It’s easy to forget, now that we have a new Star Wars movie coming into theaters every single year for (supposedly) the rest of our lives, that there was a time when Star Wars was actually scarce. There were no new movies were being made for well over a decade and no new television shows. There was only the vague hope that someday – maybe – George Lucas would get around to making those prequels or sequels.
So when George Lucas announced that he was re-releasing the original Star Wars trilogy in 1997 it was cause for celebration. A whole new generation of Star Wars fans had never even seen the films in theaters, and the promise that the trilogy would now feature new special effects and new footage (!) was too titillating to ignore. We all flocked to theaters to watch this new version Star Wars on January 31, 1997 (twenty years ago today), and we all left kinda happy. Kinda.
Because although Star Wars was still Star Wars, it was also obviously caving in on itself. The new scenes didn’t expand on what we already knew, and in some cases they even contradicted our existing ideas about the series. The audible protest that “Han shot first” is the most obvious example, a reference to the fact that in the original theatrical release, Han Solo killed a bounty hunter in cold blood, which became an important part of what made his character unique and interesting in the first place. In the “Special Editions,” Han only shoots in self-defense, and while it seems like a small change it does alter the context of his character. It’s an addition that doesn’t complement the original. It’s an addition that simply inserts itself into the conversation whether it works or not.
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Also: All 12 Star Wars Movies Ranked (Yes, There Are 12 of Them)
There are other examples. Jabba the Hutt, an off-screen character in the first two Star Wars films, only spoken of in hushed and frightened tones until he was finally revealed in Return of the Jedi as an unpredictably grotesque monstrosity, now had a scene in the original Star Wars. What’s more, he was significantly smaller than he was in Return of the Jedi (creating a distracting continuity error), and even though the plot of the movies dictates that Han Solo should be actively afraid of angering Jabba the Hutt, the new scene featured Han Solo walking all over the villainous criminal, figuratively and literally. All that dramatic build-up to the character’s first appearance in Return of the Jedi was now redundant. Jabba the Hutt was neutralized.
These sorts of additions kept audiences who were looking for more Star Wars relatively sated but they didn’t add anything meaningful to the series. The remastered sound effects and touched up VFX, like now-missing vaseline smear under Luke Skywalker’s speeder, were largely appreciated. But in the absence of “new” Star Wars we were being asked to settle for a rehashing, and for content that was technically new to us but that failed to expand on what we already had in any significant way.
Twenty years later, those Star Wars special editions are now as old as the original trilogy was when they first came out. And yes, we’re now technically getting “new” Star Wars movies, but I wonder if even Disney – the contemporary proprietor of Star Wars and the custodians of the franchise’s legacy – haven’t fallen prey to the same regurgitating mentality. I wonder if “special editions” of Star Wars are all we’re ever really going to get under this new administration.
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Also: Leia’s Legacy | The Women of Star Wars
The complaints are already on record about Star Wars: The Force Awakens, an honest-to-goodness sequel to the original trilogy that – to the delight of some and the frustration of others – faithfully rehashes a distracting number of elements from the original films. The desert-dwelling hero who leaves on a journey of adventure because of a cute droid with important documents and who then becomes a powerful Jedi, facing off against a black-clad Sith Lord (or “Knight of Ren,” functionally similar) whose secret identity is revealed just before dropping a family member down a pit. A fascistic imperial organization who have built an absurdly large weapon of mass destruction that must be blown up in the climax, the list goes on.
At least Star Wars: The Force Awakens moves the story forward, but the sense of extempore that came with even the first theatrical Star Wars sequels, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, has been replaced with obsessive self-reference and self-reverence. For all of its finer qualities – and indeed, there is a decent argument to made that the purpose of the film’s recycled storyline is to highlight the concept that war, itself, is fundamentally cyclical – it’s hard to get past just how familiar it feels. There’s always the nagging awareness that on some level The Force Awakens plays more like a high-quality remix.
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But although there is still hope that Star Wars: The Last Jedi and Star Wars: Whatever The Ninth Chapter Will Be Called will finally move on and introduce audiences to fresh new ideas, the so-called anthology films don’t seem to instill much confidence. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is the first example, released last month, and a solo film about Han Solo is on the horizon. Every other film on Disney’s Star Wars schedule promises not something new but something old.
