If there is a great hope that I have for the future of civilization, it is in the philosophy advocated through Star Wars to the mass population, and specifically the youth. My views on this prompted Matt Clark and I to discuss the issue on WAAM Radio in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
In the story arch of Star Wars it is not about just one character, or even one family. It is a very encompassing idea that is nearly as complicated as Greek Mythology and is about the fundamental conflicts of a philosophy that embodies pure aggression and conquest against another focused on understanding. Within the story arcs done up to this point not only in the movies but the novels governments and the politicians behind them rise and fall many times, but always the heroes prevail through tenacity to give rise to another day. The one primary consistency in Star Wars is the prevalence of the Jedi Knights to always be present to offer logic and solutions, even when they find themselves enemies of the current political regimes. Sometimes they are on the right side of history as honored heroes, and sometimes they are fugitives fighting for their very existence, so whenever a long view is needed, Star Wars is a great mythology to partake in.
Under Disney it is my hope that Star Wars explodes culturally, not to make everyone sick of it, but in today’s tumultuous political climates and social atmosphere there really isn’t any other story that paints such a clear picture of right and wrong than Star Wars. At its roots, Star Wars is an old-fashioned story that paints the picture of moral dilemmas exceptionally well. It is my great hope that Star Wars under Disney ends up on cartoon stations, live action television and as many feature films that can be churned out from now till the end of time—because the essence of what Star Wars is about is good for society—because it invokes “thinking.”
So a theme park like the one shown above is not far off, and when it comes, I see big—positive things happening on a scale never seen before in any entertainment venture. To my thinking there is nothing more powerful in human society than the myths people live by. No invention of the human mind—be it cars, airplanes, electricity—anything, has the power of a great story. And Star Wars is a big story about big ideas. When the theme park is built, it will allow for the first time visitors to not only live out these big ideas within the context of a movie, or a book, but to walk around in these environments in a way that has never before been possible except with the massive resources of a big company that does great good like the Walt Disney Company.
When the new Star Wars Park opens, I will be one of the first in line with my entire family and I will be extremely excited to be there among the magic that perpetuates great ideas, and wonderful philosophy placed in a context that has significant social application. In my house we have over 265 novels and junior novels that capture the epic story of Star Wars with a literary legacy that is unparalleled. I have read most of them, my wife has read them all, and we will use those books to bring huge ideas to our growing family. It is a great relief to us to see that Star Wars will always be there for the decades to come and will become more of a reality than the fantasy that it currently is within our lifetimes.
In the small political battles of our day—the ones over which idea is better than the other, I see such conflicts to be minor squabbles in the scheme of existence. I prefer always the long view of looking at big things with much distance between myself and the object so I can see the situation clearly. When I have to engage against competing tribes of political view who attempt to interrupt my enjoyment of the long view I am all too happy to display their conquered scalps as trophies of war, but I am very aware that such things are small insignificant victories upon the tapestry of living. When battles are raging around you, political or otherwise, there are only two choices, win or become a victim. Choosing not to play is a choice towards becoming a victim.
I will have to thank my friend over at the Atlas Shrugged site Galt’s Gulch, Dr. Brett for being the first to break the news to me that Lucasfilm had been sold to Disney for $4 billion dollars. As any who read here clearly know, I think a lot of Star Wars, and specifically George Lucas, so the news that Lucas has officially hung up a company he built all his life as a sole proprietor was very sad for me, almost as sad as losing a loved one to a death. I respect deeply the creative environment that Lucas utilized to build Star Wars into one of the most recognizable names in the entire world. I respect all the companies of George Lucas because he maintained his ownership of them the way he should have, and he never yielded to pressure to make his films into anything but what they are. He reserved his right to make films like Howard the Duck which were bombs, but he also made wonderfully powerful films like Tucker: A Man and His Dreams, Willow, and of course the Indiana Jones series which has changed dramatically the entire field of archaeology and anthropology. But it was and is Star Wars that made all those films possible, films that couldn’t be made by anybody else no matter how big the studio or the personalities behind them were.
It might seem that no amount of news could eclipse the massive Hurricane Sandy that had shut down the eastern United States, but news that Star Wars was now under the tent of the Disney Company eclipsed the tragedy of that event–even of the presidential elections. The news that Star Wars was now owned by Disney and that the company fully intended to make more Star Wars films rocked the world of Twitter, Facebook and news organizations all over the world with shock and awe.
I grew up with Star Wars; I raised my family on Star Wars. Star Wars is one of the great sacred bonds that my wife and I share. We love it, have watched the movies thousands of times, and read all the books. In fact, she has read every single Star Wars book ever written. They take up an entire section of our home. I enjoy watching Family Guy primarily because of all the parodies that Seth McFarland has done as a tribute to Star Wars. I get along most with Star Wars geeks and adults who aren’t afraid to admit that they love the films. My father-in-law and I have always shared an intense love for Star Wars. My nephews and I have stayed up entire nights playing Star Wars video games, and those memories still bond us as busy adults. Star Wars is always a dominate topic at every Christmas and Thanksgiving Dinner on both sides of the family. It is also the most commonly given gift for birthdays and Christmas in my family on both sides for over 30 years now. For me the love of the films are not an immature reach for eternal youth and fantasy, but rather, the long view at philosophy and life in general that they offer against the backdrop of fantasy in a far away time and space that allows ideas to reside in neutral territory. I find it repulsive when some fans accuse George Lucas of turning Star Wars into simply a cash cow, or that he sold out to the big and powerful Disney—allowing his sole creation to be turned over to some evil empire of the Disney Company. They simply don’t understand the situation and how the dots connect.
I have spent considerable time explaining at this site Overmanwarrior’s Wisdom why some people believe making money is bad—where those ideas came from, and actually how they hold society back. This is why I propose that Ayn Rand’s ideas are far more relevant philosophically for mankind than Karl Marx and that if one idea must be refined philosophically over another it should be those of Rand over Marx. Those reflections can be heard clearly in the opinions of Star Wars by the general public, but one thing that Star Wars does is unite people who would otherwise not be able to talk politics.
For instance, many of the writers of The Huffington Post who might argue with me about the merits of socialism versus capitalism share a love and passion for Star Wars. Many who believe that Star Wars is just a movie don’t understand why it is such a phenomena, but Star Wars is not just a movie intending to make money, but a tool that George Lucas has utilized to create the most important, and powerful mythology human civilization has ever known and it is intended to take Earth from a .7 Type Civilization that it is now, to a Type 1 Civilization on it’s way to an accelerated Type 2 with an intent to become a Type 3 and still have a basic philosophy that will hold up to such an expansion. For people who think Star Wars is just a silly movie, they do not understand that the foundation blocks of any civilization is its basic philosophy that is reinforced by its mythology, and Star Wars created by George Lucas is intended to be a giant mythology. Disney as a company envisioned by Uncle Walt was created to interpret and communicate mythology to the world, not to just make money. What most people miss due to the fact that they have been taught to hate money is that Lucasfilm and the Walt Disney Company have billions of dollars of value between them because they offer a very good product—but the value of that product is cultural enrichment through mythological creation that improves the general philosophy of all human beings. While it is true that Star Wars is geared for children, the messages within that mythology contribute greatly to the improvement of world-wide philosophy. Lucas and Disney both as heads of their companies have managed to perfectly bring together two important attributes necessary to human survival, the ability to produce wealth, and to use that wealth to dramatically improve the living conditions of mankind.
The limits so far with Star Wars is that George Lucas has been the “brand” of his company. He has become so big that anything done in Star Wars as a story, because they are so important mythically speaking to so many millions of people, is distracting, even limiting. I believe Lucas being the “way ahead of the curve” kind of guy that he is has recognized this and has positioned his company, its employees, and the product of Star Wars itself through the television experiment of Clone Wars on the Cartoon Network to make this move with Disney at a very reasonable price. Disney, as a giant company with no direct face that is the “brand” can take Star Wars to places it could not otherwise go being headed by George Lucas. Disney has the ability to build an entire Star Wars park so visitors can actually walk around in the Star Wars Universe. They can expand on the television, the movies, even the video games. Disney has the power to take Star Wars from a household name and make it a room to room name within that household.
