adventures of Luke Skywalker, Han Solo and Princess Leia, in one way or another. They're <i>US. </i>The sequel trilogy is about – within and without – lifelong <i>Star Wars </i>fans inheriting the <i>Star Wars </i>universe. They're us, living in George's world, playing in George's sandbox, and living by George's rules. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">But let's concentrate on George’s rules, sensibilities, philosophy, and aesthetic. If we look at these elements as the Rosetta Stone from which to decipher George's cinematic language, we'll be able to read between the lines of every <i>Star Wars </i>movie. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">George always liked to open his films <i>in medias res. </i>In other words, “in the middle of things.” You're dropped into the drama immediately, and you're forced to catch up as you go along. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">He did this in <i>A New Hope, </i>by opening the film with the tail end of a space chase between Princess Leia's Corellian Corvette and Darth Vader's Star Destroyer above the planet Tatooine. Rebel spies stole the plans for the Empire’s battle station off camera. A Galactic Empire superseded an Old Republic. A Galactic Senate was dissolved, off camera. There were Clone Wars. There were Jedi Knights who defended that Old Republic. There was history between old Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi and his friend Anakin Skywalker, relayed to Anakin's son, Luke. Before there were prequels, before <i>Rogue One </i>existed, exposition was all we had to go on. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">He did this with <i>The Empire Strikes Back, </i>by opening the story three years after <i>A New Hope. </i>In the intervening years, Darth Vader learned of the existence of Luke Skywalker and began scouring the galaxy for him. Han Solo had an altercation with a bounty hunter on Ord Mantell. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">He did this with <i>Return of the Jedi</i>, by opening the story a year after <i>The Empire Strikes Back. </i><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">He did this with <i>The Phantom Menace</i>, setting the story when the Jedi serve the Republic and the Sith were believed to have been extinct for a millennium. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">He did this with <i>Attack of the Clones, </i>setting the story ten years after <i>The Phantom Menace. </i>Anakin has been a padawan for a decade. He and Obi-Wan have been on several missions; one such mission involved a nest of gundarks. Jar Jar Binks is a senator. Padme Amidala is now a senator. Darth Sidious’s plan has progressed. Anakin and Chancellor Palpatine have grown close. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">He did this with <i>Revenge of the Sith</i>, setting the story three years after <i>Attack of the Clones. </i>The Clone Wars have raged for three years. General Grievous has become a formidable enemy. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">And, in a sense, George did this with the entire original trilogy since it's turned out to be the middle three. He literally starts the saga in the middle of things. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Likewise, JJ Abrams does this with <i>The Force Awakens, </i>setting the story thirty years after <i>Return of the Jedi. </i>In the intervening years, Luke and Lando Calrissian have gone in search of Jedi and Sith artifacts and abandoned Jedi temples. Snoke corrupted Ben Solo. Leia had trepidatious visions of her son's future, and in her haste, put him under Luke's mentorship, which didn't go so well. Han and Leia separated, Han returned to smuggling, and the <i>Millennium Falcon </i>was stolen. The New Republic moved to Hosnian Prime. Leia founded a resistance to combat the rise of the First Order. Luke's Jedi Academy was burnt to the ground following a failed confrontation with his nephew. Ashamed, Luke went into self-imposed exile. And the machinations of the Emperor continued. (I'm sure someone somewhere is hearing this in their head, so here, I'll say it: Yes, <i>somehow Palpatine returned.</i>)<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZlJQUcB0QOeiuDF-oqtgI3F66-R7d_k1W_OlrsAW5cbN_QMw6QbWknuK3XNa8IUcVT1fvrrnKb1KFNEjtNa7AvMAyp7m3fGgwUOYi3wXz7F8MtqoWdOiGcHUkJInQ7aOEq5TK_YB4X_1f7lhtTU9uk9Laoz4pOCsMYu3buBKnUOXQAZLg8WYAYw/s1200/achto.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="675" data-original-width="1200" height="210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZlJQUcB0QOeiuDF-oqtgI3F66-R7d_k1W_OlrsAW5cbN_QMw6QbWknuK3XNa8IUcVT1fvrrnKb1KFNEjtNa7AvMAyp7m3fGgwUOYi3wXz7F8MtqoWdOiGcHUkJInQ7aOEq5TK_YB4X_1f7lhtTU9uk9Laoz4pOCsMYu3buBKnUOXQAZLg8WYAYw/w373-h210/achto.png" width="373" /></a></div><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">I'll let Brendan Nystedt, in his essay highlighting the opening of <i>A New Hope</i>, "<i>Here's Where the Fun Begins: </i>Star Wars <i>and </i>In Medias Res," on the <i>Star Wars</i> official website, break it down even further:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">The opening crawl sets the scene, making the audience aware of everything that's happened previously. Before you see any Rebel spaceships, a hidden base, the evil Galactic Empire, or anything else mentioned in the crawl, you're given just the bare minimum of context. What the crawl lets you know is that this story isn't just beginning -- it's been in motion for some time.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">This idea is hit home by what comes next. After the camera tilts down from the vast galactic expanse, we’re treated to that iconic shot of a Star Destroyer in hot pursuit of Leia's blockade runner above Tatooine. This is the power of a storytelling technique called </span></i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">in medias res<i>. Translated from Latin, this term means “into the middle of things.”<o:p></o:p></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">In medias res<i> has been in use for as long as there have been epic stories to tell, and </i>The Iliad<i> is often cited as a classic example. The term was coined by a Roman poet named Horace around 13 BCE. </i>In medias res<i> exists as the opposite of what Horace terms ab ovo, or “from the egg,” meaning that the story starts from the very beginning of the action. Rather than set up the introduction of a story on-screen, </i>A New Hope<i> throws you into the middle of a dramatic chase, avoiding exposition that is unnecessary to understanding the gist of the plot.<o:p></o:p></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">This notion informs much of the way that first </span></i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Star Wars<i> film is constructed. It boldly refuses to spoon-feed the audience, plunging you into a foreign land with strange sights, sounds, and, most importantly, dialogue. In </i>A New Hope<i>, we are told about (but never see) Tosche Station, Beggar's Canyon, the Imperial Senate, and the Emperor. The Clone Wars are mentioned, but who are the clones? Why was there a war? All of these tantalizing ideas are sprinkled throughout the film, but it's always in service of adding texture and depth to the universe. Things have happened off screen, in the past, that have a bearing on the events that we’re watching unfold.<o:p></o:p></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Film professor Will Brooker traces the opening of </span></i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">A New Hope<i> back to Lucas’ earlier works, with which it shares other distinguishing characteristics: “[It] represents the synthesis of Lucas’ film-making at that point in this career: the surveillance culture of the Death Star is inherited from THX, and the teen banter from </i>American Graffiti<i>, but the sound montage, the </i>in medias res<i> immersion in a strange culture, the fascination with machines…the underlying theme of escape, and the documentary approach, with its implications for naturalistic improvisational performance, are common to both -- and all these elements can be traced back in turn to aspects of [his] student films.”<o:p></o:p></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">By putting the audience into the story and universe abruptly, Lucas aimed to evoke what he and his friends felt when watching Kurosawa movies and other Japanese cinema in the 1960s. Walter Murch, sound designer on </span></i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">THX-1138<i>, says that “the problem that George and I found with science fiction films that we saw is that they had to explain these strange rituals to you, whereas a Japanese film would just have the ritual and you’d have to figure it out for yourself.” <o:p></o:p></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">The sequels work very much the same way Brendan Nystedt describes. We pick up on details as we go, with a narrative already in progress. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Okay, so let's set the scene, and to do that, I need to start with the opening crawl. (Because what's a <i>Star Wars</i> movie if it doesn't have an opening crawl? I'm talking to you, <i>Rogue One</i>!) While we were busy reading alternate history <i>Star Wars</i> novels and watching prequels and animated <i>Clone Wars</i>, events have been transpiring in a galaxy far far away, essentially in real time, and we need to catch up. (<i>In medias res</i>, you know?)<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">When <i>The Force Awakens</i> begins, we're told: <i>Luke Skywalker has vanished. In his absence, the sinister FIRST ORDER has risen from the ashes of the Empire and will not rest until Skywalker, the last Jedi, has been destroyed.<o:p></o:p></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">With the support of the REPUBLIC, General Leia Organa leads a brave RESISTANCE. She is desperate to find her brother Luke and gain his help in restoring peace and justice to the galaxy.