What Went Wrong with the Jedi

A few years ago I was trying to put my finger on what it was exactly that bothered me about the Star Wars prequels (The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, and Revenge of the Sith) and I came up with a very long list. This list included Jar Jar Binks, the Immaculate Conception of Anakin Skywalker, and a host of other issues, but they were trivial compared to how the Force and the Jedi were handled.

Luke suffers consternation over the ways of the Jedi.

In the initial Star Wars movies (Episodes IV, V, and VI) the force was mystical, kind of Taoist in its view of the universe and how it all worked, which made perfect sense to me. When Yoda said: “Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter.” that seemed to settle the matter. Then came the Midichlorians. But I digress.

The real issue for me was the idea that the Jedi took some kind of monastic oath and were supposed to live as ascetics, eschewing material possessions and having no real attachments to this world or their own lives, a la Shaolin monks or Christian hermits. But when you look at the size of the Jedi Academy building on Coruscant, all of that gets blown out of the water. They have the largest, most ornate building on the planet, second only perhaps to the Galactic Senate. And they seem to have unlimited resources—ships, money, Jedi knights, and influence.

“This is ridiculous!” I thought. But everyone I talked to about it looked at me as if I was a mad man raving in the wilderness. Then came Luke Skywalker to the rescue. When he had his epiphany about Ben Solo, and the true nature of the force, he fled to a distant world and detached himself completely from the Force. When Rei comes looking for him to get training, he casually brushes her off by tossing his light-saber over his shoulder and walking away. Why did he do this?

The word that struck the right note was hubris. That was it; a perfect one-word summation of everything wrong with the whole Jedi system. They thought themselves above the balance of the force. Thousands of Jedi knights and only two Sith lords? The whole Jedi Academy system divorced them from the true potential of the force. By structured, regimented training, they did all of their padawan a disservice by teaching them to use the Force as a tool to get their way. When you look at the Jedi “sacred texts” through this lens, it’s no wonder Luke wanted to torch the place.

 

A little bonus: To the Greeks, hubris referred to extreme pride, especially pride and ambition so great that they offend the gods and lead to one’s downfall. Hubris was a character flaw often seen in the heroes of classical Greek tragedy, including Oedipus and Achilles. The familiar old saying “Pride goeth before a fall” is basically talking about hubris.

–“Hubris.” Merriam-Webster.com, Merriam-Webster, http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hubris. Accessed 2017.

Inspiration from old sources

Here are a few lines from a funerary song that I’m using in a screenplay that I’m working on. Let me know what you think by commenting.

 

As I rose this morning,

And the summer sun broke o’er the hills

I heard a distant cry

And the dulcet song of birds

 

Creatures great and small,

The elk and the lowly quail

The noise and echo

And the sound of distant thunder

 

The falcon atop his perch on high

And the rumor of men approaching

They work to fell the forest

But I must cross the river

 

I long for home

My limbs and joints bitt’n

‘Neath the cruel North wind

Death is in the air

 

A variation of the old  song Seán O’Duibhir a’ Ghleanna about the Williamite Wars in 17th century Ireland.

Convocation Notes

For those of you who were not able to make it to the Convocation last Thursday, here are the notes that I shared before each of the performing numbers:

Mambo—This dance was born from the fusion of a rumba band combining with a jazz ensemble, and was included in the 1957 hit musical West Side Story. Rumba had been a popular dance starting the in 1930’s when vacationers from the Northeast would travel down to Florida for the winter, and took excursions to Havana where they discovered the joy of the “Dance of Love” as rumba is nicknamed. They bought rumba records and brought them back with them, and soon there was a demand for rumba bands to come play at nightclubs in the United States. Probably the most famous of the rumba bandleaders was the fictional Ricky Ricardo (played by Desi Arnaz), who married a batty American redhead by the name of Lucille, the basis of the sitcom I Love Lucy.

Mambo also had some influence from another famous Latina of the era, the incomparable Carmen Miranda, who was credited with single-handedly starting the Samba craze in the late 1940’s.

Tango—When you mention Tango, most people come up with the cheesy imagery of what I would call the “Hollywood Tango.” Bad dance position, cheek to cheek, and for some reason, a rose in somebody’s mouth. Tango has its origins in the working class neighborhoods of Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Montevideo, Uruguay. Dock workers and laborers of all types would gather in bars and cafes to dance, bringing dances they had learned in their home countries and setting them to the music of a tango ensemble.

Typical instruments used in the tango style are a single violin, a piano, a guitar, a bass fiddle, and most especially the bandoneon, the hexagonal cousin of the accordion. With these instruments they created the iconic Tango sound that became a sensation in Europe at the turn of the 20^th century, and later moved across the pond to North America.

Tango was catching on, but one man is credited with its explosive popularity in the 1920’s. Rudolph Valentino, an Italian-born immigrant popularized the Tango in the United States when he performed a version of it in the 1921 silent movie Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. His performance earned him the title of “The Latin Lover”, and women swooned to see him dance.

