I saw the new Star Wars film the other day, "The Force Awakens", in 3D and
everything. It was actually better than I had feared. Quite a lot was borrowed
from the 1977 film, SW:TOM (Star Wars: The Original Movie). A young person, the
scavenger girl Rey in this case, is the main character, living on a desert
planet. Suddenly storm troopers arrive in search for...yes, a cute robot, which
carries something important. Hitchcock called it a McGuffin, something everyone
wants, just to keep the plot moving. In the 1977 film it was plans of the Death
Star, here it's a map to where Luke Skywalker is, the last Jedi. It's wise to
borrow plot elements and much else from the first film, because that was the
film that hit like a dinosaur destroyer. I remember when I first saw it. Sam J
Lundwall had fixed a preview of it to the attendees of his SF-Kongressen 1977
con in Stockholm. Nobody had seen a film like that before! The con goers
applauded for a long time during the credits. And that was con attendees, who
knew what science fiction could be like. The two follow-ups weren't bad either,
but the impact was less because then we knew what to expect. The much later
prequels were very disappointing. They were clearly aimed at kids, displaying
toys, a cute (but hated) sidekick, and much more computer animation than one
can stand, including an overlong flying sports car race (children like cars,
especially if they fly). Clearly Mr Lucas was thinking of all the merchandising
and selling as many toys to kids as possible. When Disney bought Star Wars I
had a bad feeling. What's Disney known for? They practically invented
merchandising, they do toys and have been very heavy in computer animation!
Maybe they'd even revive Jar Jar Binks... But despite this, I think they did a
reasonable job with "The Force Awakens". Maybe it's because JJ Abrams is a too
good director to mess things up? There are tons of computer animation but I
don't mind that if the story holds together (I liked eg "Avatar" which is
practically only computer animation). From the 1977 film we also recognise eg
a chaotic space bar full of alien beings, an even bigger death star, a Darth
Vader figure, dogfights between X-wings and TIE fighters, a Yoda-like figure
(though that came with "The Empire Strikes Back"), cute robots (that C3PO has a
read arm isn't explained, but we'll learn why in coming films I gather), an
evil Emperor but 30 feet tall this time, Max von Sydow as an Obi Wan Kenobi
(but he has a small part) - but not the least Han, Leia and Luke back on the
screen again. But Luke has a very small part too, in the end. I guess he'll
appear much more in coming films. Harrison Ford actually has a big part. He's
much older, but the same old Han Solo. Rey is joined by Finn, a renegade from
the storm troopers, and they happen to bump into the Millennium Falcon
considered to be almost junk when they are chased by the First Order, the
organisation that wants to restore the evil Empire. In the Falcon they run from
the First Order when they bump into a rusty freighter full of monsters which
Han solo is smuggling. Han, Rey, Finn and of course Chewie the Wookiee must
find Luke Skywalker so the Jedi Order can be restored to save the galaxy. It
is revealed (rather early in the film, I don't think a spoiler is needed) that
Rey is the daughter of Han and General Leia - she's promoted, as well as having
a new hair style - and that the evil Kylo Ren (the Darth Vader figure) is her
brother. They have a long lightsaber fight scene which doesn't exactly show
love between siblings ,while the fire trees are cut down like matchsticks. It
strikes me how much of a family affair Star Wars is! Most main characters are
relatives or lovers (or ex-lovers like Han and Leia). Here the fate of the
entire galaxy lies in the balance and it all depends on one single family...
Back to the late 70's. I happened to come in contact with two guys (something
like 13 years old) from southern Sweden, Jonas and Lars, who began doing
fanzines and started Sweden's first Star Wars club. They called it The Star
Wars Club Tatooine and were even invited to join our small "secret" APA, called
Cucumber, since they seemed sociable and you should support enthusiastic
neofans anyway. Cucumber was for carbon copied zines, a bit like samizdat.
Their club became a big success, reaching 3-400 members, as they reported in
their Cucumber zines. But that was before The Empire Striked Back! We could
follow it in our APA. Lucasfilm contacted Darth Vader & Sons Law Firm (or
whatever the name was) and sent threatening letters claiming that "Tatooine"
was a trade mark of Lucasfilm, so dear 13-year-olds stop loving our film so
much that you trample on our property...else, our lawyers will hack you to
pieces. The Dark Side is strong with us, you know. The fact is that I'm rather
sure Lucasfilm was wrong, according to Swedish trade mark law. They must
*register* their trade mark top make such claims and I doubt they had done
that. I guess the real reason for Lucasfilm's actions was: If there is to be a
fan club, we want to control it, without competitors.. Jonas and Lars just
changed the name of their club to The Rebel Alliance and continued. No official
Star Wars fan club has to my knowledge ever started in Sweden. In that way,
they beat the Evil Empire.
--Ahrvid
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