All my opinions
I was having a nice casual sunday morning skimming through news while my fiance was watching house hunters and found a provocative article on Yahoo News – “Why the ‘Star Wars’ Prequels Are Better Than The Original Trilogy” By Timothy Sexton. I was intrigued. Not only did I absolutely disagree with his disregard for the holy trinity, but I was curious to find how he could ever think that the prequel would be included in the same breadth. The short and sweet answer is that he wanted an article with a controversial headline that would guarantee reads and cause controversy. His method lacks any journalistic integrity. He’s also cashing in on increased interest in the trilogy with the 3D releases this weekend.
The article starts by describing the differences between the trilogies and nostolgic “inherent goodness” of the original trilogy. The author describes a type of innocence that he associates with the 1970′s era films. I actually agreed with his viewpoints and his stance on American Cinema during that time. That being said, Timothy also argues that “the original trilogy appealed directly to the simplistic moral perspective of an America above reproach and always on the side of right in global geopolitics, whereas the much more subversive prequel trilogy stands in defiant counterpoint to the much more dangerously simplistic moral absolutism of the Age of Bush.” Before I discuss the blatant misrepresentation of the “Age of Bush” I would like to remind the author that Star Wars arrived during the height of the Cold War and America had also just come home from the very unpopular Vietnam war (which ended in 1975). So to attach a simplistic moral perspective of America with these films is completely inaccurate.
This is where I would write an article about the evolution of cinema including CGI and storytelling. I would also discuss the growth of Star Wars as a franchise in terms of popularity and canon derived from 100′s of books, comics, video games, and toys. I may come back and write more on this as I generally love discussing all things Star Wars.
Now on to the real meat of why I hated Mr. Sextons Star Wars article. He’s just flat out wrong. Star Wars Episode I came out in 1999. George W Bush didnt take office until January 2001. To align this movie in any way with Mr. Bush is journalistically impossible. It takes years of work to make large blockbusters ready for the big screen. It is also very well documented that George Lucas had been working on his second trilogy for years before any preproduction or production work began. The story of an empire taking control of the Galaxy was cemented in the Late 1970′s. Attack of the Clones came out in May of 2002, about 1.5 years after Bush Jr took office. Writing for AotC was completed in 2000. Once again before Bush took office. I am sure there were modifications and refinement to the franchise, but to associate the second trilogy in any way with the Presidency of George Bush is ridiculous and unacceptable… almost as unacceptable as saying the prequel is better than the original.
Also, look updates on wikipedia before you associate any films with 9/11 or Bush.