BARF at this article
https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/...184019945.html
'Star Wars' needs a woman director, not the 'Game of Thrones' guys
. At no point has a female director or a director of color been offered a Star Wars gig.
What does this mean for audiences? It means that the vision of the Star Wars universe is ultimately limited to one perspective. It means that female heroines are created in male imaginations and characters of color are seen through the lens of white experience. It means that for all their forward-thinking casting, Lucasfilm is playing it safe, just like every other Hollywood studio. And “safe,” in this case, means hiring the same white, male directors who already helm around 90 percent of Hollywood films.
This is particularly outrageous considering that Lucasfilm is one of the few major studios with a female CEO. Time and again, Kennedy has affirmed her commitment to putting “really strong women” front and center. She has said that diversity is “incredibly important to Star Wars” and “important to the film industry in general.” Lucasfilm’s story group, the team of 11 writers and artists who shape and guide the Star Wars canon, reflects these ideals: The team has four women and seven men, and five of its members are people of color. Onscreen, the new films appear admirably diverse. However, the direction and story of each individual Star Wars film ultimately comes down to the writer and director. It sends a message when the people behind the camera are as monochromatic as a stormtrooper in a Hoth snowstorm.
It’s not just principle that makes Benioff’s and Weiss’s hiring seem like an ominous sign. For all of their accomplishments, these two showrunners have exhibited a blind spot when it comes to women and minorities. On Game of Thrones, they have repeatedly (and notoriously) relied on graphic sexual assault as a plot device, leaving few female characters spared. A female writer or director might have helped steer the story away from this — but in eight years of Game of Thrones, Benioff and Weiss have hired only one woman director (out of 19) and two female writers (neither of whom worked on the last three seasons).
Similarly, the duo’s treatment of nonwhite characters has been widely criticized, with the few actors of color on Games of Thrones exoticized, portrayed as primitives or slaves, or pushed to the margins of white characters’ stories. Benioff and Weiss also came under fire for their planned HBO series Confederate, an alternate-history drama in which the South won the Civil War and slavery still exists; worse, they seemed baffled by the inevitable backlash. All of which is to say, these guys aren’t exactly forward-thinking.
What they are is popular. Stark and Targaryen sigils are stiff competition for Jedi and Sith symbols in the geek-merchandise market. The show draws a massive audience of both casual viewers and die-hard fans. And those fans, according to a widely published survey, are mostly men.
Granted, there’s other data showing that women make up as much as 44 percent of the Game of Thrones audience. But one has to wonder: Is Kennedy hiring Benioff and Weiss as a concession to a certain group of fans? Perhaps the same group of fans who conspired to torpedo The Last Jedi’s Rotten Tomatoes ranking because the film offended their alt-right ideals of masculine domination and white supremacy? (A quick search turns up plenty of evidence that the alt-right is pretty into Game of Thrones.)
It would be a crushing disappointment if Kennedy is truly trying to win back the small, vocal group of fans nostalgic for a white, male-dominated Star Wars. Because in the end, she doesn’t need them. Star Wars is popular on a scale that no other film property has achieved. The Last Jedi made more than a billion dollars in less than three weeks, even with the overpublicized backlash. Yes, that popularity is partially nostalgia. But as the producers behind many a failed reboot know, nostalgia takes a film only partway. Star Wars remains a vital property because the new films are telling a bigger story. They promise a fantasy universe that’s more vast and inclusive than moviegoers have ever seen before, one where every child can look up at the screen and see himself, or herself, in a Jedi warrior. There are so many directors who could take it there; Johnson himself has suggested Ava DuVernay, Gina Prince-Bythewood, and Karyn Kusama. It’s time for Kennedy to seek out a new kind of visionary for Star Wars. After all, as Luke Skywalker learned in A New Hope, the universe is much bigger than a white boy’s dreams.
This is dissapointing on a few levels, the least of which is that people take this shit way too seriously for what amounts to a sci-fi fantasy movie. I mean I will argue about crap in the movies or their stories and characters, but advocating for forced diversity is almost as bad as not having it at all. This is my favorite comment on the article:
Also, Star Wars WAS the dream of a white boy:The author of this Yahoo! rant, a woman, crying for 99 percent and only offer a 1 percent solution. Also, women are free to write any future space cowboy and Indians drama they want - so, get cracking!
The whole argument is wrong on it's face to me as even at it's "whitest" Star Wars was all about empowering women and minorities in film and back at a time when it was harder to do, so that is all I am going to say on the matter otherwise this gets too political.
Father Martin can write more than a sentence a month apparently and they did a pretty good job distilling a lot of the parts of the book that went on waaaaay too long. If they followed the books Dany would still be wandering around with her army for the next 14 seasons.
They wrote awful dialogue. Dialogue that buried Tyrion for half a god damned season. Pointing to editing out portions of the book for t.v. pace isn't a throwaway accomplishment, and their maneuvering of Hodor and company was artful.
But, stories are often dialogue driven. And I saw a clear massive dropoff after they ran out of source material.
Then they are PERFECT for the new Star Wars movies.
Seriously though, they are making so many Star Wars flicks it is easy to take them or leave them. When we only had three and then even six they felt like a sacred commodity to be ranked, bashed, and treasured. Now they feel like James Bond movies with changing themes, actors, and sensibilities. To me I think I might keep all the Lucas written movies as canon and treat these like high budget fan fiction.
Considering Lucas was the worst part about Star Wars, and his influence was overrated -he literally wasn't the best director for the chain- I don't know if I'd do that.
I haven't seen the latest Star Wars movie, but the most recent two I really enjoyed. But, as much as I want to get 'into' the franchise more, I'm dubious of it. Which is why I need your consultation, you sassy shake.
George Lucas was a great visionary, but I will agree on the director part. Visually and storywise I like all his Star Wars movies, the direction and execution is up for debate though.
If you enjoyed the two most recent you will probably like Episode VIII. It tries to turn some main ideas of Star Wars on their head to varying degrees of success. I'm waiting on the next one to give a final verdict on it because it seems like it left too many doors open. I'm sticking with my 7-7.5/10 rating.
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