The Obligation of Cinematic Nostalgia

2021 was a banner year in content creation - content maximization, really - for the MCU with 4 new movies (its most ever) and 5 original series on Disney+.  In 2022, 5 separate Star Trek series will release new episodes: FIVE!!!  

Source: medium.com

When The Matrix: Resurrections was released on HBOMax, I decided to sign up for a month of the service to see the new movie.  Before I did, I decided to watch Reloaded and Revolutions again, because I was sure I had seen the original movie several times, but each of the sequels maybe as few as twice each.  Upon starting Reloaded, I was completely lost, and realized what I was expecting to see was actually the back half of the original, so I went ahead and took most of my month's purchase time to get through the full trilogy again, and then - finally - watched Resurrections on the last day that it remained streaming on the service (for now).  The reboot / sequel / most recent installment was... okay.  Pretty good in fact, with a fun and inventive central conceit... but really just the same again as before (which I really think is kind of the central unintended theme of The Matrix franchise).

The Matrix was released in 1999, which was hands down the peak year of movies in America (and don't take my word for it).  My personal filmic consumption was also at an all time high, so I was hooked on most anything that was being doled out.  Ergo, The Phantom Menace (which I first saw pirated on a desktop computer because I was living in Germany, and it wasn't releasing there until the fall {by which time I was going to be back in the States!}) was such a pleasure when I first saw it - seeing the Jedi at their peak (or their early decline) - rather than something to be scoffed at.  

In a year when Fight Club and Office Space were working to undermine contemporary late capitalism in America from opposite ends of the spectrum (and at a time where the political spectrum wasn't the only spectrum - rather the spectrum in this case is Fight Club's chaotic, anarchic direct action on one end and Office Space's radical, satirical inaction on the other) and realities of all sorts were called into question (whether it's cyberspace v. meatspace {The Matrix & eXistenZ}; spiritual reality {The Sixth Sense}; temporal {Run Lola Run}; documentary v. fiction {Blair Witch Project}; cosmic {Being John Malkovich}; or gonzo-comedic {Man on the Moon}), most of the main modern mythologies were at or near their (then) peaks. 

Since that time, of course, we've had the dawn of the MCU, plus the continuation of the Star Wars prequels and expanded universe, Star Trek trying out a prequel series and then a reboot, before its full establishment of an STU, The Walking Dead becoming a cable tv phenomenon and then (likely) overextending its reaching to create a fuller, awesomer universe, and now everything wants not just a movie deal, but a whole universe that can be endlessly capatilistically exploited.  The Harry Potter Universe (HPU), the DCU, even the dream of the SKU.  Did you know, for example, that Breaking Bad and The Walking Dead happen in the same world?

But it's not just that the maximal capitalistic exploitation feels so oppressive - it's the compartmentalization of it all.  Streaming has only made it more ex-stream! - the ability to only consume the same thing that you always want to consume.  Discovery+ is the most extreme version of this (only because most of it is not my speed), but it's the logical, cultural extension of the political media self selecting that has been talked about for decades.

And the outcome, like the natural outcome of late capitalism, is alienation... we will forever become more separate from each other (on a referential level, but also a relational level), and that alienation is helpful for capitalism (especially late capitalism).  The less we notice the suffering of those immediately around us (not our families, but our neighbors - or if you're weird and still friendly with your neighbors, then I mean the people who live two houses down from your neighbors... yes those neighbors) and the more that we feel that we are alone in our own*.

So, as I'm watching an episode of Star Wars: Rebels, and two Lasat survivors identify a location of a new homeworld for their people, my first thought is <<what is a Lasat again?  Have I encountered these before and why do I care?>> and then <<ok, yeah, I care even if I don't know who they are, because I'm a) invested in this universe and b) generally care about the well being of anyone who isn't always already known to be a prick>>.  

It turns out it's easy to love what you love.  When Discovery zapped its characters into the late 32nd Century, the emotionality of the series ramped up to 11 - at least for those who were invested.  The dismantling of The Federation in the 900 years or so since the crew came through is tragic, but the melding of Vulcan and Romulan species in the newly formed Ni'Var is sublime.

