[Vision2020] Why American Filmmaking Has Been DOA Since Star Wars Came Out

[Douglas Stambler]

Why American Filmmaking Has Been DOA Since Star Wars Came Out
by Douglas Stambler


Do you remember that song, "Video Killed The Radio Star"?  I think of Star Wars as the film that killed American filmmaking.  Why?  Well, for starters, one of America's greatest actors -James Earl Jones- was reduced to a mere voice under a big, black helmet.  But more succinctly put, Star Wars took away the best parts from live, human actors, and, instead gave those leading roles to characters who had no human faces!  In one, epic film, robots played lead roles and were given equal status with their human co-stars.  It wasn't very long after before E.T., Jurassic Park and Independence Day sealed the current fate of American cinema: That machines on screen sell better than realistically portraying human interaction.  As far as I'm concerned, American filmmaking is at an impasse that can only be overcome by getting back to the basics of using film to tell realistic stories.  

It's not like I didn't enjoy Star Wars.  Don't get me wrong: I was impressed as the next 7 or 8-year old who saw the film when it first came out.  But I grew up near Yale University, and I got to see incredibly brilliant acting by James Earl Jones, and I also had season tickets at the theater where Arthur Miller used to try out his new plays.  I'm no theater snob, but I'd rather see a flesh and blood actor instead of what Lucas, Spielberg and Roland Emerich have given us: an assortment of puppets, mechanical dinosaurs, and an alien menace that simply does not exist.  When I watch a movie, I would rather see something like Al Pacino and Keanu Reeves in "The Devil's Advocate" than "Tron," any day! 

Supposedly, Lucas and Spielberg were childhood prodigies: I don't doubt out.  I think that they were prodigiously stupid in their pursuit of cash and histrionics instead of quality and human realism.  These days, it's sequels to Spider Man, Terminator and The Matrix we have to look forward to in theaters, when all I really want is to see a film the caliber of "Ferris Bueller's Day Off," "No Way Out," or "What's Eating Gilbert Grape?" You'd have to give me $100 to go see Ben Affleck as a superhero or another movie by another Saturday Night Live cast member: Instead of human realism, these "actors" go for cliché and parts that might win them a prize-bride like Jennifer Lopez or a co-star like Elizabeth Hurley.  In short, ever since 1977, when Star Wars came out, American film has descended into what we have today: Smug, sometimes smart, often-synthetic and unrealistic portrayals of human emotion in big, loud, machine-dominated motion pictures.  You go ahead and watch the film,!
  okay?   I'll be waiting for you here in the lobby when it's over.


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