To understand why I think this move to Disney for Star Wars might have a severe impact for the positive it would require knowledge of George Lucas as I have, so to know what he is most likely thinking. Back in the 1990’s George Lucas was a board member for The Joseph Campbell Foundation who was being carried on by Campbell’s wife Jean after Campbell’s death of which I was also a member. Lucas has always been interested in using Star Wars to bring young people to the study of comparative religion and world mythology studies. Few people know it, but Lucas always wanted to be an Anthropologist and books like The Golden Bough and TheHero with A Thousand Faces had a powerful impact on him as a youth and he has always planned to use Star Wars as a way to introduce youth to higher philosophical concepts. To understand to what extent Lucas has been committed to this just look at his company Lucas Learning. I would bet everything I have and everything I ever obtain on the notion that Lucas has intentionally planned to inspire young people to reach for the stars with the stories of Star Wars in fields of science, medicine, politics, art, virtually every aspect of society, and Lucas has done this as an anthropology/archaeology enthusiast, not as a film maker. Lucas, never really wanted to be a film maker, but instead used film making to communicate his interest in cultural studies. It is his interest in anthropology that gives the Star Wars Universe such a rich texture, that far exceeds any other science fiction endeavor so far to date. And I believe the result of this investment Lucas has made in civilization will be the necessary mythological tool that is needed to continue the social evolution into a Type 1 Civilization where religious barriers, scientific limitations, and politics get in the way of arriving at these necessary human advancements. This was why George Lucas made Episodes 1 through 3 the way he did about Galactic Republics and the demise of governments in spite of the efforts of the noble Jedi Knights. Lucas solved the political problems of his galaxy that has embraced laissez-faire capitalism but is not regulated by untrustworthy politicians, by using Jedi Knights who are governed by a deep commitment to philosophy, not crony capitalism that goes on between gangsters, pirates and politicians, to maintain order.
In a 1964 article on searching for extraterrestrial civilizations, the Soviet astronomer Nikolai Kardashev suggested using radio telescopes to detect energy signals from other solar systems in which there might be civilizations of three levels of advancement: Type 1 can harness all of the energy of its home planet; Type 2 can harvest all of the power of its sun; and Type 3 can master the energy from its entire galaxy.
Based on our energy efficiency at the time, in 1973 the astronomer Carl Sagan estimated that Earth represented a Type 0.7 civilization on a Type 0 to Type 1 scale. (More current assessments put us at 0.72.) As the Kardashevian scale is logarithmic — where any increase in power consumption requires a huge leap in power production — we have a ways before 1.0.
Fossil fuels won’t get us there. Renewable sources such as solar, wind and geothermal are a good start, and coupled to nuclear power could eventually get us to Type 1. More info can be found at this article.
Nothing ever starts until the human mind can behold the concept. From there, invention and personal innovation will bridge the gaps. Currently, politically, our global societies are locked between a struggle between individualism and collectivism as political systems of all types are struggling to maintain the former power bases of class society indentured to resources controlled by the very few, whether that few are crony capitalists, socialists, pirates, thieves, looters, or kingdoms. The future is moving away from these kinds of regionalized controls and the internet is the first step in that particular direction. But there are still religions that are standing in the way of life expectancy and medicine, and governments that are restricting space travel as the human race is pushing violently against the limits of the past. Star Wars is a giant leap forward, but at the same time, into the past so to join in the minds of mankind with the possibilities of now. In Star Wars the galaxy they are living in is coming close to a Type 3 as they are able to travel across the entire Galaxy through hyperspace routes that are like intergalactic highways through worm holes in space. Such a concept is scientifically viable and scientists are beginning to seriously think about such things—because of Star Wars. And the utilization of the religious aspect of Star Wars, which is the Force follows many aspects that are just being discovered in quantum mechanics and presents them in story form in ways that human minds can find a practical use in the randomness of ideas. I could literally go on and on about this type of thinking, but in short, Star Wars is a big galaxy that has a lot of very fresh ideas in it from communication devices to propulsion systems, and those scientific concepts are quickly finding their way into the everyday lives of our current civilization.
Further, Disney as a company is about to do something that I think Walt Disney always fantasized about–it is about to take a bold step forward from a market driven motion picture market place and become a truly world power that will benefit the lives of the entire planet. For instance, China because it is a communist country only allows 10 foreign films to show in their country per year, which is actually a big step for them. The people of China are already looking forward to the next installment of Iron Man that is gearing up for a tremendous 2013 release—again another property by Disney who is uniquely positioned to take such a powerful mythology as the Marvel Comic properties and present them to a world hungry for the ideas in those stories. This is greatly helping China become more and more prone to the free market in all manners of business, slowly but surely brushing aside the kind of communism that has held those people down for over 60 years now. Star Wars has the potential to communicate those types of messages to a mass audience perhaps 10 times more powerfully, because the texture and depth of Star Wars is so deep and engrossing, and if Earth is to become a Type 1 Civilization, the same idea has to be held in the mind over most of the world. In other words, the people of China cannot think so much more different from those in The United States. But the lifestyle of The United States cannot be brought down just to level the playing field globally, but the rest of the world must be brought up to the level of America. The best way to do that is to export American ideas, like Star Wars to those countries so they can understand what they should be doing, and how to do it.
I feel sorry for some of my fellow adults who share my age, but not my youthful optimism. They truly believe that Star Wars is just another movie like everything else designed to make money for Lucas, or Disney. In fact in the days after this big announcement of Disney buying Lucasfilm that was the first thing that most people said to me, “Looks like Lucas just got even richer.” Those same people rush their kids to soccer practice while they update their Facebook accounts religiously and po-poo anything that isn’t rooted in the reality of their current busy lives. Their kids feel the magic on Christmas morning hoping they get a new Star Wars toy, or on Halloween when they get to dress up like a Jedi Knight. The parents feel the magic just a bit when they walk down the isles at Target and look at all the Star Wars toys designed specifically to massage the mind of young people by the toy makers in a plot Lucas hatched decades ago to expand the consciousness of the human race by beholding in their minds all of life’s potential.
When I was a little kid, I wanted the full-sized Millennium Falcon from Star Wars for Christmas like nothing else. This would be way back in 1980. But my parents couldn’t afford it, because it was really expensive. So I built my own Millennium Falcon out of a card board box that I played with for years. Once I got older and could afford to buy it myself, the toy had been off the market for a number of years, so I was never able to get it. But in 1995, prior to the Special Editions in 1997 Lucasfilm released all the old toys only updated with new manufacturing techniques complete with the “battle worn” condition made so popular in the films. That year for Christmas my wife bought me the new electronic Millennium Falcon with the updated paint scheme and everyday since that Christmas I have proudly set it next to my bed where I engage the engines every night before I go to sleep. Every night. And what’s strange is that it still has the same batteries in it from 1995, and they still work. Call it the FORCE! When I have had to fix a number of complicated problems around the house from broken dishwashers to electrical problems I have sometimes stared at that toy for hours pushing the buttons and thinking about the problem at hand which often frames the answer for me with perspective. The toy for me is a symbol of innovation and technical marvel, so it often elevates my logical trouble shooting thinking. That magic has stayed with me my whole life so far and doesn’t appear to be abating. And I know I’m not alone.
Under Disney, these toys, the books, the multiple nick-knacks will flood the marketplace and without question a sector of the population who hates money will call the whole ordeal a symbol of capitalist excess that is just making a lot of money for Disney and its shareholders. But the estimates from people like George Lucas are that the money drives the product and allows more people to experience such magic, and even the most hardened skeptic against capitalism or fantasy stories knows that they too feel a little of that magic when the media blankets the release of a new film, or they hear the famous tune to Star Wars which indicates to the ear that something great awaits the witness of the story at hand, they feel the magic. Lucas has attended many of the Star Wars Celebration events that take place each year, and he has seen the multitude of grown adults who share with their children love for a mythology that makes more sense to them than the reality of their daily life. With Disney now pushing the mythology machine of Star Wars, these events will explode with interest by even more people. Already the Star Wars weekends at Hollywood Studios in Florida that take place from May to June is so packed that the visitors have to use the parking lots at Epcot Center and Animal Kingdom to hold all the extra Star Wars fans. That was before Disney owned Star Wars. Now, it is certain that the parks in Florida will have a continued and much, much larger presence during the entire year and new generations will catch the fever even more than in the past, because if Disney does with Star Wars what they did with The Avengers the possibilities for how big Star Wars may become is immeasurable.
