Thoughts on my Star Wars prequels poll.

[philmophlegm]

This is the poll I am referring to:
http://philmophlegm.livejournal.com/306241.html#comments

Now I have observed that while most fannish types hate, or at least were dissappointed by, the Star Wars prequels, most loved the Peter Jackson Lord of the Rings films (except for some hardcore purists who wanted Tom Bombadil and felt that some piece of dialogue was ever so slightly different from the books).

Continuing with this thought leads me to this list of reasons to hate the LoTR films:

Jar-Jar Binks Pippin is annoying.
Who cares about "the taxation of trade routes to outlying star systems" "a Last Alliance of Elves and Men"?
Teenage Anakin Comedy Gimli is annoying.
Hayden Christensen Elijah Wood can't act.
Natalie Portman Orlando Bloom can't act.
Midi-chlorians. Magic rings.
Soppy love story in Episode 2 3.
Needs more women.
Too many fan-pleasing references to and appearances of minor characters from the original trilogy other books in the series.
CGI is never as good as muppets!*
Jar-Jar Binks All the good guys are white and all the bad guys are black is like totally racist.
Poor direction in green screen and CGI shots.
Too much of the plot is happening off-screen.
Since when can R2-D2 fly? do dwarves get tossed?
"Nooooooooooooo!"

Not really that different is it? (Personally I think ladyofastolat hit the nail on the head, when she suggested that people were comparing the Star Wars prequels not to the original trilogy, but to how they felt about the original trilogy when they first saw them as children.)

* Although since he is in water for many scenes, I can see some practical problems in having a muppet Gollum...


I've never quite got the Jar-Jar Binks is racist thing. Apparently he represents a Jamaican stereotype. Wikipedia has a page on Jamaican stereotypes which suggests that Jamaican men are stereotypically:

• Marijuana smokers


• Womanisers


• Rastafarians


• Black

That wikipedia page links to the site jamaicans.com, which has a longer list of Jamaican stereotypes, most notably:

• They say "man" after everything


• They (only) listen to reggae


• They're always late


• They like white women with long hair


• They have many jobs


• They practise voodoo

Let's consider whether those stereotypes apply to Jar-Jar and the other gungans:

• Marijuana smokers - I must have missed that scene. Perhaps it's one of the deleted scenes included in the second disc of the DVD boxed set.


• Womanisers - Do we even see a gungan woman?


• Rastafarians - Little evidence of the gungans worshipping dead Ethiopians or wearing dreadlocks (in fact they don't seem to have hair).


• Black - As far as I can see, all the gungans are green or greenish.


• They say "man" after everything - Jar-Jar has lots of annoying verbal mannerisms (which seem to be unique to him rather than shared with his fellow gungans) but this isn't one of them.


• They (only) listen to reggae - We get to hear some gungan music during the victory parade at the end of Episode 1. It definitely isn't reggae.


• They're always late - The gungans seem to be in the right place at the right time to, for example, fight the Trade Federation's droid army, or propose important legislation in the Imperial Senate.


• They like white women with long hair - Jar-Jar does seem quite fond of Padme / Amidala, and she's definitely a white woman with long hair, so you can have this one.


• They have many jobs - Jar-Jar does have more than one job it's true (itinerant, general, diplomat...) but not generally at the same time.


• They practise voodoo - Nope. In a 2002 RPG adventure, two gungan Jedi are mentioned, but that wasn't canon then, and it certainly won't be now.

So, not seeing it I'm afraid. If you're setting out to find racism in the Star Wars films, surely it's much more obviously racist that pretty much all the bad guys are played by British actors. Peter Cushing, Dave Prowse, Ian McDiarmid, Peter Serafinowicz, Sir Christopher Lee, Julian Glover, Don Henderson, Jeremy Bulloch, Michael Sheard...