Ever wish you were in a galaxy far, far away?
Sand people always travel in single file... but do they stand six feet apart?
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There is no faster way to signify a particular era in time than by fashion. If a filmmaker wishes to show the audience that the action is taking place in another period of history, the first place they start is the clothes. If there’s a toga, it’s probably ancient Rome. Bellbottoms mean it’s the late ‘60s and ‘70s. Top hats typically indicate the late 19th century. A pink pussy hat pins someone down to 2016.
The COVID-19 pandemic will also have its own fashion signifiers. The most immediately recognizable will certainly be the now ubiquitous face mask. I’ve already had discussions with several people about how these will become artifacts that we show later generations during a long-winded story about the time we spent a few months in doors. They won’t get it, but the masks will be objects of fascination. The proliferation of home-made fabric masks mean that in addition to serving a utilitarian purpose, they’ve instantly become fashion objects as well. While my mask boasts black and white illustrations of Marvel superheroes (it has a pop art feel), my better half’s features a field of stars.
Yet the look of our era will likely change in other ways as well. Because of the aforementioned masks, facial hair is on its way out. Now that hair salons and barber shops are closed, hair is becoming either longer and more luxurious, or shaved down to a close crop. And during quarantine, the work from home set is becoming increasingly accustomed to comfort wear. Given that this is now projected to run through June, I am seriously considering becoming an Adidas track-suit person.
Once social distancing begins to ease, I expect fashion to go in two radically divergent directions. Many will not want to go back to business casual as usual, and a proliferation of more comfortable business wear seems inevitable. On the flip side, others will go to more extreme and complicated fashion as an antidote to the months spent in sweatpants.
In years to come these fashion trends—face masks, long hair or shaved heads, comfort wear—will be unmistakable visual signifiers of the pandemic period. Perhaps museums will host folk art exhibits of homemade masks. Maybe we’ll all be wearing business track suits a few years from now. Whatever comes next, how we dress and look has already changed, and there’s no going back.
Today’s Film: Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope (1977)
I am concluding Highly Transmissible’s first science fiction week with what is hands down my favorite movie ever made. The original Star Wars is a master class in narrative filmmaking and was a technical marvel when it first came out. Perhaps more than any other movie, it has permeated modern American culture. It also changed Hollywood forever by setting a precedent for franchise filmmaking and merchandising, for better or for worse.
What follows is not a typical review, but an attempt to understand the film as its original audience would have. For those who haven’t seen it, I recommend watching the movie first before reading any farther (spoilers abound). The film is available to stream on Disney+ and to rent on various platforms. If you are able to obtain the original 1977 theatrical cut—minus later digital restorations and additions—do so.
Star Wars, George Lucas’ 1977 space opera, changed filmmaking, and the business of movies, in a myriad of ways—some good and some bad—and an analysis of the film some 43 years later reveals a surprising evolution from its original form. The greatest challenge in watching the original Star Wars film today is separating what we now know about the story and fictional universe from what the audience is actually shown and told in that first film. Audiences in 1977, by dent of not knowing what was to come later on and not growing up in a world in which Star Wars always existed, saw a radically different movie than what we watch today. Moreover, Lucas himself made substantive changes to the film over the course of decades, meaning that for many viewers of a certain age, they may have never actually experienced the story as it was originally told.
Understanding the differences in how audiences understand Star Wars now versus in 1977 requires, first, identifying the key elements of the story that have gained broad cultural currency, but which are not actually apparent or included in the original film. In other words, there are widely known elements of the Star Wars story that are not actually contained in the original film. There are three key “facts” about the story which are generally known—either through direct experience of the movies or simply through their use in memes and broader culture from The Simpsons to late-night comedy routines—which do not actually originate in the 1977 film:
FACT 1: Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa are brother and sister. This familial connection—key to understanding Luke and Leia’s relationship and untangling the love triangle between Luke, Leia and Han Solo—is not revealed until the third film, Return of the Jedi, although it is strongly implied near the end of the second film, The Empire Strikes Back. Viewers of the first film would not have guessed at any relationship between Luke and Leia and would have found their potential romantic entanglement and the love triangle with Han Solo to be persuasive.
FACT 2: Darth Vader is Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa’s father. This thread of the story is not revealed until the denouement of The Empire Strikes Back. Viewers of the original film would have believed that Darth Vader in fact killed Luke Skywalker’s father, as Obi-Wan Kenobi told him. The additional knowledge of Luke’s parentage creates a higher level of pathos in his battle against Vader in subsequent films.