But the trick, i think, is 

* our own suffering, that is...

i get it now!

I have been re-watching the Star Wars saga chronologically in preparation for Episode IX.  I've reached, at long last, The Last Jedi (Die Letzten Jedi, as i like to refer to it, to show that it's plural!) and have been watching all of the Forces of Destiny shorts in order as well as a few of the other ephemera.

So far, i have read several of the comics and working my way through a few novels that are now considered "canon".  Of course, i have throughout my days read some of the Star Wars universe literature (Timothy Zahn's trilogy, Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina, and Splinter of the Mind's Eye), now all disavowed.  But now i plan to make a slow crawl through this new canon.

Source: funko.com

I promise not to drag it out here and bore you all with an epic play-by-play (as i have been guilty of for some other sci fi universes...), but the pop-cultural mass-production machine has put a mythology together which is vast and rich.  They will spend the next decade exploring it in upcoming tv shows and a new trilogy and more Star Wars Stories (i expect)...

With this third trilogy about to finish its arc (as well as put a closing argument on the entire nonology), I think it's worth noticing both how each trilogy was a set of its time, but the themes of the entire story are timeless and timely.

Much attention has been paid to Kylo Ren's line about "killing your past to become who you were meant to be".  I think this has been read largely as a millennial claim of the future (from the hands of the likes of, say, Boomers like Kylo's annoying dad and his former teacher).  While this trilogy does serve to pass the torch to a new generation, it's also a reminder to us all to leave behind the vestiges of the prior generations that would hold us back in our whole new world.

Kylo's request of Rey (implicitly at this moment and explicitly later) to join him and join the existing corporate power structure {aka "The Dark Side"} and help him overtake it) is one of multiple poles in the power nexus in this galaxy far far away (and so too ours as well).  We will call this particular position the Zuckerberg Lane, a young upstart acquiring a vast amount of power while the primary great powers of government (The Empire & The Rebellion) are focused on consolidating their own power against each other.  

Another "power pole" (i don't love this term...) that explicitly states its case in The Last Jedi is when force ghost Yoda says to Luke that "we are what they grow beyond.  That is the true burden of all masters."  This is an acknowledgement of the idea that our next generation not only will be our betters, but must be.  It's a radical acknowledgement - and one that used to be inherent, unspoken.  When we look back, we (the "now people") look better, smarter, more intellectually sophisticated compared to our ancestors.  This doesn't mean we don't honor them and appreciate them, it's just a different stance from blind fealty.

It's easy to think of the Jedi (current and former) as a bloc of good - all light side, all the time - but I think they more closely resemble something like, say, "Democrats".  Sure, they mostly do good things most of the time and are generally on the right side of history, but in order for them to truly have power we also have to accept the Joe Manchins and John Bel Edwards who may think some things we don't want them to sometimes, but also mostly agree that governments (Galactic Senates or domestic ones) can do some good.  As a bloc, they have also accepted some evils (whether those be Southern Segregationists or an Imperial Clone Army), but those are products of historic naiveté, and must be accepted within its historical context in order to build the movement, n'est-ce pas?

Yoda's line about passing history on to your progenitors is fundamental to a progressive perspective of history.  Each generation must both believe itself to be the best, most enlightened, best suited to move history forward, and also willing to let the next generation be better than they were once their time has passed.  

This is the era we now inhabit, where our "resistance establishment' (pro-Biden Democrats - also perhaps Deval Patrick's constituency) is struggling to make arguments against The First Order (the Tea Party ==> the Trump Party), but hand wringing and hemming and hawing at the radical approach Democrats who want to let the system crumble and build it up new (here Yoda and Luke are played by, I guess Bernie and Warren?? - I think this all ultimately will come to mean that Rey is AOC & Stacy Abrams wrapped in to one, and we will pass the keys on to them soon enough...).

This closing trilogy of the Skywalker Epic is unfolding in tumultuous political times not just here in the US, but globally.  Trumpian politics are dripping even in the first installment in 2015 with the First Order taking out a vast portion of the inner planetary systems and the existing establishment politics.  "Draining the Swamp" as it were.  

