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SOUND AND IMAGES

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“A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away . . .” So begins the now-famous opening credit crawl of Star Wars. The first appearance of those words was in movie theaters on earth, but the time now is rather long ago: May 25, 1977.

The space epic changed the culture of the movie industry. Star Wars, produced, written, and directed by George Lucas, departed from the personal filmmaking of the early 1970s and spawned a blockbuster mentality that formed a new primary audience for Hollywood: teenagers. It had all of the now-typical blockbuster characteristics, including massive promotion and lucrative merchandising tie-ins. Repeat attendance and positive buzz among young people made the first Star Wars the most successful movie of its generation.

Star Wars has impacted not only the cultural side of moviemaking but also the technical form. In the first Star Wars trilogy, produced in the 1970s and 1980s, Lucas developed technologies that are now commonplace in moviemaking: digital animation, special effects, and computer-based film editing. With the second trilogy (which was a prequel to the narrative of the original Star Wars), Lucas again broke new ground in the film industry.

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Several scenes of Star Wars: Episode I—The Phantom Menace (1999) were shot on digital video, easing integration with digital special effects. The Phantom Menace also became the first full-length motion picture from a major studio to use digital projectors in its exhibition, which began the movement to replace standard film projectors in theaters around the world. By the time the last installment of the second trilogy—Star Wars: Episode III—Revenge of the Sith (2005)—was released, Star Wars was firmly in place as one of the most successful film series of all time, with more than $4.5 billion in worldwide box office revenue.1

The third Star Wars trilogy opened in late 2015, with Star Wars: Episode VII—The Force Awakens. The story picks up thirty years after Star Wars: Episode VI—Return of the Jedi (1983). Incredibly, Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, and Princess Leia return from the original trilogy, played by original actors Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, and Carrie Fisher, respectively. However, perhaps the biggest news regarding The Force Awakens is on the business side: For the first time, Star Wars is a Disney property. In 2012, Disney paid $4 billion for Lucasfilm—George Lucas’s independent production company, which had controlled the Star Wars legacy from its inception.

At the time of the announcement, Lucas (then sixty-eight years old) spoke of passing Star Wars to new filmmakers: “I’ve always believed that Star Wars could live beyond me, and I thought it was important to set up the transition during my lifetime.” Disney CEO Robert Iger spoke less about the film and more about a bigger set of business possibilities: “This transaction combines a world-class portfolio of content including Star Wars, one of the greatest family entertainment franchises of all time, with Disney’s unique and unparalleled creativity across multiple platforms, businesses, and markets to generate sustained growth and drive significant long-term value.”2 In plain language, this means more Star Wars on television, in digital games, in theme parks, and in consumer products.

Some Star Wars purists may groan at the volume of these ancillaries, but Disney’s track record at turning its acquisitions into even greater media and merchandise franchises is enviable. Two other important movie brand acquisitions were its purchase of Pixar for $7.6 billion in 2006, and Marvel for $3.96 billion in 2009.3 Pixar has created some of the most successful animated movies of the past two decades, such as Up (2009), Toy Story 3 (2010), Cars 2 (2011), Monsters University (2013), Inside Out (2015), and Finding Dory (2016). Marvel, in retrospect, appears to be even more of a bargain. Disney-produced films from the Marvel cinematic universe, including The Avengers (2012), Iron Man 3 (2013), Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014), and Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), have catapulted Marvel-based films to the top movie franchise in the world, with $8.5 billion in worldwide box office revenue.4

With the Star Wars franchise now in Disney’s hands, there is potential to develop it into the next top movie franchise. But for The Force Awakens director J.J. Abrams—director of the first Star Wars film that doesn’t heavily involve George Lucas—the key is to first get the storytelling right. “That, to me, has been the constant struggle: to make sure that none of these things are treated like either they’re a museum piece and we’re trying to honor them or they’re gratuitous and thrown in because, well, it’s a Star Wars movie so you’ve got to put these things in,” Abrams said. “Everything has got to be essential to the characters in the film.”5

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DATING BACK TO THE LATE 1800s, films have had a substantial social and cultural impact on society. Blockbuster movies such as Star Wars, E.T., Titanic, Lord of the Rings, Shrek, Avatar, and The Avengers represent what Hollywood has become—America’s storyteller. Movies tell communal stories that evoke and symbolize our most enduring values and our secret desires (from The Wizard of Oz to The Godfather to the Batman series).

Films have also helped moviegoers sort through experiences that either affirmed or deviated from their own values. Some movies—for instance, Last Tango in Paris (1972), Scarface (1983), Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004), Brokeback Mountain (2005), and 12 Years a Slave (2013)—have allowed audiences to survey “the boundary between the permitted and the forbidden” and to experience, in a controlled way, “the possibility of stepping across this boundary.”6 Such films—criticized by some for appearing to glorify crime and violence, verge on pornography, trample on sacred beliefs, or promote unpatriotic viewpoints—have even, on occasion, been banned from public viewing.

Finally, movies have acted to bring people together. Movies distract us from our daily struggles: They evoke and symbolize universal themes of human experience (that of childhood, coming of age, family relations, growing older, and coping with death); they can help us understand and respond to major historical events and tragedies (for instance, the Holocaust and 9/11); and they encourage us to reexamine contemporary ideas as the world evolves, particularly in terms of how we think about race, class, spirituality, gender, and sexuality.

In this chapter, we examine the rich legacy and current standing of movies. We will:

As you consider these topics, think about your own relationship with movies. What is the first movie you remember watching? What are your movie-watching experiences like today? How have certain movies made you think differently about an issue, yourself, or others? For more questions to help you think through the role of movies in our lives, see “Questioning the Media” in the Chapter Review.