On the surface, Rogue One seemed like a pretty cool idea. It’s a heist film and a war film set in the Star Wars universe, one that depicts how a band of rebels managed to steal the Death Star plans that were in Leia’s possession at the star of Episode IV: A New Hope. It’s a pulpy concept that toys with genres that were inherent to Star Wars but that hadn’t necessarily been highlighted before, at least in theaters.
And yet by its very nature Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is yet another “special edition,” adding content that the original trilogy didn’t need to work in the first place. You’d be hard-pressed to find anybody who said that the original Star Wars movies were bad movies because we didn’t see how the Death Star plans got stolen. And without content that directly affects future films in the franchise (at least for now), that means that the events of Rogue One – though technically substantial to the overall plot – exist in a pocket of the Star Wars universe that is, by its very nature, inherently disposable. It may or may not be fun to watch, but it wasn’t a story that was necessary to tell.
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Indeed, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is a trip down memory lane, revisiting the era of the original Star Wars trilogy in a literal sense while the newer sequel trilogy revisits it at the same time, in a referential sense. It was completely unnecessary to include cameos by Cornelius Evazan and Ponda Boba on the desert moon Jedha, particularly just a short time before the city they were in was blasted by the Death Star, giving them very little time to escape and go bar-hopping on Tatooine a couple of days later. Is it possible? Yes. Is it an enormous and distracting coincidence that was included for the sake of including it? You bet.
The timeline and plot of Rogue One also necessitates the presence of the Death Star, yet another recycled idea that the franchise can’t quite get past. It also necessitates that the Death Star be used as a weapon of mass destruction, but not at its full capacity, which makes little sense within Rogue One and instead holds true to the idea that in A New Hope, Alderaan was the first planet destroyed by a planet-destroying weapon that the Empire would and could have easily used beforehand.
The plot of Rogue One adds new and – in a vacuum – exciting elements to the Star Wars story, but they don’t contribute to that story as a whole and indeed create more problems than they solve. If you’re frustrated that Han didn’t shoot first then you should probably be equally annoyed that Darth Vader was chasing the rebels with the Death Star plans onto the Tantive IV, and witnessed the plans being placed on the ship, and chased the ship away from a war zone, only to – in the original film – respond to the rebels’ excuse that they were on a diplomatic mission to another planet like it wasn’t an obvious lie that he could disprove with his own personal experience.
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Revisiting old ideas, incorporating new ones that don’t contribute to the overall storyline, these are all “special edition” ideas. And what else is a “special edition” idea? Adding characters to the film through the use of distracting CGI, which is exactly what happens with the character of Grand Moff Tarkin, played originally by Peter Cushing, an estimable actor who died over 20 years ago. The debate rages on, and with good cause, over whether this CGI-recreated character was a nifty homage to a classic performance or an unethical step in the wrong direction for the industry (not unlike releasing “special editions” and suppressing the original theatrical versions). Time may tell which side of that coin history lands on.
Whether you enjoyed watching them or not, Rogue One and (to a lesser extent) The Force Awakens are perpetually looking backward, taking what we already liked about Star Wars and reheating it, adding a few new spices to hide the fact that we’re basically eating leftovers. And there’s nothing wrong with leftovers unless you’ve been eating them for years and are desperate to eat something new. Maybe a lot of Star Wars fans are content to stew in nostalgia for now but with a new movie coming out every single year it’s only a matter of time before what’s old doesn’t feel new again, and instead feels simply… old.
When that day comes, these sorts of “special” editions – in practice or in theory – aren’t going to cut it anymore. If Star Wars is going to keep going forever eventually it will have to take a big step forward, without looking back.
The Top 25 “Badass” Best Picture Nominees
Top Photo: LucasFilm
William Bibbiani (everyone calls him ‘Bibbs’) is Crave’s film content editor and critic. You can hear him every week on The B-Movies Podcast and Canceled Too Soon, and watch him on the weekly YouTube series Most Craved, Rapid Reviews and What the Flick. Follow his rantings on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani.
