A Disturbance in the Force

By now, anyone who even casually skims news about Star Wars, or entertainment news in general, will be well aware of the teeming widespread reaction across the world to apparent leaks of scenes that have been altered in the impending Star Wars BD release. 


Notoriously, this isn't the first time the Star Wars films have come under the revisions of its creator; fashioning what I would argue is the world's first meta-saga. Star Wars for a long time has not just been about the story within, but has also become about its own revisions, reinterpretations and embellishments. 


Along the way, Star Wars fandom has been scattered along a wide spectrum of approval, ranging from the theatrical Original Trilogy, to anything touched by George Lucas to date, and every position in between. In a matter of hours, we have been able to witness this 33 year distribution of Star Wars fandom, as almost every position along the spectrum has been thrown into the mix of the blogosphere.

Of the scenes in question, the most infamous of these is the new vocalisation of Darth Vader in the Original Trilogy's most climactic moment; Anakin's redemption from the dark side.

As I write this, there have already been thousands of forum pages and millons of words utilised to comment, criticise, deny and justify this clip alone. I want to approach my own comments from the perspective of an explicit cognitive dissonance that has been caused by this single alteration to the film; a dissonance that I think is exactly why the fandom of Star Wars has been so scattered over the years.

Upon hearing the audio and later seeing this clip, my mind immediately became torn between the part of me that lamented my expectations and the part that wanted to appreciate the revised vision for this crucial scene.

This first part I would hazard identifies with what seems to be the wider consensus. Star Wars has often been described (even by Lucas himself) as a silent movie of sorts; where the visuals and music crucially tell the story in a visceral manner that dialogue cannot engage with. That notion is epitomised in this very scene as Williams' score rouses the audience as the primary story-teller. The Emperor's theme, heard up to this point only as a deep chant, is now a powerful choral orchestration that builds until it is broken by a reprise of the Force theme, as the dark side is vanquished from Anakin and the galaxy at the same time. With these techniques, the scene in its original state, played almost perfectly; the emotion and tension had been precisely triangulated throughout the Throne Room scene and at this crucial moment, the audience found themselves searching the soulless mask of Vader, looking for any sign that he may find his humanity to save his son. The simple addition of dialogue from Vader now changes that experience and undermines what has led me to appreciate this scene.

As a culture we have come to appreciate Star Wars for two key reasons; its appeal to our sense of nostalgia, and our appreciation of the art in telling the story. The alteration to this quintessential scene has immediately negated the former, and thrown the latter into a matter for dispute. This is how the first part of my mind laments the scene that was, and feels a resentment to the scene that replaced it.

This now brings me to the other side of my dissonance, which I am trying harder to engage with in order to enjoy the BD release as much as possible (admittedly a difficult thing to do with this scene in particular). With the reality of this revision, I think it is important to try to understand and even appreciate what Lucasfilm is adding to the saga. 

These films as a saga, are centred around Anakin and his choices, we witness in this moment a crucial character-forming decision as Anakin redeems himself. The moment of that decision is the key to this scene and is the reason Lucasfilm chose to include Vader's exclamation. As the Emperor bears down on Luke, Vader appears unwavered by his son's pleas, but suddenly turns on the Emperor to save the day. In the context of the Original Trilogy, this worked well because Vader's character and his Jedi past were largely a mystery; however now as the ending chapter of a six-film saga, Anakin's decision suddenly has a great deal more baggage behind it. We know who Anakin was and what drove him to the dark side (a turn that was criticised in Episode III to be poorly setup, yet we are happy for his turn back to happen without even a word spoken). It seems unfitting that with such a dense backstory, the most important action Anakin enacts would occur without the essential filmic device of telegraphing that very decision. The exclamation of "No!" is that salient moment when we know Vader has made his decision.

Having addressed both parts of my mind split by this change to the film, I am confident that with time and thought I will eventually come to accept these new revisions as I have all others with varying regard. However, I can't help but wonder why in making these 'improvements' which no one cared to ask for, there remain neglected faults which have been explicitly documented by fans for years. I think at this stage it's wise to say that's a discussion for another time.

Star Wars Blu-ray Key Art (continued) The Prequel Trilogy

   

This, I think, will be the last of my commentary on the Star Wars BD artwork for a while; there are plenty of other 'musings' to be done and after 3 fairly lengthy posts about essentially the same topic, I'm getting awfully close to 'beating the dead horse' territory. Naturally, this third post will be the shortest, mainly for the reason that a lot of what I have to say can be gleaned from the previous posts.