I have my doubts that the new Star Wars films will be as good as Episode 4 and Episode 5. But I have no doubt they can be as good as the other four. The proof is in the Cartoon Network episodes of The Clone Wars currently on television every Saturday morning at 9:30 AM. With that in mind, Disney could make Star Wars movies for centuries, because the material is that rich, and is so vast that the plot lines are literally infinite. I believe that with Disney at the helm of Star Wars, the ideas contained within it will find their way to every corner of the globe and in that way, will put every human being on common ground for the first time since the Tower of Babel separated all human beings with foreign language. That is what it will take to move Earth to a Type 1 Civilization, and Star Wars is the best hope for getting there.
So, in a lot of ways the news announced on October 30th 2012 has seismic consequences for every human being on planet Earth. Star Wars is not just another movie, and it is not just another product of Hollywood. It is modern mythology that surpasses the work of the Iliad, all the Greek classics, the Book of the Dead from Egypt, War and Peace, or all the works of Shakespeare, anything ever done in literature. It is the next step put into visual form what human beings are supposed to be working toward and they weren’t created superficially by whim from the mind of George Lucas, but are mythic characters dusted off from past stories and placed into the future for all to see with common eyes transcending language, political, and sociological backgrounds. That is the magic of Star Wars and the potential impact that the decision to move Lucasfilm under the umbrella of Disney can explode into uncharted waters never before seen by–anybody.
So I’m a fan of the move even though it does sadden me. The sadness is a selfish one, which I wish to preserve what Star Wars meant to me growing up, wanting to freeze-frame those films in time for my own enjoyment and memory. But I see the strategy and like Lucas I want the same thing. I want to see a world that embraces capitalism, embraces technical advancement, embraces philosophy, and never losses its belief in the limitless potential of the human imagination. There are only two directions possible at this juncture in history one where societies regress backward, or one where they move forward into space, colonizing the moon, Mars, and planets beyond with the effortless propulsion utilized in Star Wars. And the inventors of those future technologies are probably not yet even born, but will grow up in a world where Star Wars entices their minds with sounds and images plunging their imaginations into fantasy yearning for a Christmas toy under the tree to open and play with while they work out all the problems of advanced propulsion systems, gravity manipulation, and medical miracles performed without the added complication of losing their very souls to a shackled embrace of institutional imprisonment which always threatens to cast the mind of man back to the creation of fire.
That is what the Disney purchase of Lucasfilm means, and why it is very good. Also as a side note to George Lucas, when he enrolled in Modesto Junior college to become an anthropologist, and a philosopher he succeeded as both and those titles many years from now will come to describe him once all the concept of filmmaker is lost to the scrolls of time. Not only was he successful in studying the past and developing an expertise of history, but he has also changed the future for the better in ways that are subtle, yet unfathomably powerful for a civilization that is teetering on the brink and may yet survive thanks to Star Wars.
It was reported to me that the Indiana Jones booth at COMIC CON in San Diago July 11th through July 15th will have a recreation of the famous Well of Souls scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark complete with live snakes to celebrate the release of all four Indiana Jones films to Blu-Ray. For those who need a map and want to know where to go, the Indiana Jones booth is 2913 at the Lucasfilm pavilion on the show floor. In the spirit of this exciting push to keep the name of Indiana Jones alive I am going to spend a moment to defend the last film, Kingdom of the Crystal Skull from the scrutiny it has received, which I have been thinking about for 4 years now.
To me all the Indiana Jones films are innovative fun escapades into the deepest questions of our times. Few people know it but George Lucas originally wanted to be an anthropologist but since he settled into a job as a “filmmaker,” the character of Indiana Jones allowed him to explore aspects of archeology that he could have only dreamed of as a field scientist. However, I will say this; George Lucas should go down in history as one of the greatest archeologists who ever have lived for the simple fact that many of today’s current world explorers, scientists, physics geeks, treasure hunters, mercenaries, and authors have been profoundly inspired by George Lucas’ creation of the character Indiana Jones. Because of Indiana Jones hundreds of millions, if not billions of dollars have been invested in archeological research that would have never happened in the field of that scientific endeavor if not for the first Indiana Jones movie, the greatest movie in the history of the world in my opinion, Raiders of the Lost Ark.
I would have come to use a bullwhip anyway, since my grandfather passed on to me the love of it which predated Raiders. He and his father were deeply inspired by old Zorro films like Don Q Son of Zorro from the silent era, so he was going to teach me whether I liked it or not. But when Raiders of the Lost Ark came out, which was a tribute to those old Saturday Matinees it allowed my generation to understand what my grandfather’s generation had loved so much. From the early film era of the 1940’s it was Zorro’s Fighting Legion that I love the most, and Indiana Jones was the modern mythic tale of those old adventures. So I took to the study of the bullwhip which has personally led me on many unique adventures and has given me a view of the world few get to see through that martial art weapon.
Some die hard film critics will say that Temple of Doom was the worst Indiana Jones film. Even Steven Spielberg has said he isn’t proud of that movie. Yet, the film is one of the most beloved movies in the history of film. It invented the PG13 rating because the film was too violent to be simply rated PG and was too family oriented to be rated R. Temple of Doom is the ultimate adventure film and studios have been trying unsuccessfully to tap into the magic of that particular movie for many, many years. I’ve seen it at the movie theater over 15 times that I can remember, the most exciting time was when I was on a high adventure camp excursion deep in the hills of Kentucky within one week of Temple of Doom’s release. I was only 15 at the time so I was under the care of adult supervisors. After a day of intense backwoods hiking and spelunking the members of our camp went to bed around 9 PM. Two of my friends in the same tent waited patiently with me for everyone to go to sleep since everyone was exhausted and covered in dirt and sweat. When we no longer heard voices speaking from the many tents, we quietly escaped and ran 5 miles into a nearby college town to catch the last showing of Temple of Doom for the day at 11:15 PM. With sweat pouring down our faces and backs we bought our tickets and sat down in the wonderfully air-conditioned theater just as Indiana Jones came into the Club Obi Wan with his white tuxedo. I have raised my children to the movie Temple of Doom. It played on our television every day for about 8 years. I raised my niece and nephews on the movie since my wife and I helped raise them as children. To this day, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom brings them found memories that they cherish from their childhoods. It is the story of good and evil and even though Indiana Jones gets stabbed, burnt, tortured, poisoned, possessed, and beat up in countless ways he somehow comes out heroically in the end facing all the dangers by stating, “It’s a long way to Deli,” meaning anything can happen, and we’ll deal with it as it comes. To this day my wife and I say that to each other whenever a series of bad things happen, and it brings comic relief.
(This is a personal friend of mine, Gery Deer in Jamestown, Ohio performing at the Murphey Theater in Wilmington.)
When Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade came out, I took my oldest nephew who was 5 at the time out of school to the premier. We saw the movie on opening day for the very first screening. I figured he would learn a lot more at that movie than he would in school, which I was of course right. In Last Crusade the archeology follows along the lines of the typically Christian pursuit of archeological relics. Made just 8 years after the first film in Raiders, Last Crusade had not yet experienced the changes in archeology that would come as a result of the massive amount of money that was flowing into the science because of Indiana Jones. Last Crusade was about the legend of the Holy Grail which is an item that runs deep into Christian religions. This film took Indiana Jones back to his childhood so audiences could see what kind of events helped shape the kind of person that Indiana Jones would become as a man. The concept was so successful that George Lucas started a television show called The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles that would be geared to teaching people about the events of world history taking place from 1900 to around 1919. (Yes, I have every one of them on DVD and my kids have watched them all with me many, many, many times.)
For many fans, The Last Crusade would be their last impression of Indiana Jones. Archeology to them would be biblical in scope, and the adventures of Indiana Jones would end. Life would move on. To the rest of society, people get old, and they put away the items of childhood, which Indiana Jones was. The television show was enjoyed by people like me who naturally loved history, but was not geared to the swashbuckling action of the movies. Instead it centered on the character development of Indiana Jones as a young man.