25 Badass Best Picture Nominees
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Captain Blood
Lost To: Mutiny on the Bounty
Action star Err0l Flynn headlines this rollicking swashbuckler about a doctor who goes rogue and becomes a pirate.
Photo: Warner Bros.
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The Adventures of Robin Hood
Lost To: You Can't Take It With You
Errol Flynn re-teamed with his Captain Blood director Michael Curtiz for this iconic adventure that defined the folk hero Robin Hood for decades.
Photo: Warner Bros.
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King Solomon's Mines
Lost To: All About Eve
H. Rider Haggard's classic novel became an acclaimed adventure starring the great Stewart Granger as Allan Quatermain, who has to escort Deborah Kerr into the heart of Africa to find her lost husband and an ancient treasure.
Photo: MGM
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The Guns of Navarone
Lost To: West Side Story
One of the great "men on a mission" movies stars Gregory Peck, Anthony Quinn and David Niven as soldiers who embark on an impossible mission to take out powerful Nazi weapons that were threatening the Allied Navy.
Photo: Columbia Pictures
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A Clockwork Orange
Lost To: The French Connection
Vicious, twisted and violent, Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of Anthony Burgess's novel - about a teenaged criminal who undergoes psychological conditioning to "cure" his antisocial urges - is one of the few X-rated films to ever be nominated for Best Picture.
Photo: Warner Bros.
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Deliverance
Lost To: The Godfather
John Boorman's thriller sends Burt Reynolds, Ned Beatty and Ronny Cox into the wilderness and challenges their masculinity at every turn. The "squeal like a pig" sequence is just as disturbing as ever.
Photo: Warner Bros.
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The Exorcist
Lost To: The Sting
William Friedkin's impressive adaptation of William Peter Blatty's novel - about a child with a mysterious ailment that may be supernatural in origin, challenging contemporary secular beliefs - is still one of the biggest blockbusters of all time. The Exorcist is so scary that some people believed the actual celluloid was haunted.
Photo: Warner Bros.
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The Towering Inferno
Lost To: The Godfather Part II
The highest-grossing film of 1974 was an all-star disaster epic from Irwin Allen, who put Paul Newman, Faye Dunaway, Fred Astaire, O.J. Simpson (yes, really) and a heck of a lot more big name stars in a skyscraper and set the building ablaze.
Photo: 20th Century Fox
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Jaws
Lost To: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
The film that changed blockbusters forever and put Steven Spielberg on the map. A Great White terrorizes a popular vacation spot, and only a crazed shark hunter, a nerdy scientist and a local sheriff (who is afraid of the water) can save the tourists.
Photo: Universal Pictures
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Star Wars
Lost To: Annie Hall
George Lucas's original blockbuster was a massive, critically-acclaimed sensation that changed popular culture and still influences practically every big budget movie being made today. But Annie Hall was good too.
Photo: LucasFilm
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Raiders of the Lost Ark
Lost To: Chariots of Fire
George Lucas and Steven Spielberg teamed up to revitalized the old school adventure genre, creating a new action movie icon and cementing Harrison Ford's movie status. Raiders of the Lost Ark is still considered one of the best action movies ever made... maybe even THE best.
Photo: LucasFilm
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Witness
Lost To: Out of Africa
Harrison Ford goes undercover in Amish country to protect a young boy who witnessed a murder. Much of Peter Weir's film is a drama about Ford's culture shock and ill-fated romance with Kelly McGillis, but Witness concludes in classic, badass thriller fashion.
Photo: Paramount Pictures
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Fatal Attraction
Lost To: The Last Emperor
The quintessential erotic thriller stars Michael Douglas as a businessman who has an affair with Glenn Close, only to discover that she's dangerously deranged. Adrian Lyne's nightmare scenario for philanderers is one of the scariest films ever nominated Best Picture.
Photo: Paramount Pictures
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The Silence of the Lambs
Lost To: Nothing! It won!