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Leia has sent her most daring pilot on a secret mission to Jakku, where an old ally has discovered a clue to Luke’s whereabouts… <o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">As the crawl rises into infinity, the camera pans down, and from a low angle, we watch the Star Destroyer <i>Finalizer</i> cross the frame, eclipsing a moon of the planet Jakku. This represents the First Order's metaphorical goal, to blot out all light in the galaxy. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">The name Jakku may or may not be based on Jacurutu, a seitch – a community or village – of the Fremen on the planet Arrakis, from the <i>Dune</i> books, written by Frank Herbert. More on <i>Dune</i> in a bit. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEyIpx13yx-HI-LlmkqdxNy-yCa4c_ed61G7R6kxXoBfPh9AqFZXcwKwJ0aqikNwe8EL37lkUi-fK7dwcT6ycBnFpXEm8VT-8XQHx5BqmLpajjzn18ZZdYuN9E55oAcPSuFN52Y30us4syr1AXgyHLra9RpNwi5p9aqAeVv6BKLbSCtDqEcUwh7Q/s1200/dune.webp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="720" height="448" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEyIpx13yx-HI-LlmkqdxNy-yCa4c_ed61G7R6kxXoBfPh9AqFZXcwKwJ0aqikNwe8EL37lkUi-fK7dwcT6ycBnFpXEm8VT-8XQHx5BqmLpajjzn18ZZdYuN9E55oAcPSuFN52Y30us4syr1AXgyHLra9RpNwi5p9aqAeVv6BKLbSCtDqEcUwh7Q/w269-h448/dune.webp" width="269" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Four atmospheric assault troop landers – each carrying 20 troops – descend towards Jakku. Keeping watch outside Tuanul Village, we get our first look at BB-8, Artoo-Detoo's spiritual cousin, rolling into his Spielbergian closeup to get a better look at the approaching troops, peering at the lights in the sky coming closer. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">The design of BB-8, hotshot pilot Poe Dameron's faithful astromech droid, came from a very familiar place… Ralph McQuarrie's original concept art for R2-D2. BB-8's look, an oval dome sliding up, down, and side to side over a metal ball, calls to mind an early sketch by Ralph McQuarrie of Artoo, in concept art from the early stages of pre-production on <i>Star Wars</i> (1977). <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ6NVWedF_izI5PmtFcIwmB6YT_K8-kPaCj7CFhFd6gkAhAos3HNivTvsaBcIq0x6AsiaRLy9M2ZFPuYsmA4SXu2uSD3WM4hROzLfUJu6nrvuZ0SifKBCrOdiKrY_hycr_JXO15DX9jr71uq_d-vFIe9zcwkpgV0_dwIYNHCfStgQZ64FWhNB-rA/s979/bb1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="689" data-original-width="979" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ6NVWedF_izI5PmtFcIwmB6YT_K8-kPaCj7CFhFd6gkAhAos3HNivTvsaBcIq0x6AsiaRLy9M2ZFPuYsmA4SXu2uSD3WM4hROzLfUJu6nrvuZ0SifKBCrOdiKrY_hycr_JXO15DX9jr71uq_d-vFIe9zcwkpgV0_dwIYNHCfStgQZ64FWhNB-rA/s320/bb1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><br /></p><br /><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrUCFXJh9vZC3D4SUV9UFAkdQkXvpLghC23IkKGKzbR1P3YUtfuoYD4lBlzq8EMZVktWts18oZEDw3iP1Qs0VQaj2xmbB8-zMtz6362PWEMtNIzdDbYAstrdfPbIjGt7qjOK8FKEI-AR5R_v4yvou2exZCQCw2XNf11NPrgVUnbT3KI52li3FMMw/s1428/bb2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="798" data-original-width="1428" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrUCFXJh9vZC3D4SUV9UFAkdQkXvpLghC23IkKGKzbR1P3YUtfuoYD4lBlzq8EMZVktWts18oZEDw3iP1Qs0VQaj2xmbB8-zMtz6362PWEMtNIzdDbYAstrdfPbIjGt7qjOK8FKEI-AR5R_v4yvou2exZCQCw2XNf11NPrgVUnbT3KI52li3FMMw/s320/bb2.png" width="320" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">It's only fitting, if we're re-entering this world thirty years hence of <i>Return of the Jedi</i>, that the look of it would still celebrate and acknowledge those same McQuarrie designs; designs which captured my childhood imagination with the original trilogy. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">While BB-8 may not identically resemble his early Artoo sketch, McQuarrie's initial intent surely does:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">“<i>I think Artoo was just described as a small robot. I thought of him as running on a giant ball bearing — just a sphere, a circle, wheel-like. He had gyros so he could go in any direction on this ball</i>.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Analyzing and authenticating those lights in the sky, a distressed BB-8 rushes to warn his companion, Leia's "most daring pilot," Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac), who is meeting with Lor San Tekka in Tekka's tent. Their meeting is like a scene in a David Lean picture, like Peter O'Toole's Sir Lawrence deliberating with Alec Guinness's Prince Faisel in <i>Lawrence of Arabia</i>. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">It isn't exactly a random thing that I find this scene evocative of a David Lean picture. To form the crazy quilt of pastiche that is <i>Star Wars</i>, Lucas lifted from the likes of Akira Kurosawa, Sergio Leone, John Ford, and, yes, David Lean. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">And there's more to it than simply <i>homage</i>.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgP4Mm7kkebBcNKeXS31qPYa7Id34mmIq2AzLVfMQ6MH8BTYo3ZAbwHTUf64gtWgQrOx33YXBxVfcK-wDUllKKY8FyYF2cxj6b4SkFtVVY4-DHO0MkWuGKwmcBmSCBzI-Pvl8Bto03Vs0X_Wcx4_Culexc8vYj3Dzi-9VQuUXfPjHMXgwb1-OvEVQ/s1100/lawrence-1100x684.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="684" data-original-width="1100" height="199" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgP4Mm7kkebBcNKeXS31qPYa7Id34mmIq2AzLVfMQ6MH8BTYo3ZAbwHTUf64gtWgQrOx33YXBxVfcK-wDUllKKY8FyYF2cxj6b4SkFtVVY4-DHO0MkWuGKwmcBmSCBzI-Pvl8Bto03Vs0X_Wcx4_Culexc8vYj3Dzi-9VQuUXfPjHMXgwb1-OvEVQ/s320/lawrence-1100x684.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">An homage is a tribute paid to an earlier work or another artist within the text of some other artist's work. Critics might sometimes shrug these public displays off as callous rip offs or evidence of a filmmaker trying to be flashy, hip, or cool by referencing other films and the auteurs who made them. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">But there's a bigger purpose to homage (and George's use of it), or to referencing other films, than a filmmaker or a film being flashy, cool, or hip, by wearing their influences on their sleeves, right out in the open. Using homage to tell a story is another aspect of George’s cinematic language; another element of the <i>Star Wars </i>Rosetta Stone.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">But I'm getting ahead of myself. Before I get to cinematic language, I'd like to touch on the importance of visual literacy first, and George Lucas's advocation of visual literacy. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Visual literacy is the ability to read, write, and create visual images. John Debes, founder of the International Visual Literacy Association, defined visual literacy this way in 1969:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">“Visual Literacy refers to a group of vision-competencies a human being can develop by seeing and at the same time having and integrating other sensory experiences. The development of these competencies is fundamental to normal human learning. When developed, they enable a visually literate person to discriminate and interpret the visible actions, objects, symbols, natural or man-made, that he encounters in his environment. Through the creative use of these competencies, he is able to communicate with others. Through the appreciative use of these competencies, he is able to comprehend and enjoy the masterworks of visual communication.” <o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Common techniques from which visuals can be interpreted and studied include angle and perspective, body language and gaze, color, framing, layout and composition, omissions, positioning, salience, symbols, text style, and vectors. Invariably, these techniques apply to the interpretation and study of not only <i>Star Wars</i>, but all cinema. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">George Lucas is a major proponent for the importance of teaching visual literacy in schools and founded The George Lucas Foundation in 1991 to inspire and advocate new ways to educate students. During a lecture posted on the George Lucas Foundation website, Edutopia, in 2017, Lucas explained how important it is to teach visual literacy to students as soon as possible.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">George Lucas: <i>The issue we're discussing here, in terms of multimedia literacy, is that we stress so hard learning English and learning English grammar and then we shove music and art and… most schools don't even get into cinema. We move those over into some sort of artistic – which means, some sort of therapeutic or fun – thing. lt's not approached as a very valid form of communication. Kids know this. When you take a five-year-old… they can speak, they can use words, they don't know how to write very well and they may not know much grammar, but they know how to speak. They also know music. They may not know the grammar of music. They know cinema because they spend a huge amount of time in front of the television, so they know visual communication; they know the moving image. They intuitively know a lot of the rules, but nobody's actually taught them anything, any more than they've taught them anything about grammar in English. So we go through school, and then later on, we start to learn the grammar of English. You have punctuation, capital letters, you know? Run-on sentences, what a verb is. But nobody teaches anybody about what screen direction is, what perspective is, what color is, what a diagonal line means. Those are rules; those are grammatical rules that appear in an art class. If you've taken art class, the first thing you'll do is get into graphics and you start learning, “well, a jagged line means this, and a blue color means this, or red color means that.” So if you're trying to convince somebody that what you want to do is excite them, then you use red or yellow. If you're doing it with music, then you use a fast rhythm, not a slow rhythm. You don't have to teach them, necessarily, how to read music, and you don't need to have to teach them how to be an artist, but you do have to teach them how to use the grammar of the language. Somehow, we've gotten to the point where the words have gotten way up here and these other forms of communications, which all started out equal and at the beginning, much more equal before we had words. Somehow, in the educational system, they'II need to be balanced out, so the kids could communicate using all of the forms of communication, not just put it into little </i></span><i><span lang="EN"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">categories and say you really need to learn how to use a verb; that's much more important than learning perspective Or learning screen direction But it's not really, especially in this day and age where the power of multimedia is coming to the children. It used to be, like with cinema, </span></span></i><i style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">only the very elite professionals worked in this medium. But now anybody can work in it.