While purists may argue that there are many types of tango, there are really three types that are popular today. The first is Ballroom, or International Style Tango, which was codified and cleaned up by the British in 1960’s, becoming a staple of Ballroom Dance competitions. Second, there is Tango de Salon, literally translated as dance hall tango, which features a more relaxed style that is easily followed and danced socially at tango parties known as milongas. The third style is the most popular for performances, called Tango del Escenario, or stage tango. Tango de salon and tango del escenario are both called Argentine tango, but that’s kind of a redundant term.

Paso Doble—The origin of this dance has been argued by dance scholars over the years, and I’ve heard many apocryphal tales, but there’s no denying that Paso Doble has its roots in Flamenco dancing.

The term flamenco came into use in Spain in the 1600’s, and was used to describe young dandies who had traveled to the Netherlands and brought back some of the fashions that were popular there. People would cry out “Ay! Que flamenco!” when they would see them dressed up and out on the town. Now this has caused some confusion because the Spanish word for Dutch, or Flemmish, is flamenco. It is also the word used to describe a tall, pink, gangly bird.

The music of the gitanos from Andalucia, in southern Spain carried with it the influence of the tonal scale used in the Middle East, became the music used for Paso Doble, and a myriad of other Flamenco dances. Other cultural influences that found their way into the Paso Doble is the famous torero, or bullfighter. The use of the cape, picos (or spears), and the styling of the torero himself can be seen in many of the shapes, movements, and step in the Paso Doble.

As an aside, to get a good feel for the bullfighting culture I recommend you watch the 2012 film Blancanieves, by Pablo Berger, and for some fantastic flamenco dancing and a good bit of Spanish culture I recommend the 1983 version of Carmen directed by Carlos Saura.

Lighten Up When You Go Into A Darkened Theatre.

I’ve thought about an idea on and off for the last year or so, and I think right now is a good time to get it out there. As I’ve gone to the movies, I’ve noticed a disconnect between the critics and the audiences on a large number of movies, and this caused me to think that perhaps audiences and critics weren’t even watching the same movie. Okay, maybe it’s not that bad, but it does seem that there is a large gulf between the “experts” and the average moviegoer. I’ll try to explain what I think causes the discrepancy in opinions.

It’s important to remember that it is called the entertainment industry for a reason—it is a business with the ultimate goal of turning a profit on the product they are peddling. The producers and studio executives who green-light a movie are investing in a movie’s money making potential, and they hope to have a hit, or at least recoup the cost of production. The critics’ positive review of a movie can ensure success, while a bad review can generate negative buzz that virtually dooms any movie under condemnation. But that’s not what I’m here to discuss. I’m here to look at the movies where the critics loathed them, but the audiences loved them anyway.

I’ll present my case with some specific movies shortly, but first I’d like to point out the most obvious yet most overlooked principle in entertainment—not everything is going to be a masterpiece, nor should it be. Filet mignon is great for dinner, but not every night. Sometimes you just want a cheeseburger and fries, or macaroni and cheese, or something that’s not that good for you, but doggone it, tastes so good. Movies are like that—some are nutritious, deep looks into the human heart, while others are just sugary, empty calories with lots of action and fun that requires very little brainpower.

Now I know the critics will say “but we’ve seen this before in another movie. It’s not innovative.” Guess what? There is a time-tested formula for movies, and it works. I had an art & design professor in college who constantly berated our projects as not being innovative enough. Man, I hated that class. I wasn’t out to change the world with my 3-D shape that I crafted out of matte board and glue; I just wanted to pass the class with a decent grade. Many critics are much like that professor—unless it shakes the foundations of their world, it must be garbage. Now to the cases:

Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice

 Let me start by saying that the version of this movie released in the theatres was missing a whole lot of things, because if you watch the Director’s Cut, there is more humor, and the story makes more sense. But it seems that most people were expecting the Avengers with its four-color comics palette, and that’s not Superman’s world, Batman even less so. Anyhow, here’s the Tomatometer for this flick.

The Great Wall

Here’s the description provided on IMDB: “European mercenaries searching for black powder become embroiled in the defense of the Great Wall of China against a horde of monstrous creatures.” That sums it up nicely. This movie was filmed, produced, and released in China and was aimed at Chinese audiences, where it made over $200 million. Perhaps that’s why it didn’t do so well stateside. Here’s the Tomatometer.

Passengers

The Critic’s Consensus on Rotten Tomatoes says that this movie was “fatally flawed.” I don’t see how. Is it because it has a (somewhat) happy ending? Was there not enough angst? Too much action? I don’t know what they were looking for, but I saw the tomatometer score for this movie before I went to the theatre, and I had to disagree. I thought it was a well done movie that told the castaway story in a new way. Here’s the Tomatometer.

Ultimately for me it boils down to this: is it entertaining? If you don’t feel like you wasted your time after a movie, then mission accomplished.