Mark's Notebook

Space Cadets

Mary and I don't go out to the movies very often, but we had the opportunity to see two movies within the last couple of days. On Thursday, we saw Star Wars III. This afternoon, we saw The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy.

Neither film is a masterpiece. But that was a given.

Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith

I pretty much knew what to expect in terms of plot and dialogue, having read all the reviews and spoilers beforehand. I hoped to see a coherent story that would make sense out of the entire series. The story did not disappoint.

We did not find the dialogue to be as flat as others had told us. Or perhaps we weren't expecting much. The only film in the series that had decent dialogue was The Empire Strikes Back, way back in 1980. So this film fit right in.

This episode also challenged us with a bit of philosophy; Empire was also the only other episode to do so. Anakin (and the audience) was faced with the ambiguity of "good" and "evil" in relation to one's personal goals and the goals of society. Some have found it easy to see reflections in our own ambivalence about the "war on terror." But I personally found more parallels to World War II and the Cold War. WWII saw a strong pacifist movement in the US that almost kept us out of the war. It also saw renegades like Dietrich Bonhoeffer in Germany, a pastor who participated in an assassination attempt on Hitler. Sometimes who is right and who is wrong is decided not by intrinsic moral values, but by the outcome. If Hitler had won the war, or Stalin the Cold War, the world might have a very different opinion about "right" versus "wrong."

Anakin was obviously quite conflicted about the various roles he was asked to take on. It reminded me of when I've been in politically charged situations at work. Who am I supposed to listen to? How do I decide? Talk about the ultimate cross-functional org chart. This made him sympathetic to a point. Fortuately, few of us resort to murder to resolve our work conflicts. This must have occurred "long ago and far away," long before and far from the therapies we have today.

I was disappointed to find Padme so weak. Like Anakin's mother, she was unworthy to be an ancestor of the feisty Princess Leia we meet in subsequent episodes; although perhaps in her we do catch a glimpse of her whiny future son Luke.

The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy

I have read all the books and seen a few of the episodes on late-night TV. Mary was totally unfamiliar with the story, and she found it confusing. We both found it hilarious. If we were disappointed by expectations of an overly-serious Star Wars, this one provided the antidote. We knew from the musical opening that this was not one to take seriously.

It shouldn't be necessary that one be a fan already in order to understand the basic story. Perhaps it was just the accents. It certainly did have better dialogue than Star Wars. But apparently it was not necessary to have dialogue that made perfect sense.

Watch for TV's Marvin in the background of one scene, along with the new Marvin made for the movie.

It is true that a few things were changed to make the movie version. The changes were not disappointing. The addition of a romantic subplot seemed entirely natural, even if a betrayal of the later books' plots.

There's not a lot of action in this movie, so don't expect light saber battles and harrowing space rides.

I hear that Douglas Adams was an outspoken atheist, and his books were meant to express that viewpoint. In particular, the concept of the "infinite improbability drive" seems to express the idea that our current world of life, however improbable, is evidently quite possible. One who believes differently might say that our current world, however impossible, must obviously be the product of a creator who performs the impossible. Adams's atheistic viewpoint does not bother me, and it does not invade the movie unless you think about it more than the film's tone warrants.

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Last updated Tuesday 13 May 2008