Are people being too hard on Kathleen Kennedy for Star Wars?

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Well another thing about Kathleen Kennedy which people talk about how she has to dismiss a lot of directors over creative differences, but would that be a case of the directors being too stubborn about their visions, or her, most likely?

Look, she is massively important to the direction Star Wars has taken, the pro feminist slant or the issue of sexuality bla bla bla. Star Wars was supposed to be a series aimed at kids and families, fun and breezy with some great scenes. Whatever happened to that ?

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Maybe it's just time, after all these decades to realize that the Star Wars franchise needs to be retired. It's had much toooooo long of a run, was great at the beginning, but has become a repository and a metaphor for whatever social change someone thinks needs to be done. The great thing about it way back when was that it was fun. Now everybody seems to have an opinion about what social change must be included, the demographic profile of cast, crew and plot and the "message" that every battle sends to our youth.

Who the heck wants more of THAT? It's like a sci-fi affirmative action report and, if you've ever read one of those, you know how enjoyable they are. All this just bleeds the enjoyment out of a franchise that was too well worn anyway.

I mean, it's not like the original trilogy wasn't some broad Vietnam War allegory in the first place (perhaps too broad by the sounds of it) where the technologically-advanced imperialists are the villains and the rebels opposing them are the heroes - it gets taken to an absurd level with the Ewoks being jungle-dwelling tribals who manage to get the drop on the Imperials. You can criticise the newer installments for their blunt execution but I don't think you can act like this particular aspect is altogether new to Star Wars. Acting like the originals were good because they were mindless fun for the whole family just seems like it's half a step away from Zotis saying they're bad for the same reasons.

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I think the fact that the originals can be read that way, but aren't always and immediately, is a testament to how broad the allegory is. It fits a lot of situations and touches on classic themes, which can be pretty different from highly-targeted, clumsier attempts to satisfy the zeitgeist which might not age as well.

The broad allegory is a testament to how relatable the original trilogy was. It was a wild west story, a sci-fi-samurai story, a spaghetti western with ray guns, a Viet Nam allegory, a medieval allegory, had elements of non-sectarian religion (the Force), meditation, rumination or whatever you choose to see in it. That was its strength and what became the downfall of the prequels, sequel, companion series, etc. Nothing stands up to THAT much scrutiny, especially in our current cultural environment where nobody seems to NOT be offended about something or feel underrepresented or suspect a stereotype.

Fortunately, we don't actually have Droids, or they'd have an opinion too and Alexa hasn't weighed in yet, but I cast my vote for having an end to Star Wars and starting a new franchise that we can put all of our hopes, fears, protests and dreams into without all the baggage about whether this or that character has the right identity politics.

I didn't think that the identity politics was necessarily the problem with the new trilogy, just that story really seem to go downhill on The Last Jedi. So I thought it was a matter of the story lacking, but a lot of people blame this on identity politics, if that contributed?

It's impossible to know. Some people will say the preoccupation with identity politics took priority over quality. I dunno if that's true or not. I do think we have examples of someone starting with a desired statement and having the art follow, and that usually goes badly because being overly didactic is kind of at odds with most of the things that makes art good, but it's pretty complicated.

Yeah, it's so broad you called it a western twice. In any case, that kind of broadness is tantamount to vagueness so it's perhaps not surprising that subsequent films actually tried to be a little more precise in what they were saying and doing and the ones that fell apart are the ones that failed to keep that focus in favour of simply trying to be "fun" (read: Solo and Rise of Skywalker, both of which are currently vying for my least favourite in the franchise as a result).

Besides, saying you're glad droids don't exist because then they'd be one more group that took offence at Star Wars? Yikes.

Yeah, Droids would probably resent the stereotype that they're British accented servants with foppish mannerisms.

And yeah, a western twice (one American and the other Italian) and sci-fi all over with a touch of martial arts and lots of sword fights from a variety of places and times. It was that vagueness that make it work. Whoever saw it probably recognized something, but none of it was all that close to the source of the inspiration.

Are people that offended over characters having British accents in alternate universes though nowadays? Like would people look back at movies like The Lord of the Rings, and Gladiator take offense to the British accents?

Funnily enough, there is a droid in Solo whose whole personality is basically "droid's rights activist" and resents the fact that all droids are treated as slaves or second-class citizens (though she does have a British accent).

Who is she? A very bad actress? A conniving producer?

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Well one of the things that Kennedy is under fire for from people is that she hired Harvey Weinstein's formal personal assistant as a writer. But just because you use to work for Weintstein, does that mean you are bad like him, and do not deserve any future jobs or positions? I mean that doesn't put in the same boat as Weinstein, does it?

Unless of course it does, and this was a bad move on Kennedy's part?

That's why it's so crazy keeping this going. It's the death of a thousand cuts. Endless plot details that have to be consistent to satisfy the plot geeks, back stories, race and gender quotas, who worked for who prior to the Weinstein mess, real life allegories, etc. Every movie has some sort of detail that aggravates somebody, but most of them start out fresh with a short list. Star Wars has the accumulated "cuts" of a half century. It's obviously out of my hands and I guess that as long as there's profit to be made, it will keep cranking, but it's unfortunate to see the originals become a footnote to who slept with Harvey.

I don't care what anyone says: Solo was a damn good movie.

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It seems to be a constant in English language movies since the British DID have something that was once called an empire. I always thought that, at least in movies about ancient Rome, the characters should have an Italian accent. Then again, having been the recipient of 5 years of Latin in my school days, I realize that real Roman latin (as near as anybody knows) doesn't seem to sound anything like either English or today's Italian. I guess it comes back the the English accent because they still DO have a queen with a crown.

Actually, my choice for accents for costumed despots would be Jay Robinson, who played the mad emperor Caligula in a couple 1950's religious epics, most notably, The Robe. Robinson could chew scenery like nobody else in Hollywood. I can easily imagine him leading a charge of some sort of beings in Middle Earth and he would completely trounce Joachin Phoenix as Commodus, who would rival Caligula for craziness. When Robinson got cranked up (see several Youtube clips), you really didn't care about his accent, which was some sort of fake British combined with his native New York.

No, we have not been too hard on her. Her Mary Sue crap has ruined the franchise.



We cannot suffer a white male hero to live:


Episode VII: Must kill Han Solo; because a while male hero cannot be allowed to live.

Episode VIII: Must kill Luke Skywalker (after we trash his entire character), because a white male hero cannot be allowed to live.

Episode IX: We don't have any white male heroes left to kill, quick, the white male bad guy will turn good just long enough for us to kill him.



The underlying message is that if you are a white male, don't be a good guy or you will die. What in the world kind of message is that?

Yeah. It's definitely time for a new franchise. This proves it.