Like with the Original Trilogy artwork, I think the artistic style hits the right notes in paying homage to the now-classic hand-painted posters of Star Wars. The style and composition of the artwork follows that of the Original Trilogy, visually pairing the 2 trilogies as an intricate and artistically dynamic collection. The composition is quite literally a reflection of the Original Trilogy artwork, availing one of the few conceptual links with the Saga boxset; the congruence of the two Star Wars storylines.


I mentioned in my comments on the Original Trilogy, that either Vader or Luke were the appropriate options for the featured character in the artwork, well for the Prequel Trilogy Anakin was really the only sensible choice, but instead we have Yoda. As recognisable as Yoda is, his position as the dominating figure for any Star Wars film, let alone a trilogy of them, is an incorrect choice. Yoda is and always has been a supporting character, a means to express the deeper philosophies of the story (at least in "Empire"). To have him as the dominant character in favour of Anakin, conceptually undermines what the rest of the BD artwork has been telling us about the Star Wars saga. Furthermore as a consequence of having Yoda feature on the artwork, the key art has an obligatory tone of green; frankly, red would have been a better choice. Given the near-mythic relationship between red and blue in the Star Wars saga, it was really a missed opportunity to permeate this with the 2 trilogies.


As much the Original Trilogy's composition was its weakest point, the Prequel artwork is much stronger in this regard. The collage of supporting characters (and Anakin) occupy a more structured space; rather than filling in space on Yoda's face the collage quite gracefully frames it, giving the key art a greater sense of coalescence and making it overall the stronger artwork of the 2 trilogies.

Star Wars Blu-ray Key Art (continued) The Original Trilogy

The first thing that can be said for the key arts for the separate trilogies is that they are certainly more dynamic then the artwork for the Saga collection, which I've already talked about in my previous post. Overall, I quite like the art that has been created although it's not without its problems, both separately and as a whole. I am again glad that some level of artistry was implemented over the style (or lack thereof) of the DVD key arts.

I'm going to begin with the Original Trilogy, mostly because I am strongly of the opinion that this is where the experience of Star Wars MUST begin. Without the original films, the Prequels would have even less resonance. The Star Wars Prequels were written, designed, filmed and marketed with the original films very much in front of mind; the full intended effect of those films is inextricable from the iconography of the Original Trilogy. After all, the main hook of a prequel story is that each progression in the story foreshadows what we already know is to come. But back to the artwork...


Like with the Saga boxset, this artwork utilises a style that pays homage to the 1977 posters for Star Wars, but unlike the Saga box the artwork is dynamic, detailed and employs a colour pallet that identifies Star Wars more successfully. In fact, the dynamism of this artwork is so far removed from the Saga box that the 2 seem visually divorced from one another, I count this as a mark against the Saga Collection key art. What I like most about this style of artwork is that it embraces it's hand-painted artistry, it doesn't try to disguise the painting but instead uses bold strokes and spatters, although I think it does over-do this effect to a degree.


Featuring Vader in this artwork is almost an inevitability, and it's actually surprising that an image like this wasn't used for the Saga Collection artwork; Vader is after all the most recognisable and iconic character from the films. The only problem with this choice I find is that the concept introduced by the Saga box is at odds with what the separate trilogies are telling us about the films. The Box key art tells us that the Star Wars films are about the mirrored journeys of Anakin and Luke. It would then seem to make more conceptual sense that the Original Trilogy featured Luke as its focal character, in fact Luke is given hardly any prominence in the collage of characters and I think that is a big misstep.


While I'm on the topic of the missteps of this artwork, the biggest problem with this key art - the one that stops me from finding it as a poster and framing it on my wall - is the artwork's general lack of structure. I like the concept of 'hiding' characters within the image of Vader as it were, but it has been done without a real sense of layout and we really just have various key characters filling in the empty spaces that happen to occur in the Vader image. If the collage of characters had a layout that better fit the available space, then this artwork would be almost faultless.


