After watching for, I think, the fourth time the documentary The People vs. George Lucas, I find myself pondering the same things that I always do about Star Wars. Which is a never ending battle in my brain-pan between the two parts of my personality, the filmmaker and the fanboy.
For a long time, there was a fight going on in my mind that went something like this:
Fanboy wants to tear everything that Lucas has done since ‘97 to the ground and kill it with fire. Whereas Filmmaker relates to Lucas’s opinion that they’re his movies, his movies where he can do whatever he damn well pleases with them. Then Fanboy comes back and screams “JAR JAR FUCKING BINKS, MAN!”, Filmmaker knows he’s right, but calmingly responds with something about auteur theory. This only pisses of Fanboy even more, he gets up, jumps up and down screaming incoherently only making out words and phrases from time to time like “Boba Fett’s just a goddamn clone”, “midichlorians”, and “childhood ruined”. All Filmmaker can do to calm him down is just say “lightsaber fight in Episode I” and Fanboy’s rage subsides long enough for him to say “Yeah, that was pretty cool.”
That was my mind for years and years, until I realize something, they’re both right.
Like it or not Star Wars were Lucas’s movies and he could do whatever he wanted with them, but on the other hand he forgot something very important, he would’ve never been able to do any of the things he did to the flicks without us fans. Without us fans buying everything with “Star Wars” written on it and going to see those movies as many times as possible he would’ve never had the power to make those changes.
Once I realized this it left me with a Buddhist like state of Zen. Granted, Jar Jar Binks’s voice still kept me from fandom Nirvana, but nothing’s perfect.
Now all we can do is look to the future and pray to God (or the Force) that J.J. Abrams has this Zen of fanboy and filmmaker when he makes VII. I don’t know about you, but I look forward it.
Nick
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