The Prequels began in a pre-9-11 moment, and the world they introduce us to in the first installment, it's a dreamy vision of the always better erstwhile.  The Phantom Menace's Coruscant (and even moreso Naboo) are an idyllic past to the familiar worlds we knew from the original trilogy.  While there is a nod to Clinton-Era political squabbles and self-dealing, the world is an "OK, Boomer" dream status that will never be revived. 

It's the middle trilogy, the original set, that comes from an era of our world when they didn't know yet what they were really all about.  It's a big part of why the themes of the movies are so general and mythological.  The trilogy knows it's about struggle, but what that struggle is wasn't clear until much later.  1977 - 1985 was just at the start of the Era of Inequity that we live in now.

This is the struggle of our era - it's the fight of our lives.  We will see what the Rise of Skywalker has to say about it in a month's time.  And then, let's see what we do next in 2020 in our own response.

*      *       *

17 December 2019

Watching Star Wars: Behind Closed Doors from REELZ (is that a thing?), and the clarity of misunderstanding of the prequels is made clear.  A lot of the critique of the prequels is couched in storytelling - i.e. the original trilogy made the battle versus good and evil the main point, but the prequels are so bureaucratic, administrative and political.   The new trilogy has been exciting and modern and definitely better than those pesky prequels.  It's a fair argument, but i think is the argument for what i said above.

The simple way to say this is (unfortunately) that people were simpler.  But it's not just that.  The more important function of (American) history is that the era of the prequels (1999 - 2005) was an empty era (i know, i know - 9/11 happened then, but 9/11 is a logical conclusion of the 1970s/80s Islamic Terrorism that we ignored for most of the 80s and 90s).

Politically, and culturally, it's a kind of boring time.  1999 was a kick-ass year for movies, and the era of prestige tv was about to begin (or maybe did, i don't have exact dates), but it was sort of easy politically.  [NOT HISTORICALLY by the way!!!  Bush v. Gore, then 9/11, then re-electing the (up to then) dumbest person we had elected president.  And culturally, the technological superfuture was still sorta basic. 

My argument basically is that folks watching the original trilogy needy clarity (good vs. evil, dark v. light) because they'd just come out of Vietnam, Watergate, hippie reclamation, etc.  The prequels came out when it was only just becoming clear that all of the powers that be (Republicans and Democrats and large corporations and big tech {whatever that might be!} and all of it were aligning against actual regular people who weren't already rich and had maybe just trusted the hangover of the New Deal to carry them through to retirement could just start to grasp that everything was conspiring against us, the regular people.

I think in this context the prequels read amazingly well.  They are prescient, not just of Anakin's turn to the dark side, but of a vast chunk of America - first in the re-election of a war criminal president, and then later in the historic and wonderful and also par-for-the-course election of Barack Obama who governed as a Compassionate Centrist (and i love him dearly and what he accomplished, but by the time The Force Awakens comes out it is clear we are off the rails and are going to elect someone for our times like either Donald J. Trump {or Bernie!}.

another look

Source: Heroic Hollywood

With the upcoming release of Solo: A Star Wars Story this month, I thought it was time to re-watch the full series, episodes 1 - 8, plus 3.9 (Rogue One) and, I'm guessing, 3.5 (Solo), and rank them for your edification.

Note, i'm publishing as i watch, so prior to the new movie, the first three episodes are going to be ranked top three - because i'm ranking them relationally.  A movie will only get ranked #1 if it is better than the one watched just before it...

Episode I: The Phantom Menace - 1999 (dir. George Lucas) - Rank #10
(5/13/2018)

While Jar Jar Binks remains one of the most unfortunate characters in the sci-fi pantheon, and he occupies altogether too much screen time in this film, this movie suffered from unfair expectations when it was first released.  It had been 15 years since Return of the Jedi, and now we were only going to get back story - what had happened before. 

