[In my annual
end-of-year series, I’ll AmericanStudy some big stories from the year about
which I didn’t get to write in this space. I’d love to hear your thoughts on
these and any other 2015 stories!]
Two of the
things this AmericanStudier loves most about the newest Star Wars film, and one
that worries me a bit.
I wrote
about the “transnational force” at the heart of the Star Wars saga more
than four years ago in this space, long before John Boyega and Daisy Ridley
had been cast as the leads in a new trilogy (and Lupita Nyongo’o had been
cast in a role that, without spoiling much, could be called the Yoda of that
new series). I stand by my argument that the films have always been
cross-cultural in important ways; but at the same time, there’s no disputing
that the world of the original trilogy was extremely white (Lando Calrissian
notwithstanding). Moreover, while Carrie Fisher’s Leia was certainly an
impressive heroine in many ways, she was also, quite literally, the clichéd princess
in need of rescue whose plea for help set the entire first film and trilogy in
motion. So to sit next to my 10 and 8 year old sons while they watched a Star
Wars movie in which Boyega and Ridley were the unquestionable, kickass, and
entirely equal leads was, to put it mildly, a wonderful experience for this
AmericanStudier. Take
that, haters!
I watched The Force Awakens with not only my sons,
but also my Mom and Dad, and that multi-generational viewing experience was
just as inspiring. While once again trying to avoid spoilers, I’ll note that
the new film is deeply and powerfully focused on the relationships between the
past and the future, including an emphasis on family bonds but also and most centrally
through its pitch-perfect balance (in casting and character arcs, script and
storytelling, plot and action, and much else) of the familiar and the new, of
callbacks to the original films and fresh directions for the saga. In a world
where my boys’ favorite toys (the
Skylanders) were both created within the last ten years and utilize an
innovative gaming technology I could never have imagined as a kid (and has
spun off into app games that they play on an iPad, about every detail of which
ditto), to have a cultural text that can so fully and successfully unite 1977
and 2015 is nothing short of incredible. To paraphrase E.B. White’s
great “Once More to the Lake,” I wasn’t entirely sure, sitting in that
theater, whether I was myself, my sons, or my parents—and that’s a feeling we
should all get to experience!
My only problem
with that theatrical experience had nothing to do with the film itself, and yet
represents the one thing about it that worries me. Before the movie began,
there was the usual 10 minutes of commercials (before the usual 15 minutes of
trailers), and I would say that about 9 of those advertising minutes featured
Star Wars tie-ins. At the moment it feels like a roughly similar percentage of
the TV and radio ads I encounter are part of the film’s merchandising empire. Star
Wars has always had its share of associated products (writes the AmericanStudier
who literally had a deal with a local store’s toy department to get a call
every time a new Ewok figure was released), but it feels to me that Lucasfilm’s
purchase by Disney has amplified those commercial and marketing campaigns many
times over. I’ll write more about Disney in a separate series next week, and
want to be clear that I’m extremely grateful that the company has made this new
series of films (and all those positive effects) possible. But I do worry that
this all-out marketing blitz has the potential to make Star Wars into just
another product, rather than the cross-cultural, multi-generational story that
has endured so potently for nearly half a century.
December Recap
this weekend,
Ben
PS. What do you
think? Other 2015 stories you’d AmericanStudy?
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