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In the internet era, we build things up and then tear them down so quickly, and it's usually based on the 'instant gratification' aspect of how we can access information today. In particular, cinema, even with the constant cries of "do something original for a change", seems to get a razor focus more than TV if that's possible.
We want spoilers and inside info and sneak peeks and leaked footage. There's fan magazines and interviews and ads and trailers and now this weird "teaser" phenomenon which avoids all logic to me; it's just a trailer whittled down to a fireworks show as far as I can tell, and if the trailer doesn't hook the intended audience, then a concentrated treatment to the thing that didn't hook is silly. Anyway. We get excited about a movie and then we learn a bit here and there and we get down on it because it never met our minds' eye.
Look at the popular films recently. Transformers. Fine. Many people liked those toys. It was not a model of classic movie making. Fast and Furious. Same deal: never supposed to rival Citizen Kane. Different kind of film and film making.
Star Wars was never supposed to be a film that was anything but an adventure, an enjoyable look through a window on a thrilling story set in an unfamiliar place that somehow we could relate to. Minimalism was necessary in sets, character development, props, and literally was a star of the show with the special effects. Innovation swept us off our feet more than a riveting performance by Alec Guinness or Peter Cushing; face it, Star Wars even had the cliche of Woman as Plot Token, and a princess, no less. Talk about "been done"!
Then too the musical score as such an intrinsic and atmospheric aspect was provided by the all-time master John Williams. He was virtually hot on the heels of making the effect of a musical theme single-handedly so monumentally effective as to make the musical theme a dimension of a character or situation; we take this for granted today. Although a musical theme had been specifically associated with a specific action that a character will make or has made as far back as 1931 in film (The movie "M", a great film although disturbing as the subject matter is ultimately a string a child murders) the scope of that pales in comparison to Williams' treatment to the Star Wars score. We also forget that his genius was fresh and new to us in 1977.
It's hard to find somebody that likes Star Wars more than me. But I have always understood that no matter how much I like the films, no matter how much they are classics today (at least the first three) and no matter how much I can cite fond memories, none of these films was Kurosawa's 'Ran' despite being inspired in no small part to him and other films he made.
They are enjoyable escapism, and we like to and want to proudly point to our escape method of choice and say "Ain't that sumpthin?!" but the investment we make in anticipation all too often turns directly to a personal affront somehow. Going to see the movie- or even conversing about it- with that kind of baggage strapped to your back is completely out of proportion to the reality of any film like this that has ever been made. Nothing can live up to the expectations we routinely assign to a cherished franchise that shows no sign of stopping despite spanning five decades.
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