‘The Force Awakens’ has served an important mission as it is
the episode that introduces the cinematic phenomenon known as ‘Star Wars’ to
the young people of our era. It is gratifying that Mr. Abrams has been able to
capture the spirit of the old ‘Star Wars’, without submitting to fast tracks
such as random punch lines and cheesy one-liners, which has almost flooded the
popcorn flicks nowadays (and they are not that funny to be honest). Although, I
have to admit that I had a rush of euphoria when I saw the old Harrison Ford,
Carrie Fisher, and Mark Hamill showing up – they are the ones I watched when I
was young – we need to pass the baton to the young, right? Yet, I do encourage
the young ones nowadays to look beyond the CGIs and the hideous monsters that seem
to pour out endlessly from the film stock, and really give some thoughts about
the moral behind the story. If the Jedi Master is to pass the knowledge to the
young apprentice, it is not merely the light saber skills – it is the
philosophy and the ideas behind that which is essential.
To me, every trilogy of the Star Wars series is about family
business. There are scores to be settled in the family – Darth Vader / Luke
Skywalker, Anakin / Obi-Wan, and now Han Solo / Kylo Ren. I believe Lucas’
original genius is to create this tension between father and son, and the
desperation for both parties to get a bit closer. For course, this reminds me
of John Ford’s ‘The Searchers’, which is about a not-so-perfect male character,
Ethan Edwards, who has to redeem himself for his past mistakes and prejudices.
Certainly, the two films are different, yet in the ‘Star Wars’ movies, many of
the male characters have fallen into a state of redemption, as they believe
they are the culprit of ‘screwing some
good things up’. They believe that they are responsible for ruining the
potential of some gifted individuals (e.g. Anakin, Ren and the Jedi Order), and
lead these young guys to the Dark Side and chaos. Thus, they are often consumed
with guilt and regret, and in some case they attempt to turn away from the
problem – which is the case for Obi-Wan Kenobi in Episode 4 and now Luke
Skywalker, and again remains me of the drifter Edwards in ‘The Searchers’. The
great thing about the characterization of ‘Star Wars’ is that not only there
are heroic and courageous characters, there are also complex and realistic
characters, as exemplified by Darth Vader and the many males with regret.
Since ‘The Force Awakens’ is a new round of trilogy, the new
and young characters in the film are all starting to face challenges – both
good and evil sides – and preparing to face something big. The young stars are
able to deliver their mindset in the film, which I believe this can lead to a
better identification with the young audience, and hopefully inspire them with
a life lesson through entertainment. All the young characters – Rey, Finn, Poe,
and Ren – have started to show some intelligence in their trade. Rey can catch
up with the experienced Han Solo’s technical knowledge; Finn and Poe are already
quite skillful at combat and pilot techniques, and Ren, the bad guy, shows
extraordinary mastery at light saber, force field, and um – mental torture
techniques, too. Yet, the key issue for all young characters is that they are
not quite ready yet. These characters in the film have shown, with much
emphasis, that they are not mature, autonomous and original enough yet. They
are all consumed with fear and confusion, in a number of ways. Certainly, for
the good ‘trio’, they know that they are about to do something real big, and it
is totally overwhelming for them that they want to give up and run away, as
they cannot really take it. For Ren, his mind is so confused as he is just not
so sure whether he should go one step further to the Dark Side, though, tragically
at the end, he has committed to do so by carrying out an unforgivable crime. And,
when fighting Rey, Ren even states, ‘you need a teacher’ and claims he can be
the one. These scenarios remind me of ‘The Empire Strikes Back’, when Darth
Vader praised Luke Skywalker of his light saber skill, but stated clearly to
the young man, ‘You are not a Jedi yet’. Even more, this reminds me of an older
trilogy, which I would recommend to anyone interested in Samurai films –
Hiroshi Inagaki’s ‘Musashi Miyamoto’. I have before talked about Inagaki’s
‘Samurai Banners’, and ‘Musashi Miyamoto’ series is another of his classic. The
reason is because the young Musashi Miyamoto, portrayed by Toshiro Mifune, was
quite similar to the young characters in ‘The Force Awakens’. Musashi had
courage, he had the basic sword-fighting skills and some battle experience, yet
he was a rowdy and mean man, who was urged on success. In a sense, he was
compared to a beast. Only when he understood the Tao of swordsmanship, and
grasped the philosophy behind these ideas, he became in control of himself, and
he became a refined and respectable swordsman. In ‘The Force Awakens’, the
young guys have shown the first signs of genius, yet they still have a long way
to go. They have to be committed and show their courage to the insurmountable
clutches of The First Other, and more importantly they have to learn to be in
control of their skills and not resort to brute forces and single-mindedness,
which they will develop in the following episodes.