The Pod Race is, perhaps, the best action sequence in all of the Star Wars series.  (I think this is true, but will monitor for any alternatives as I watch through the series again).  This is the first view we get in all of Star Wars of Coruscant. 

The light saber battle with Darth Maul also has to be the greatest sword-fight of the series, n'est-ce pas?  The theatrics and the choreography are worthy of Oscar consideration if that sort of thing were awarded.  Our former (or soon to be) mentor, Obi-Wan is the hot-headed upstart who is over-eager to end Darth Maul after Qui-Gon Jinn is ended himself.

Episode II: Attack of the Clones - 2002 (dir. George Lucas) - Rank #3
(5/23/2018)

The second episodes always seems to go dark, but in this first trilogy, it's more of a balanced affair. At a most basic level, Episode II had a lot of work to do that is put upon prequels: creating a love affair that creates Luke & Leia; setting up a Clone War; showing the start of someone 'turning to the dark side'; providing context for the resentment that Luke experiences in Episode IV regarding his father and high-falutin' space-faring... 

There was a recent review (in fact on May the 4th, 2018), which I cannot find, that looked back at Episode II with newfound fondness, and I'm inclined to agree.  Although there is clumsiness here - heartfelt emotion has always been a bit beyond the series, but let's not forget we're dealing with an action adventure here, folks...

While the action sequences are inferior to Episode I, this is a better movie.  Seeing Jedi in action, "on the case" as it were, both in the heat of pursuit and with Obi Wan bluffing his way on Kamino, is a joy of seeing life in Star Wars before everything feel apart.  That Kamino sequence is actually quite marvelous, and introduces us in a very new way to the storm troopers.  In The Clone Wars cartoons (which I will skip here), we get to know them even more, which makes the fall in Episode III and moving into IV all the more painful.

Episode III: Revenge of the Sith - 2005 (dir. George Lucas) - Rank #9
(5/27/2018)

This movie would make a lot more sense if one has watched The Clone Wars series. The motivations, and how we find ourselves in the midst of this all. Overall, this is not a great film, but once again it performs a lot of necessary work.  The revenge in the title definitely implies that things will go poorly for our friends...

The temptation of the dark side has been, for most of the movie series, a bit obscure.  Love and commitment lead pain.  Pain leads to suffering.  Suffering leads to the dark side (i may have skipped {or invented} some steps there).  Once again, though, The Clone Wars cartoon offers another alternative path at least away from the Jedi way (if not directly to the Dark Side).  Ahsoka Tano, one of the most interesting characters in TCW, studies as Anakin Skywalker's Padawan learner.  Before the end of the series (and therefore the beginning of Episode III) Ahsoka had left the Jedi Order to seek a better balance.  

Episode III is not a great film, but it does some of its parts well enough.  I would say that it's a full step above Episode I, because Jar Jar Binks does not speak.  But it's also some fine high drama.  I think the film helps us feel the pain and tragedy of Anakin's betrayal.  It also shows some great battles, but also the great Star Wars Universe moments of Order 66, meeting Chewbacca, (but most awfully) seeing Anakin fall and ultimately murder.  

Solo: A Star Wars Story (Episode 3.25) - 2018 (dir. Ron Howard) - Rank #7
(5/30/2018)

It is very difficult to rank (at least this) Star Wars Story alongside the other episodes. Similar to the prequel episodes, there is a lot of nostalgia that factors in to the viewing joy of this film. However, at its core, this movie is a heist picture and it seems fairly successful at that... (except it has a few too many heists).  If this were Solo: The Kessel Run (aka Solo's Eleven) instead of a Star Wars Story, the structure of the film would've been allowed to be 1) get a gang together (and meet the characters as they meet each other); 2) plan the job (and learn everyone's individual motivations as the plan comes together); 3) do the job (and watch as it all seems to be falling apart, but then comes together in the end). 

This movie has a lot of filling in the blanks work to do as well as we have seen in the first three episodes. EW had a cover story that focused on the birth of the most important friendship in all of Star Wars (the shower scene is very hilarious and perfect), and a lot of post-release commentary has been about the fan-bits that they got right and wrong (how neat that they made it work that making the Kessel Run in 12 parsecs ISN'T just a dumb writing mistake from the '70s!).

