A New Hope Awakens

First, A Little History…

Star Wars has been a part of my life since I was an awkward 13 year old boy.  Apologies to George Lucas, but I recorded most of Episode IV on a brand new micro cassette recorder that my father gave me for my birthday, and for months I would listen to this, memorizing the dialogue, soundtrack and even the sound effects.  In short, I was obsessed. My obsession was fulfilled between movie premieres by reading and watching everything I could on the making of the movies, and inspired my early dreams of a career in the cinematic realm. Even though the last trilogy was inferior to the original triad, it was obvious that each new trailer would excite the nerdcore world into a frenzy, myself included.

Granted, the first trilogy does get some love from audiences who watched it as young children. Although there are redeeming aspects of the prequels, time and general opinion have quickly tarnished the standing of Episodes 1-3, and with good reason. How does George Lucas bring together some of the best acting talent of the day (Jake Lloyd not included, not sure about Hayden Christiansen either), and deliver some of the most wooden performances in their careers?  Did he care more about green screening backgrounds than the actors? What gives?

So when Disney announced the purchase of Lucasfilm in 2012, and with the promise of more films, I knew that either they would totally destroy the franchise, or totally destroy all box office records. Although JJ Abrams was a solid choice for director, getting screenwriting help from Lawrence Kasdan (co-credited for writing Empire Strikes Back, considered to be the best chapter of the franchise) increased my confidence in Disney’s handling of the franchise. By now it is obvious that they have done their job well, and it is a return to greatness for the franchise. It’s not a perfect film, but to get into it, I need to warn you, the reader –
SPOILERS abound ahead!!!

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The Actors Awaken, Too!

I have to say, this movie had me in the first 5 minutes with Kylo Ren Force-holding a laser blast in midair. Ooohh…
The Force Awakens could have been called The Star Wars Magic Awakens. After slogging through some plodding plot lines involving Trade Federations and Galactic Senators and embargoes, and bad performances in the last trilogy (I still feel their are some great things in them, Lucas couldn’t kill ALL the magic), in this latest chapter it’s as if the characters were AWAKENED! Permitted to EMOTE! Develop CHEMISTRY between characters!  That alone changed the tone of what we’ve known as Star Wars for the last 16 years.  In short order the characters and their motivations are quickly established, without slowing the pace of the movie down.  Although I saw and heard quite a few Easter eggs during the movie, there are likely many more that I did not catch (after 2 viewings) that would satisfy the most hardcore Star Wars devotee.  Luke’s training remote on the Falcon, the downed AT-AT walker, the mouse droids on Starkiller Base, the orange jumpsuited X-wing fighter doll in Rey’s home, Luke’s lightsaber – these are just a few that I noticed. Thankfully the film does not linger too long on any of them to be annoying, or sacrifice pacing. Abrams really captured what was special about Episode 4 – the action, humor, mysticism and old-fashioned adventure-serial tension. There were some truly great moments – making Luke the McGuffin, the thing to be found, was a great call.  The last scene wordless scene with Rey finally discovers Luke; when Rey faces Kylo Ren and force-grabs Luke’s lightsaber, and the score surging with Luke’s theme. Spine tingled.

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Is This Abrams’ Auteur Style?

Although a gifted director, and I do appreciate his directorial style (…well, maybe not the lens flares…), I was somewhat concerned when I discovered JJ Abrams was at the helm of this franchise entry, because of his last franchise film, Star Trek Into Darkness. In his sophomore Star Trek effort, he brought back the villain Khan from Star Trek 2: The Wrath Of Khan.

Now, Abrams spent considerable time in his first Star Trek film creating a new timeline/reality, so as to be unencumbered by the prior Star Trek history/timeline for future films.  Yet when it came down to it, it seemed he was unnecessarily repeating key elements of the previous Khan movie (some verbatim!), which I know irked a lot of Trekkers, who consider Into Darkness the worst Star Trek movie to date.  I think that’s a little harsh, but I did not want something similar to happen for the new Star Wars movie as well.

