Today is Natalie Portman’s 34th birthday and in honour of that I thought it would be interesting to take a look at Padmé Amidala’s role in one of the key moments in Attack of the Clones: the Battle of Geonosis. So here … Continue reading Scene It? – Padme in the Geonosis Arena
For ‘a generation of Star Wars fans’ Boba Fett was the archetypal bounty hunter, except of course for the fact that he wasn’t. Just like Anakin Skywalker did not turn out to be the stereotype bad-ass that some original trilogy fans were expecting, also Boba Fett turned out to have a much more complicated back story. In view of the fact that we may very well be getting a Boba Fett anthology film, let us take a slightly closer look at this character. Continue reading “Boba Fett, the motherless orphan.”
So, what’s been happening in Star Wars-related news this week? Jedi’s Journey back to Star Wars – Ahsoka’s journey (USA Today) Could we be getting an Obi-Wan Kenobi trilogy? (Cinema Blend) Star Wars novel Heart of the Jedi resurfaces (IO9) Clone Trooper gets … Continue reading Weekly Round-up
Today I am very happy to present to you a guest post by Bradley Weatherholt, the director of theupcoming The Prequels Strike Back, a documentary about the Star Wars prequels which will feature fan interviews and radical new theories. It has just … Continue reading Guestpost: Will the Prequels Strike Back? by Bradley Weatherholt
Sir Christopher Lee was born on May 2th, 1922 and is best known for his roles as Dracula, Francisco Scaramanga and Saruman. Today is Sir Christopher Lee’s birthday and in honour of this amazing man, we have a post about Count … Continue reading Christopher Lee’s Dooku: The Importance of the Count
What’s been happening inStar Wars-related news this week? On the Web: Colin Hanks and his daughter brought attention to the lack of female merchandise (Mary Sue) Diego Luna joins the cast for Rogue One (Variety) Star Wars villains for adoption: the … Continue reading News Round-Up
The WW2 narrative and Star Wars
From the very first instalment of Star Wars in A New Hope there has always been a clear link between its narrative and the history of Twentieth Century Europe. On the one hand there was Lucas’ deliberate use of Leni Riefenstahl‘s cinematography, as exemplified in her Nazi-propaganda film ‘Triumpf des Willens’, in depicting the Imperial menace. The shots of Imperial Shuttles landing in areas with large numbers of perfectly aligned storm troopers conveyed the sense of total control that the Empire sought to exert on its subjects. The mere facts that Imperial Officers were dressed pretty much like Nazi-officers and that Imperial soldiers were called ‘storm troopers’, a word that in the Anglo-Saxon world is almost exclusively connected with the Third Reich, already provided enough reason to consider the connections. But what stood out for me was that my parents, WW2 survivors, immediately recognised the Empire as a reference to the forces of oppression that had created such havoc in their lives and throughout Europe. The 70th anniversary of VE-Day seems an excellent moment to reflect upon this.
When George Lucas made the choice to start the Prequel Trilogy with Anakin Skywalker as a kid and to include Jar Jar Binks as a character he must have had an inkling of what was coming. But he must have made this choice deliberately because of its story-telling value. In this post I want to have a look at how intimately the stories of these two great characters are entangled and how they mirror each other. Unwittingly, in their joint rejection of these two, the prequel-bashing community not only misses out on a vital element of the story Lucas tried to convey. But above all they confirm the message that is in Jar Jar and Anakin’s story for those who did make the effort to recognize it.
The Starwars Rebel Tributes of Season 1 In the fall of 2014 a new element was added to the expanding Starwars universe of stories. After the to early demise of that excellent Starwars: The Clone Wars series the anticipation for … Continue reading Awesome Tribute Videos #3: Starwars Rebels
The brilliant Vanity Fair article this week has given us a lot of scoops. Not only do we have names for two more characters, we also got some great interviews and behind-the-scenes photos. VF also sat down with J.J. Abrams, director of upcoming The Force Awakens, for an interview and unfortunately he once again catered to the so-called ‘prequel haters’ by discussing Jar Jar Binks. Talking to VF editor Bruce Handy, Abrams said:
“I have a thought about putting Jar Jar Binks’s bones in the desert [of Jakku]. I’m serious! Only three people will notice, but they’ll love it.”
Now, I’m all for jokes. I love jokes. However, Jar Jar Binks is a very controversial figure within the Star Wars-fandom. Many fans of the Original Trilogy use him as their favourite stick to bash the Prequel Trilogy with, arguing he is a ridiculous figure, disgraceful and not worthy of being in a Star Wars-film. It has come to the point where saying that you like Jar Jar, like I do, means you have to face a barrage of disagreement, if not abuse. The fact that the same things were originally held against the Ewoks in the OT is conveniently forgotten. Everyone is allowed their own opinion and you don’t have to like everything about Star Wars. Whether you like both the OT and PT or just one of them, you have a right to liking or disliking things. However, as I have previously argued, the disproportionate hate against the PT has led to many of its good points and layers of depth to go completely unnoticed. There is more to the figure of Jar Jar than most people acknowledge and I will be going into it below.
Clone Corridor 