</span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Moderator<i>: Are we talking about a new way of teaching?<o:p></o:p></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">George Lucas<i>: lt is a different way of teaching, in that I think English classes should broaden themselves. And my personal thing… I think we should rename English to be – I mean, I know in some schools we call it Language Arts, but I think it should be renamed Communication. It's a communication class, and you learn the English language, learn how to write, you learn grammar, but you also learn graphics. If you take graphics out of the art department, take cinema, and put it into the schools, take music out of the music department. If you want to learn how to play an instrument, if you want to learn how to be a composer, then you can go to the music department. If you want to learn how to do beautiful renditions of paintings and follow the great artists then you go into art class. But if you really want to just learn how to communicate, t</i></span><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">hen what is the basic grammar of communication, then that should be taught basically in the communications class. It shouldn't be taught in some esoteric arty thing; it should be taught as a very practical tool that you use to sell and influence people and to get your point across and to communicate to other people.</span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Movies give us just enough condensed information in as quick an amount of time as possible to serve its limited running time in order to tell the story they're trying to tell. To be able to condense that information down, a filmmaker has a number of different ways of doing that. There's the most direct way, the dialogue. There's also the way they block or frame each shot. There's what's in the background and the foreground of the frame, the <i>mise-en-scene</i>. Another way is through color, or lighting, or use of shadows. Or in the way the film is edited; the succession of shots. Another way is through how the scene is shot, what lenses are used, how it affects the image and how that image gets a particular point across, or how the camera is moved, whether the camera is handheld or on a dolly, or on a tripod (i.e., "on sticks"), or by the distance between the camera and the subject of the shot. And yet another way is by using specific artwork as an influence on a shot or a scene to not only evoke a mood, but also get a point across if the subject of the art being used coincides with the point the filmmaker is making in the scene and/or the film itself. This can also be done by quoting dialogue from other films or from literature.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">And even yet another way is by replicating shots or moments from other movies in order to create parallels for the audience to pick up on, or to present certain messages to the audience. When particularly significant movies become embedded within the cultural landscape, their images become indelible; they become part of <i>the visual</i> <i>language of cinema</i>. These aren't homages done only for the sake of homage. These are relevant references that contribute to telling a story. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Movies, like all art, are not isolated phenomenon. They are not singular or unique creations disconnected from the rest of cinema or other artforms, trapped within the boundaries of their aspect ratios, their proscenium frames. No, movies are tapestries, interconnected – <i>stitched</i> – to other tapestries, other movies, that support similar styles, messages, and aesthetics. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">But movies are also experiential events, and watching movies is an experiential activity. As audience members, we, each of us, take from a movie only what we bring to it. I equate it with joke-telling. If someone tells you a joke and you don't get it, it's because the topic or the punchline is beyond your experience. It “went over your head,” as they say. If the joke needs to be explained to you, it isn't funny. But you <i>will</i> find it funny – at the very least, you should – the next time the joke is told, because now you'll have a frame of reference for it. Because now you'll understand the joke. You'll finally be able to appreciate it on an experiential level. That's why a director's commentary, a cast member's commentary, or a crew person's commentary is always beneficial. It's why film analysis is always beneficial. Because maybe you've never seen <i>Lawrence of Arabia, </i>so you don't have a frame of reference to be able to recognize <i>Lawrence of Arabia </i>as part of this particular movie's visual language. But once somebody points out the significance of <i>Lawrence of Arabia, </i>maybe it’ll inspire you to check the movie out, so that the next time you see <i>Star Wars, </i>you'll notice the reference, and appreciate its significance. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">It's only one of many reasons why visual literacy is so important, and why it should be taught in tandem with all other pertinent forms of communication. If filmmakers are using images to tell their story, shouldn't we have a reasonable understanding of the language of images to be able to fully appreciate that story? <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Since a filmmaker only has ninety, a hundred, a hundred and twenty, a hundred and fifty, or a hundred and eighty minutes to tell a story, they're jam-packing enough story elements into their film in such a compact and condensed manner, such material demands to be unpacked if the story is going to be properly appreciated. That's how cinema works. That's how <i>Star Wars </i>works. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Which brings us back to Sir Lawrence. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">David Burger, in his article for Cineluxe, "<i>The Films That Made </i>Star Wars<i>, Pt. 2</i>," cites David Lean as a major influence (amongst those aforementioned names, Akira Kurosawa, Sergio Leone, and John Ford) on Lucas and on <i>Star Wars</i>, quoting a note from the official <i>Star Wars</i> website, a note that's no longer present, but I would probably attribute to columnist and <i>Star Wars</i> expert Bryan Young, who is no slouch when it comes to the <i>Wars</i>. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhd2CXeEdCmjxz254xcI5Xp_Ij5LEWIyJGVdudDDxs8eXHiupP8DLFLY7xkVRensFqoVnKFlo2FVAqS9saBzv3arvbe-S6EvdUTBIpUPXTNYJk8tLJBCzZw1qcQe4iNhvqcewd25OLLsuJqei_bS1ervnHi66o2D-Mks1HDrbV9CXyz9fqsbAmE-w/s1334/lawrence2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1169" data-original-width="1334" height="280" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhd2CXeEdCmjxz254xcI5Xp_Ij5LEWIyJGVdudDDxs8eXHiupP8DLFLY7xkVRensFqoVnKFlo2FVAqS9saBzv3arvbe-S6EvdUTBIpUPXTNYJk8tLJBCzZw1qcQe4iNhvqcewd25OLLsuJqei_bS1ervnHi66o2D-Mks1HDrbV9CXyz9fqsbAmE-w/s320/lawrence2.png" width="320" /></a></div><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span></i></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><i style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">T</span></i><i style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">ired of westerns but still itching to dig into Lucas’s desert inspiration for </span></i><span lang="EN">Star Wars<i>? Look no farther than David Lean’s epic </i>Lawrence of Arabia<i>. So much of that film’s style can be seen reflected in the work of </i>Star Wars<i> cinematographer Gil Taylor, but as the official </i>Star Wars<i> website points out, there were also a number of scenes in </i>Lawrence<i> that were practically traced in </i>Star Wars<i>:</i></span></div></span></i><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Many moves from David Lean’s epic were cribbed for sequences on Tatooine. The shot of Mos Eisley from the distance as Luke and Obi-Wan look from on high reminds one instantly of shots looking down at Damascus. Shots of Tusken snipers looking down at speeders moving below echo the same sorts of shots in </span></i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Lawrence of Arabia.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">For <i>Attack of the Clones</i>, not only did Lucas shoot Padme and Anakin's arrival to Naboo at the Plaza de España, the theatrical one sheet poster and their Varykino lake retreat are also evocative of Lean's <i>Doctor Zhivago</i>. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXWVqAcNltCA4KnJt3EHcJ10h40gHJBjWVi7e9hRfq6JIzDd8Bsi-jITWZ93UEdB4EUlDR0eKvBBXLtXXkq0sesH_IkjRsYzPufAEi_l_3xc-3jmCiUOvqWOuKXjDt4a0mFqex57uTN_cix5oUimtPRWNf08VJ9TH6EOYECH9_jPO7WDMXU4jFQQ/s2316/zhivago.