Star Wars is a profound part of my childhood, resonating throughout my life to today, where I am considering buying the dvd of the last episode. I've seen every episode on the big screen even dressing up for the rerelease of The Empire Strikes Back. One of my first memories I have is being ecstatic when Luke Skywalker walks the plank, jumping off and flipping the air, wielding his lightsaber.
And now, it's over.
I've never thought of Star Wars as anything but pure fun. People who claim the acting is bad or the stories are stupid miss the point entirely. Star Wars is about the action and adrenaline, never about the plots. I would have never considered Star Wars to be anything more than a fun pulp series.
that is, until I read this fascinating article by Aidan Wasley. Wasley makes an argument that Star Wars is really a meta-film, really a manifesto on plot. Apparently Lucas was suggesting how writers create works of art, all the time hiding his thesis behind a hail of blaster fire.
Wasley's argument is excellent and well-thought out, but I'm not sure I buy it. I completely get how Star Wars is really a story about coincidence and how chance effects the world, but I don't buy that Lucas was doing it intentionally. George Lucas is a fun filmmaker, but his clumsy, awkward scripts suggest he really isn't much of a writer.
Instead, Lucas created an excellent series of films on filmmaking by accident. His own poor writing skills and reliance on coincidence to bring his films to life is what created such a fascinating piece of work. He should be commended for developing a fun, fantastic world. But Star Wars is the greatest accident ever unleashed on filmmaking.
However, Wasley's thesis is so elegantly argued, that I almost believed.
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