As I have mentioned, a great aspect of the ‘Star Wars’
enterprise is the complexity of the primary antagonist. From Darth Vader to
Anakin Skywalker to Kylo Ren, these are all evil and yet egotistical characters
that are also decorated with a sense of tragedy, regret and the need to feel
love and respected. This reminds us more of Michael Corleone in ‘The Godfather’
trilogy, and his need to balance out his responsibility for whom he cares and
his darker side. And, Kylo Ren has certainly illustrated a character trait of
any egotistical individuals. It is nice to see that when Rey taunted him by
saying that, ‘You will never be as great as Darth Vader’, that almost provided
guilty pleasure for the audience, as we all shared contempt for these arrogant
snobs. Indeed, the best way to destroy these ‘above-the-law’ wannabes is to
project the issue to a higher level, to tell them the blunt truth – you are
just not the chosen one. Think of Daniel Day-Lewis’ character in ‘There will be
Blood’ – when he told Paul Dano’s character ‘you are not the chosen me, as you
might assume, I am!’ How much hard feelings these can exert to these fake
snobs! True, we all don’t deny the existence of genius, but you are just NOT
the one. Identifying these arrogant and self-fulfilling personalities is
certainly the first step to push human wisdom forward, and that does not
necessarily require the use of a light saber!
Yet, I feel there is a more subtle aspect of these
black-masked antagonists, as Lucas and Abrams have certainly incorporated subtle
wisdom in terms of human interactions and ‘office’ politics in many of the
‘Star Wars’ film. I suppose these are more relevant for younger audience as
they cannot easily acquire these experiences at such a young age. One common
character trait among these ‘Darth’ lords is that they are all egotistical, and
all the same time brilliant enough to be seen as a ‘golden child’. Too often,
the boss can find some special connections with one or two of the brighter
workers in a team, and it may not be the good thing as those individuals will
have a boost in self-confidence and start to stand too firm on their views. The
spacecraft represents a term-working environment – and this is what the ‘good
guys’ in all the ‘Star Wars’ film have always demonstrated. They almost work as
a team, and have a decent division of labor in the group, each member focuses
in the area they are good at. It is rather interesting to see, for the First
Order (i.e. the Dark Side), the evil lord has 2 deputies, Kylo Ren and the
other guy. The other guy seems to be more a team-player and he encourages his
team to do something similar. In a sense, Ren is perceived as a maverick genius
and a bit of a loner, as with the case of Darth Vader in previous episodes. He
cannot fit into the team nicely, and always has second thoughts and personal
reasons to do it his own way. It is rather tragic because, say this is not an
evil empire, in real life when such a character screws up things, it will often
end badly for him. To this end, I have to say Adam Driver has done really brilliant
work to portray Ren, as he can capture the confusion and chaotic nature of the
character so nicely. I hope this young actor will deliver more great work in
the future! Of course, we are not supposed to be the next Darth Vader, yet
Abrams have subliminally provided a cautionary tale regarding human
relationships to the young audience. Except you are so sure you will work alone
in your remaining life, you have to be a team-player, at least following the
way those on the ‘Millennium Falcon’ are doing.
So that’s my view, yet I have a minor compliant. While I had
immense pleasure when watching the dog-fights and more dynamic scenes using my
3D-spectacles, I found less pleasure when watching the Widescreen shots such as
those desert scenes, clearly inspired by David Lean’s and John Ford’s classics.
In those cases, I had to take my spectacles off. I enjoy both IMAX and
widescreen compositions, yet in some cases they do not complement each other
well enough. I suppose this is an issue future IMAX films will have to work on
fast.
All in all, I believe Mr. Abrams has done a great job and passed
on the ‘Star Wars’ legacy to our young Padawan audience. Finally, may the Force
be with you!
by Ed Law
13/2/2016
Film Analysis
