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starwars.com > Community > Message Boards > Community > Star Wars Miscellaneous > Star Wars Misunderstood: Modern Audiences & Old Melodrama

Star Wars Misunderstood: Modern Audiences & Old Melodrama - 301 replies | 21 pages

21 pages in this thread |

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Clancy Horatio Viscount Wiggum
Total Posts: 3115
Member Since: 06/02

Date Posted: Jun 16, 2003 10:01 AM

This message was edited by Clancy Horatio Viscount Wiggum on Jun 16, 2003 10:29 AM

" I made the film in a 1930s style. It's based on a Saturday matinee serial from the 1930s, so the acting style is very 30s, very theatrical, very old-fashioned. Method acting came in in the 1950s and is very predominant today. I prefer to use the old style. People take it different ways, depending on their sophistication." - George Lucas

from an interview at film.guardian.uk, by Emma Brockes

more to come...there is a wonderful quote from Lucas that is eluding me...look to this thread for it

Clancy Horatio Viscount Wiggum
Total Posts: 3115
Member Since: 06/02

Date Posted: Jun 16, 2003 10:16 AM

This message was edited by Clancy Horatio Viscount Wiggum on Jun 16, 2003 10:30 AM

George, speaking of the fireplace scene:

"The dialogue in that scene was pretty corny. It's presented very honestly, it isn't tongue in cheek at all, and it's really played to the hilt. And is consistent not only with the rest of the movie, but with the overall Star Wars style. Most people don't understand the style of Star Wars. They don't get that there is an underlying motif that is very much like a 1930's western or Saturday Afternoon Serial. It's in the more romantic period of making movies and adventure films. And this film has even more melodrama than the others." --George Lucas

Now if I can only find out where that quote comes from...lol

Lady Kaede
Total Posts: 1483
Member Since: 01/02

Date Posted: Jun 16, 2003 11:02 AM

Very interesting thread.

1) Lawrence has been one of my favorite films since I first saw it in 1975 - have seen it several times on the big screen and now own it. I have real difficulty imagining people laughing at the points you mention . . .

2) As for seeing the whole 12 hours -> my 9-year old daughter has seen Ep. I and Ep. II, but will not see the OT until after Ep. III. She may be the first person ever to see the whole saga in Episode order. Because of this, *I* haven't seen the OT since way before she was born,either.

TheJediCharles
Total Posts: 15952
Member Since: 12/01

Date Posted: Jun 16, 2003 11:07 AM

Most people don't understand the style of Star Wars. They don't get that there is an underlying motif that is very much like a 1930's western or Saturday Afternoon Serial.

Yea, that unfortunately applies to a lot who call themselves fans too.

Lady Kaede
Total Posts: 1483
Member Since: 01/02

Date Posted: Jun 16, 2003 11:08 AM

3) But all that's sorta off-topic, except that she has no problem dealing with melodrama, at least not so far.

Every generation complains that the younger generation is ill-educated . . . and I am no exception! I suspect the problem is that melodrama can't make sense to anyone who doesn't first have some concept of drama -- and arts are not taught well, if at all, in this country. A roller coaster ride is not drama.

And also, if you never actually saw those early serials (or the early TV versions like Rocketman), you sorta can't get the joke of George co-opting that dramatic form.

Lady Kaede
Total Posts: 1483
Member Since: 01/02

Date Posted: Jun 16, 2003 11:10 AM

Hmmm, JediCharles, our posts crossed there, but yes, clearly, we agree!

Qel Droma
Total Posts: 1054
Member Since: 07/00

Date Posted: Jun 16, 2003 11:45 AM

To Clancy Wiggum:
Bravo to you! This has to be the first post that I have read all the way through. I don't normally reply to posts in these message boards, only the ones I feel really strongly about.

You most certainly have a very strong point as to the type of audiences that movies get these days.

continued...

TheJediCharles
Total Posts: 15952
Member Since: 12/01

Date Posted: Jun 16, 2003 12:06 PM

This message was edited by TheJediCharles on Jun 16, 2003 12:10 PM

Dang it, sorry Wiggum. I didn't mean to cut in to your train of posts there.

Maybe a moderator might have some fancy techno-power and just push mine down under yours. Can ya'll do that?

Edit: Double-dang, seeing a "continue" right above this one I can tell I've just cut into yet ANOTHER train of threads.

DOH!

Qel Droma
Total Posts: 1054
Member Since: 07/00

Date Posted: Jun 16, 2003 12:10 PM

Episode 2...

I would be one of the first to admit that I have been brought up on movies post 1975 and I too, up until recently, have discarded the idea of watching any movie before that year. Since primary school I have been subjected to Ben Hur, Spartacus, Zulu, and even LoA and at an earlier age I thought these movies were "old-fogey crap" but now in my years of maturity (LOL - yeah right) I can understand the power of film making. Many a late night I have sat up and watched many of Hitchcocks movies and been sucked into them by their sheer brilliance at story telling.

Do you remember how you felt when you first went to see Phantom Menace?

continued...

Qel Droma
Total Posts: 1054
Member Since: 07/00

Date Posted: Jun 16, 2003 12:11 PM

EPISODE III... my own trilogy

I have to say that when I went in to the cinema I was both excited and sceptical. When the movie was over I was gutted. I believed the magic that was Star Wars was tarnished. Now, only 4 years later, after watching Phantom Menace on satellite (and again and again on DVD - many times since it's release) I can see that Phantom Menace looks better and feels the older it and I become. The understanding in the directing style gives me a better appreciation for Episode I and Episode II and builds up that excitement for Episode III. This week one of the TV channels over here are showing the original trilogy again and I can definitly see the difference in film making between Episodes IV, V and VI. I now believe Mr Lucas was right in directing the new Episodes himself.

Bravo Mr Wiggum, Bravo!!
May the force be with you, always!

Qel Droma
Total Posts: 1054
Member Since: 07/00

Date Posted: Jun 16, 2003 12:16 PM

Nasty habit you've got there Jedi Charles

Lady Kaede
Total Posts: 1483
Member Since: 01/02

Date Posted: Jun 16, 2003 12:48 PM

Yes, and, uh, JediCharles . . . that was me you cut in on, not Clance . . .

Can't you tell us apart?????

Jedimaster3001
Total Posts: 865
Member Since: 05/01

Date Posted: Jun 16, 2003 12:53 PM

"Now if I can only find out where that quote comes from...lol"

I think it comes from that "making of" book, Mythmaking: Behind the Scenes of Episode II. Or something close to that.

TheJediCharles
Total Posts: 15952
Member Since: 12/01

Date Posted: Jun 16, 2003 12:57 PM

Can't you tell us apart?????

LOL! I guess not. You're both clones.

Sorry, not only do I interrupt, but I skim too fast too.

Quest for Truth7
Total Posts: 117
Member Since: 07/02

Date Posted: Jun 16, 2003 01:01 PM

Thanks Clancy.

I appreciate the quotes and the link to this thread. I think you must've posted it once before because I found my way over here a day or two ago.

I am now finally, and gladly, convinced that Lucas was purposely making a melodrama.

However, I find that Episode IV at least, nevermind V and VI, had dialogue that though may have had melodrama, also goes over very well with the general public. Regardless of how Lucas might have been making points or using motifs in IV, it's entertaining and very enjoyable just at face value!

It's great!

However, I'm not sure what I'd see in Star Wars if I went back and tried to see what Lucas was actually trying to say through it.

That would be one huge project to embark upon.

-Patrick, 19, CT, USA
(if you require easier communication, please contact me via AIM at QuestforTruth7)

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