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="2316" height="174" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXWVqAcNltCA4KnJt3EHcJ10h40gHJBjWVi7e9hRfq6JIzDd8Bsi-jITWZ93UEdB4EUlDR0eKvBBXLtXXkq0sesH_IkjRsYzPufAEi_l_3xc-3jmCiUOvqWOuKXjDt4a0mFqex57uTN_cix5oUimtPRWNf08VJ9TH6EOYECH9_jPO7WDMXU4jFQQ/w374-h174/zhivago.jpg" width="374" /></a></div><br /><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">A couple scenes from now, in</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span><i style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">The Force Awakens, </i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">when Rey packs up her things, hops on her speeder and hightails it to Niima Outpost to trade scavenged parts for rations, we see her framed in a wide shot, passing by a mountainous, downed Star Destroyer, an image which echoes a similar shot in</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span><i style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Lawrence of Arabia</i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">, where Sir Lawrence passes a mountain of comparable size, by camel.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Any discussion of <i>Lawrence of Arabia</i> and its connection to <i>Star Wars</i> will ultimately lead me to <i>Dune</i>. Now, it's common knowledge how much Frank Herbert's <i>Dune</i> influenced <i>Star Wars</i>. What might not be common knowledge is how much <i>Lawrence of Arabia</i> influenced <i>Dune</i>. In <i>The Secret History of Star Wars</i>, by Michael Kaminski, Kaminski notes:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Frank Herbert was one of the most popular contemporary science fiction writers at the time Lucas was writing </span></i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Star Wars<i>. His epic novel </i>Dune<i> had been released in 1965 (after being serialized in Analog magazine in two parts in 1963 and 1965) and was an instant hit in science fiction circles, marking a milestone in the genre - many have compared its context in science fiction to </i>Lord of the Rings<i>' context in the fantasy genre. The story of Dune concerns an intergalactic empire made up of three regional Houses, the largest of which is the Imperial House Corrino, which controls the lesser two fiefdoms, House Harkonnen and House Atreides; the plot is propelled by the political struggles between these three Houses. The Protagonist of the novel is young Paul Atreides, son of Duke Leto Atreides and heir to the dukedom due to his noble status, he receives special martial arts training, as well as mystical powers from the Bene Gesserit Sisterhood cult. House Atreides becomes seen as a threat, and so the Corrino Emperor Shaddam IV decides that it must be destroyed. The Emperor cannot wipe out House Atreides with an open attack, and so he employs subterfuge, granting the Atreides control of the treacherous desert planet Arrakis, also known as Dune, an inhospitable world coveted for its spice Melange which increases one's lifespan and which had previously been controlled by House Harkonnen. The Emperor's scheme culminates when he sends an army dressed as Harkonnens to Dune to wipe out the Royal family, but Paul and his mother escape into the desert wilderness. Here they meet a roaming desert band of fighters known as the Fremen. With Paul's developing abilities, he begins training the band of rebels, later becoming known as demigod military leader Paul Muad'Dib. He and his army quickly overwhelm the Imperial forces with their mystical skills and Paul becomes head of the Imperial throne. <o:p></o:p></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Many have observed the desert setting of </span></i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Dune<i> as being an obvious inspiration for Tatooine, although the planet does not exist in the synopsis. The 1973 synopsis, however, does indeed bear a strong </i>Dune<i> influence, and that is the latter half, where it drifts from the Kurosawa source material. <o:p></o:p></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">… In Frank Herbert's novel, Paul Atreides comes across a band of rebels, and in order to finally assault the Empire he will need their help; he comes to lead them, and with his small army he attacks the Imperial fortress and topples the Empire. In the </span></i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Star Wars<i>treatment, General Skywalker comes across a band of rebels, and in order to finally assault the Empire to free the captured princess he realises he needs their help; he begins training them and they attack the Imperial stronghold and rescue the princess. The use of coveted "spice" in the synopsis is evidence of </i>Dune<i>'s influence. <o:p></o:p></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Kara Kennedy, in a Tor.com piece, notes:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Herbert himself was very interested in exploring desert cultures and religions. As part of his extensive research and writing process, he read hundreds of books, including T.E. Lawrence’s wartime memoir, </span></i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Seven Pillars of Wisdom: A Triumph<i> (1926) [Brian Herbert, Dreamer of Dune, Tom Doherty Associates, 2003] He saw messianic overtones in Lawrence’s story and the possibility for outsiders to manipulate a culture according to their own purposes. [Timothy O’Reilly, Frank Herbert, Frederick Ungar Publishing, 1981]<o:p></o:p></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">And in the <i>Decider</i> article, <i>'''Lawrence Of Arabia’ Is The Unlikely Prequel To </i>‘Star Wars<i>,’ </i>‘Dune<i>,’ And All Your Favorite Fantasy Epics,"</i> Meaghan O'Keefe expands on the relationship between <i>Lawrence of Arabia</i>, <i>Dune</i>, and <i>Star Wars</i>:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Even if you’ve never devoted the three hours and forty-odd minutes necessary to plow through David Lean‘s extraordinary </span></i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Lawrence of Arabia<i>, chances are you know it’s a masterpiece. The 1962 epic won seven Oscars and currently holds the No. 7 position on the AFI’s Top 100 movies list. It’s also — strangely — the foundation for most of our favorite science fiction and fantasy stories.<o:p></o:p></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Even though </span></i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Lawrence of Arabia<i> doesn’t take place after the apocalypse or in a galaxy far, far away, the film is chock full of imagery and plot details that wiggled their way into the imaginations of people like George Lucas, Frank Herbert, and their legions of acolytes. Why? Because even though it’s a biopic, </i>Lawrence of Arabia<i> is a pitch perfect realization of Joseph Campbell’s monomyth. Campbell, of course, is the 20th century’s leading influence on mythology and the “hero’s journey,” and he’s credited with breaking down every major human myth into a single story.<o:p></o:p></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">As Campbell lays it out, a hero is a someone who starts their life being ordinary until one day they receive a “call to adventure” to enter a strange, mysterious, or unusual world. There he or she encounters a series of trials that test the hero’s worth. Sometimes the hero is aided, but often he or she must face these setbacks alone. The hero must then survive a perilous ordeal armed with the lessons learned during the “road of trials.” If the hero wins, then he or she is given a gift, “boon,” or sacred self-knowledge. From there, the hero must to decide to return to his or her ordinary world, but the return is not without further tests and trials.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">This is the DNA of every great myth, adventure, legend, and science fiction/fantasy saga. And yes, it’s perfectly captured in </span></i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Lawrence of Arabia<i>. The film follows young T.E. Lawrence (Peter O’Toole) as a young British officer, frustrated to be cooped up in Cairo working on maps while the action of World War I rages elsewhere. Then he’s called to take a special journey to meet Prince Faisal (Alec Guiness – yes Alec “Obi-Wan Kenobi” Guiness) and procure information. He embarks on an intoxicating journey through the desert where he encounters danger and excitement. Once he meets Faisal, he finds himself tempted to go off-journey in pursuit of a larger quest: to take Aqaba. This new mission finds him confronting the best and worst parts of himself. He makes friends and loses them. He steps away from his British background and embraces the Bedouin ways. He becomes a hero and a murderer. He is dubbed a prophet and ruthlessly struck down and tortured. He wins the fight, but at what cost? And at the very end, he is pulled back to his old way of life where he is heralded as a hero, but he was really an instrument of British imperial expansion. <o:p></o:p></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMjcgSz_oeU0B_vNN_2zKQtc_PQeOT8keYzFadw35D_u6bA1M_t7UvsRURDI1npFo70_0zzJ3XXRZjAFBwoFYPlZWgDz2AmX_QdnUhxUO3ga34pWDC5rOkylml_zaFNcRapmf5qpkzQ8uaNRzK4qKQLYNrzEk4IyTvG2lRvzt1PKcgIDhPwr-Psw/s699/poster-art-lawrence-of-arabia.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="699" data-original-width="478" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMjcgSz_oeU0B_vNN_2zKQtc_PQeOT8keYzFadw35D_u6bA1M_t7UvsRURDI1npFo70_0zzJ3XXRZjAFBwoFYPlZWgDz2AmX_QdnUhxUO3ga34pWDC5rOkylml_zaFNcRapmf5qpkzQ8uaNRzK4qKQLYNrzEk4IyTvG2lRvzt1PKcgIDhPwr-Psw/s320/poster-art-lawrence-of-arabia.jpg" width="219" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><i><div style="text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">A few years after </span></i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Lawrence of Arabia<i> debuts in cinemas, Frank Herbert’s </i>Dune<i> hit bookshelves. The book features a complex narrative with giant worms and spice and Bene Gesserits and prophecies and politics, but at its core, the story follows young Paul Atreides as he is pulled away from the comforts of his life and thrown into the peril of the desert world of Arrakis. Paul and his mother Lady Jessica use the superstitions of the planet’s Bedouin-esque people, the Fremen, to help position him as their prophet and savior. The twist in </i>Dune<i> is he might actually be.