{"id":19613,"date":"2018-03-05T10:50:22","date_gmt":"2018-03-05T15:50:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/?p=19613"},"modified":"2018-03-05T10:53:22","modified_gmt":"2018-03-05T15:53:22","slug":"the-last-jedi-and-the-politicization-of-storytelling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/2018\/03\/05\/the-last-jedi-and-the-politicization-of-storytelling\/","title":{"rendered":"“The Last Jedi” and the Politicization of Storytelling"},"content":{"rendered":"

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There\u2019s been a disturbance in the franchise: Ambivalence, rather than anticipation, has characterized the online response to Disney\u2019s announcement of the\u00a0deluge of new Star Wars<\/em> projects<\/a>\u00a0we are to be saturated with over the next several years. And while the trailer for\u00a0Solo: A Star Wars\u00a0Story<\/em>\u00a0(scheduled for May) was expected to be received with some misgiving, many fans are actively\u00a0rooting for it to flop<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The origin of this disturbance is not difficult to pinpoint: Until a few months ago, Disney had nimbly sidestepped any serious divergence in the fan base of the IP it acquired for $4 billion. But that changed dramatically with the release of the most recent installment.<\/p>\n

Indeed, the biggest twist of\u00a0The Last Jedi<\/em>\u00a0wasn\u2019t in the film itself but in its audience reception. Though its commercial profitability was always comfortably assured, its revenue disparity with\u00a0The Force Awakens<\/em>\u00a0is the steepest\u00a0sequel-to-sequel decline<\/a>\u00a0on record and its second-week\u00a0box office plunge<\/a>\u00a0is the biggest in history. \u00a0In China, Hollywood\u2019s largest overseas market, the film took a blistering\u00a094 percent nosedive<\/a>\u00a0after the first week and was pulled from theaters with\u00a0less than half<\/a>\u00a0its predecessor\u2019s earnings.<\/p>\n

Its\u00a0audience score<\/a>\u00a0on the critical aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes is the least favorable in the saga; currently\u00a011 percent lower<\/a>\u00a0than\u00a0The Phantom Menace<\/em>. A\u00a0petition<\/a>\u00a0demanding it be \u201cstruck from the canon\u201d has garnered over 98,000 signatures as of writing.\u00a0The Wall Street Journal<\/em>\u00a0reports that sales of\u00a0toy and merchandise tie-ins<\/a>\u00a0are substantially below projections. And for the first time in the franchise\u2019s 40 year history, there are predictions that the next entry (the aforementioned Han Solo spinoff)\u00a0could flop<\/a>.<\/p>\n

So what went wrong?<\/p>\n

A Battle for the “Soul” of Star Wars<\/h2>\n

There\u2019s already an over-abundance of online rants analyzing\u00a0The Last Jedi<\/em>\u2019s\u00a0shortcomings as a piece of entertainment. But it is in the realm of the ideas where the division between critics and audiences is most stark. Dozens of articles praise the film\u2019s perceived socio-political commentary while countless viewers decry it for the very same reason.<\/p>\n

Writer-director Rian Johnson believes division was inevitable if Star Wars<\/em> was to\u00a0\u201cgrow, move forward and stay vital.\u201d<\/p>\n

This statement reflects a failure to understand two fundamental characteristics of the Star Wars<\/em> phenomenon.<\/p>\n

First, the 1977 original, far from accommodating the cultural climate of its time, was tonally\u00a0counter-cultural. Its clear-cut portrayal of good versus evil eviscerated the moral relativism of 70s cinema. Its hopeful optimism was an antidote to post-Vietnam nihilism. It was a conscious throwback that paid homage to the sci-fi adventure serials Lucas grew up with.<\/p>\n

Secondly, the\u00a0reasons\u00a0for its enduring appeal have eluded Johnson entirely. How has the original trilogy remained such a cultural touchstone? Why are studios still making films in its shadow after so many decades?<\/p>\n

One reason is that archetypes and the mythic storytelling form never lose relevance. They are timeless and universal. By contrast, loading a film with political messaging for 2018, using it as a vessel to comment on current events, makes its relevance transient. Ironically, Johnson\u2019s attempt to \u201cupdate\u201d the saga is precisely what caused his entry to feel dated at an accelerated pace.<\/p>\n

The original trilogy eschewed overt references to contemporaneously vogue topics. Instead of \u201cmicro moralizing,\u201d it dealt in archetypal themes: resisting temptation, self-sacrifice, loyalty, forgiveness, and redemption.<\/p>\n