 In the end, this movie has a lot of heart - it's just not where we expect to find it.  Much has been made of the less than plausible love affair between Han and Kira, but it seems to me that it's just one in a series of several formative loves (perhaps even four loves, as Sarah Welch partially posits in a neat post on a site called thinkChristian).  What Welch misses (or skips) is the pushing back on C.S. Lewis' ideas about love.  Solo, I think, argues that friendship - the relationship of Han and Chewie - is the greatest and most important bond in life (and that idea bears out in the course of the rest of the episodes).

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (Episode 3.95) - 2016 (dir. Gareth Edwards) - Rank #8
(7/15/2018)

Although this movie starts out as a bit of a disjointed mess... it feels a bit like they expect you've watched The Clone Wars with all of the planet hopping... in the end, this episode (or sub-episode) holds up quite well. Particularly impressive is that they have managed to tell a story that every viewer already knows the end, and yet make it suspenseful.

It's a tough story to hear - a lot of sacrifice.  By the end, almost anyone we've decided to care about in the course of the film will be dead. We already know this going in - because of one throwaway line in Episode IV.  But watching it unfold is exciting - it's dramatic.

Even more enjoyable is watching the end of this movie, and immediately starting Episode IV.  The drive of A New Hope has never felt so real or logical as when you've watched the last ditch effort of Rogue One.  Until I rewatched this episode, I was not expecting to rank it as high as I did...  but it's an incredible lesson in fulfilled expectations.  

Episode IV: A New Hope - 1977 (dir. George Lucas) - Rank #5
(7/31/2018)

Such a classic, and difficult to rank, because I've seen it so many times... The movie has it's weak points, which have often been enumerated (by me and everyone). But it's also wonderfully paced adventure movie. It's not the break-neck pace of modern sci-fi or adventure flicks, but it does feel, at times, jam packed.  Always already on to the next thing.

This is, in large part, because the original trilogy is written to be and structured to be so mythological. (See Joseph Campbell). Meeting our familiar friends (and by this i mean of course in this viewing!) is such a joy. Obi Wan got old! And quick!.  And young Han Solo is all grown up. It's a new look at an old friend when you've watched so recently the origin story, where he was a padawan gangster... Now he is just as cocky and self-assured as he was when he was young, but he wears it better. I guess Luke, too... we saw him as a wee baby at the end of Episode III, and here he is as a whiny adolescent!  (Oh, and Uncle Owen and his wife Beru!)

Episode IV started all of this first and foremost because it is a well made movie. It's got iconic characters who we will come to love and care about.  The storyboard for the movie is almost simplistic, but especially when you watch this film after Rogue One, some of the absurdities evaporate.  Why would the Empire build an ultimate weapon that has such an exploitable weakness?  It was an inside job by the rebels!  Well done Rebels!  Looks like everything is going to turn out just fine for you :)

Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back - 1980 (dir. Irvin Kershner) - Rank #1
(8/30/2018)

This is the most complex of the Star Wars movies... It hurts seeing our dear friends suffer, but suffering (along with leading to the dark side) helps us better understand ourselves - and by extension, our characters. The movie stretches far, and it's hard to place on a calendar. How long have these folks known each other once they find themselves on Hoth?  There's a canon answer to that now, I suppose, but at this point it's hard to know.

The family and friendship development takes leaps and bounds in this installment. At the start, Han & Leia are still feeling the childish antics, but by ACT IV, they're ready to say they love each other (to each other). We met the characters in Episode IV (or III or III.25, I suppose), but here is where we really get to know them and love them and learn them. While i think this movie stands strongly as the best of the whole series on the merits of plot and story and all, it's probably universally seen as the best Star Wars movie because it's the one where we really get to know everyone. In love and movies and novels - what we really love is the learning. Meeting new people - learning them - getting to know someone - the exploration, that's what we grasp on to.