Well, we did get some of that.  What I would have hoped for was a little less adherence to rehashing the plotlines of the first trilogy, especially the first movie, A New Hope.  A droid carrying secret data on a desert planet, looking to deliver it to one person, escaping the desert world via the Millenium Falcon,  another Death Star-like weapon of mass destruction to defeat with only a band of X-Wing fighters with minutes to spare before it destroys the rebel base – come on now…  Kylo Ren echoing Darth Vader. Father and son (Han and Ben Solo/Kylo Ren) confrontation on a walkway above a deep chasm echoing Darth Vader and Luke on Bespin.  Rey going solo to search for Luke echoing Luke’s search for Yoda in The Empire Strikes Back. A last battle to destroy the WMD (concurrent with an intense lightsaber duel between light and dark side) echoing Return of the Jedi’s climax.  A snow planet, a green planet full of trees. I even felt like there was a special effect homage, where the Millenium Falcon was flying right to left on the screen, briefly swerving up from background to foreground to show its underbelly for a moment during the escape from Jakku, echoing the same shot in The Empire Strikes Back during the asteroid field chase sequence. While waiting to see The Force Awakens a second time, I overheard a few older curmudgeons coming out of the theatre complaining that it was too much like the first movie.

But you know what?  It worked – and not just for me (see record breaking box office tallies). Despite all the possibly annoying parallels to earlier films in the franchise – I loved it anyways.  Maybe it was because of the familiarity of it all.  Maybe it was because it was easy to invest in the new characters.  I don’t know – it just worked.

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So Many Questions…

Much like the fan fervor from creating mysteries and questions that yearn for an answer in his TV show creation LOST, Abrams has created enough questions in The Force Awakens to rapidly generate a cavalcade of fan theories, and as a fan I am eating up all I can. Rey’s vision alone (what does it mean?) is going to be picked apart and analyzed for months, I am sure.  Who is Supreme Leader Snoke really? Who is Rey really, who is her family? How did Luke’s lightsaber get from Bespin to the character Maz?  And as in LOST, this is going to generate HUGE fan interest for Episode VIII.

All that being said, I found The Force Awakens to be a total blast.  And I have a feeling that the next chapter will be even better. Even JJ Abrams feels like Episode VIII will be special.  Why?  Because Disney surprised me with hiring Rian Johnson to write and direct the next chapter of the franchise.  He is the writer and director behind the largely underseen noir high school film Brick (2006), and the more recent noir sci-fi time travel movie Looper (2012).   Having seen both of these (which I recommend), I am boldly predicting that the next chapter of Star Wars will give The Empire Strikes Back a challenge for the best one of them yet. Stay tuned!

Killing Luca Brasi – Visual Foreshadowing in The Godfather

While I feel a good book can beat any movie , I do love cinema’s unique ability to tell a tale.  It can convey a story through a combination of image composition, acting, sound, lighting, set design, costumes, dialogue (and the lack of), etc.  The loose term for this is mise en scène.

I’ll be looking at a few scenes in future posts, and highlight what I feel are (if I may channel my inner Chris Farley) really awesome examples of this. First up, The Godfather…

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The Godfather (1972, Director Francis Ford Coppola)

The Godfather have many fantastic examples of using sound, images and/or dialogue together to inform a scene, but I will focus on Luca Brasi .  Let’s look at two scenes involving the killing of Don Vito Corleone’s enforcer Luca Brasi. Earlier in the film, he is directed by Don Corleone (Marlon Brando), head of the Corleone family, to infiltrate the rival Tattaglia family by feigning dissatisfaction with the Don.  I am going to assume anyone reading this has at least seen this movie once.  If not, in the words of Shia Le Beouf – JUST DO IT!