Over the years many things happened in popular culture. Thousands of archeologists who went to college and pursued their dream of working in that business because of Indiana Jones were doing investigations of their own. Private investors who loved the Indiana Jones movies poured millions of dollars into college research projects giving archeology a lot of money that it didn’t have prior to 1981 when Raiders of the Lost Ark hit theaters. In the 1990’s archeology were doing some big things—but the revelations being discovered with all this new money was not more of the Christian based study that many would have thought it to be. The evidence being discovered was that human existence on planet earth was much more complex than we previously thought and it appears that mankind had help getting started. So when Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull came out, audiences who did not know of these developments were a bit mystified to see what had happened.
My oldest daughter asked me how I managed years ahead of the film’s release to make many of the statements about human society that Crystal Skull was making. I explained to her that George Lucas was following the Robert Pirsig “quality rule” as he was in front of the train yet again while the rest of society was well in the back. Crystal Skull offered an explanation to the advanced societies all over the planet that were obviously connected in some way. This science was revealed in part by Indiana Jones films, so it was up to Indiana Jones to offer the difficult reality that other beings played a part in human evolution, and not just beings from outer space, but “interdimensional” creatures. I had come to this same conclusion years ago after my own studies, which is why my daughter was amazed that Crystal Skull was right on target with what I had been saying for nearly 10 years, that earth was seeded from another civilization that did not originate on earth and that the idea of God had suddenly become much larger.
After 20 years of not seeing Indiana Jones on the big screen audiences were suddenly confronted with an Indiana Jones who was 70 years old who was still in fist fights, romancing women, and performing unbelievable stunts. This is a difficult reality to a society of people who cast senior citizens into disregard past age 65. Seeing a film icon like Harrison Ford looking quite good as a 70 year old man shattered perceptions of what the elderly could do, and opened up the possibility that aging didn’t have to be a degrading process. The second thing that audiences had trouble with was that Indiana Jones survived a nuclear explosion by climbing into a lead lined refrigerator. Many fans did not know that the only objects to survive nuclear explosions in the many tests done were lead lined refrigerators, so Indiana Jones true to his past exploits of always finding a way to survive climbed into the only thing that would have saved him from a nuclear blast, a lead lined refrigerator.
Fans were mixed on Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. It wasn’t what they thought it should have been. Indiana Jones as a character had evolved over the years through the television show, which was incorporated into the new film and it served as a kind of bridge to merge the films and the television show together. The abandonment of typically Christian relics also caused some anxiety as the plot of Crystal Skull centered on the ancient alien oriented plot complete with flying saucers and little green men. And of course people had a hard time accepting Indiana Jones as an older person with a society that thinks age 30 is the end of life as they know it. But, society will catch up to the vision of George Lucas. They are doing it already. The current show on the History Channel Ancient Aliens would have never become possible if not for the mass audience exposure to the kind of information that has been coming in from archeological research. The mainstream audience was confronting for the first time in Kingdom of the Crystal Skull the possibility that mankind’s Gods were in fact beings from another world, and possibility from another dimensional reality which really messed with the stereotypes many had formed over the years through their religious studies.
Before seeing Crystal Skull I had already read several books by Zecharia Sitchin and of course the great Forbidden Archeology by Cremo and Thompson so I could almost see George Lucas smiling from behind the movie screen as I watched the events of the latest Indiana Jones movie play out. I knew exactly what he was doing, and slowly, four years after the release of that very innovative movie, people are beginning to catch up to Lucas’ vision. In the years to come, it will be Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull that will be known for changing the way human beings see themselves as science is only now starting to admit that the discoveries of Indiana Jones in The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull film are turning out to be more of a reality than they ever dared to admit.
I personally loved Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and I place it somewhere in quality to being between Last Crusade and Temple of Doom. To this very day it is Raiders of the Lost Ark that is my favorite movie of all time. So much so that the CD soundtrack has been played in my home and to my family well over a thousand times—my oldest daughter actually used to sleep to it. When she was married, it took her about 6 months to finally learn to sleep without listening to the Raiders of the Lost Ark soundtrack. My favorite song on that soundtrack is called “Desert Chase” which I listen to almost every day at least once. In fact yesterday as I cleaned my motorcycle, I listened to that part of the soundtrack on my iPOD.
For my birthday several years back, my family bought me a leather flight jacket from U.S.Wings that was made from the same roll of leather that created the leather jacket for Harrison Ford in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. I have put that jacket through absolute hell. It’s been drug in the dirt, pelted with rain, snow, ice, and had just about every kind of living creature crawling on it. It has been to the top of mountains and touched the breath of foreign countries. It has seen 30,000 miles of torture from a motorcycle. I said to my family just the other day that the jacket was just now starting to get the look of “character” that I like. In another 15 years, it should look just about right. Indiana Jones is known for his period style hat, his beat up leather jacket and his whip. Many of those things are part of my personal attire as they are of many science lovers coming out of the 1980’s who found magic and hope in Indiana Jones. Indiana Jones for millions has set the bar high for not only what we expect in our movies, but also in what we expect out of ourselves.
People often wonder how I have done and survived many of the things I have, and why I am not content to just drift off into the sunset on a sail boat. Well, I spent a lot of time watching Indiana Jones and raising my family on those films, and it just wouldn’t be right if I didn’t give them the closest thing in reality to that dynamic character. The magic of Indiana Jones is in saying “yes” to life, to not allowing convention to rule the day. If Indiana Jones is anything, he is probably the most tenacious character ever to appear in film, and he is a survivor to such an extent that not even a nuclear blast can stop him. He’s not a superhero from some other planet, or a multi millionaire who can afford to build the machines of his dreams to combat crime. Indiana Jones is just an ordinary man with an extraordinary sense of wonder and hope, which has never learned the word can’t, and that is why fans will flock to the Indiana Jones booth at COMIC CON and take pictures of themselves next to the live snake exhibit. They’ll do it because there’s a little bit of Indiana Jones in each of them, thanks to George Lucas who decided to make his kind of movie from the front of the social train while the rest of society watched from the back.
Yes, I will buy the new Blu-Ray set of the Indiana Jones films. I have a grandchild coming and I can promise that his first images, his first sounds, his very first impressions will be of Indiana Jones punching a bunch of maniacal Thuggee in the face from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. My grandchild has a lot to learn from me, and to prepare his mind for what his life will be like, he had better start thinking the way Indiana Jones does—that nothing is impossible, that life is a never-ending adventure, and even when the worst that can possibly happen happens—there is always a way out so long as your mind can dream and adapt.
They sent me a T-shirt, a long sleeve shirt, a hat, a pen, a notebook, and a thank you note, which meant a lot coming from a company that I have silently been very loyal to for a number of years. I had just enough time to open the box and scan through the items before getting ready to take my kids and their significant others out to the movie theater to see the long-awaited Prometheus. So I put on my new Mello Yello T-shirt, and my Mello Yello hat, and I grabbed the Mello Yello notebook with pen to give to my oldest daughter, and we left for the movie.
Of course I looked like a walking billboard for Mello Yello when my daughter let me into their townhouse where I gave her the notebook. She tends to write almost as much as I do, so I knew she would put it to good use. I also knew my kids would get a kick out of seeing all the Mello Yello gear, because in our family, it’s well known my love of Mello Yello. We don’t all get together as easily as we used to because we all have busy lives, so getting the Mello Yello clothing in time for our long-planned movie was a nice addition to a wonderful evening.
For Prometheus my wife wanted to see it on the IMAX screen at Showcase Cinemas in Springdale, which I think is the best movie screen in the Cincinnati area. Of course the film was in 3D like they all are these days, just like film producers promised when they flew me out to Los Angeles a few years ago to do a fire whip sequence and prove out the use of a 3D camera system for Real D 3D with Peter Facinelli. I had at that time a lot of skepticism that audiences would flock to theaters to put on 3D glasses and watch a movie with just a little extra thrill factor. Women who go out on dates spending a lot of time fixing up their hair just right I didn’t think would be interested in putting on glasses that would smear their make-up. People who naturally wear glasses have to now look through two glasses to see anything in a 3D movie, which is a pain in the neck. But Hollywood was committed to the idea of 3D just prior to Obama becoming president because they were pushed by theaters owners all over the United States to justify their investments in state of the art projection systems, giant theaters, and comfortable seating.
