Word: actioner
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...present from time to time; but they are mere gestures that haunt the soundtrack, which actually turns out being far more reminiscent of the music from the Indiana Jones films than anything from the previous Star Wars films (I'm taking this to mean that a lot of the action takes place planet-side). Williams is obviously teasing us with little tidbits of the familiar themes, which I can only assume will grow more prominent as the series progresses. That may account for some of the subdued tone; the music is arising from a kind of void to coalesce into...
...soundtrack of The Empire Strikes Back is a beautiful work, with powerful, poignant themes and the extremely memorable end title, as Luke and Leia watch Lando and Chewbacca fly into space to find Han and the music swells in the background. The Return of the Jedi is almost entirely action-oriented, with the brilliant exception of the dark choral work that accompanies the scenes of the Emperor...
...this a play or a party? Is there a difference? It's hard even to tell exactly when the play begins. It could be when the actors get into character, when the lights go down, when the music (masterfully mixed by Reeve Hohlt '99) begins or when the action actually starts. The audience's expectations of what a show should be--something that you watch, not something in which you participate something with a definite beginning, not a slow evolution--are destabilized. And the fun is just beginning...
...hard to criticize a movie that comes with so much baggage. The eight-year-old's who see Episode 1 and are today taken with its action may grow up to imbue it with as much meaning as our generation has found in the original movies. Some scenes have the potential to become psycho-emotional monuments in our cultural memory: just as Han Solo rocketed out of nowhere to send Darth Vader hurtling through empty space in Star Wars, so does Anakin Skywalker throw his racing pod into a breathless ascent and flame-out half-way through Episode...
...Indeed, Episode I uses its legacy as a crutch. In the midst of an eye-popping "pod race" scene on Tatooine, just as the action promises to run away with the audience, Lucas dribbles in gratuitous allusions to the action-figure world he begat in his youth: Jawas cheer "Utidi!" and sand people fire on the racers like juvenile delinquents. Jabba the Hutt rolls out to preside over the race, as if Lucas' faith in his audience did not extend beyond their vulgar appreciation for references to the previous movies...