FACT 3: Emperor Palpatine is the primary villain. The original Star Wars film positions Grand Moff Tarken—one of the Imperial governors—as the evil mastermind in this universe, with Vader as almost more of an enforcer working for him. The idea that there is a more powerful Sith Lord—that there is even an Order of the Sith—is not introduced until later films. Consequently, the original movie finishes with a sense that the Rebellion was largely victorious, rather than that the destruction of the Death Star was merely an initial step in a larger, longer conflict.
Viewers with control of this knowledge experience a radically different film than those coming into it in an informational vacuum. The assumed existence of this larger body of knowledge about the universe and characters is a key factor in the way film franchises are produced today, and the emphasis on the broader creation of lore is a direct product of the success of the Star Wars films as a franchise
The Marvel movies and Star Wars films of today are made with the assumption that audiences are highly educated about the worlds and characters. This means they have the ability to tell stories without dwelling on preamble and character introductions, but it also makes these sorts of franchises subject to fan service and can make them inaccessible to viewers who may not be familiar with the background and context. In this regard, at least, the original Star Wars film was far more successful than any of the subsequent films.
In this contemporary context, then, it is difficult to see Star Wars with fresh eyes. This difficulty is compounded by the fact that Lucas himself has released numerous versions since the 1977 theatrical premier, ultimately contaminating the movie’s narrative and aesthetics. Since the 1990s “Special Edition,” for instance, a key character development and plot point has been concealed from audiences in service of making a primary character more “likable” and removing any sense of moral ambiguity from the film. Whereas the original cut showed anti-hero Han Solo gunning down the bounty hunter Greedo in the Mos Eisley cantina, the film was subsequently recut to show Greedo firing the first shot and Han responding in self-defense. The difference between a character who uses preemptory violence for his own benefit and one who only fights in self-defense is critical to the dramatic tension at the end of the film when—during the battle against the Death Star—all seems lost until Han Solo returns and rescues Luke. For the self-serving version of the character, this represents a huge arc. For the version of the character who shoots in self-defense, this is less surprising.
Why, though, does any of this matter? The answer is simple: In the current marketplace, the biggest budget films and the highest earning films are all installments in major franchises such as The Avengers and Star Wars. Understanding the anatomy of these franchises requires understanding the original fabric upon which they are built built, i.e. the 1977 cut of Star Wars. The original film is based on broadly drawn characters with clear motivations and involves a battle between good and evil, with a single character—in the original telling Han Solo—who acts as a sort of moral question mark. Finally, the world is created in such a way as to leave open questions that the audience can fill in with their imagination—Where did Darth Vader come from? Who are Luke’s parents?—and which can provide fodder for subsequent films.
It is easy, knowing what we know now about the story, to attribute Star Wars’ success to special effects, lovable characters, or complexity of the world and “magic” of the universe in which it takes place. Yet the reality is that the movie’s initial success was far more a product of fundamental story and character mechanics. Stripping down modern franchise films to their basics in this way can help contemporary writers understand what makes them work when they are good—Guardians of the Galaxy, for instance—and what makes them fail at other times (look no further than Aquaman).
Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope is available to stream on Disney+ or to rent on various platforms.
Care for a drink?
Why not order a selection of Original Stormtrooper Beers from St. Peter’s Brewery in Suffolk, UK. Each beer is Stars Wars themed, and they ship internationally, so wherever you are, you can still taste some sudsy goodness from a galaxy far, far away…
Reading List:
GQ had a great feature a few months ago about how the costume designers for The Irishman used lapels and neck ties to show the passaged of time.
Star Wars: Heir to the Empire by Timothy Zahn. In the 43 years since the first Star Wars movie, a lot of media has been created in its universe, from novels to video games to comic books. A lot of it is terrible, some of it is okay, and some of it is excellent. Timothy Zahn’s first novel set in a galaxy far, far away is a carefully plotted, thematically consistent yet completely original tale set just after Return of the Jedi. It’s well worth a read, and is pure fun.
A correction: In yesterday’s issue, I said the original Alien was directed by James Cameron. While he did direct the sequel, Aliens, the first film was a Ridley Scott production.
Benjamin Reeves is an award-winning screenwriter, journalist and media consultant based in Brooklyn, New York. Follow him on Twitter @bpreeves or write to him at breeves.writer@gmail.com.