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- Apr 19, 2013
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I really love Rogue One and Andor, but they're ultimately (especially Andor) cynical, postmodern deconstructions. Although I'm aware they both play off the real grit to be found in the original, pre-tamper releases of the OT and its novelizations.
As such they're part and parcel of the fact that we can't go back. I see this all the time with film, with music (specifically music social scenes) and other media. A little bit of nostalgia every now and then is fun, maybe cathartic. There are such things as standards and classics that resonate into the present, even though they're of their time.
The problems arise when some Don Draper wannabe tries to repackage and resell your past to you, over and over. Copy of a copy of a copy and it's too late, the world has changed and so have you.
Why do directors revisit and maybe wreck works that could have been left alone? Star Wars and Alien immediately come to mind. Maybe they're also victims of time, trying to recapture a feeling and past glory. I don't know.
When some band or some DJ comes out of the shadows of the past to "do it all one last time", and I see people with gray hair, receding hairlines, extra pounds, mortgages, divorces and babysitters belting their hearts out, I don't know whether to be sad or charmed at the sight of it. But loss and sadness are built into nostalgia, that's how it works. So maybe both.
I can't think of a more exploitative or worn out property than Star Wars, or a more thirsty fandom. Maybe Star Trek but I don't know it well enough beyond being a relatively casual fan.
It's not that I'm completely cynical about it, but I'm reacting to the excess, the poor quality and the greed that drives it.
Disclaimer: well aware of the sacred OT's many failings. It was of a time and place.
As such they're part and parcel of the fact that we can't go back. I see this all the time with film, with music (specifically music social scenes) and other media. A little bit of nostalgia every now and then is fun, maybe cathartic. There are such things as standards and classics that resonate into the present, even though they're of their time.
The problems arise when some Don Draper wannabe tries to repackage and resell your past to you, over and over. Copy of a copy of a copy and it's too late, the world has changed and so have you.
Why do directors revisit and maybe wreck works that could have been left alone? Star Wars and Alien immediately come to mind. Maybe they're also victims of time, trying to recapture a feeling and past glory. I don't know.
When some band or some DJ comes out of the shadows of the past to "do it all one last time", and I see people with gray hair, receding hairlines, extra pounds, mortgages, divorces and babysitters belting their hearts out, I don't know whether to be sad or charmed at the sight of it. But loss and sadness are built into nostalgia, that's how it works. So maybe both.
I can't think of a more exploitative or worn out property than Star Wars, or a more thirsty fandom. Maybe Star Trek but I don't know it well enough beyond being a relatively casual fan.
It's not that I'm completely cynical about it, but I'm reacting to the excess, the poor quality and the greed that drives it.
Disclaimer: well aware of the sacred OT's many failings. It was of a time and place.