SORRY, STAR WARS FANS, YOU CAN’T GET YOUR CHILDHOOD BACK: A “Memo to overexcited ‘Star Wars’ fanboys,” from Kyle Smith of the New York Post. “’The Force Awakens’ is not the experience you’re looking for:”
Even if “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” turns out to be as good as “Star Wars” (I’m not calling it “A New Hope” or Episode IV, because I do not acknowledge the existence of Episodes I-III), it won’t be as good. Why? Because “Star Wars” wasn’t even as good as “Star Wars.”
In 1977, “Star Wars” exploded with the force of a thousand surprisingly fragile Death Stars because nothing like it had been seen before. The pace, for a mid-’70s kid movie, was breakneck. (Carrie Fisher remembers George Lucas constantly telling the cast, “Faster, faster!”) Combining wry wit with thrilling action was all but unknown.
The majestic score by John Williams, which elevated the story to a level of beauty and grace comparable to classic films, was from another galaxy compared to the competition. Recall what else was out there at the time. “The Apple Dumpling Gang.” “Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo.” “Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger.”
Succeeding generations saw “Star Wars” when they were 10, or 8, or 5 years old. That you is gone. You can’t lose your virginity twice, you can’t believe in Santa Claus again and you’ll never regain a child’s sense of wonder, even dressed as a Jawa.
Beyond the B-movies that Kyle listed above, as James Lileks noted on Star Wars’ 30th anniversary, what made Star Wars so novel a movie-going experience at the time was that it was the only film in the 1970s that combined both the majesty of 2001: A Space Odyssey’s gleaming interplanetary technology with that rarest of all things in ‘70s cinema: an unambiguously happy ending:
And what an ending, eh? Han Solo — Harrison Ford in his first great relaxed performance, and his last — conquers his selfishness and redeems himself. Luke uses the Force — which is sort of like magnetism, plus ethics — and blows up Peter Cushing and his Death Star, along with untold engineers, support staff, kitchen workers, etc. The movie could have ended there, but no: It concluded with an awards ceremony. At the shank end of the post-Vietnam, post-Watergate, Carter-era malaise and ennui, Lucas filmed a movie that ended with a princess giving medals to heroes.
After a generation of movies with tortured antiheroes who couldn’t order a sandwich without making A Statement, it seemed remarkably fresh.
It saved science fiction. You could argue that “Star Wars” saved “Star Trek” as well; the success of the movie had everyone greenlighting space operas now, and the first Trek movie — a long, serious film by the director of “West Side Story” — was released a while later, leading to three more decades of Trek.
Disney countered with “The Black Hole,” a so-so movie ruined by things like robots with Texas accents. There were dozens of B-movie knockoffs; even schlockmaster Roger Corman made one. But no one ever quite put it together like the original “Star Wars.” Lucas had taken every cliché in the genre, stripped it down and served it up as new. Add some brilliant art direction and a stirring score, and you had the grandest slice of epic cheese ever made.
But other than, arguably, The Empire Strikes Back, it’s been nearly impossible to recreate that magic moment in 1977 when it all came together for both George Lucas and his audience. As Saturday Night Live producer Lorne Michaels of all people once said, “You can’t fake virginity.”
Though if anybody can, it’s hardcore Star Wars fans…