A horror movies serial killers who eat human flesh and wear it as clothing, respectively, didn't just win Best Picture, it also won Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Adapted Screenplay. Only two other films have ever pulled off that particular feat. The Silence of the Lambs is just that good.
Photo: Orion Pictures
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The Fugitive
Lost To: Schindler's List
Harrison Ford - who obviously has good taste in thrillers - stars in this classy remake of the popular television series, about a doctor who has been framed for his wife's murder. Ford runs from the incomparable Tommy Lee Jones, leading his pursuer directly to the conspirators responsible, and even the Academy had to admit it was an exceptional piece of entertainment.
Photo: Warner Bros.
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The Sixth Sense
Lost To: American Beauty
Before M. Night Shyamalan fell out of favor with critics and audiences alike, he blew everyone away with a smart, character driven horror movie about a little boy who is psychologically scarred by his ability to see ghosts. An iconic ending and great, Oscar-nominated performances still make The Sixth Sense a classic.
Photo: Buena Vista Pictures
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Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Lost To: Gladiator
The kung fu genre, long ignored by American critics and the Oscars alike, finally got some mainstream attention in America with Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. The sweeping romance, filled with high-flying wuxia action, won four Academy Awards but lost Best Picture to...
Photo: Sony Pictures Classics
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Gladiator
Lost To: Nothing! Another winner!
Ridley Scott transformed the often-ridiculed "sword and sandal" genre into a Best Picture winner with Gladiator, a huge action epic with just enough melodrama to be taken seriously by the Academy. Russell Crowe also won Best Actor, but most people agree it was actually a belated award for The Insider, which earned Crowe his first Best Actor nomination the year before.
Photo: Dreamworks Pictures
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The Lord of the Rings Trilogy
Lost To: A Beautiful Mind and Chicago. Then it won!
Peter Jackson's groundbreaking, ambitious and popular adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's beloved fantasy novels earned three Best Picture nominations over the course of three years, but the Academy snubbed it for the top award until the last possible minute. It compensated for the oversight by giving the third film, The Return of the King, an astounding eleven Oscars, for every category in which the film was nominated.
Photo: New Line Cinema
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Avatar
Lost To: The Hurt Locker
James Cameron's sci-fi saga was the biggest blockbuster in history, and the Academy had to admit it was a giant leap forward in visual effects and 3D technology.
Photo: 20th Century Fox
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District 9
Lost To: The Hurt Locker
Neill Blomkamp's debut feature was a dark and pointed political allegory about South Africa, told through the unusual story of space alien immigrants being segregated from human society. District 9 was nominated for four Academy Awards, but went home empty-handed.
Photo: TriStar Pictures
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Black Swan
Lost To: The King's Speech
Darren Aronofsky's biggest Oscar contender to date is a surreal psychological thriller about a ballerina who loses her mind in a desperate grab for glory. Hallucinatory photography and an Oscar-winning performance by Natalie Portman elevated Black Swan above the rest of the horror genre... if only in the Academy's eyes.
Photo: Fox Searchlight Pictures
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Django Unchained
Lost To: Argo
Quentin Tarantino tackles the serious subject of slavery by transforming it into a cathartic revenge fantasy, about a slave (Jamie Foxx) who becomes a bounty hunter in order to save his wife. The action is outlandish, but given the context it seems completely justified... so long as Django is the one who's dishing it out.
Photo: The Weinstein Company
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Gravity
Lost To: Twelve Years a Slave
An innovative disaster story if ever there was one, Gravity is the story of an inexperienced astronaut who becomes untethered when a debris storm destroys her vessel. Alfonso Cuaron's acclaimed visual effects spectacular follows her seemingly impossible journey to survive, if only for survival's sake.
Photo: Warner Bros.
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Mad Max: Fury Road
Lost To: ???
It seems unlikely that George Miller's Mad Max: Fury Road will win the Best Picture Oscar, but a few short months ago it seemed even more unlikely that it would be nominated. Fortunately, his high-octane post-apocalyptic thrill ride is so exceptionally crafted, and unexpectedly dense with feminist themes, that the Academy saw fit to nominate the film for its highest honor. What a lovely day indeed!
Photo: Warner Bros.