Hollywood like the education industry is facing the same kind of economic bubble that the housing industry has already experienced, and it’s bursting. In Hollywood, it was the films of George Lucas and Steven Spielberg in the 1980’s that set the modern idea of what a “blockbuster” was. Every year since the release of E.T. and the last of the original Star Wars films Hollywood has tried to copy the box office numbers of those films by pushing for larger stunts, larger and louder explosions, and faster paced film techniques driven largely by the music video generation created by MTV. Most of the films Hollywood produce each year falls short of executive expectations, but the pressure has been on for quite some time to get larger box office totals as the entertainment unions have driven up the financial expectations higher and higher. Leading actors now for a picture make between $20 million to $30 million, so budgets for a typical summer blockbuster are now up over $150 million dollars routinely. Hollywood has increasingly had to rely on overseas sales to complement their box office take domestically in order to justify their massive up front investments. Revenue streams are changing for the industry as well, as ticket prices have went up to compensate the increasingly high budgets for films, technology has made it so people can often watch films at home more comfortably than at a movie theater. Just the other day I was at Wal-Mart where I looked at a beautiful 70” big screen LCD television that was just over $2,000 dollars. Hollywood now has to find a way to give people an experience at the theater that they can’t get at home, so 3D is their solution. And it’s failing.
I say 3D is failing not with pleasure in my voice, but sadness. I love the movie theater experience, which is why I made a tremendous ritual of taking all my kids to a movie and spending $100 on tickets that cost over $15 each to see Prometheus with my Mello Yello gear on to create memories that will last a lifetime. I wanted them to have a great night out at the movies where going to the theater is like going to a sacred mythic temple as modern mythology is bestowed upon the moviegoer.
Prior to our film beginning I watched the previews for the newest rendition of Spiderman, and Batman, and half a dozen 3D extravaganzas that I could see will end up in the same scrap heap as Battleship and John Carter. It’s not to say that those films are bad, or don’t have a market niche to fill, but studios are forced to spend over $100 million to make those films because of expectations, and ticket prices are simply too high, most people will wait to watch those films on video, or Netflix. Every movie cannot be Star Wars, Jurassic Park, Pirates of the Caribbean, or The Avengers. Most Hollywood producers are fearful to attempt these days to develop original material because the risk is simply too great. Even a popular book like John Carter may not be enough to guarantee success. As I watched the previews prior to Prometheus, I knew that 75% of those films would be box office disappointments. They were dead before they have even arrived, because of the laws of quality described in Robert Pirsig’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. The Hollywood producers and entertainment agents more than ever are chasing dreams like the founders of California’s gold rush. They are digging for gold where it’s been discovered instead of looking where nobody has discovered it yet, because they are functioning in the back of the “train” so to speak.
Needless to say the film I took my family to Prometheus was spectacular, and it should have been for $100 bucks. I had no regrets in seeing that movie especially since everyone enjoyed the film tremendously. But as I stood in the lobby of Showcase Cinemas afterward in my bright yellow Mello Yello gear a wave of sadness swept over me realizing that the financial structure that made the whole movie theater business run was about to bust. Prometheus represented the best that Hollywood had to offer, and at $15 dollars a ticket, it barely seemed worth it. I can’t image paying that kind of price for a lesser movie, yet the movie industry is counting on it, and they will be disappointed.
The same holds true in the movie industry as it does with President Obama not understanding that European economic models built around socialism is the cause of their failure, and The United States allowing for a mixed economy of a little socialism here and there sprinkled with bits of capitalism is what has caused Obama’s failed economy during his presidency. He’s as clueless as the typical film executive who will find themselves out of a job in a couple of years because their films failed to meet the market expectations. Hollywood is looking for the Justice League to fill the market void of George Lucas retiring. That was on my mind because just a few days before Mello Yello sent me all that merchandise I received a press release from Lucasfilm stating Lucas was officially retiring, and that Kathleen Kennedy was stepping in to help fill the void at that billion dollar film company. Kennedy is a long time assistant to many Spielberg films and now she’s going to work full-time at Lucasfilm. This is a serious indication that Hollywood’s creative core is aging, and moving on to other things, and the next generations of Hollywood filmmakers and other above-the-line talent are functioning from the back of Pirsig’s quality train, and will fail under the heavy expectations.
I thought it was appropriate that I was wearing a Mello Yello T-shirt on a night when I was having all these thoughts. Way back in 1994 and 1995 I wanted to buy a Mello Yello T-shirt, but then frustrated executives at Coca Cola were upset that the soft drink did not perform equivalent to Mountain Dew, so they pulled the drink for a bit and changed it to the soft drink “Serge,” so I didn’t get my Mello Yello shirt. This went on for a while until executives at the Coca Cola Company realized that this would not boost their sales, so they had sacrificed a very good drink just because it arrived late to the marketing gate, and if they had held strong, they might have made real gains through the late 90’s into the next century. Mello Yello made its triumphant return slowly, and is just now beginning to be purchased in the northern states of America. The same day I went to Wal-Mart to see the big screen television, they had three 12 packs of Mello Yello on their shelf. My wife bought all three of them. A couple of years ago, Wal-Mart in Ohio did not carry Mello Yello at all.
Mello Yello has always been a great drink, but it was judged based on the blockbuster success of Mountain Dew, and it suffered as a result. The same thing is about to happen in the film industry. Many films will suffer as film executives lose their jobs in the years to come due to the entertainment bubble collapsing under the enormous weight of expectation. And like Mello Yello, I have my brands of filmmakers that I support valiantly, and Ridley Scott is one of them. When my “brands” make a film that I know they poured their heart and soul into it, I go and see them. The next film I feel passionate about will be Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit. I will pay top dollar to see that movie as a kind of vote for what I think success in a movie should be, to help curb the disappointment from an industry that expects too much, and is collapsing under inflated opinions. Twenty years from now, like my previous twenty years of supporting Mello Yello, I’m sure some of these very good film studios will re-emerge from the wreckage that is about to become of the film industry, and I’ll be there to support them as I was to see the great film Prometheus and one of the great offerings of the year from 20th Century Fox.
I proudly put my Mello Yello gear away when I got home that night and contemplated all that you read here today. And because of that, it means more to me than the moment that I opened it. In capitalism, whether it’s a movie, or a soft drink, the idea came from the mind of a capitalist, and millions of people enjoy the results of those thoughts—and every instance is a thing of beauty. I cherish Mello Yello because it’s been through so much as a company and even with all that, they still have the swagger about them to send me a box full of Mello Yello fun on the eve of taking my family to see the film Prometheus. It was an evening of ideas, and capitalism, and crushing expectations. But at the end of the day, it is the ideas that burn not so much brightest, but longest that survive. And Mello Yello survives, in the same way that many others will endure as great minds who think at the front of the train emerge to give great ideas a place to materialize. Each time I wear my Mello Yello T-shirt, it will not be out of blind devotion to a soft drink, but out of reverence to a company that I cherish because it makes a great product, and has had the tenacity to weather the storms of economic betrayal to arrive at a day when it can please the taste buds of millions.
Want to know what I’m going to be doing on Friday night! My wife is already making popcorn and the refrigerator is packed with nice cold beverages. Because on Friday, March 9, 2012 Darth Maul returns to fight Obi Wan Kenobi in the Cartoon Network’s Star Wars, The Clone Wars which is one of my favorite television shows.
I have been wondering for months how Darth Maul would be brought back to life after he was cut in two during the film The Phantom Menace. So finally, the wait will be over, and we will find out. And I can’t wait!
Sometimes the best way to see something clearly is to back up so you can put it in focus. It also helps to not view the world exclusively through one particular specialization of which one makes a living. Living life should be a constant adventure of always learning and expanding ones viewpoint, and not relegating a perception to just those within the field of one’s occupation. This is the role of philosophy and story tellers, people I enjoy spending time around more than any other, because they often see the bigger picture of things, excel in this skill and do society great justice when they share the fruits of their labor.