</i></span></div></i><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Paul’s journey follows many of the same beats as </span></i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Lawrence of Arabia<i> and </i>Dune<i> even lifts a thrilling scene from </i>Lawrence of Arabia<i>. However, instead of leading a band of bedouin tribesmen against a mechanical monster, Paul Atreides leads the Fremen to conquer a worm.</i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Dune<i> uses the scene to solidify Paul’s leadership amongst the Fremen. He has proven that he has a great destiny and may in fact be a prophet. Lawrence’s charge on the Turkish train also adds to his mystique, but with a twist. Even as Lawrence dodges death and plays the hero, he’s making it more and more obvious that he’s merely a man playing at prophet. A metaphoric difference that most readings of </i>Dune<i> overlook in Herbert’s text.<o:p></o:p></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Dune<i> might have been the first great science fiction epic to steal ideas from </i>Lawrence of Arabia<i>, but it certainly wasn’t the last. George Lucas placed much of </i>Star Wars<i> on the desert world of Tatooine. Luke, his young hero, is given the same blonde head of hair, white clothes, and wistful spirit that Lawrence has. Lucas didn’t just recycle </i>Lawrence of Arabia<i>‘s vast desert vistas for his films; He stole some of the sets. David Lean used the Plaza de España to depict Britain’s base in Cairo… decades later, Lucas would use the beautiful backdrop for a tepid scene between Anakin and Padme in </i>Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones<i>.<o:p></o:p></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Lawrence of Arabia<i>'s influence over science fiction and fantasy persists to this day. It’s a continued source of inspiration for the genre’s most beloved directors. Steven Spielberg has called it his favorite film of all time. In Ridley Scott’s </i>Prometheus<i>, the android David (Michael Fassbender) watches the film while the human members of the crew are in hibernation. George Miller’s </i>Mad Max: Fury Road<i> uses the desert, once again, as a playground for battle and bloodshed. If the trailers are any indication, J.J. Abrams is continuing the tradition of using Lean’s glorious direction as inspiration for </i>Star Wars: The Force Awakens<i>.<o:p></o:p></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">You might think that science fiction movies look to space and the stars, but most of them are looking back — whether they know it or not — to one glorious film about a man’s real-life adventures in Arabia.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">And, so, as <i>The Force Awakens</i> opens, we find ourselves on another desert planet – Jakku, possibly named after Jacurutu, from <i>Dune</i>. But why another desert planet, and why not Tatooine? This might be a little bit of <i>Star Wars</i> visual shorthand and a little bit of accommodation. The Force sensitive hero – in this case, heroine – always starts out on an inhospitable, sandy planet. Tatooine is very much the Skywalker homeworld. In <i>The Phantom Menace</i>, Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan rescue Queen Amidala after the Trade Federation invades her sovereign world of Naboo. Needing repairs to their cruiser after taking heavy fire during their escape, they hide on Tatooine, where they meet slave boy Anakin Skywalker, who bears an uncanny connection to the Force. "Nothing happens by accident," Qui-Gon assures Anakin's mother, Shmi. Winning his freedom in the Boonta Eve podrace, Anakin leaves with the Jedi to Coruscant to be tested by the Jedi Council. In <i>A New Hope</i>, multiple events converged on Tatooine. The Empire built the Death Star, rebels stole the Death Star plans, and those plans were passed on to Princess Leia like a hot potato, who then hurried, via Corellian Corvette, to solicit Obi-Wan Kenobi's aid. Complications arose when Leia's Corellian Corvette was intercepted by Darth Vader. Leia stashed the plans in R2-D2 with a message to Kenobi. Artoo and Threepio escape to the desert surface, are accosted by Jawas, sold to Owen Lars, and his nephew Luke Skywalker stumbles upon the message. Artoo slips away to find Kenobi, and when Threepio and Luke pursue the astromech droid, they're attacked by Tusken Raiders, which brings Kenobi out of hiding. Certainly, when Artoo finally plays Leia's message to the elderly Jedi Master, the will of the Force could not be plainer. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnfnU0WmU5ZZPcGJbVXXx5GGe48I9Ot5DHNICRU_-L69qwH-YSO0V0Avl5g-lYznMk7lXRn_napwICxTSorZlBZrJR4-nFuZtTr9OgepMtcxNNBHeUiXHtYqLJuKHbl1KPCAOPCc7PJ6PnO3sV-fLko2I7c27CFktTw88lvJf9knEtAHGYo9iD0A/s720/sydow.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="406" data-original-width="720" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnfnU0WmU5ZZPcGJbVXXx5GGe48I9Ot5DHNICRU_-L69qwH-YSO0V0Avl5g-lYznMk7lXRn_napwICxTSorZlBZrJR4-nFuZtTr9OgepMtcxNNBHeUiXHtYqLJuKHbl1KPCAOPCc7PJ6PnO3sV-fLko2I7c27CFktTw88lvJf9knEtAHGYo9iD0A/s320/sydow.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">In <i>The Force Awakens</i>, Poe is sent to Jakku to receive a piece of a map that could lead the resistance to Luke Skywalker. The First Order gains this intel and raids Tuanul village, capturing Poe. Before his capture, Poe manages to hide this MacGuffin in his droid companion (like his mentor, Leia Organa, before him). A stormtrooper involved in the raid experiences an awakening, which leads to his desertion. He needs a pilot, so he rescues Poe. Their stolen TIE fighter is shot down, crash lands on Jakku, and Finn, thinking he is the sole survivor of the crash, finds not only BB-8, but also Rey. Rey becomes a target by association, necessitating her joining Finn in his escape from the planet, to deliver the map piece to the resistance. In the <i>Millennium Falcon</i>, no less. In <i>A</i> <i>New Hope</i>, Luke refuses his call to adventure. It isn't until his aunt and uncle are killed that he decides to go with Obi-Wan. In <i>The Force</i> <i>Awakens</i>, Rey remains on Jakku under the impression her parents will come back for her. When she gets involved with BB-8 and Finn, she has no other recourse but to escape with them. And in both cases, Luke and Rey ultimately face their destinies. In each of the three trilogies, our hero leaves a desert planet to confront their destiny. Anakin and Luke from Tatooine, Rey from Jakku. Giving Rey her own desert planet gives her individuality. This way, she's not living where the Skywalkers <i>used</i> to live; she's living where <i>she</i> lives, but it still allows for some poetic parallelism. And being adopted into the Skywalker family calls for her to make a pilgrimage to Tatooine to pay her respects to the Skywalkers and then to announce her adoption into the Skywalker family. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">I like to picture the <i>Star Wars</i> galaxy this way: imagine Earth itself as a galaxy; every country, continent, island, ocean, lake, city, and state represents a world in that galaxy. There's more than one desert on Earth, so there's more than one desert planet in the <i>Star Wars</i>galaxy. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Tuanul village is a settlement populated by members of the Church of the Force, a religious sect whose members, while they are not Force sensitive, chose to follow the tenets laid down by the order. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">While the Church of the Force isn't mentioned by name in the film, it is identified in <i>The</i> <i>Force Awakens Visual Dictionary</i>, and is appropriately bookended by the Sith Eternal on Exegol in <i>The Rise of Skywalker. <o:p></o:p></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">According to <i>Star Wars Visual Dictionary</i> author Pablo Hidalgo, the Church of the Force was originally conceived by George Lucas for <i>Star Wars: Underworld</i>, a prepped but never produced live-action TV series Lucas was working on with <i>Battlestar Galactica</i> co-showrunner Ronald D. Moore. (More on <i>Battlestar Galactica</i> in a bit.)<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">So the sequel trilogy begins with the good intentions of a member of the Church of the Force, to find Luke and bring him back into the fold, and ends with evil pursuits of the Sith Eternal, who maintain Emperor Palpatine's spirit in a clone body. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">But to know any of this minutiae, you'd have to consult <i>Star Wars</i> ancillary material.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866667px; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">In Chapter 4, we will.<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>John Kenneth Muirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15629979615332893780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12380553.post-37905697204969036052024-02-01T06:00:00.000-05:002024-02-01T06:00:00.159-05:00Filtered Reality: Now Available<p><br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiKKgYgXvkSUDf0rLSQ0sDm5qMAK44UMcrSSFelXyR2uYc11xBcuC-Ior9wZaqEaN_OtMwX4s5TpFwS2s5vRM45o8tGsxdk-dX3iV8TtLGZ95KcyERSZYUUxvyOCi0_cQU01z0b1nLXhRcYO9jc2z77poldCQ4ogUXRo2XQVcN38sN-QXzAfm8Zg/s4000/20240130_152106.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4000" data-original-width="3000" height="395" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiKKgYgXvkSUDf0rLSQ0sDm5qMAK44UMcrSSFelXyR2uYc11xBcuC-Ior9wZaqEaN_OtMwX4s5TpFwS2s5vRM45o8tGsxdk-dX3iV8TtLGZ95KcyERSZYUUxvyOCi0_cQU01z0b1nLXhRcYO9jc2z77poldCQ4ogUXRo2XQVcN38sN-QXzAfm8Zg/w296-h395/20240130_152106.jpg" width="296" /></a></div><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">I want to draw everyone's attention to a new essay anthology from publisher House of Leaves:<i> Filtered Reality, </i>which concerns the found footage horror movie. The subtitle is - "<i>The Progenitors and Evolution of Found Footage Horror."