TOW #11: The Genius of Star Wars

There is something about the substance Star Wars that makes it so recognizable that at the first screech of a passing TIE fighter or the blaring horn section of John Williams sprawling score the viewer knows exactly where they are and where they are going. This familiarity, a kind of nostalgia comparable to coming home to the same smells and sounds of childhood but for millions around the world, is the biggest challenge facing J.J. Abrams and the team taking on the franchise's newest reboot, The Force Awakens. With the movie set to release in mid-December, seasoned TIME Magazine entertainment writer Lev Grossman explores what has been called "The Star Wars vernacular" and argues that J.J. Abrams has not only achieved creating this vernacular but has brought it into the light of the 21 century.

Star Wars is perhaps one of the most widely known and beloved franchises in the history of motion pictures. This worldwide love of the classic space opera is what creates such an exacting pressure for the new franchise to deliver the same phenomena that the original trilogy did. In his essay, somewhat of an attempt to assuage the fears old fans have about the new movie's merit, Grossman uses comparison and juxtaposition of the new movie to the original trilogy in order to show that The Force Awakens does indeed live up to its momentous expectations. Grossman follows a pattern of first stating facets of the original trilogy that distinguished it stylistically as a film, saying of the original "One of the eternal mysteries of Star Wars is that it looks like science fiction, with robots and lasers and such, but at the same time it's set far in the past and has the dustiness and feel of ancient history" and then following up with how the new movie holds true to this style, saying that Abrams intended the new movie to "have a history that stretched back before the start of the movie. [That] it was the weat and tear that was on a particular ship or a droid, all of these things implied this very rich history from which the story came". Through comparing how Abrams kept true to the extremely specific stylistic details of the original movie, Grossman shows how The Force Awakens lives up to the original movie's vernacular. However, Grossman also juxtaposes the new and the old, showing how The Force Awakens has a more modern spin by saying that the old movies were essentially "a movie about white men fighting to regain their rightful position as rulers" whereas with the new "the cast alone is more diverse" and "women figure in a more dynamic, physically powerful capacity". Through juxtaposing the outmoded parts of the old movies with the progressive additions to The Force Awakens, Grossman shows how Abram's was able to reconcile the essence of the original films with modern day sentiments. Thus, Grossman shows that while some things have changed in a galaxy far, far, away, to the delight of the viewer many things will remain just the same.