The dark story of making The Hobbit is one that has held the project up for years and is yet another story about how labor unions are corrosive organizations. And its statements like that which have blacklisted me from any future work within the Hollywood community. I made this choice consciously knowing that I will instead shift my attention in these middle years of my life to writing novels instead. So I am happy to let my whip work and other entertainment talents drift into the nature of that independent task of authorship. Because there is no going back now, I’ve said too much.
But what I said needed to be said. It’s the things that Peter Jackson doesn’t want, or need to say. It’s the things that the distributors at Warner Brothers can’t talk about even if their opinions are harsh on the matter privately. This is because a subtle harness is placed upon the entertainment industry and that harness is the exact same gag that exists on public education, and is preventing the open learning and creativity of millions of children from realizing their full potential. It is that of the labor unions.
During Lord of the Rings, the production could be said to be very successful because Peter Jackson as a director is extremely personable, grounded, and fantastic at multitasking. He kept his set fun which allowed for a bonding to occur between his technical staff and his actors which showed up on-screen in a tremendous way. It is unlikely that Lord of the Rings would have been such a great production if Jackson had not been the director, or if the entire film had not been shot in New Zealand.
My wife and I made serious plans to move to New Zealand in the early years of our marriage and live on a sailboat. So I understand the appeal of a country that as of now prides itself on rugged individuality. When one thinks of New Zealand government of any kind does not come to mind, just big open fields, mountains, horses and–sheep. But the one great thing that I’ll say about New Zealand that the film industry can’t say is that one of the reasons Lord of the Rings went together so impressively, and all members of the crew got along unusually well, and communication worked at all levels was the absence of a labor union in New Zealand involving the actors and technical unions. Before Lord of the Rings came out there were only a few major films to come out of New Zealand, The Man from Snowy River films, and the George Lucas spectacle Willow. So the labor unions didn’t protest too intensely when New Line Cinema aligned with Wingnut films to produce a massive three film adaptation to the Tolkien classic, the unions didn’t pay much attention. Jackson wisely shot the films back-to-back while Fellowship of the Ring was still in post production and had not yet hit theaters. The Lord of the Rings films were able to be made outside of the chaos of the usual Hollywood production without a lot of union influence in an almost campfire style production where everyone bonded on the set.
However, success breeds the looters, and after multiple Academy Awards the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance union from Australia decided it wanted to move over into the New Zealand market because they feared that such high-profile big budget films in the future would go to New Zealand instead of Australia where the Star Wars films were shot over similar concerns. These big productions could not be done in the United States, because there is too much hassle these days over labor disputes, so film companies run from unions out of necessity, and in this case New Zealand is the last far-flung corner of the globe without one of these labor unions controlling the industry, so The Hobbit will be the last of its kind. The unions took action against The Hobbit production joining with the Screen Actors Guild and four other international unions to boycott the production.
Peter Jackson in an effort to save his home country of New Zealand the thousands upon thousands of jobs The Hobbit would bring to craftsman and film personnel refused to buckle under the union pressure and called the union what it was, a bully looking for money, membership and power. He threatened to take the production of The Hobbit and its $300 million budget to Europe in order to make the film. You can read that article here:
Thankfully the whole situation settled as thousands of New Zealanders protested to keep The Hobbit production in New Zealand, so the unions backed off socially, and Jackson was able to go and make the film the way he likes to make them. For me personally it is very nice to see Peter walking around on his sets casually without all the egotistical authority that so many of his predecessors displayed. It’s Jackson’s directorial style to be very open, fair and forthcoming in his dealings with his cast and crew. Jackson is certainly a director who would suffer from too much outside control on his projects which is what the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance union was trying to do. They saw Jackson’s success and they wanted to loot off his back, off his creations, and his relationships so they could get a piece of the pie for themselves.
This is what teachers unions have done to our schools. It’s no different in any respect. A school cannot pick up and move like Jackson threatened to settle a union dispute. A community has a school and it’s fixed in place. So if a union infests it with their looting tendency, the community is forced to deal with the extortion measures they employ.
The Disney Company deals with the unions by tossing more money at the problem which is why the Pirate films are so expensive. Disney has the advantage of generating a tremendous amount of money through their subsidiary companies, so they can play that game. They are too big to fly under the radar like Jackson does today, or Spielberg and Lucas used to. Notice that as Spielberg became bigger and more successful over the years, that his films seemed to become more and more bogged down. He still makes pretty good films, but nothing like his final year as a master filmmaker in 1993 with the release of Jurassic Park and Schindler’s List. I know people get angry with Spielberg and Tim Burton (who I think is a fantastic director) for sucking up to the Obama administration now, and the Clinton administration’s back in the 90’s, but at the heart of that evil is a desire for creative people to make their movies as a wall of opposition known as the entertainment unions stand in the way. The union influence shows up in the final product and it does rob the production of some magic. The audience can tell the difference and it does affect Hollywood’s bottom line. They respond by making more comedies, and easy productions that aren’t overly complicated and can be shot around Los Angeles or Las Vegas–easy set ups. The creative minds behind the movies attempt to keep the protesting communists who run the labor unions at bay with appeasement. Disney throws money at unions to advance a project which works, but prevents smaller film makers from being able to compete on equal footing, because the unions hold all producers to the same standard as a company like Disney. Unless the filmmaker makes the film out of the country like Jackson has, they find themselves encumbered needlessly both creatively and financially.
As I see the previews and clips coming in from The Hobbit I am starting to get excited, because such films—stories of such depth are rare for all the reasons described, and are true treasures of our culture. I desire a world where people can speak and do business with each other without the looters standing in the way trying to make easy money for themselves. And yes, my comments here about the education unions have blacklisted me in entertainment which will go on forever. But I have other talents and I’ll use them to tell the story of how human beings get themselves into these fixes. It’s a difficult thing to balance out the need to make a living and then to make a living that is honest and true. Because the chances are, even if you are a wealthy film maker, if your love is to make movies you still need the industry system to make them, so you do your best to shut your mouth and put up with the parts you don’t like. You give money to the Obama administrations as a payoff to a mobster thug and hope they leave you alone politically. And the same holds true for the teaching profession. Or any profession that is controlled by labor unions, it’s hard to come out and speak against it, and to call it what it is, because the system is designed to exclude any voice of dissention. But I will do it, because I’ve already started the process, so I might as well see it through. And in the meantime, I will cheer with much vigor the upcoming film The Hobbit for all these reasons and more. Great stories are so few and far between, and I’m so excited about this one that I may just go get in line for it right now.
Upon this announcement The Cincinnati Enquirer interviewed me for my comments. I gave a frustrated response to the questions which can be read here. The answer to Lakota’s budget trouble is rather easy.
At some point Ohio will have a Right-to-Work amendment to our Ohio Constitution which will break up the union monopoly forever. This will happen because Indiana is going to get it, and Ohio will have to follow to remain competitive economically.Once the unions no longer run our public schools, we can then see how much money education will really costs. But not until that time should any additional funds be allocated for public education under any circumstances. Because it is obvious that the school board and administrations have no control or courage to even ask the labor force to take a 5% cut to save those 42 jobs that are in jeopardy. I know a portion of the teachers of Lakota are willing to take a pay cut, because I asked one of them on 700 WLW, and they said in the affirmative, “Yes I would take a pay cut to save the jobs of teachers.” Listen for yourself.
Once again, George Lucas has shown that he can see way over the horizon to the essence of a problem, and in this case, with his most recent film, he grapples with the spirit of America and what makes our country tick. The genius of this very, very good film titled Red Tails can be seen at the start of most NFL football games, like this one during a home game with the San Francisco 49er’s where the actual Tuskegee Airmen which Red Tails is all about, took center stage as Elijah Kelly sung the National Anthem. If you’ve ever wondered why moments like the one shown in this video gives you chills up your spine, the movie Red Tails will define it for you.
I loved the film Red Tails featuring the adventurous exploits of the Tuskegee Airmen for all the reasons that The Huffington Post and The Hollywood Reporter disliked it. You can read those reviews below for reference against the one I’m writing. Contrary to the three reviews below I love John Wayne films and I love “Old Hollywood.” And I love stories where the good guys know they are good guys, and the bad guys are purely evil. I also like my villains with scars on their faces so you can clearly see who they are and what they are up to. In real life it’s often more difficult to see who the enemies are, so in our movies, it’s fun to see them clearly. And I love stories where squeaky clean crusaders fight for justice against tyranny! For all those reasons I have looked forward to George Lucas’s epic story about the real life Tuskegee Airmen for over three years now and the last 6 months have left me very hungry for the meal that is Red Tails. On the day after my viewing, I feel filled the way only an exquisite meal can sooth and I can assure you that I will not forget it.