Before I move on, I'm going to make a prediction (see below) that if this artwork sees the light of day here in Australia, Lando, Leia, Han, Chewy and a third of C3PO will be skillfully and with the greatest of finesse omitted from the front in favour the crucial consumer rating that defines the superior packaging design available to Australian Consumers.*
(*please read sarcasm)

Star Wars Blu-ray Key Art

      

After a long... long wait the official packshots for the Star Wars Blu-rays have been released to what can be described, at best, as a mixed reaction from fans around the world.

Although it will become apparent very quickly, I want to preface my comments with the admission that I am a huge Star Wars fan. For me, Star Wars, commands the largest portion of my fandom over other sci-fi contenders in which my interest is much more transitory. Having said that, I think I need to outline a very specific distinction that I apply to my fandom; 3 of the Star Wars films are far and away my favourite all-time movies, but I by no means consider them to be the 3 best movies I have ever seen. What I mean by this, is that my love for Star Wars exists in full account of the fact that there are other movies that surpass it in many regards. 

Since the BD announcement, I had hoped that Lucasfilm would produce some kind of original artwork, ideally done by the great Drew Struzan in a style reminiscent of his posters for the Special Editions and Prequels. I am very happy that this, more or less, is the direction they have chosen.

Nothing would have been more cringe-inducing than the artistically sterile Photoshopped key arts we had for the DVDs. We have thankfully been spared a collage of clumsily stitched-together promo shots and instead have something that evokes the charm of the illustrated movie posters of the past.

But despite this positive direction, the execution has not been pulled quite off as well as I would have hoped, given the magnitude of this release, but it is far from disastrous.

The Saga boxset has a unique and interesting key art; featuring a melding of Anakin and Luke Skywalker at the Lars Homestead under the twin suns of Tatooine. Conceptually, I love this artwork as it allows so much to be read into the Star Wars story without the art becoming cluttered with a phalanx of support characters and vehicles (more on that in the following post). There are two salient metaphors that I read into this art, both which make me further appreciate the artwork the more I reflect on it. 

We have both Skywalker characters as we see them at the beginning of their journeys. Anakin, with the twin suns behind him, is ostensibly walking away from the light (of the Force), while Luke is walking directly towards it. This effectively frames the direction of the two characters in their respective trilogies, showing their journeys to be separate but also inextricably linked and reflections of one another. 

There is further symbolism as the two Skywalkers part ways in the artwork; a metaphor of the chronology of the Saga itself. The illustrated scene quite strongly references Episode IV, the same point that the Star Wars timeline treats as Year 0. Its from this point where we will make the most crucial decision in owning this Blu-ray collection... do we follow Anakin backwards to begin at the Prequel Trilogy, or do we move forward with Luke and begin at the Original Trilogy?

Like I said, I think this is a brilliant concept and this key art may eventually become an iconic Star Wars image. However it seems to be the style of the paining that has put people at odds; a comment I've read several times goes along the lines of "It looks like a child painted it". I can't say I agree with that particular sentiment. This painting style perhaps seems dated, even primitive, when compared to most modern key arts, which are created digitally, but in context it lends itself quite well to the style and charm of the posters created for the original Star Wars. 

While I can appreciate this artistic homage, I feel it was somewhat a misstep by Lucasfilm to utilise this style for the Saga Collection. This Blu-ray release isn't an indulgence of nostalgia for the 1977 Star Wars (as nice as that would be also) it is a celebration of the entire saga and as such needs to have an artistic style that more appropriately represents the film series over its 30 years in the popular consciousness. Struzan's style of painting would have been a more appropriate homage, his posters spanned all 6 films, carrying us from the Original Trilogy into the Prequel Trilogy. This artistic misstep doesn't necessarily harm the overall impact of the artwork however, as its concept is redeemingly strong. Where I think the key art really lets us down is in the colour palette that the artwork consists of. There is a rather limited range of peach tones, that look rather flat and really don't convey Star Wars. This is crucial, as a piece of artwork and as the packaging for a flagship Blu-ray product, the key art needs to identify with customers instantly and, more importantly, needs to convey the idea of Star Wars in a broad and recognisable way. Light pastel peaches just aren't the colour pallet for this broad statement about Star Wars.

Even with the most rudimentary colour enhancement above, this artwork is already more dynamic than the original and would probably be enough to convince some of the nay-sayers that this key art is worthy of containing the most definitive representation of the entire Star Wars Saga. Of course some people will never accept this image because it reminds them from the outset that Anakin began his journey as a 9 year old.

In my next post I'll have a look at the artwork for the individual trilogies...