More Anti-Star Wars blathering

Back in September of '04, I posted about the Anti- Star Wars movement steaming around the internet. Yahoo! News helped me find this opinion editorial in the Clarksville, TN Leaf Chronicle. The editorial is by George Poagueat.

"So what has Lucas done of any value since 1980? The 'Indiana Jones' trilogy did very well, but Steven Spielberg was in the director's chair. And without Spielberg? You don't want me to bring up 'Howard the Duck', do you?"
George Poagueat, Leaf Chronicle wire editor

In it, he talks about the next -- and last -- Star Wars movie, how it is coming soon and when, and then he goes on to thumb up his nose and say GOOD RIDDANCE! Like many film critics, he seems to think that Star Wars revolutionized the film industry, but not in a good way. I've read it before (I forget where) that these arrogant snobs- er, professional critics blame Lucas and other film makers like him and his imitators (translate: flatters) for altering the movie landscape in such a way that the big studios dropped smaller, more 'artsy' type films in lieu of summer-blockbusters-to-be like Jaws and Indiana Jones. The movie industry started making bubble gum movies with big explosions simply to bring in more kids to stuff their faces with expensive popcorn.

It's ludicrous in my opinion, and backwards thinking. Poagueat is seeing the chicken before the egg. The movie market changed only because movie-making technology changed. The reason no one demanded big flashy explosion sci-fi epics before Star Wars came out is because prior to Star Wars, there were no movies of this style that were even halfway decent. Sci-fi and fantasy themselves didn't really begin to enter popular culture until the late '60s and early '70s. People see what they want to see. They pay for what they want to pay for. The marketing of movies cannot hypnotically convince people to see a movie they wouldn't be interested in seeing. Movie ads can only tailor a preconception of what a movie might be like to appeal to the broadest audience possible. Repeat viewings, word-of-mouth, honest reviews, these shape the experience more than advertising.

Finally, there is the movie itself. I agree that the movie market changed, but Lucas and other innovators like him didn't cause the change, they were just in the right place at the right time. Read his misinformed and uneducated article here:
OPINION - The Leaf Chronicle - www.theleafchronicle.com