Of course, even these themes can be cheapened (Johnson\u2019s script nods to self-sacrifice but drains it of poignancy by conveying it through characters we barely know, i.e. General Purple Hair and What\u2019s-Her-Name\u2019s sister). But when those themes are effectively portrayed as integral parts of a story, there\u2019s no need for heavy-handed commentary (e.g. \u201carms dealers are bad!\u201d) or simplistic insinuations (e.g. \u201crich people are heartless!\u201d).<\/p>\n

The Politicization of Storytelling<\/h2>\n

This is not to suggest that using art to make a socio-political point is necessarily bad, only when those points become detrimental to art itself. When the driving impulse is,\u00a0\u201cUse the story to serve these agendas,\u201d\u00a0when politics dictates how our stories are told and eclipses universal truths about the human experience \u2014 the deeper things that actually touch us \u2014 the result is an artistically diminished product.<\/p>\n

In Johnson\u2019s film, subtexts are delivered with such a lack of subtlety it feels the director is drawing attention to his own benevolence, ironically betraying his own “white savior complex” more than serving feminism or diversity.<\/p>\n

And it isn\u2019t just the film\u2019s detractors who observe the current American political climate\u2019s bearing on the way it was written. GQ UK\u00a0gleefully claims\u00a0\u201cThe Last Jedi takes on Trump<\/a>\u201d.\u00a0Other articles, such as these in\u00a0The Independent<\/a><\/em>,\u00a0The Guardian<\/a>,<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Wired<\/a><\/em>, insinuate that anyone not on board is an “alt-right” hater of diversity.<\/p>\n

But if all the consternation is simply an objection to minority characters and strong female protagonists, why does its predecessor enjoy such\u00a0high audience ratings<\/a>? One conspicuous difference is that\u00a0The\u00a0Force Awakens<\/em>\u2019\u00a0diverse cast played characters integral to its story, whereas, in\u00a0The\u00a0<\/em>Last Jedi<\/em>, characters are shoehorned in with no discernable purpose other than demographic representation. The most glaring example of this is Rose Tico, played by Vietnamese-American actress Kelly Marie Tran: Her entire subplot (helping Finn find a codebreaker) ends up having no subsequent significance or narrative payoff, and the rest of her time on screen is barely less superfluous.<\/p>\n

If such perfunctory tokenism and pandering to vapid identity politics are what is meant by \u201cdiversity\u201d then certainly, that was one aspect of\u00a0The Last Jedi<\/em>\u00a0which drew criticism.<\/p>\n

But the fallacy that detractors must be\u00a0“racist,” “white,”\u00a0and\u00a0“male”\u00a0is perhaps nowhere more roundly debunked than on social media. For example, just a few minutes searching for reviews on\u00a0YouTube\u00a0brings up the following links:<\/p>\n

These reviewers, who identify as feminists, felt the film’s politics were a disservice to gender equality:\u00a0Jessi Milestone<\/a>,\u00a0Jordan Harvey<\/a>.<\/p>\n

These East Asian background reviewers abhorred it:\u00a0Alachia Queen<\/a>,\u00a0Eric Ha Gaming<\/a>, Chris Wong-Swenson<\/a>,\u00a0Liam\u2019s Playback Society<\/a>,\u00a0Rate of D.K.<\/a>,\u00a0DillyDC,<\/a>\u00a0SingToMeJuneBug<\/a>,\u00a0hiding in my room<\/a>,\u00a0Jaquan Wilcox<\/a>,\u00a0Justin Patrick<\/a>, Allen Xie<\/a>,\u00a0Dr. Wong<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As did these Indian background reviewers:\u00a0NerendraTheComic<\/a>,\u00a0Loy Machedo<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And these Hispanic reviewers:\u00a0ufobri<\/a>,\u00a0The Ecua Rican<\/a>,\u00a0OppositePerspective<\/a>,\u00a0AngryJoeShow<\/a>,\u00a0ktvindicare<\/a>,\u00a0JD7 videos<\/a>.<\/p>\n