</i></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">The book is filled with remarkable essays from scholars including Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, Jon Towlson, and Dawn Keetley. The foreword is by Stephen Volk. </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpQF-bgzAOj2KPasNKNGgHswLZOFartpf-Dc4dm79c8ZrvDI3oIlcNJl4Ghsf2KDNBR6YVOeTNawJSS-BWSFPBp-THyvxpYIaGT45T3hqOhNyzuPt4NnUnGs9a-azg1isSek0g3511r54mJhJHJtYJeSLUuyShBFSRBviZ3zxvjkW-fv88SpOngg/s4000/20240130_152108.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4000" data-original-width="3000" height="396" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpQF-bgzAOj2KPasNKNGgHswLZOFartpf-Dc4dm79c8ZrvDI3oIlcNJl4Ghsf2KDNBR6YVOeTNawJSS-BWSFPBp-THyvxpYIaGT45T3hqOhNyzuPt4NnUnGs9a-azg1isSek0g3511r54mJhJHJtYJeSLUuyShBFSRBviZ3zxvjkW-fv88SpOngg/w297-h396/20240130_152108.jpg" width="297" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">Some of the movies discussed in the essays include: <i><b>The Blair Witch Project, REC, Lake Mungo, Hell House LLC</b></i>, etc.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">I also have an essay in the book<i>: "You'll Only Believe Your Eyes if the Camera Work is Lousy: A Historical Survey of Found Footage Bigfoot."</i></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK-HjOJm-ghTMdGdjejagJmWE-ICfRKKnnvhlHxCwdx9nziw64csfHe3waApulayWI11SCflpL7d8kBukjoqGEOZrUuHPubp2XKkJNSnmnsnSdf59E5kOWl8r5_d3Hd1jJcqAvd6dTu3TLwctyVCCPuIFoWHLOYjnz-PIa-Rz17IPp1O2iUcAsow/s4000/20240130_152134.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4000" data-original-width="3000" height="382" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK-HjOJm-ghTMdGdjejagJmWE-ICfRKKnnvhlHxCwdx9nziw64csfHe3waApulayWI11SCflpL7d8kBukjoqGEOZrUuHPubp2XKkJNSnmnsnSdf59E5kOWl8r5_d3Hd1jJcqAvd6dTu3TLwctyVCCPuIFoWHLOYjnz-PIa-Rz17IPp1O2iUcAsow/w287-h382/20240130_152134.jpg" width="287" /></a></span></div><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;">If any of this sounds like it is up your alley (and I hope it does), you can order your copy of <i>Filtered Reality</i><span style="text-align: left;"><i> </i>here: </span><a href="https://www.holpublishing.com/shop" style="text-align: left;">https://www.holpublishing.com/shop</a></span></p><p><br /></p>John Kenneth Muirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15629979615332893780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12380553.post-42909823241612878332024-01-31T06:00:00.018-05:002024-01-31T06:38:26.672-05:00My Father's Journal: "The Tug of the Past"<p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">This week in my father's journal, Ken explores the idea of "collecting," (which I certainly inherited; as did my son), what it means, and the role it plays in all our lives.</span></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"> "</span><span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: none; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;">The Tug Of the Past"</span></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; text-align: center;"> <span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span>By Ken Muir</span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: times;">The future is unknowable. The present is messy, tense, tangled,</span></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: times;">often frustrating. But the past is a different animal…….or so it</span></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: times;">appears. It seems to be knowable, simpler, capable of being</span></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: times;">modeled into something useful in our lives.</span></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: times;">I have bought into this notion. Perhaps, being a former history</span></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: times;">teacher, I above all should know that this idea is overly simp-</span></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: times;">listic, that the past is never so lucid, so understandable as our </span></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: times;">nostalgia and desire for clarity make it seem. But the quest for </span></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: times;">knowing about the past and integrating elements of its art and </span></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: times;">artifacts into my life has ensnared me.</span></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: times;">The chase for American art pottery and prints, my fascination</span></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: times;">with Marie Simonds’ barn and its contents, managing the sale of </span></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: times;">contents at Catherine Nelson’s home, the quest to secure objects </span></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: times;">that my parents had collected over decades……..all of these </span></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: times;">coupled with attendance at countless estate and moving sales </span></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: times;">evince a strong passion for assembling the best exemplars of </span></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: times;">America’s material past that we could find and afford.</span></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: times;">This passion for “collecting the old” was never stronger than</span></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: times;">when I stumbled into a “time capsule” sale. Most </span></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: times;">often these were homes where a couple had set up housekeeping</span></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: times;">just before or just after World War II. And, in order to be a true</span></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: times;">“time capsule,” the owners had not significantly updated or</span></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: times;">remodeled the home. Kitchens and basements were the prime </span></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: times;">hunting grounds, with attics and garages coming next. Tools,</span></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: times;">art prints, kitchen ware, glassware and bric-a-brac, art pottery, </span></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: times;">furniture, military uniforms and equipment, toys, vintage books, </span></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: times;">ephemera……..the range of desirable finds was almost endless.</span></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: times;">Bloomfield, Nutley, Clifton, Lyndhurst, Garfield, Prospect Park,</span></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: times;">Rutherford, East Paterson….the whole string of semi-industrial</span></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: times;">towns along the Passaic River comprised the rich vein of older</span></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: times;">communities to be mined. Their workshops and small factories </span></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: times;">had helped measurably in the war effort, deploying American </span></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: times;">technical knowhow and also sustaining the surrounding resident-</span></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: times;">ial neighborhoods. Marie Simonds’ barn, with its wartime wood-</span></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: times;">working enterprise, was a classic example of this aspect of </span></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: times;">American mid-century life. Wooden U S Army Signal Corps boxes </span></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: times;">were produced there in considerable quantity.</span></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: times;">The description of “finds” at these sales and the behavior of other</span></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: times;">patrons -especially dealers- could fill many hours. </span></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: times;">So, why does this accumulation of the material past grip me so?</span></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: times;">Some say that people set out to “collect their youth….” finding</span></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: times;">again the items that amused them and peopled their world when </span></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: times;">they were children. This was not true in my case, for our family </span></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: times;">lived in such a spartan manner that few of these amenities were</span></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: times;">around, and even such items as we had in these categories were</span></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: times;">almost entirely for daily use, not for aesthetics. The single ex-</span></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: times;">Caption ion to this pattern was my father’s growing collection of </span></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: times;">clocks.</span></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: times;">Some might say that collecting antiques was a good investment,</span></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: times;">and perhaps for some it was. But the Great Recession of 2008 put</span></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: times;">the lie to that notion pretty much, as prices of antiques and</span></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: times;">“vintage” items of all sorts plunged and stayed depressed.