During this scene,  we see Luca Brasi meeting members of the Tattaglia family in what appears to be an empty hotel bar.  The camera pans and follows him entering the bar entrance, but does not follow him through the door. Instead, the camera continues to pan from the doorway to outside the bar, observing Luca Brasi through the glass window.  The edge of the glass pane is etched with images of a pair of fish in the left foreground, and Luca Brasi in the right background.  Bruno Tattaglia is at the bar, and eventually Sollozzo appears to talk with Luca Brasi about joining forces.

Ultimately Luca Brasi is killed in the bar, and the last shot is from the same perspective through the glass pane with the etched fishes, his limp body falling to the ground.

Later in the film, the Corleone family (sans the injured Don) are meeting in the Don’s study, when someone delivers a fish in a bulletproof vest.  Clemenza tells Don Corleone’s son Sonny, “It’s a Sicilian message – it means Luca Brasi sleeps with the fishes”.

At this point, the earlier scene’s image composition now takes on additional resonance.  By composing the image with Luca Brasi and the fishes in the earlier scene, director Coppola visually foreshadows the metaphoric Sicilian message that signifies his demise.

I found this video that does a great job of summarizing this (props to TheFilmSpectrum on YouTube).

That was awesome…

Frankie Pentangeli – Aural Foreshadowing in The Godfather II

Recently one of my good friends had FINALLY sat down to watch The Godfather and Godfather II, and enjoyed them both.  I hope that now he will read this blog and get a deeper appreciation of the film’s artistic value. This is for you, RS!

In an earlier post, I examined a bit of visual foreshadowing in The Godfather.  Today I want to look at the effective use of sound, specifically a phrase of music, that is used to foreshadow a future event in The Godfather II. SPOILER ALERT!  if you plan on seeing the movie first.

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The Godfather Part II (1974, Director Francis Ford Coppola)

The Godfather Part II tells two stories, one of the young head of the family Don Vito Corleone, and the continuing saga of his son Michael Corleone.  When we catch up to Michael again, it is 1958 at the Corleone Lake Tahoe compound during the celebration of his son’s first communion.  While waiting to see Michael, one of the Corleone’s family associates, Frankie Pentangeli, goes into the large gazebo, pushing the band to play some Italian tarantella music.  As the clarinet player tries to pick up the rhythm and the beat of Pentangeli’s conducting, he quickly morphs it into the song Pop Goes The Weasel instead, and the whole band follows (much to Frankie’s chagrin).

What seems like an inconsequential moment, that involves some minor character development, becomes much more later. When mistakenly led to believe Michael tried to have him killed, Pentangeli becomes a potential key witness (the “weasel”) against Michael Corleone in a Senate hearing investigating organized crime. Pentangeli eventually recants his testimony and halts all proceedings against Michael.  Ultimately Pentangeli commits suicide at the end of the movie, so that his family will not be harmed by the Corleone family because of his betrayal(“pop goes the weasel”).

Just another example of Coppola’s genius.

The Pain of Robin Williams, On Screen

Today (August 11, 2015), many of us will sadly commemorate the 1-year anniversary of Robin Williams’ death.  Hearing the accounts of his battles with depression, drug abuse and ultimately suicide still doesn’t seem to jibe with the laughter he brought us through many of his film roles.  It is hard for us to imagine the depths of his mental anguish, enough to push him to ending his own life.  Although Williams had a number of roles where he was likely given free rein to exercise his trademark frenzied ad-lib style of humor,  he was also celebrated for more serious dramatic roles.  Many will point to Williams’ Oscar-winning role as Sean Maguire in Good Will Hunting in 1997 as one of his best performances, completely muting his manic persona to wonderful effect, showing the world what a gifted performer he really was. What I found interesting was that many of Williams’ roles or films (like Good Will Hunting) seem to be reflective of his lifelong battle with depression and psychological torment, and sometimes suicide. SPOILER ALERT!!! I’ll be covering Dead Poets Society, What Dreams May come, and The Fisher King.