These Arab and Jewish reviewers are\u00a0united\u00a0in their hate for it:\u00a0NinoCompany<\/a>,\u00a0Ben Shapiro<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And all these Black reviewers despised the film:\u00a0TheAmazingLucas<\/a>,\u00a0NeoGameSpark<\/a>,\u00a0The Simpsons King Kong Reviews<\/a>,\u00a0Neverstar-X<\/a>,\u00a0The Opinion Junkie<\/a>,\u00a0BlackCriticGuy<\/a>,\u00a0Rob Robbie<\/a>, MLKKAEFEnterprises<\/a>,\u00a0STAR LORD954<\/a>,\u00a0The Wake Up Report<\/a>,\u00a0Lionheart Mind Explosion<\/a>,\u00a0Anthonyg Gordon<\/a>,\u00a0JohnsonHood Daypool<\/a>,\u00a0Wellsbrothers<\/a>,\u00a0Jody\u2019s Corner<\/a>,\u00a0Osiris Khufu<\/a>,\u00a0Myrone Magnus<\/a>,\u00a0Tyrone Magnus<\/a>,\u00a0Jay-3 Entertainment<\/a>,\u00a0blackericdenice<\/a>,\u00a0Adad Joseph<\/a>,\u00a0920mario<\/a>,\u00a0Abu Nas<\/a>,\u00a0The Gospel<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0notable diversity of the reviewers above is made doubly ironic by the almost uniform whiteness of those trying to associate the film\u2019s detractors with \u201cwhite supremacy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Culture-Shaping Power of Star Wars<\/em><\/h2>\n

While the controversy may appear to be an inordinate fuss over \u201clight entertainment,\u201d\u00a0Star Wars<\/em>\u00a0(whether by chance or intention) has come to represent something far more significant than that.<\/p>\n

Throughout history, stories have functioned as one of the most effective societal-shaping tools. The themes, ideals, and values communicated in stories have simultaneously reflected and molded the cultures which produced them. This is what Victor Hugo was alluding to when he wrote,\u00a0\u201cEngland has two books: the Bible and Shakespeare. England made Shakespeare, but the Bible made England.\u201d<\/p>\n

Descriptions of Star Wars<\/em> as\u00a0\u201cgeneration-defining\u201d\u00a0are\u00a0also allusions to the power of stories to shape who we are. And therein lies the problem: Johnson\u2019s work, while managing to imitate the\u00a0aesthetic\u00a0of Star Wars<\/em> (stormtroopers, lightsabers, etc.) is a hollow husk bearing only surface similarity to its parent material. Its shallow identity politics reflect a cultural hegemony adrift from deeper moorings.<\/p>\n

Such an incoherent set of half-baked ideas wouldn\u2019t matter if not for the fact that they are being propagated on an industrial scale, becoming almost ubiquitous in U.S. and UK entertainment.<\/p>\n

But more concerning is the accompanying intolerance; those caught straying from the herd or expressing a dissenting opinion from the currently prevailing unanimity are often stigmatized and attacked with a zeal which\u00a0one German reviewer<\/a>\u00a0of the film sees troubling historical parallels in.<\/p>\n

In a scene in\u00a0The\u00a0<\/em>Last Jedi<\/em>\u00a0which practically\u00a0invites\u00a0the type of historical parallelism above, there\u2019s an attempted book-burning (ignited by Yoda, no less) broadcasting the film\u2019s overarching theme of\u00a0abandoning the past.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet the past die. Kill it if you have to,\u201d\u00a0Kylo urges Rey, even as Johnson urges the audience to \u201clet the past die\u201d so that we can embrace\u00a0his\u00a0Star Wars<\/em> and, at a broader cultural level, the ideas his film promulgates.<\/p>\n

Advocates of almost any vision for society feel there is something “inevitable” about the triumph of their ideology. That\u00a0their\u00a0set of ideas\u00a0must\u00a0be more “enlightened” than what has been before. But as C.S. Lewis wrote in\u00a0The Abolition of Man<\/a><\/em>:\u00a0\u201cA great many of those who ‘debunk’ traditional or (as they would say) ‘sentimental’ values, have in the background values of their own which they believe to be immune from the debunking process.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the backlash to\u00a0The\u00a0<\/em>Last Jedi<\/em>, the values in the background of Johnson\u2019s film have been inadvertently thrust into the spotlight, exposing greater popular discomfort with them than anyone anticipated.<\/p>\n

Reprinted from Intellectual Takeout<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n


\nPaul Cheung
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

Paul Cheung has an MA in Social Anthropology and spent eight years in Asia working with an NGO and teaching\u00a0on the Tibetan plateau. He currently resides in his home country, the\u00a0United Kingdom.<\/p>\n

This article was originally published on FEE.org. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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