Presented by Michael Segers, Brought to you by Peanut.org
In case you are one of the
two people who haven’t heard (the other being a hermit in the wilds of the
Himalayas whose laptop has been down for months) a new Star Wars film is
coming out. Reviewing such a film is as pointless as reviewing a hurricane—big
storm hits land, sets records, people pick up pieces and get on with their
lives. So, I’ve asked Alan Thornton, technical recruiter, sometime rare book
dealer, and director of Southern Discomfort: Musical Satire with a side of
Grits, to turn his discerning eyes star-wards and review the Star Wars
phenomenon. Keep your feet dry, your heart full of noble thoughts, and--to find
out more about Alan and Southern Discomfort--your browser pointed to:
Just as television news seems to report on itself more and more, "Could there really be jurors for the Simpson trial that have not been tainted by our months of exhaustive team coverage?" so the movie business has become more of a promotion business than an entertainment business. It is not unusual to hear of a film with more money spent on promotion than on production. So, what is all this publicity supposed to accomplish? It should get people talking about a film so that the strongest sales tool of all, word of mouth, causes people who have not seen the movie to feel left out. Did our daughters flock to see Titanic over and over because of the special effects or because they had forgotten how it ended? No. They wanted to cry together. They wanted to ogle Leo DiCaprio together. They wanted to be part of an event. Now it is the young gentlemen’s turn to be manipulated into the movie theatres to see Star Wars: The Phantom Menace Episode 1.
George Lucas’s people have been saying that they have only needed to orchestrate the promotional efforts of those fast food companies and toy manufacturers who want to ride the movie’s coattails. They claim that they have had to spend relatively little actual cash on promotion themselves. Certainly the Internet has fueled the frenzy, too, with hundreds if not thousands of web sites devoted to the film. Still, the director of Marketing for Lucasfilms, Jim Ward, has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal as saying, "We think of Star Wars as a brand." He should know about brand names as he most recently directed the marketing efforts for a shoe company called Nike and at one time led the team that introduced a product called Windows 95. Something tells me that he isn’t leaving all of his strategies in the hands of others.
"Wired" magazine is to computer geeks what Newsweek is to the rest of the world. It features flashy graphics and in-depth articles about all things digital. Last month it featured a loving cover shot of George Lucas with the three-word message, "Believe the Hype!" So, now television is about television, talk radio is about talk radio and movie hype is about movie hype. The feeling is that more people than ever are asking the question that Tim Rice asked in Jesus Christ Superstar, "What’s the buzz? Tell me what’s happening."
The Wired article turned out to be two articles. One was a sneak peak at the ‘gee whiz’ special effects by veteran reporter and hype watcher, Steve Silberman. Silberman is a hard man to dazzle but a trip to Skywalker Ranch had him all agog about the wonderful possibilities for the film. The second article was an interview with Lucas who handed out a few little bits of information but just enough to tease the prospective viewer. When asked if he could possibly hope to dazzle the younger kids who had seen Starship Trooper he said that he wasn’t even trying to dazzle folks but to tell a good story. Well, perhaps that’s true. I have heard that he considered cutting one of the chase scenes for a soul-searching Jar Jar monologue on the duality of good and evil.
When the first Star Wars (really the fourth but, because of the hype, I don’t have to explain that to you, do I?) hit theatres world leaders named phantom weapons systems after it. And, this was well before other world leaders started quoting hamburger commercials in their speeches. The world seemed to agree that this was going to be one of the most important films ever and dutifully marched to the theatre to stand in line. Although the original Star Wars was among the first movies that people stood in really long lines for since the opening of Gone with the Wind, no one camped out for six weeks to be in the front row for the first show. Now, people are camping out in front of toy stores to be the first to buy new action figures. No television programs referred to their own coverage then as ‘obligatory,’ but now see The Daily Show at:
No one asked the question, "Are movie openings, like Christmas, getting too commercial?" There are two Star Wars books in the top fifteen (numbers 1 and 12) according to "The Wall Street Journal". There is even a special Star Wars MP3 Player available at:
http://www.phantomcast.com/Music/.
(Drop everything after "com" and you will get to the studio’s
official site.)
What will be the net difference in the end? This one cost considerably more to make than the original, which was a bargain at only $8.4 million. Many more people will see it much sooner even more times at higher ticket prices than the original. The Associated press recently stated, "They’re closing down offices, renting out theaters and taking weeks of vacation to stand in line for tickets. By one estimate, more than 2 million workers could skip work for the movie’s opening. A national holiday is taking shape." Oh, heavens, it’s a geek-out! This could be far more disastrous than the Y2K problem. Software firms are closing their doors on the 19th. Just try to get a second level help desk worker! Will our national productivity really suffer that day, though? Probably not since the folks who are taking off work are planning to spend big bucks for tickets and souvenirs.
If
the hype is bigger, will the disappointment that this is only a movie, also be
greater? Will there be a tremendous amount of backlash from all the hype?
Already, people are positioning themselves to be among the first to ridicule the
new effort. Consider the "I Hate Star Wars" website:
The young fellow who went to terrific lengths to tear down the Star Wars image (even showing how the mighty have fallen by using a Billy Dee Williams malt liquor ad on his site) didn’t manage to do so until just before the new movie was about to be released. He comments on the cartoonish quality of the advance movie trailers that he has seen. Hey, didn’t I see him in line somewhere?
Some movie fans managed to get tickets to an advance screening for movie theater executives and their families early in May. Ronald Epstein of the Home Theatre Forum was one of those fans. He published a review that he said he thought to be the first ever on the Internet on his home page:
http://www.hometheaterforum.com
John
Williams has said that he enjoyed working backward from the earlier/later Star
Wars themes to the later/earlier Phantom Menace themes. For example,
his Anakin Skywalker theme is a young person’s lighthearted tune but has been
reconstructed from the Darth Vader military march and has a feeling of dread at
its core.
This time around, music lovers as well as film fans will know more about what to expect than before. Many of them are well versed in the Star Wars mythos and will feel comfortable with the settings from the first frame. Perhaps this and the fact that it has been over eight years since the last installment help explain the ease with which Lucasfilms has marketed the film. Other writers have suggested that the particularly good economic picture has left folks ripe for an entertainment fad like this. Remember the stories of flagpole sitters, barnstormers and other thrill seekers who captivated Americans just before the crash of 1929?
Has any film ever created this much interest before? Perhaps not, but since many of those who have seen it indicate that its technical advances are of the magnitude of the difference between silent pictures and talkies, the hype may be with us for years to come. Even though this movie has the task of setting up the events of the next two, a little flash and a pretty good story should satisfy most viewers. I especially hope that young viewers who have only seen the first trilogy on television sets have a particularly good time with their first Star Wars movie house experience.
To continue your own Star Wars Internet experience:
http://www.wsj.com