Star Wars - Last Jedi Analysis
Is Blogging dead? ... I had some thoughts about the new Star Wars film (The Last Jedi) that I wanted to express and decided this was an appropriate place to do so.
Note: there are spoilers
So here it is,
What I think is going on in (and to) the Star Wars Franchise
(typos and run-on sentences and all )
If Joseph Campbell's concept of the "The Hero's Journey" was the universal archetypal formula behind the story of Lucas's original Star Wars film in 1977, then I say that Slavoj Zizek's thesis on Kung-Fu Panda as an example of "the way Belief functions in today's world" is the key to understanding the formula of the Last Jedi of 2017 and what to expect from here on out.
But first, let me draw attention to an important point. In Episodes IV, V, and VI, (Luke, Han, and Leia) .. The Force is binary (Light and Dark = Good and Bad) and this binary opposition is never called into question. In our cultural naivete of the 70's and 80's .. this was not problematic for us.. The original trilogy is a simple tale of Good defeating Evil; and even Good saving a Good soul from an Evil end, redemption --- However, since the 80's .. the complexities of morality have become a staple of entertainment... simple moral right and wrong is viewed as childish and immature.. people don't believe in simple good guys and simple bad guys.. they want their heros to be flawed .. they want their villains to be good at heart, etc.. and so it is no surprise that when Episodes I, II, and III (regardless of how you feel about them) were being made in the 2000's .. The Force gets “greyed”.. and the distinction between the Light and the Dark is blurred and even more-so, the distinction between Good and Bad is dissolved. Lucas even uses this as the primary plot device the enables Anakin to finally make the fall from Jedi to Sith.... The important point here is.. this is never addressed in IV, V, and VI.. even when Luke saves Anakin, they never resolve the problem of the good/bad dichotomy created in I, II, and III.. and so .. it seems to me that the unfinished business of the Star Wars Franchise is to answer the question, "Are the Jedi Good and the Sith bad? .. or was Anakin right about the moral ambiguity of the Jedi Order.. Is there a fundamental conundrum that must be resolved before anyone can truly know what to believe. Is this the balance that must be restored?
That said, I compare this unresolved moral dilemma of the Star Wars storyline with what I believe is going on in our culture today completely outside of anything Star Wars or even entertainment related.. I am referring to the general air of cynicism and skepticism in today's culture about the ideologies and simplified beliefs of the past.. which I will refer to as "the promises of Enlightenment Ideology" ... simplifying to the extreme, the promise of the Enlightenment is essentially, that the mysterious and complexities of the world can be made simple though increased understanding and knowledge of the world.. This was what the artists and reformers of the Renaissance believed, and for the most part, what our founding fathers (in America) believed, and this is what the icons and symbols of much of Western culture is still based on. Pure belief in ideals is also what led to WWI and WWII.. After WWII, western culture lost it's ideological innocence.. it lost its faith in that original promise, and the rise of the belief that the only thing that an increased understanding and knowledge of the world would lead to is exactly the opposite, an even more complex world :/ .. and so I begin this analysis with the assumption that our culture is experiencing a period of slackening.. a fall into cultural decadence that is symptomatic of the mistrust of pure ideals and simple moral absolutes. I take for granted that, whether or not people today still cling to old symbols or not.. that culture as a whole is mistrustful, cynical, and feeding into a postmodern phase that is not quite yet satiated .. and that this postmodern phase is seen everywhere once we know how to look for it.
So, in the same way that Joseph Campbell identified the universal recipe of The Hero's Journey, which Lucas used as the basis of the original Star Wars story.. Slovenian Philosopher and Lacanian Psychoanalyst Slavoj Zizek has articulated the universal recipe for how belief is now functioning in a "post-belief" era.