</span></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: times;">So I am left merely with the oft-repeated maxim of dealers and </span></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: times;">collectors, “buy what you like… that way, you can’t go wrong.”</span></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: times;">And I guess that’s what it finally comes down to……I like these</span></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: times;">objects. </span></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: times;">They come from an America that I can relate to, that I</span></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: times;">know reasonably well, that I can be proud of in many respects.</span></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: times;">They display a realism -- to life, to Nature -- that I appreciate and </span></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: times;">can relate to. I respect the workmanship they embody…….they </span></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: times;">are a form of “eye candy” that I value. At some level they make </span></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: times;">me feel good, fulfilled.</span></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: center;"><br /></p>John Kenneth Muirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15629979615332893780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12380553.post-85846628383239058672024-01-29T06:00:00.019-05:002024-01-29T06:00:00.280-05:00Guest Post: Scott Pilgrim Takes Off (2023)<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 22px; margin: 0in 0in 8pt; text-align: center;"><b><i></i></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjG4Wx38ypJfHQRLr2jyrK0f5M_vS8usF_70AQ3aWdKZenFb2T1vGQiwmqD19w49fr8SK1qKRPlSayxNv6GJCg7QhgdJ-sS3Iqz6Gqe3f_KV6s-H49eLBhFziUPjDvPHZLciLNRNyFrbASBlb1KDd6VOG5JxnHmHIT08la7h-HKp61dFfMNrTZS1w/s1350/F_HvemBbYAAbz7c.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1350" data-original-width="1080" height="492" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjG4Wx38ypJfHQRLr2jyrK0f5M_vS8usF_70AQ3aWdKZenFb2T1vGQiwmqD19w49fr8SK1qKRPlSayxNv6GJCg7QhgdJ-sS3Iqz6Gqe3f_KV6s-H49eLBhFziUPjDvPHZLciLNRNyFrbASBlb1KDd6VOG5JxnHmHIT08la7h-HKp61dFfMNrTZS1w/w394-h492/F_HvemBbYAAbz7c.jpeg" width="394" /></a></i></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><i><br /></i></b></div><p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 22px; margin: 0in 0in 8pt; text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Scott Pilgrim Takes Off</span><o:p></o:p></span></i></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 22px; margin: 0in 0in 8pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">By Matthew Allair<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 22px; margin: 0in 0in 8pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Can a known fan property be reexamined and still move forward? The last ten years have been a little precarious in the entertainment field for sequels, revivals, and reboots. Often the need to do something ‘new’ with fan favorites can lead to mixed results and diminishing returns, new characters can be introduced that can intermittently diminish the integrity of the original, and beloved characters. One of the problems for the Jame Bond franchise, due to the need for formula, the character arc for Bond seemed pretty fixed and static for years, for example the Roger Moore era. Growth comes with risk, but it can make for entertaining material when done well. Fortunately Netflix has wisely struck a balance with their new sequel, alternative take on Scott Pilgrim, and it’s a delight, a series that has a narrative sleight of hand in its telling that is refreshing. It stays true to the source material, while remaining self-aware, and metatextual, and adding something new. The youth trend towards Metamodernism – a way of viewing the world that emphasizes a kind of integrated pluralism – has already affected entertainment, for good and ill, and places the viewer with challenges. When done well like in “Everything, Everywhere, All At Once” 2022, it can reveal truths about the human condition, when not, it can be off putting. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 22px; margin: 0in 0in 8pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Bryan Lee O’Malley’s graphic novel series from the early two thousands managed to be both groundbreaking and incisive in its comments about growing up, maturing, and taking stock of your interactions with others. The new series is Executive Produced by Edgar Wright, the director of “Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World” 2010, with the majority of the eight episodes co written by Bryan Lee O’Malley. It brings back the feature film cast and retains a continuity between the film and graphic novel. The other key ingredient is the animation team at Science Saru whose work on this series is seamless, and beautifully executed. There’s some evident craftmanship in the animation between director Abel Gongora, and animation cinematographers Hikari Itou, and Yoshihiro Yanagi. Yet they also retain the look of Bryan Lee O’Malley’s character drawings. The series is full of references to other films, anime, and games from the nineties. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 22px; margin: 0in 0in 8pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 22px; margin: 0in 0in 8pt; text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhq7eG3R0YW3vjya73TGoWQ2uSySE15tJa8IXiup1rKqoXR8NQFBCnivhEIiRkFlJVxhaMvOTWvuc4_QJ_GA6c4IwGh17a3PJyydnFHssPsdXBLwVJG8trefGeiNmJn7QkkN6S1UZ3ZzCtPhjO8pTTzOgCKdiqpsuumrqBLI2xL2VESndiZz_a5LA/s1600/l-intro-1692206068.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="249" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhq7eG3R0YW3vjya73TGoWQ2uSySE15tJa8IXiup1rKqoXR8NQFBCnivhEIiRkFlJVxhaMvOTWvuc4_QJ_GA6c4IwGh17a3PJyydnFHssPsdXBLwVJG8trefGeiNmJn7QkkN6S1UZ3ZzCtPhjO8pTTzOgCKdiqpsuumrqBLI2xL2VESndiZz_a5LA/w443-h249/l-intro-1692206068.jpg" width="443" /></a></div><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 22px; margin: 0in 0in 8pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">For those unfamiliar with the book and film, Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera), twenty-three, a ‘between jobs’ Bass player for a band, is dating a high schooler, after a brutal breakup of a former flame turned into megastar, when he meets the girl of his dreams at a party named Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead). The only problem is, he will have to fight her seven deadly evil exes to win her over while navigating the awkward breakup of his underage flame Knives Chau. The league of exes were organized by the seventh ex-boyfriend, Tycoon Gideon Graves (Jasson Schwartzman).<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 22px; margin: 0in 0in 8pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">But this new series manages some new surprises while initially following the early part of the known tale before taking an abrupt shift, thus making it difficult to not engage in spoilers. It is best to probably go in with the element of surprise, but each episode is packed with so many revelations and information you might want to take in two passes of the series to fully absorb. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 22px; margin: 0in 0in 8pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">The show is a rolodex of pop culture references. The episode ‘Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Life’ pretty much tracks with the known tale of the books and film. We are introduced to his friends, His gay roommate Wallace Welles (Kieran Culkin), his semi girlfriend Knives Chau (Ellen Wong), his band mates Kim Pine (Allison Pill) and Stephen Stills (Mark Webber), the hapless friend and roadie Young Neil (Johnny Simmons), his sister Stacey Pilgrim (Anna Kendrick), and rival Julie Powers (Aubrey Plaza), and while plot points are straight forward, that example of narrative slight of hand is seen in the revealing title for one, as well as the scene when Scott first meets Ramona, his pick up line differs from the feature, his trivial comment is about Sonic The Hedgehog in the early nineties using the same actor for two different versions, and she comments about watching older reruns like Columbo as a kid. Without it being evident, this telegraphs how the series is going to play out. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 22px; margin: 0in 0in 8pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Scott receives a letter stating an intended fight to the death, which Scott ignores. Scott’s band Sex Bob Bomb plays a club soon after the warning and evil ex number one Matthew Patel (Satya Bhabha) appears to fight Scott, yet there’s a reversal of fortune as Matthew wins, and allegedly kills Scott. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 22px; margin: 0in 0in 8pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">“A League of Their Own” deals with the fall out and Scott’s funeral. Yet Scott’s former ex Envy Adams (Bree Larson) hijacks the funeral with an elaborate performance with <a name="_Hlk152354121">Ninja Paparazzi </a>in tow. Meanwhile invites are sent, and the league are assembled to Graves’s lair. We are reintroduced to the league, Lucas Lee (Chris Evans), Lesbian Roxie Richter (Mae Whitman), Super vegan Todd Ingram (Brandon Routh) and that <a name="_Hlk153982934">Katayanagi </a>Twins, Ken, and Kyle, with their new creation in tow, Robot-01. Matthew’s win has left him full of hubris as he organizes the meeting, learns that Gideon was merely going to use all the Exes as pawns to get Ramona back. Matthew challenges Gideon for control of the league, under certain terms, and after an elaborate fight, Matthew wins and forces Gideon to sign away his vast fortune to him. