Star Wars ... Mark Steyn

Steyn Online ^ | 19 Dec 2015 | Mark Steyn

[Rummyfan]

Stabilize your rear deflectors! From a galaxy far far away - the summer of 1977 - Star Wars is back, rebooted for the 21st century and in hopes that after a decade's time-out the series has shaken off its turn-of-the-century "prequels", agreed even by hardcore fans to have been disappointing.

Not that it made any difference to the grosses: One of the remarkable features of the franchise is its resistance to quality control. Sci-fi wasn't boffo before Star Wars - if anything, rather the opposite: It was regarded as the upmarket intellectual end of genre fiction. Then George Lucas came along, and hijacked the entire field, with little more than a guy with a bucket on his head, a dog with a stick-on moustache, a talking garbage can and a princess wearing two cinnamon rolls on her ears.

But what do I know? Star Wars is the most successful movie ever. It's supposed to be "epic" and "primal", but, if so, it beats me. A film such as, say, High Noon, which takes place in real time — 90 minutes — on one dusty monochrome main street lined with plywood house fronts and whose only special effect is Tex Ritter's plaintive rendition of the title song, is truly primal: it's big at its core. Star Wars, it seems to me, is epic only in the sense that the telephone book is epic.

[mkjessup]

"Using your line of analysis, Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" is anti-Christian."

"You said it, not me."
"But now that you mention it ..."

This back-and-forth illustrates - unwittingly perhaps - why so many less religiously inclined citizens lump Christians together with the Flat Earthers. Before we know it, mkjessup will be shaking his finger at the forum, warning (in the tones and cadences of the illiterate backwoods preacher) that eternal damnation and hellfire will be our lot, less'n we stop wastin' time readin' them durned novels, which surely be tools of the Divvil.

Welllll now, looks like my comments ended up causing you to get your panties all messed up in a big fecal mess did you?

Your own anti-Christian bigotry is a sad thing to witness, let's see "illiterate backwoods preacher", "Christians and Flat Earthers", "tools of the 'Divvil'," you are the 'tool' no doubt, but not quite sharp enough for any demonic purposes.

Work on that.

SO very sorry if I rubbed your fur (Warg fur of course) the wrong way, devoted LotR fan you surely must be.

Here, as the saying goes 'Lighten Up Francis' and relieve your premature exasperation with some lighter reading:



Oh yeah, and Merry Christmas Smeagol! LOL

[MinorityRepublican]

So why were the original films revised?

[P.O.E.]

One of the funniest books I ever read.

[cvq3842]

I believe George Lucas wanted to update the special effects, and also integrate the films into his planned nine-episode “megastory.” And references to the “prequels” were inserted into the first three films released.

[schurmann]

“...Your own anti-Christian bigotry is a sad thing to witness, let’s see “illiterate backwoods preacher”, “Christians and Flat Earthers”, “tools of the ‘Divvil’,” you are the ‘tool’ no doubt, but not quite sharp enough for any demonic purposes....”

My first impulse was to list the dozens of ways I thought of, to illustrate how little I care.

But then the irony of that approach hit me: I don’t care enough to bother.

If mkjessup can set aside her/his self-satisfaction and mulish indifference to anything outside his/her preoccupation with things spiritual/religious, I will post one bit of detail for the forum to consider:

J.R.R Tolkien was a person of profoundly Christian beliefs, sensibilities, and culture. He was a major influence on colleagues C.S. Lewis, who converted to Christianity and went on to become one of the most noted Christian apologists of the 20th century.

Set against that, mkjessup’s complaints about the lack of explicitly Christian detail in _The Lord of the Rings_ might be interpreted in a different light. At least a little.

That is, if any of the truly faithful can be bothered to shake off their smugness and look up the real story here.

[mkjessup]

That is, if any of the truly faithful can be bothered to shake off their smugness and look up the real story here.

Smugness?

You've got the franchise on that Smeagol.

[tbw2]

I remember a book about a decade ago about how Star Wars is a good introduction to Buddhism. The Dharma of Star Wars