Ref: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCD3hg6OEQw
(not a definitive reference, but it will do)
Here is his recipe as I understand it.. applied to Star Wars:
Step 1. Legitimize the scepticism of the audience by delegitimizing the ideology of the film's premise --- Zizek first affirms the standard (postmodern) observation that today's entertainment world has become a machine perfectly optimized only for the task of de-legitimizing every pre-existing icon of the "modern" era.. the modern entertainment industry has abandoned the goal of generating entirely new concepts for us to believe in in favor of focusing only on consuming the existing panacea of old noble and mythical concepts and converting them from symbols of honor to mere kitsch tripe.. but we should not blame the film industry entirely.. at least not as the primary cause, but as the only a reaction.. The actual cause of this decline in narrative storytelling into ideological decadence is just the over-all failure of Modernity (The Enlightenment) to deliver on the promises of the Enlightenment. .. everything that has ever been held up as sacred and "beyond incredulity" is now suspect and thus made vulnerable to incredulity and of becoming a joke. --- for example --- where in the past we had Santa Claus as a nobel imaginary figure which had no trace of vulgarity or perversion.. is now first and foremost regarded as an endless source of college humor.. dirty santa, clumsy-santa, selfish-santa, male-chauvinist santa... santa's every-day flawed humanity is put forth first as our only way of ever relating to him authentically .. leaving the old notion of him as an arcane magical single-purposed elf tinkerer who only wants to see good children rewarded for their goodness.. making that santa completely un-believable and therefore inaccessible as only the foolish byproduct of childhood naivete .. and so STEP 1 of the Last Jedi formula is to focus on all the mystique and legend of the Jedi and of Luke .. but not to honor it, instead to allow it to serve as an object of incredulity for all the dialogue to operate on in an effort to de-legitimized it entirely, lest the audience think they are being asked to believe outright in a fantasy of their youth - which would offend them.. This is exactly in-line with how Zizek explains that all the oriental military mystique of the Kung Fu shaolin monks (faith, discipline, selflessness, seriousness) is provided in Kung-Fu Panda for us to laugh at and not take seriously.. making fun of the ideology that it is relying in for the integrity of the film.
Step 2. Crucify the Ideology. (or the mythology) --- Once the audience is emotionally "paced" and the preconceived premise of the film's ideology (or mythology) is fully de-legitimized, the film then makes fun of itself in every possible way until it appears to have killed it's original theme .. and in a very christian, Christ-like move.. the plot performs the function of pontius pilate, in allowing the cynicism, angst, and anger (at the broken promise of enlightenment, modernist ideology) of the audience to become satiated at some moment in the film where the ideology seems truly crucified by it's own pretentiousness.. in The Last Jedi this is the moment when Luke says he can't win, the Jedi must go away, and burns the tree and (presumably) the ancient Jedi books.
Step 3. The Ideology somehow mysteriously survives and belief is "re-born" in the mind of the viewer, privately, without having to acknowledge it openly --- at this point, the ruined, defeated, crucified ideology shows up to a final showdown against the champion of the audience's dis-belief (which has, through some, slight of hand, become the villan) .. and, in an enigmatic move, miraculously survives to the amazement of all .. in a way that is both true to the original skepticism, but also enigmatic enough to create a private space for personal interpretation by the audience.. thus the audience is invited to a renewed connection with their "belief" in the ideal. Where they can again play with belief as a child without the fear of criticism from their peers (because of the ambiguity) .. and they begin whispering to each other about how much they love the original ideology.
Step 4. The re-born ideology is restored, once and for-all, sidestepping the problem of belief.. --- I am reminded of the statement from the new testament that says, "When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” and "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”" ..here ideology is allowed to swallow up (and defeat) the problem of believability.. it's power to do so is made perfect in it's flaws.
The story arc of this last last trilogy seems to me to be following this recipe.
Star Wars is now old enough to start being introspective of itself.. just as the old testament became old enough (no pun intended) to become introspective of itself and engendered the New Testament..
"The Force Awakens" provides us with the coordinates of our skepticism of the franchise.. sets up the doomed hope of the possibility of the story writers trying to capitalize on the ideals of the original ideology, and (like Act I of any Opera) introduces us to the main characters and the main confrontation to happen later asking the question, "Is the Force flawed? or not?"
"The Last Jedi" performs the deligitmation of the Force and of the Jedi Order from the original trilogy (ANH, TESB, and ROTJ) .. and leaves us just through the door of the third step where the ideology has been shamed, made fun of and broken.. and then ends with the enigmatic showdown where the ideology functions, saving the day, without telling us we were wrong to doubt it.. and sets the stage for the final film (Episode IX) to resolve the conundrum created in Episode I, II, and II (the moral ambiguity) .. showing us not how to solve the conundrum, but how to delegitimize the conundrum itself without falling into moral relativism.. which is the cure for postmodern despair.. social hope ala good'ol American Pragmatism.