Red Tails review from The Huffington Post which complains the film is blatenly old fashioned.
I would recommend that you stop reading this review right now and go see the movie. You can return here later, after you’ve seen it………….I’m serious, GO SEE THE MOVIE! NOW!
But in case you didn’t listen to me, let me continue—many critics of films like this are those who seek to tell stories that reflect their life philosophies, which reflect their broken family trees, the propaganda education they’ve received, and believe that every story about African-Americans must include broken down beings who overcome racism in the methods determined in the 60’s. While the racism story is a sub-plot in Red Tails, it’s not the focus of the story because it was not the focus of the original Airmen who collaborated closely with Lucas and the filmmakers to bring this story to life. It is not George Lucas’s issue that most of America has forgotten what kind of men made up this era of freedom fighters, and if the men of the period were not squeaky clean, they at least attempted to appear that way, because the films of the period created the mythology that society functioned under. When Lucas makes movies, he does so with the long view in mind, and that is certainly the case for this movie. My wife and I watched Red Tails late on opening night to a crowd that was a heavily black audience. There was a lot of laughing during the film, and there was a lot of crying. When the film ended I heard something I have not heard in over a decade at a films conclusion—people clapped and cheered. When the lights came up streaks of tears were running down people’s faces and a feeling of patriotism filled the very large theater. The movie ended with a very moving scene involving American patriotism similar to the Elijah Kelly National Anthem shown above. You would have to be brain-dead to not like the characters in Red Tails so the ending was particularly potent. Every character was very compelling and I felt I knew them well as the credits rolled. My wife and I sat until the last credit left the screen and as I stood up to leave, the theater was still packed with weeping women, men who stood with their shoulders squared almost wanting to salute the screen. And little children were glass eyed and looked eager to find an airplane. In the lobby there was a line at the movie poster where dads were standing with their children in front of the painting to get a picture as mothers snapped the proud poses. I cannot remember a time when I’ve seen so much enthusiasm upon leaving a movie and it was a wonderful feeling. Even the sleet falling outside didn’t sour the spirits. As I held the door open for a woman coming out behind me, tears still fresh on her face, she said—“bless you.” Thus, the magic of movies, where they can unite an audience toward a common theme and touch their hearts beyond any social conventions and provoke them to bring out the best in what stirs in the mind of each and every individual on planet earth, a love of freedom, and a yearning to overcome adversity.
Lucas and I both have in common a love of Joseph Campbell, in fact Lucas served on the board of directors of the Joseph Campbell Foundation for a number of years while I was also a member. I had the fortune of attending a special showing of the Star Wars Smithsonian Exhibit back in 1997 because of my affiliation with the Joseph Campbell Foundation, and I can report that I understand exactly what George Lucas was trying to achieve as a filmmaker in Red Tails, and I agree with him 100000000%. He knows the period of history between 1900 and 1970 better than most functioning historians and his knowledge of history is reflected accurately in Red Tails.
While watching Red Tails to be honest I did not think about black men and white men until the characters reminded me of racism during the film. Racism has long been destroyed in America and it was largely through events like what the Tuskegee Airmen performed in World War II that ended it. There was a gradual acceptance by whites of black culture as they enjoyed Jazz in the speakeasy of the prohibition, and the actual black soldiers who fought for the South in the Civil War and begun the process shown in Red Tails of respect for the men behind the color. Respect for the African-American was well on its way by natural causes. It was the looters of government who used the Civil Rights movement to grab power, create bloc voting groups, and push social programs in the 60’s and 70’s that distorted history, and ironically created the falsehoods in education that many of the current movie critics are functioning from.
It’s not that those men of the World War II period did not abuse their wives, or tie up their children into dog cages and torture them, or did not run around womanizing and getting drunk. The difference between the age of Red Tails and today is that the behavior is now accepted, so watching a film about characters who are either squeaky clean, or are trying to be squeaky clean is an accurate representation of the era, and Lucas clearly loves the period so much that he poured $100 million dollars of his own money into a modern mythmaking endeavor, so he’s going to tell the story he wants to tell, and for Lucas, a true historian, he’s going to not only capture the time period, but also the propaganda mood of the films he grew up loving as a child. So the supposed insult from many critics that Red Tails has all the bravado of a John Wayne picture is to me the highest compliment. In fact, the movie is so good that if you did not listen before and are still reading then I urge you to stop right now at your computer and head to the movie theater. Finish reading this review while you wait for the movie to start on your phone because when the lights dim, magic will happen right before your eyes.
The picture opens with my personal favorite plane, the P-40’s on an attack run, and that’s the way I like a movie, fast and furious! And Red Tails is fast, the action is dramatic. It’s a grand, epic film that if directed by someone else, and produced by anyone but Lucas, the film would be touted for an Academy Award in the year 2012. The acting reminded me of the film Chicago, which was critically acclaimed. The dialogue reflects the period. If people think its cardboard, they need to go back and watch more films from that period.
For those who think the characters are unrealistically squeaky clean then I would suggest a visit to the next air show that comes near the town you live in. Over the summer, my wife and I met some of these Tuskegee Airmen at The Dayton Air Show where they routinely attend these events. So it is possible to shake their hands, and speak with them. They’ll tell you stories from those days and history will unfold in front of you. Were they squeaky clean—no. But they tried to be, and that’s the clear difference between the age of the Tuskegee Airmen and the modern young person.
Lucas is offering in his film Red Tails not only some very good role models for young African-American boys ages 7 to 19 to learn about, but a film for all young people to enjoy that is a pleasant alternative to the apocalyptic visions of today’s filmmakers who try to attempt their own versions of Star Wars, but get lost in the special effects and forget about the heart of the story, the characters and their likeability. But Red Tails is not just for the young person, but the historian, the airplane enthusiasts, the avid museum goers who number in the millions, there is no better display of old vintage planes anywhere. To see so many P-40’s flying through the air, 109’s, 262’s, and P-51’s was a serious treat that brought an epic quality to this picture that I personally found overwhelming.
I enjoy the company of these old pilots and enjoy thoroughly the time period of early aviation, which is why the only jacket I wear is a period styled flight jacket. Although I enjoy modern flying, I can’t stand all the rules of the modern FFA. I do not take instruction well, so having a tower tell me when and where I can land does not sit well with me. In the film Red Tails my favorite character was Lightening. I live my life-like Lightening does, so I particularly found myself attracted to his character. Lightening if he lived in the modern age might have found himself paralleling my own life, constantly in trouble and always in a fight. I don’t like to be told what the flight ceiling I’m allowed to fly is when flying near a municipality, so the regulations are a turn-off to me. I prefer the early days of aviation before all the rules when adventurers took to the air at age 19 and were given expensive airplanes to go up and shoot down the enemy and expected to land in one piece, and they did. Most of those planes did not have good heating systems, so the cockpits were cold a few thousand feet off the deck, and the rough conditions made for tough men. The demons that rot the mind of modern males who have adventure robbed from them with too many regulations in our safety conscious society did not rot the mind of the fighter pilots in the largely unregulated early days of flight. And it shows. If you shake the hand of the modern Tuskegee Airman you’ll see a man look back at you, not a watered down human being lacking real experience. When a 19-year-old took to the air to face every fear imaginable, and conquered that fear, they became men of a higher caliber. And that swagger, that higher caliber is what is seen in this film.
To keep that ambition alive in my own life I ride motorcycles here in the modern age to stay sharp. The big pistons on my 1500 CC motorcycle remind me of the big engines in the old P-40’s and P-51’s. When I ride to work in the pouring rain and the snow I get noticeably perplexed gazes. In fact just the other day I was pulled over by a West Chester cop who was shocked that I was riding in a torrential rainstorm down the highway on my way to Congressman Boehner’s Office. I had to attempt to answer the question the cop had about why I was riding a motorcycle on such a terrible day. The young fellow thought he would be looking at a maniacal lunatic of some kind when I took off my winter gear and face mask to reveal a middle-aged suburbanite on his way to a congressman’s office. The cop thought he hit the mother load when he pulled me over, assuming that nobody would be crazy enough to ride in such harsh weather on a motorcycle but a criminal of some kind up to no good. I couldn’t tell the cop that I rode in the hard winter out of a desire to stay strong, to harden my resolve, to reach for a fraction of the adventure old fighter pilots used to feel in my daily commutes.
