What I’d like to see Disney do with Lucasfilm

 

So, that happened.  Disney, owner of among other nerd things Pixar and Marvel, bought Lucasfilm for 4.05 billion dollars.   A lot of money by any standard, but I have to believe between all the possibilities for merchandising and theme park attractions and media that this acquisition will pay for itself fairly quickly.  I’d imagine Mr. Lucas to a degree just wanted out.

The really interesting thing to watch in this announcement is the announcement of several post-Jedi films.   This has  until now been considered the realm of the non-cannonical expanded universe material.  I wonder how they’re going to handle that.  Is it sort of tabula rasa and they’re going to just start fresh with Star Wars, the emperor is dead now what?   Is it going to honor the fiction? And what of the stars, will they recast people?  Start sufficiently later that they can just cycle through a new story with old dudes?

There’s no real answers to this.  I mean every  Star Wars nerd I know is going please make the Thrawn trilogy, please make the Thrawn trilogy.  At least that aren’t casting doom and gloom across the whole franchise.   You’ve got to wonder if anyone even cares about old-man Star Wars fans.  I mean they’ll farm nostalgia where they can but when I went to Star Wars weekend at Disney World stuff from the animated show and films were really the centerpiece.  If you’re under 10 today that’s probably the way you’ve experienced Star Wars.    Maybe even the only way you’ve experienced Star Wars.

Should Have Seen It: Casablanca

So Casablanca turned out to be another film which earned its reputation. It’s the kind of film they just don’t make anymore, for better and for worse. I hope that does not sound like bleary nostalgia, its more of a description than anything as some of the movie just screams,”This was made a long time ago.”

The film starts with a long introduction of the scene and an enormous amount of expository dialogue. It takes almost one-third of the film to know who all the principles are and what it is that they’re doing.

The importance of Casablanca may be lost on a modern audience. It was a way-station on the route out of Nazi occupied Europe for many people fleeing to America via Lisbon Portugal.

This owed to it being controlled by the Vichy French government, puppets of Berlin. Some of the tension in this film depends on this understanding– which I imagine everyone knew when this was released in 1942.

Once the story gets started, it has two tracks. A love story between Rick and Ilsa and an escape story involving a few more characters. Bogart and Bergman excel in both roles and have tremendous chemistry together.

A great deal about this film had been spoiled for me because of all the references over the years but seeing these scenes in their full context was rewarding.

The action in this film is great for how little action is in it. A gun is shown a few times in the film but only rarely are they fired. This gives real emotional weight to the scenes where the characters are willing to resort to guns.

Speaking of spoilers the ending deserves special discussion. I think the idea of spoiling one of the most well known scenes in a seventy year old film is absurd but if you don’t want to read about the ending stop reading now.

The ending is the good of why they don’t make films like this. Bogart chooses duty to humanity over being with his love. Oddly the film succeeds at making this a touching and bittersweet but not sad moment. I can not picture a modern film maker succeeding so completely.

One final note. I loved the beautiful theme to this movie’s score. Time goes by was a beautiful piece of piano. It complemented the feeling of the film exceptionally.

Should Have Seen It…The Godfather

I once read an interview that said the average gamer has seen one movie, Star Wars.  At the time, I think I took it too literally and got annoyed with the wording of it.  Lately, I realized it’s kind of true.

So I decided to  rectify this with me personally and watch the movies that I should have seen.  Some of which I’ve even been lying about having seen to friends and family members for years because I’m kind of embarrassed by how few of these cultural touchstones I’ve actually viewed.

The first movie I saw was Francis Ford Coppola’s  film the Godfather.   I was worried that this film wouldn’t really connect the way it did when it was released.  That too much of it had been spoiled by homages, or that things that were powerful in the 1970s would no longer have the same significance.

This wasn’t the case,  this movie is an amazing bit of storytelling that tells the story of the end of one criminal’s life and the rise of another.  I’m not going to pretend I know enough about film making to really critique this movie in a super serious way, but I love the way the characters are introduced at the wedding.  It brings in a huge cast of characters in a very condensed scene and makes people just having a conversation so fascinating before even really letting on what the film is going to be about.

What’s really amazing is how many characters are interesting, flawed, human, and yet empathetic.  On some level I know they’re all criminals who do bad things but you’re rooting for the Corleones to succeed.

If you haven’t seen this movie, I’m sure someone’s probably recommended it to you before, but it’s a movie that has aged really well.