Cheers!
-Rich
Note: there are spoilers
So here it is,
What I think is going on in (and to) the Star Wars Franchise
(typos and run-on sentences and all )
If Joseph Campbell's concept of the "The Hero's Journey" was the universal archetypal formula behind the story of Lucas's original Star Wars film in 1977, then I say that Slavoj Zizek's thesis on Kung-Fu Panda as an example of "the way Belief functions in today's world" is the key to understanding the formula of the Last Jedi of 2017 and what to expect from here on out.
But first, let me draw attention to an important point. In Episodes IV, V, and VI, (Luke, Han, and Leia) .. The Force is binary (Light and Dark = Good and Bad) and this binary opposition is never called into question. In our cultural naivete of the 70's and 80's .. this was not problematic for us.. The original trilogy is a simple tale of Good defeating Evil; and even Good saving a Good soul from an Evil end, redemption --- However, since the 80's .. the complexities of morality have become a staple of entertainment... simple moral right and wrong is viewed as childish and immature.. people don't believe in simple good guys and simple bad guys.. they want their heros to be flawed .. they want their villains to be good at heart, etc.. and so it is no surprise that when Episodes I, II, and III (regardless of how you feel about them) were being made in the 2000's .. The Force gets “greyed”.. and the distinction between the Light and the Dark is blurred and even more-so, the distinction between Good and Bad is dissolved. Lucas even uses this as the primary plot device the enables Anakin to finally make the fall from Jedi to Sith.... The important point here is.. this is never addressed in IV, V, and VI.. even when Luke saves Anakin, they never resolve the problem of the good/bad dichotomy created in I, II, and III.. and so .. it seems to me that the unfinished business of the Star Wars Franchise is to answer the question, "Are the Jedi Good and the Sith bad? .. or was Anakin right about the moral ambiguity of the Jedi Order.. Is there a fundamental conundrum that must be resolved before anyone can truly know what to believe. Is this the balance that must be restored?
That said, I compare this unresolved moral dilemma of the Star Wars storyline with what I believe is going on in our culture today completely outside of anything Star Wars or even entertainment related.. I am referring to the general air of cynicism and skepticism in today's culture about the ideologies and simplified beliefs of the past.. which I will refer to as "the promises of Enlightenment Ideology" ... simplifying to the extreme, the promise of the Enlightenment is essentially, that the mysterious and complexities of the world can be made simple though increased understanding and knowledge of the world.. This was what the artists and reformers of the Renaissance believed, and for the most part, what our founding fathers (in America) believed, and this is what the icons and symbols of much of Western culture is still based on. Pure belief in ideals is also what led to WWI and WWII.. After WWII, western culture lost it's ideological innocence.. it lost its faith in that original promise, and the rise of the belief that the only thing that an increased understanding and knowledge of the world would lead to is exactly the opposite, an even more complex world :/ .. and so I begin this analysis with the assumption that our culture is experiencing a period of slackening.. a fall into cultural decadence that is symptomatic of the mistrust of pure ideals and simple moral absolutes. I take for granted that, whether or not people today still cling to old symbols or not.. that culture as a whole is mistrustful, cynical, and feeding into a postmodern phase that is not quite yet satiated .. and that this postmodern phase is seen everywhere once we know how to look for it.
So, in the same way that Joseph Campbell identified the universal recipe of The Hero's Journey, which Lucas used as the basis of the original Star Wars story.. Slovenian Philosopher and Lacanian Psychoanalyst Slavoj Zizek has articulated the universal recipe for how belief is now functioning in a "post-belief" era.