My eyesight has always been 20/10 which is better than normal and my physical attitude is such that when I was younger I could have easily passed the Navy or Air force examinations for admission, and my intelligence would have easily qualified me for being a pilot in the military. But I couldn’t stand the idea of being in the military for years before I could fly. I couldn’t stand a drill sergeant harassing me. I couldn’t take orders and acknowledge anyone as sir, so military life was an out for me. I would have been attracted to the military in the days of Red Tails, but not in the days of Top Gun. There is too much math, too many rules, and too many computers who come between the pilot and their craft as a modern fighter pilot. Each day when I get up I start-up my big motorcycle in the cold of the darkened mornings and listen to the big pistons roar to life in the massive V-Twin, I think of fighter pilots like the Tuskegee Airmen, The Flying Tigers and the Great Chuck Yeager. This morning I had to pull back into the garage because one of my hydraulic lifters was starving for oil with a very noticeable “Tick, Tick,” emerging from the engine. This required an engine flush since the oil was a bit dirty, the viscosity was thickened in the near zero temperatures, and the hydraulic lifters weren’t filling because they were clogged from the hard weather. To run the engine with such a clog could ruin the piston tolerances, so immediate action had to take place.
The old pilots of the P-51’s had similar concerns. They listened to their craft and responded between their mechanics and the desire to fly into combat by the sounds that came from their war machines. Pilots listened to the way their pistons sounded as exploded gas was pushed out and a fresh mixture was pulled in. The mess halls between flights where card games went on and camaraderie among those who pushed danger to the limit bonded pilots in a unique way that is lost to the modern latte drinker in Santa Monica which is why Lucas had to fund Red Tails on his own, the studios just don’t understand these kinds of things anymore, because bravery and valor have been driven from our society. If Lucas wanted to make a film about some young twenty something’s who bar hop around LA, the studios would scramble for his project. But some black pilots fighting Nazi’s over Europe and empowering themselves to rise above their station does not fit in with the modern perception of history, so the project sat on a shelf as studios had no idea how to make or sell such a picture to the public.
I do everything in my power to avoid these pretentious types, the leeches of bravery that have infected our society. I instead from the back of my motorcycle seek the bar and grill with the heavily tattooed bikers and the earrings draped from their ears and noses who frequent such places because there is honor among them, at least in the fashion of pushing danger and a love of piston engines. I have more in common with them than I do the well dressed executives at the Katsuya restaurant at Americana at the Brand in Hollywood. I sat at the bar eating my sushi there one night and had to listen to a very sheltered couple both dressed in pink designer shirts explain to me the fundamentals of economics in America. This man and his friend were nice enough, but were obviously lacking experience in their lives, which I felt sorry for them because they were the same age as I was. Both men had six figure incomes so life in L.A was easy enough for them. They could shop at the Americana, and work in the valley, and never leave. Their biggest trip was a daring adventure over the mountains into Las Vegas in a coming weekend. They were complaining that they couldn’t get a flight out of Burbank soon enough. I suggested they rent a couple of Harley’s and ride there on their own. They gave me the oddest look—such a thought was incomprehensible to them.
I can’t imagine such a sheltered existence. From my perspective I would never dream of flying from L.A. to Las Vegas. It’s just too close. You can almost see Vegas from over L.A. just a few thousand feet above the city. It’s not very far at all. And on the back of a motorcycle there’s a lot of adventure from one city to the other.
I’ve been on motorcycle trips where I’ve met riders at a McDonalds in some far-away land for a group ride, and I find I always enjoy the company, not because most of the riders are hardened men who could have led more productive lives, or smell like B.O. and lack dental hygiene. We share in common a love of freedom and a willingness to brave danger to have it. To me, it’s the closest experience to being a fighter pilot like the camaraderie seen in Red Tails that I’m likely to get in my lifetime. Piston driven motorcycles and piston driven airplanes are brothers from the same mother but different fathers, but are family none-the-less.
Red Tails is a fantastic film that is about everything that is good about Hollywood, and everything that Hollywood used to be, and is still hungered for by the ticket buying public. That is why despite the poor reviews from a generation of people who have lost touch with their history, the movie does what it is supposed to do, entertain, inspire, and leaves the viewer hungry to know more about the subject matter. Because of Red Tails the History Channel will cover the Tuskegee Airman and at air shows little children will seek the hand of the real Red Tails like celebrities, which they deserve. That is the magic of movies, to extend into the daily lives of the viewer long after the lights come up in the darkened theater, a feeling of hope and inspiration. Red Tails does all this and more, which makes it a successful film and one I will purchase on Blu-Ray when it comes out. And I’ll show it to my grandchildren before I take them to the Dayton Air Museum so they can see the real planes. Red Tails is about having a great time at the theater, then reaching for more in an experience that doesn’t just give back for the two hours you watch it, but will enrich your life for years as the name of a Tuskegee Fighter Pilot comes to your mind and evokes images of bravery and fortitude.
The idea of America and the film industry in general became one of the greatest exports of the United States because Hollywood used to make many movies like Red Tails. It is sad that such films are now a rarity, but thank goodness this one was made. George Lucas for many reasons that I’ll cover in a separate article has been under attack by the filmmaking establishment for years, and much of the anger toward Red Tails has nothing to do with the movie. Lucas is a visionary and that makes people angry. But Lucas is more than a visionary. He knows what society needs and he knows how to tell a story that stays with people in the deepest reaches of their minds. Red Tails is in many ways a movie about healing, not just in race relations, but in American spirit. It is an instant classic in my book and will prove to be a film that will be reflected on generations from now as a pivotal moment in Hollywood’s history that might just save it from itself.
If you’ve listened to me, then you are now sitting in the movie theater and the film is about to begin. So turn off your phone, buy some pop corn, and hang on tight. Let the Tuskegee Airmen take you on the ride of your life, and relish every frame of film shown on the screen, because what you are about to see is movie magic at it’s best, and captures the spirit of America in a bottle for all to enjoy for the price of a movie ticket. That’s why I’m going to post this, then go see it again!
In the title I thank George Lucas personally because I am grateful to his contributions of art to human civilization. I truly am. Without him, I wonder what would have become of the human race. As we speak millions and millions of young people are playing the latest Star Wars online game called The Old Republic, which is a valuable social myth maker in its own right. The impact Star Wars has had on so many lives is obvious. But other films like Willow, which is a personal favorite of my wife and I, and the great movie Tucker: The Man and His Dream taught me at a young age how quickly and precisely why men like Tucker and Howard Hughes were pushed aside and attacked for their innovations. Red Tails does for racism, bravery and American pride what thousands of films have failed to do, and is a skill uniquely suited to George Lucas who continues to bring quality to a society that seems hell-bent to destroy itself. The subtle message to Red Tails is that if the pilots had behaved nicely and not pushed politics the way they did, nobody today would know anything of the Tuskegee Airmen. They constantly pushed the limit of their orders and the law to arrive as heroes, especially Lightening. So George Lucas……..THANK YOU!
To learn more about this period see my article about the Flying Tigers here:
Also, if you want to meet some of the old bomber pilots and actually touch some of the old planes, you can see and speak with both at the Tri-State Warbird Museum in Clermont County, Ohio. It’s a wonderful place.
Politicians learned from Hollywood how to build their image into a celebrity appeal, and the same Hollywood producers and image makers who create the images we see, seem to not recognize that the looting politician is simply using the Hollywood strategy against Hollywood itself to gain money, and political influence within the organization.
The picture above is a fan design shown at Star Wars Celebration V of a future theme park that appears to be much more than fantasy now that Disney has purchased the long treasured franchise. This is significant because as I stated in my previous article about how George Lucas is the greatest anthropologist ever, I discussed why Star Wars is so important to the advancement of mankind.
The Overmanwarrior 