![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
The New Order Begins, with "New Hope"
Apr. 20th, 2008 09:09 amFor the last little while, I had been thinking that it was just about time to get around to rewatching the Star Wars movies, especially with the twenty-fifth anniversary of Return of the Jedi coming up. I figured that I would start early and watch one movie a weekend, and had planned to do it just as I did the last time, in "numerical order"... and then, just a little while back, I noticed someone promoting a way neither "numerical" nor quite "production order," but rather starting with Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back, then watching all three new movies and finishing up with Return of the Jedi.
Something about that "extended flashback, explaining just how things got this way after an uncomplicated beginning" did intrigue me; perhaps it was due to having recently watched an anime series (in)famous for (just possibly) being able to be watched in different orders. It did, though, lead to some pondering. It may simply be that, having first encountered The Empire Strikes Back through the period storybooks and such and only first seeing it on videotape some years later, I have no "staggering surprise" from it to be remembered on viewings to follow, whereas I was surprised by at least some moments of Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith, and can even contemplate trading "surprise" at two revelations in TESB for a perhaps even darker "surprise" that Anakin Skywalker doesn't "work through his issues, just like a hero's supposed to." However, I suppose also I've wondered how someone going into The Phantom Menace completely "cold" would make sense of Jedi powers and the Force and such... although at times I remember George Lucas's comments that Star Wars itself, once upon a time, felt overwhelming for presenting things without long exposition, and it's easy enough to realise the whole question seems very much a hypothetical case. Too, it's sort of tempting to think that it's easier to view TPM "as itself," without some crushing weight of expectations. However, I can contemplate going "straight from TESB to 'Episode I!'" without the brain-frying reaction I can imagine some having... and maybe that made me decide to try this new viewing order.
To be sure, I don't think I was exactly simulating a blank slate, or even an "uncomplicated beginning," in my reactions. I was able to add weight to Obi-Wan's reflections on Luke's father and his final confrontation with Darth Vader in a quite satisfying matter, and perhaps I'd rather just accept that C-3P0 and R2-D2 and Chewbacca and the homestead itself have pasts that intersect with "the big story" rather than pretend that they're all coming out of nowhere. Too, I can wonder if Star Wars somehow serves as "decompression space" in between the big effects of the new movies and the best effects of the early 1980s... but bringing to mind the thought that the Special Edition effects also serve as a bridge, I found myself perhaps a good bit less nagged at by all those complaints about "change!" this time. That was just about worth it in itself.
Something about that "extended flashback, explaining just how things got this way after an uncomplicated beginning" did intrigue me; perhaps it was due to having recently watched an anime series (in)famous for (just possibly) being able to be watched in different orders. It did, though, lead to some pondering. It may simply be that, having first encountered The Empire Strikes Back through the period storybooks and such and only first seeing it on videotape some years later, I have no "staggering surprise" from it to be remembered on viewings to follow, whereas I was surprised by at least some moments of Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith, and can even contemplate trading "surprise" at two revelations in TESB for a perhaps even darker "surprise" that Anakin Skywalker doesn't "work through his issues, just like a hero's supposed to." However, I suppose also I've wondered how someone going into The Phantom Menace completely "cold" would make sense of Jedi powers and the Force and such... although at times I remember George Lucas's comments that Star Wars itself, once upon a time, felt overwhelming for presenting things without long exposition, and it's easy enough to realise the whole question seems very much a hypothetical case. Too, it's sort of tempting to think that it's easier to view TPM "as itself," without some crushing weight of expectations. However, I can contemplate going "straight from TESB to 'Episode I!'" without the brain-frying reaction I can imagine some having... and maybe that made me decide to try this new viewing order.
To be sure, I don't think I was exactly simulating a blank slate, or even an "uncomplicated beginning," in my reactions. I was able to add weight to Obi-Wan's reflections on Luke's father and his final confrontation with Darth Vader in a quite satisfying matter, and perhaps I'd rather just accept that C-3P0 and R2-D2 and Chewbacca and the homestead itself have pasts that intersect with "the big story" rather than pretend that they're all coming out of nowhere. Too, I can wonder if Star Wars somehow serves as "decompression space" in between the big effects of the new movies and the best effects of the early 1980s... but bringing to mind the thought that the Special Edition effects also serve as a bridge, I found myself perhaps a good bit less nagged at by all those complaints about "change!" this time. That was just about worth it in itself.