Ref: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCD3hg6OEQw
(not a definitive reference, but it will do)
Here is his recipe as I understand it.. applied to Star Wars:
Step 1. Legitimize the scepticism of the audience by delegitimizing the ideology of the film's premise --- Zizek first affirms the standard (postmodern) observation that today's entertainment world has become a machine perfectly optimized only for the task of de-legitimizing every pre-existing icon of the "modern" era.. the modern entertainment industry has abandoned the goal of generating entirely new concepts for us to believe in in favor of focusing only on consuming the existing panacea of old noble and mythical concepts and converting them from symbols of honor to mere kitsch tripe.. but we should not blame the film industry entirely.. at least not as the primary cause, but as the only a reaction.. The actual cause of this decline in narrative storytelling into ideological decadence is just the over-all failure of Modernity (The Enlightenment) to deliver on the promises of the Enlightenment. .. everything that has ever been held up as sacred and "beyond incredulity" is now suspect and thus made vulnerable to incredulity and of becoming a joke. --- for example --- where in the past we had Santa Claus as a nobel imaginary figure which had no trace of vulgarity or perversion.. is now first and foremost regarded as an endless source of college humor.. dirty santa, clumsy-santa, selfish-santa, male-chauvinist santa... santa's every-day flawed humanity is put forth first as our only way of ever relating to him authentically .. leaving the old notion of him as an arcane magical single-purposed elf tinkerer who only wants to see good children rewarded for their goodness.. making that santa completely un-believable and therefore inaccessible as only the foolish byproduct of childhood naivete .. and so STEP 1 of the Last Jedi formula is to focus on all the mystique and legend of the Jedi and of Luke .. but not to honor it, instead to allow it to serve as an object of incredulity for all the dialogue to operate on in an effort to de-legitimized it entirely, lest the audience think they are being asked to believe outright in a fantasy of their youth - which would offend them.. This is exactly in-line with how Zizek explains that all the oriental military mystique of the Kung Fu shaolin monks (faith, discipline, selflessness, seriousness) is provided in Kung-Fu Panda for us to laugh at and not take seriously.. making fun of the ideology that it is relying in for the integrity of the film.
Step 2. Crucify the Ideology. (or the mythology) --- Once the audience is emotionally "paced" and the preconceived premise of the film's ideology (or mythology) is fully de-legitimized, the film then makes fun of itself in every possible way until it appears to have killed it's original theme .. and in a very christian, Christ-like move.. the plot performs the function of pontius pilate, in allowing the cynicism, angst, and anger (at the broken promise of enlightenment, modernist ideology) of the audience to become satiated at some moment in the film where the ideology seems truly crucified by it's own pretentiousness.. in The Last Jedi this is the moment when Luke says he can't win, the Jedi must go away, and burns the tree and (presumably) the ancient Jedi books.
Step 3. The Ideology somehow mysteriously survives and belief is "re-born" in the mind of the viewer, privately, without having to acknowledge it openly --- at this point, the ruined, defeated, crucified ideology shows up to a final showdown against the champion of the audience's dis-belief (which has, through some, slight of hand, become the villan) .. and, in an enigmatic move, miraculously survives to the amazement of all .. in a way that is both true to the original skepticism, but also enigmatic enough to create a private space for personal interpretation by the audience.. thus the audience is invited to a renewed connection with their "belief" in the ideal. Where they can again play with belief as a child without the fear of criticism from their peers (because of the ambiguity) .. and they begin whispering to each other about how much they love the original ideology.
Step 4. The re-born ideology is restored, once and for-all, sidestepping the problem of belief.. --- I am reminded of the statement from the new testament that says, "When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” and "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”" ..here ideology is allowed to swallow up (and defeat) the problem of believability.. it's power to do so is made perfect in it's flaws.
The story arc of this last last trilogy seems to me to be following this recipe.
Star Wars is now old enough to start being introspective of itself.. just as the old testament became old enough (no pun intended) to become introspective of itself and engendered the New Testament..
"The Force Awakens" provides us with the coordinates of our skepticism of the franchise.. sets up the doomed hope of the possibility of the story writers trying to capitalize on the ideals of the original ideology, and (like Act I of any Opera) introduces us to the main characters and the main confrontation to happen later asking the question, "Is the Force flawed? or not?"
"The Last Jedi" performs the deligitmation of the Force and of the Jedi Order from the original trilogy (ANH, TESB, and ROTJ) .. and leaves us just through the door of the third step where the ideology has been shamed, made fun of and broken.. and then ends with the enigmatic showdown where the ideology functions, saving the day, without telling us we were wrong to doubt it.. and sets the stage for the final film (Episode IX) to resolve the conundrum created in Episode I, II, and II (the moral ambiguity) .. showing us not how to solve the conundrum, but how to delegitimize the conundrum itself without falling into moral relativism.. which is the cure for postmodern despair.. social hope ala good'ol American Pragmatism.
Cheers!
-Rich
Comments
Loved the review.
Thanks again for sharing it.
Al