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It’s come to my attention lately that I must have very low standards.
The reason that’s come up is that I seem to spend a fair bit of time defending a lot of bad films and TV shows.
I don’t think it’s because I think that in every bad film there’s at least the seeds of a good one, or because the further I get into writing screenplays the more respect I have for anyone who actually managed to complete and sell one, or even that I just feel sorry for them.
I think its because I’m simply very easy to entertain – and that if something entertains me for even five or ten minutes, then I can forgive almost any flaws. And it’s not just movies, either – I’m the same with books, TV shows and comics too. There’s really no other explanation for me continuing to watch Smallville year after year.
Granted, it’s a Superman show and as such I’m genetically predisposed to like it, but still – to get to the good moments, we had to sit through years of mystical cave paintings and witch tattoos.
Take, for example, the almost indefensible Star Wars Episode I, a movie almost universally reviled for being, well, kind of crap. And yet…I can see the good in it.
Don’t get me wrong. I know that there’s some terrible writing in there – for example, no child actor should be forced to shout ‘Yippee!’ in a movie. Ever. But I can see past it because I know that underneath, there’s a pretty good story.
Hell, I can even see the potential in Jar Jar Binks. Here’s a character that, in his very first scene, reveals the prejudice and self-righteousness of the Jedi, heretofore seen only through the eyes of the original trilogy’s kindly, older Ben Kenobi and, later, Luke Skywalker.
But just look at that first scene with Jar Jar, where Qui-Gon Jinn inadvertently rescues him from an oncoming tank:
QUI-GON Are you brainless? You almost got us killed! JAR JAR I spake. QUI-GON The ability to speak does not make you intelligent. Now get out of here!
Hardly the words of an enlightened Jedi that we were expecting, are they? Then, when the young Obi Wan arrives, they both talk over him as though he isn’t there:
OBI-WAN What's this? QUI-GON A local. Let's go, before more of those droids show up.
Jar Jar could have been used to highlight the judgmental nature inherent in the Jedi, and perhaps even some kind of institutional racism towards what is deemed to be a lower form of life – and from there you could draw the audience in with the possibility that maybe the eventual destruction of the Jedi is actually deserved.
Instead he sticks his tongue in a power supply.
Such is life.
I wish that Lucas had gone with what his alleged original vision for Jar Jar was – sacrificing himself so that Padme could escape and have her children. Having Anakin strike down his childhood friend would have made an excellent story point – except for the fact that everyone would have cheered since he was so fucking annoying.
As it is, I’m actually a fan of Jar Jar being instrumental in the Emperor’s rise to power – but due to the fan reaction to Jar Jar in Episode I, this was relegated to a few throwaway lines in Episode II. I honestly can’t recall if he shows up in Episode III at all. Still, because Jar Jar is easily manipulated, he succumbs to Chancellor Palpatine’s suggestion to increase his powers and build a clone army – honestly, that’s what you get for leaving an idiot in a position of power.
Think about it: the entire Clone Wars are down to Jar Jar Binks putting a motion before the senate.
It’s the potential of Jar Jar, the what-could-have-been, that always makes me defend him when he’s on screen. Or at least keeps me distracted.
I was always confused at the racism cries, painting him as a Step-n-Fetchit character. But he is definitely a target of the Jedis’ inflated sense of self.
As for the movie, I have it sitting on my DVR. I have not seen it since it was in the theaters, but oddly Weird Al’s “The Saga Begins” made me want to see it again. Re-digest it, I guess. If Weird Al can draw that much out of it, it needs another viewing.
As for writing. I too give anyone who can get published/produced credit. Even the McAuthors of the world (Grisham) have a talent most of us don’t.
Jar Jar wasn’t a great character by any means, but I understood his reason for being there: comic relief and something for the kids to laugh at. And I’m OK with that. I crack up at people who say he singlehandedly destroyed the entire franchise.
The last few years, I’ve come to realize that, as close to heart as we take these movies, they’re just that–movies. The world won’t come to an end because Lucas made a bad trilogy.
I’m of two minds on Jar Jar. When I think about the slapstick humor and the blatant idiocy he exhibits in Episode I, I cringe. But in his brief appearances in II and III, he achieves at least a quasi-dignity belied by his jokey, abusive voice.
The mistake with Jar Jar isn’t that he’s accident prone or kind of a jester character; it’s that he’s portrayed as an idiot. I look at the prequel trilogy structurally, and it’s got this great Jacobean tragedy vibe in its bones, you know? So much so that I kept thinking that we were going to see Jar Jar die in Episode II, possibly even at Anakin’s hands.
But Jar Jar should never have been dumb. He’s an outsider, a man in a warrior society who doesn’t have any militaristic urge. He’s naive and curious, but not a simpleton. Making Jar Jar a simpleton is lazy narrative and it robs the prequels of some of their gravitas. He should have been better.
One place where I think they manage to portray Jar Jar at least a little better is the Clone Wars cartoon. Still clumsy, but noble.
[...] but why would you do that? Why? I mean, I can defend Jar Jar all I like but these are flawed films that only work to the extent that they do work because you know what they [...]