Post by 500metrictonnes on Aug 17, 2014 12:58:37 GMT -5
Regarding Hero With A Thousand Faces, it always make me shake my head when I hear Lucas saying things like "Star Wars is for kids" to justify idiotic characters like Jar Jar and to defend the prequels in general. Wasn't the whole point of Campbell's work that this sort of heroic myth has universal appeal? (just because something is accessible to children doesn't mean it's exclusively for children) Furthermore, this sort of statement is rather insulting towards children's' intelligence (I've met several children who can't get enough of the original trilogy, but when they watch The Phantom Menace, they just fast-forward to the lightsaber battle at the end)
But let's assume that Lucas isn't just making excuses after the fact. Let's assume that he actually intended Star Wars for an audience composed primarily of children. What's the first part of that movie's opening crawl?
Turmoil has engulfed the
Galactic Republic. The taxation
of trade routes to outlying star
systems is in dispute.
Yes, that sounds like something that'll catch kids' attention, won't it? The whole prequel trilogy is filled with political intrigue, senate hearings, senate subcommittees, votes of non-confidence, separatists, treaties, and all that sort of thing. How many kids are going to be able to make sense of all that, let alone find it interesting or compelling? There's a reason why stories focussed on political intrigue are usually written for an adult audience, because politics is boring as hell for kids. So if Lucas is being truthful when he says "Star Wars is for kids" then he did a very poor job of making it appeal to them.
It's this sort of thing that shows how little Lucas understands his own creation.
But let's assume that Lucas isn't just making excuses after the fact. Let's assume that he actually intended Star Wars for an audience composed primarily of children. What's the first part of that movie's opening crawl?
Turmoil has engulfed the
Galactic Republic. The taxation
of trade routes to outlying star
systems is in dispute.
Yes, that sounds like something that'll catch kids' attention, won't it? The whole prequel trilogy is filled with political intrigue, senate hearings, senate subcommittees, votes of non-confidence, separatists, treaties, and all that sort of thing. How many kids are going to be able to make sense of all that, let alone find it interesting or compelling? There's a reason why stories focussed on political intrigue are usually written for an adult audience, because politics is boring as hell for kids. So if Lucas is being truthful when he says "Star Wars is for kids" then he did a very poor job of making it appeal to them.
It's this sort of thing that shows how little Lucas understands his own creation.