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 22px; margin: 0in 0in 8pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">All the fight sequences are highly inventive and fun throughout the series. Ramona’s dream connection to Scott, and their interdimensional highway, makes her realize that he is still alive. In this episode Ramona takes agency of her life. There is a phenomenon known as the ‘dream pixie girl’, where men pine for some idealized women. In the original, men fight to take ownership of Ramona, but this is reversed here. At this point, there is a thematic hint towards “It’s A Wonderful Life” (1946) where people explore what life would be like without Scott. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 22px; margin: 0in 0in 8pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">In “Ramona Rents A Video” she takes matters into her own hand, after visiting the club and checking the surveillance videos, she visit’s Julie at the video store, get’s a breakdown of all of Scott’s friends to find motives, and details about those she knows all too well, her evil exes. We also shift to the home of Young Neil, who is inspired to write a screenplay, but after suffering from his paralysis demon one night, he awakes to find a full screen play fully written. The episode brings about the first emotional resolution at Julie’s video store, when Roxie Richter appears and attacks Ramona, the fight leading them into jumping into various movie settings with some dazzling sequences. The emotional exchanges between Ramona and Roxie are some of the highlights of the series. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 22px; margin: 0in 0in 8pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Ramona’s next mission leads into the backstory for Lucas Lee with the episode “Whatever”, In Hollywood, Lucas’s agent is warning him that his skater boy antics could get him out of the business if he doesn’t behave as he is sent to Toronto. Young Neil’s script, “Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Life” is being financed by a major studio, in very much a send up of the Hollywood industry and Edgar Wrigth’s film. There’s also some fun ribbing about Edgar Wright in the episode. Ramona get’s past security posing as a stunt person, Wallace visits the set, and hijacks the actor cast to play him, and ends up getting cast as himself. Lucas is cast as Scott, after a visit from Ramona, he fights Ninja Paparazzi and his fired from the project. The studio lot is filled with pop culture props including King Ghidorah.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 22px; margin: 0in 0in 8pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Todd Ingram is brought in to play the role of Scott with Envy playing Ramona, which leads to a strange series of seductions by Wallace towards Todd, which also has the most cartoonish fun. “Lights, Camera, Sparks?” pretty much depicts the feature project shutting down, while the real Ramona tries to get near Todd, Wallace and Todd’s fling leads to Todd’s ruin, with Envy in a rage and having Ramona fight Walaces stunt doubles. Eventually Ramona learns that Todd wasn’t put up to using his vegan powers and create the portal that snatched Scott away. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 22px; margin: 0in 0in 8pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">It is also around this point that Knives Chau is allowed some real character development. She discovers she’s adept at bass guitar, jams with drummer Kim in a liberating moment. Which leads to Steven discovering her abilities as she is adept at Piano as well. She takes on her own agency, she just doesn’t pine for Scott, and no longer just a superfan for Sex Bob Bomb, she grows. It is also endearing that Steven doesn’t pine for her, but is interested in her talent, they become a creative team that plays a major role going forward. Matthew shuts down the film, but not before Knives and Stephen makes a proposal to Matthew. Ramona learns through Matthew - after her reveal that Scott is still alive - she learns about Gideon / Gordon and Julie Powers. </span><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 22px; margin: 0in 0in 8pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">In “WHODIDIT”, we get the back story of the down and out Gideon and his new ally Lucas Lee, After Ramona learns that Gideon was not behind the portal, she assumes it would have to be the Katayanagi Twins and their mysterious robot companion who is seen throughout episodes. The gang of Stephen, Kim, Knives and Young Neil learn and reveal the “Precious Life” script was written by someone fourteen years into the future. While at Ramona’s place, just as this is all unfolding, there’s a knock at the door and Scott is alive. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 22px; margin: 0in 0in 8pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">His tale is told in “2 Scott 2 Pilgrim”, when the 37-year-old Scott had kidnapped him and brought him into the future of Ontario, where they meet an older Wallace who’s wealthy husband works for Nintendo. Scott is shown a Virtual Reality simulator where he learns about their lives, the events from ‘Scott Pilgrim Vs The World’, their future marriage and alleged divorce. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 22px; margin: 0in 0in 8pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">The older Scott is friends of Ken and Kyle and through their robot, they invent a time travel portal. But the motives become clear after Scott is served a social drink – that becomes important later- the older Scott has taken the twenty-three-year-old Scott to get him to end the relationship, that it wasn’t worth it. He tried to change events so that Ramona and Scott would never meet and break each other’s hearts. This reminds me, thematically of “Eternal Sunrise of The Spotless Mind” 2004, erasing the past to avoid pain. Of course, the intent is folly. The Robot 01 shares with Scott VR images of Ramona’s efforts to find him back in the present., which makes Scott realize the fight for them is worth it. Wallace takes Scott to the older Ramona who has time travel abilities where she learns of the older Scott’s plan. There’s a delightful ‘Back to the Future’ here. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 22px; margin: 0in 0in 8pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">The finale, “The World Vs Scott Pilgrim” pretty much plays out in what you expect, but when Scott and Ramona try to kiss, an anti-kiss field has been generated to stop them from kissing. They have to meet with all of the evil exes to find out who is behind this AK field, and the opportunity is there when Matthew Patel’s financed musical version of “Precious Little Life” is debuting with Matthew playing the role of Scott. Gideon and Julie plan to bomb the stage with a remote, but near the climax of the show, a strange energy bubble envelops the whole gang into a dream like world, and it is learned that an even older Scott was behind the AK field to stop them from dating, and he has to battle the entire circle to make certain the future never happens, even after Ramona gives the evil exes and friends powers, The older Scott sends them all back to the present as Scott and Ramona faces him alone. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 22px; margin: 0in 0in 8pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">An even older Ramona saves them and confronts the Older Scott, where it’s learned Scott assumes it was a divorce when it wasn’t, just a break. Both Ramona’s fuse together and everyone is sent back to their proper time and space. Scott and Ramona commit to not repeating the mistakes of the future. The epilogue features developments for all of the characters. There is a lack of character development for Envy Adams, and the arc for Gideon Graves, after losing everything and regaling it back, seems to revert to old his self, this may have to do with the brevity of the series over eight episodes. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 22px; margin: 0in 0in 8pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Animators Science Saru has used mixed various visual techniques to give the series vitality. Aside from staying to faithful to O’Malley’s graphic look, the team also borrows from other anime styles, and a few of the fight sequences briefly uses a pixilated style that nods to the original Scott Pilgrim game. There is also a good use changing frame ratios and depth of field focus between characters. Music has always been an important element with this property. Nineties Canadian underground band Plumtree’s song inspired the name of the title character, and Edgar Wright was faithful to the punk aesthetic in his 2010 film. In their new series, Anamanaguchi, and the Japanese act Necry Talkie provide the most interesting material. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 22px; margin: 0in 0in 8pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Even Bryan Lee O’Malley has admitted that the new series was a commentary of his relationship problems in his forties with his wife, much in the same way that the original comic reflected his experiences in his 20s. Yet the series doesn’t manage to be preachy or sermonizing, but real in it’s depiction about young, selfish, and flawed characters, yet the sleight of hand of the story telling never loses it’s fun or energy. This series has rewards for the viewer that make it worth the visit. Tne concerns of the nineties and two thousands were not any different <a name="_Hlk155063963">than what we are facing today, and just a reminder of the commonality of our flawed humanity. <o:p></o:p></a></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 22px; margin: 0in 0in 8pt; text-align: justify;"><br /></p>John Kenneth Muirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15629979615332893780noreply@blogger.com0