Emperor/clothes: You've probably heard the hagiographic claims about how the Star Wars films are drawn from that deep well of primal archetypes and myths going back to Homer/the Upanishads/Joseph Campbell. Well, that's rubbish. They're mostly a knockoff of pulp sci-fi ideas, though surprisingly many people don't see that, blinded by the hype or the desire to see Star Wars as one of the Great Stories.
Campbell's approach can give any adventure story, from "Bulldog Drummond" to "The Perils of Pauline," a place in the pantheon. In fact, his acolytes are hard at work doing just that with such movies as "The Matrix" and "The Wizard of Oz." It adds up to little more than a party game for drunken grad students, or a smoke screen for filmmakers covering their tracks.

Posted by: Burt Zackey | http:// | Fri Apr 12 01:59:59 2002

I'm a fan of the Star Wars films, in spite of all their obvious stupidity and plagiarism. People seem to have lost the ability of either enjoying or not enjoying the movies based on their merits, or lack of them. Those who keep trying to raise Star Wars up as some new pillar of faith make me uncomfortable for liking the trilogy so much. They are just entertaining movies about spaceships and laser blasters, so it's probably not a good idea to devote too much of our souls to their blind appreciation.

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