Episode VI: Return of the Jedi - 1983 (dir. Richard Marquand) - Rank #4
(9/28/2018)

I think whenever I actually watch Return of the Jedi, I am surprised by the extent to which I not only like it, but think it is a strong contender amongst the top tier of episodes. I'm actually a little torn as i watch this as to whether it ranks above or below A New Hope. This is all said with one large caveat - I know, Ewoks! While i was of the age to be able to enjoy the Saturday morning cartoon (which was awesome by the way), I do now know - and to some extent have always known - that the Ewoks were Jar Jar before there was Jar Jar.

All this is true, but the tri-level battle at the end of the film has to be the best cinematic in the entire series. You've got the papa drama of Luke and Vader in a tiff that they resolve through their mutual eventual hatred of The Emperor (aka Mom), the massive "it's a trap!" space battle where we ultimately learn yeehaw is an innate human expression, and the sorta silly Ewok battle for Endor. 

Know first, that what follows is NOT an apology for Ewoks... 

...that said, the Ewoks represent a small part of the full mosaic that is needed to bring down an empire.  In an era where we have so much tribalism (more on this later), it is easy to forget the interconnection necessary between those tribes to accomplish anything.  The Rebels need help - the Jedi are all but gone, hope is nearly lost, and Endor is under occupation.  Guerrilla war is, fought by natives not only protecting their land, but also fighting for the greater good, is no small thing.  Plus they're just so adorable!

Episode VII: The Force Awakens - 2015 (dir. J.J. Abrams) - Rank #6
(10/11/2018)

It was only 16 years (only seems like a strange word here, but it's actually quite apt) between Return of the Jedi and The Phantom Menace. The wait for this next trilogy to start was only 10 years, and the span between each episode will now be filled by middle episodes (3.9, 3.25, etc.). My hope is that we can someday see some episodes that occur between other episodes (6.5!?, 0.025!!??)

The Force Awakens is a joy, because it continues the story of long-lost friends, and introduces us to a new generation.  It's also a sort of ridiculous echo - The Empire, re-organized into The First Order has created another, newer, bigger planet-killing weapon.  

The film ranks as high as it does, because it's a blast - accidentally re-discovering the Millennium Falcon because the ship of choice in the junk yard gets obliterated; Maz Kanata!, in jokes, BB-8, and the death of Han Solo.  The film ranks as low as it does, because it is first and foremost, a preamble.  The heft isn't there, except in Han's death.  It's a good movie, but the epic part is ahead.

Episode VIII: The Last Jedi - 2017 (dir. Rian Johnson) - Rank #2
(11/17/2018)

This is a fun and funny ride toward the end of the Skywalker Era in the galaxy. The movie is epic in scale, but playful and modest in tone. It's a valuable lesson, to not take history-making and iconoclasm too seriously - particularly from the inside). The movie opens with a cute "can you hear me now" bit between General Hux and Poe and ends with the implication of the rising of an entire new generation of force users.  Between those two moments, the foundation of (let's say, hypothetically, 2) thousand year-old religion burns in a fire started by it's two greatest proponents: Luke Skywalker and Yoda.

The Last Jedi is a riddle - in English it feels like it refers to either Skywalker or Rey. Once we learned the title in German - Die Letzten Jedi - it became clear that there are many more than one last Jedi.  Also clear is that what was the Jedi religion (the light side of the Force) will be different - or differently interpreted - in this new era.  No longer dogmatic.  The question is whether this burning of the old books and the (new to me) magic tree represents: 1) the Reformation or 2) the Enlightenment or Age of Reason.

Neither of these historical moments has quite lived up to it's promise in our own galaxy, but the former in the Star Wars Universe would mean that Force adept folks can interpret and experience the Force in their own ways (think Chirrut Îmwe from Rogue One.)  The latter may mean that the Galaxy is ready to be done allowing faith leaders (light side or dark side) to dominate their politics.  This latest installment of Star Wars is so great, because it finishes the mythology of the Skywalker Era and starts to show us some truer stories of our own galaxy and everyday heroes.

And sure... this list doesn't need to be final - there are plenty more - but to my mind, this is the one to keep on file for the long run...