This was definitely the most challenging Star Wars film to date, especially for an audience who has aged with the franchise since it's beginning. And I think everyone needs to take in the film as they've perceived it. For me it resonated. I don't expect that everyone would share my reaction to the film. Let's see how people talk about TLJ in a year, 5 years, or 10 years on. But I think one thing from a business standpoint was very telling: before the film was even released, Rian Johnson was signed on to write and produce his own trilogy of films. Disney and Lucasfilm have confidence in Johnson. And he has made a franchise that was dare I say predictable a bit more compelling and surprising from a story standpoint.
I think that this newest film is coming from a place that is cognizant of where we've been through the franchise. I am part of a generation that saw the OT as a little kid. And Rian Johnson is of that generation, too. I was barely 5 years old when I saw ANH in the theater during its theatrical run. And I saw TESB and ROTJ when they were released, too. And I have always gotten the sense that my generation, those that saw the OT as kids, have elevated those films to lofty territory because they were such high points in our childhood experiences.
George Lucas has offered time and again that the films were intended to be for kids. He may well have been right. And he kept repeating that mantra when he released the PT between 1999 and 2005: these are kids movies. Did he not get a real sense of how the audience had clung to the original movies and continued to be fans from the 70's through the new millennium? I'm not George Lucas, so I will never know. But I did get the feeling that because my generation held the OT in such esteem from their own childhoods, that it might prove difficult for Lucas to top his previous work because of unrealistic expectations on the part of the audience.
Now that we're in the post Lucas era? I think we're in even more complicated territory. JJ Abrams was trying to pave the way for a new generation with THE FORCE AWAKENS. I suspect that he was trying to take the Joseph Campbell route of the Hero with a thousand faces as an echo to the OT, but with new characters. "Real fans" accused him of telling ANH over again, and that it wasn't original. Then we got ROGUE ONE which expanded on part of a story that we knew. Some of it did seem like it was paying service to fans, but it also did something daring: UNAPOLOGETICALLY KILLING OFF THE HEROES. And the sacrifice of those heroes actually wound up resonating with fans as a daring choice that worked. And now with THE LAST JEDI we got a movie that challenged us even more as an audience. Notably, with the failures of characters that we have loved for some 40 years. Personally, I appreciated that. Did everyone else? That's something everyone has to answer for themselves.
A lot of our preconceived notions about characters as well as The Force have been challenged. And the days of playing it safe have certainly gone out the window. I think there's a lot of disappointment from a good number of fans about how things panned out with Luke. But then that was in a lot of the messaging going into this, wasn't it? Your heroes may not be the people you think they are.
Luke was made out to be a hero and tried to rebuild the Jedi Order. And what he didn't learn was that the Order, prior to its fall, was itself very flawed. Yoda recognized that. But it's something that Luke could never have known. Yet he set down on a path towards failure, when he probably should have focused on teaching a single student.
I think the greatest tragedy of the film was the realization of how Luke recognized the growing darkness in Ben Solo. He recognized his own failings as a master. And when he foresaw what Ben might become, he set himself on a path to do the unthinkable: to kill his own nephew. Rian Johnson's use of the Kurosawa/Rashomon technique of showing that same scene from multiple perspectives was incredibly compelling.
People think of Luke as perfect. But was he really? His attempt to stop Ben Solo before he could turn into a monster wasn't the first time that Luke had turned to the dark side. He tapped into it during the events of RETURN OF THE JEDI. He used a dark side power to Force choke the guards at Jabba's palace. And he used the dark side when he fought Vader on the second Death Star after Vader goaded him. And much like Obi-Wan had failed Anakin, Luke failed Ben as a Jedi Master and an uncle. He failed to stop Ben from turning to the dark side himself. And he failed to keep Ben from destroying the Jedi training temple. If all of that isn't reason enough for Luke to walk away, I don't know what is.
At the center of Ben Solo's story I think you need to take a look at his family. I've rewatched TFA recently. And when the topic of Ben comes up there's genuine hope and love from Leia, who feels desperate to have her son back. And with Han? I truly got a sense of his love for his son, and him being prepared to do whatever it takes to get him back. But also a sense of heartbreak, because he recognized his failures as a father.
On the matter of Ben's turn? There have been some rumblings to the effect that some of Ben's fellow students became the Knights of Ren. I'm intrigued to learn a little more about that in Episode IX.