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Dead Poets Society – 1989

In director Peter Weir’s Dead Poets Society Williams plays John Keating, an English teacher who uses unconventional teaching methods that strain the limits of the highly traditional elite boys prep school at which he works.  He encourages the boys to think about pursuing not just schoolwork but thoughts of doing extraordinary things in life. One student decides to pursue a girl that he has been pining after, another gets the courage to write (under the name The Dead Poets Society) a letter to the school, demanding that girls be admitted into their hallowed halls.  Neil, another one of the students who is in Mr. Keating’s class, discovers his love for acting and wins the lead role for a local production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.  When Neil’s father, who has high aspirations for his son, discovers that Neil has been “wasting” his time on acting, he ultimately pulls him out of the school after his first performance.  Neil goes home with his father, who tells him that he is enrolling Neil in a military academy, to prepare him for a college career at Harvard. Distraught and defeated, Neil commits suicide in his father’s office.

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What Dreams May Come – 2002

In What Dreams May Come , Williams plays Dr. Chris Nielsen, a pediatrician who marries his artist wife Annie, and have two children.  The children die tragically in a car accident, and Chris and Annie work through their grief and pain.  They contemplate divorce but ultimately decide not to.  In the anniversary of that decision, however, Chris is also killed in a car accident, his spirit lingering on earth until he realizes his presence is not helping Annie cope with his death.  He moves on to heaven and eventually reunites with his children, but discovers that Annie has committed suicide, and is relieved, thinking that her suffering is now relieved.  Chris finds out that suicide victims do not end up in Heaven, but in Hell – not because of judgment on them, but because of the tendency of the victims to create and mire themselves in nightmare worlds based on their pain.  Angered, Chris sets out to rescue Annie’s soul from Hell with the help of a “tracker”.  When he finds her, she has amnesia preventing her from being saved. Chris decides to stay with her in Hell instead of returning to Heaven. When he declares his intent to stay with her forever in Hell, some of his words finally resonate with her and she regains her memories while Chris is making her nightmares his.  They reunite with their children in Heaven, and they decide to be reincarnated so that they may experience an earthly life together again.

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The Fisher King – 1998

I was moved to watch Terry Gilliam’s The Fisher King the week of Williams’ death, and it just re-confirmed for me that the role of Parry is MY personal favorite performance of his. Apparently Gilliam felt the same way.

Jeff Bridges plays radio shock jock Jack Lucas, whose flippant comments to a disturbed caller provokes the caller to commit mass murder at a Manhattan bar.  His career immediately spiraling downward, Jack eventually ends up on the bank of the Hudson River, ready to jump in and end his pathetic life before being saved by Williams’ Parry, who we find is also dealing with his own private unspeakable horror, namely being widowed by the same mass murderer that Jack spoke to on the radio.  Jack learns about Parry’s wife, and that Parry the homeless man was once a college English professor.  Parry deals with his grief and torment by selective amnesia, while his psychological torment appears to him periodically as a vision of a Red Knight.

Why is it my favorite performance of his?  Because it seemed to me a perfect role that reflected all the qualities of Williams himself. He didn’t have to completely shut off his machine-gun moments completely like in Good Will Hunting.  Parry could be funny, serious, charming, but also be horribly pained and tortured, as apparently Williams was in real life.  He brought such heart and empathy to the role of Parry.  Gilliam’s penchant for pushing our noses into the depths of despair and madness seems to fit Williams’ darker side and is prescient in regards to Williams’ personal internal conflicts.  I enjoyed his whole performance but just marvel at little moments that show his ability to create such pathos. When Jeff Bridges’ character dismisses him as a psychotic after their first encounter,  Williams deftly switches from false bravado (“Hey, now that we met, don’t be a stranger!”) back to lonely hermit (“…don’t be a stranger…see ya…”) in just a few moments. Heartbreaking.

Heartbreaking that he is gone.

What’s your favorite Robin Williams cinematic performance?

SPECTRE Trailer

You had me at Christoph Waltz .