The Last Star Wars

The Last Jedi. This is the one I wanted to write about in the first place. Back in the day I made lots of notes about this film and what I should write about it. But I’m not sure they matter anymore (or maybe that’s my excuse for being too lazy to look through them). At any rate, when I first saw this film I really liked it, but parts of it didn’t work for me. Over the past three years, however, it has aged incredibly well. The fact that this movie actually has something to say elevates it beyond most other Star Wars films, into a beautifully cohesive picture, both thematically and aesthetically.

So anyway, I like this one.

The film is burdened by The Force Awakens’ incuriosity about galactic politics, and I used to count that as a weakness in this film, but no longer. Do I wish I understood more? Yes, but that’s on JJ. Maybe I’m biased because the backlash against this film rubbed me the wrong way. Maybe I’m just falling in line with my tribe. Oh well. The movie is still great.

A big part of what makes the film work is the production design, which is gorgeously photographed. In particular I want to shout out the very clean First Order UI.

Actually the white and red of the UI is typical of the film, which deploys color to distinguish the various settings and plotlines. The island on Ach-To is green, blue, and above all, grey - it’s neutral, on the fence, like Luke and like Rey. The casino planet is, fittingly, golden; at one point Finn and Rose race the police through the space equivalent of a wedding inspo pinterest board of golden lights.

And of course, there’s the films two dominant colors, two of my absolute favorites: white and red. These are everywhere, separate at first, but exploding together as the film progresses. Snoke’s red chamber is one of my favorite sets in the saga, and tremendous color discipline is exercised to render the rebel ship’s interior pale and wan in every respect. But once on Crait, the red salt explodes onto the white surface of the planet, like so much blood being spilt.

As for beauty, the location scouts outdid themselves with Skellig Michael, which is as beautiful as anything the saga has seen.

Ultimately, this film is hard for me to write about because I had a hard time making notes about it, I was so distracted by enjoying it. I also, to be completely honest, haven’t figured out my process for writing this blog yet. I haven’t been putting in the time or energy to properly edit it, so everything just sort of emerges as transcribed notes, hence the weird aggregate structure of these posts. I’m not entirely happy with this, because it makes me feel I am lazy.

You can see this in my inability to transition smoothly between paragraphs, something The Last Jedi does brilliantly - see “Where’s Rey” and “Where’s Han”.

If The Force Awakens was about meeting your heroes, this film is about losing them - or more accurately, moving on from them. Poe’s arc is designed to prepare him to lead once Leia is gone; Rey must move on from Luke and Kylo from Vader; Finn has to learn to be the hero himself, in the absence of Han. And of course, in meeting Finn, Rose comes face to face with one of her own heroes. Rose is a particularly important addition to the saga, precisely because she is normal. The series needed a muggle companion, and Rose provides that. Otherwise it’s all endless aristocratic battles, wholly disconnected from the lives of the galaxy’s citizens.

After all, isn’t Star Wars always going on about how the force surrounds and binds together all lives and all life? This description of the force - as something immanent in each person and in every atom of creation may be a fictitious religion, but like other fictitious manmade religions, it reminds us of the real spiritual dimension of things. In other words, fans who identify as practitioners of the Jedi religion may be wrong and lost, but the concept of the force reminds us of the need for something immanent, omnipresent, and transcendent, through which all things have their being and meaning.

It is fitting that we end up in the realm of faith, because The Last Jedi is, at the end of the day, a text about first deconstructing and then reconstructing faith. Rey’s faith is troubled by temptation and doubt in the face of Luke’s flaws, but she ultimately decides to embrace the Light. Kylo sheds his faith in the past, but recommits himself to the dark side. And Luke, of course, loses his way only to find it again.

Yoda expresses this in his speech embracing failure. The film is about victory in defeat, and strength in weakness. Perhaps that’s why it’s so resonant with me, as a Christian.

The only other thing I have to say is the sheer delight I felt in the theater when Rey and Kylo turned and began fighting back to back.

It's a pity they didn't make any more of these films.

At the Top of the Continent

So, I’ve sort of let things get away from me the past month or two. Work has been unusually busy, and with it I’ve either had less free creative energy, or have been held back by anxiety. But I’m going to try to get back into the flow of writing, since I think it will be good for me, even if I am irrationally (or otherwise) afraid of mortally embarrassing myself somehow in the process.

Fortunately I haven’t traveled any since December, so I’ve not fallen further behind on travel writing - if I can use the term.

At any rate, last December I made the very silly decision to drive into snowy Colorado in my 2004 Camry. I had no trouble reaching the silent Black Canyon of the Gunnison, which has to be one of the more underrated sights in North America, given how little press it gets. Not that there’s much to do there in winter, but the stark towers dusted with snow are more than enough to justify the trip.

No, my decision to drive became silly once I had to go from Montrose to Telluride, elevation 8,750 feet. I crawled along the winding mountain passes, constantly aware of the annoyance of all the 4WDs behind me. Thankfully the road was mostly clear of snow, and entirely free of ice, but a screen of falling flakes descending on a pass made for interesting driving.

Telluride itself is a lovely town, if a bit expensive for the likes of me. There was a bookstore, which was good, but it would benefit from exchanging some of its boutique shopping for several more bookstores, in my opinion. The coffee was good, however, and the scenery cannot be beat.

The next day I repeated almost the whole of the same drive, only to continue on to Mesa Verde in time to catch the sun dying on the city walls.

That night I stayed in a tiny trailer refurbished as an airbnb. When I rose to leave at six a.m., I was amazed my car even started. It was three degrees above zero.

The Mouse Awakens

The Force Awakens has got something going for it that not even its ultimate successor can take from it: it got to be the film in which Star Wars became fun again. Younger people might not get this, but for a long time it looked like there really would never be any more Star Wars films (as ludicrous as that sounds in this Age of the Mouse). But prior to the Disney acquisition, I had no real expectation that sequels were ever coming. On the one hand, that was good, because they couldn’t mess things up more, but still, it’s always fun, in a very six-year-old way, to have more lightsabers on screen. So I remember the tremendous excitement I felt going to see this film by myself in the theater at Favore Mall in Toyama, which only grew as I enjoyed the film all the way through.

The trouble is, I really don’t have that much to say about this film outside of that nostalgic first viewing experience. Maybe I never had much to say about Star Wars in the first place. Maybe I shouldn’t have committed to doing a series, and should have just stuck to films I’m gushing to talk about. Or maybe, as much as I love film and adore the visual arts, maybe I’m just not that good at coming up with creative or interesting things to say about them, especially when writing with only the energy I have left over from teaching.

Or maybe that’s all this film is - a Star Wars ride. If you like Star Wars, you’ll have fun on the ride, but don’t try to do anything besides just enjoying the ride.

The film does have a couple things really going for it, besides nostalgia. For one thing, the core idea - that the film is about kids who grew up in the world of Star Wars finally getting to play at it for real - is a real mood that translates as honest. For another, the casting department knocked it out of the park. Finally, the film is just gorgeous to look at. I mean, look at these shots:

Especially the fight in the forest, which ranks as one of my favorite moments in the saga, mainly because of how it is lit.

The last thing I’ll say about the film is that I found Kylo talking his father into giving Kylo the strength to kill him compelling in a troubling way, because it reminded me of how I worry I talk to other people to get reassurance so that I can feel safe carrying out some sin (admittedly I have never done anything like murder a beloved character - it’s just an analogy).