How to watch the Star Wars series

Ok, so not a film post - I would like to discuss how you would like a newbie watch the Star Wars series.

Two schools of thought here, release date (New Hope, Empire, Return, Phantom, Sith then Clones) or chronological order (Phantom, Sith, Clones, New Hope, Empire and Return).

Release date gives my boys the same experience I had where I, II and III are a prequel to IV, V and VI. Chronological ruins the surprise in Empire.

With a quick hat-tip to Wired.com, I would like to show them in order of New Hope, Empire, Phantom, Sith, Clones and Return. This way, the surprise is maintained in Empire and Anakin's back story is shown before his redemption in Return.

Your thoughts...

Fight Club

Entertainment is a risky proposition. It doesn't matter if the risk is taken by a stand up comedian willing to face silence from a crowd or a trapeze artist working without a net, we as the viewers are impressed by the amount of effort required in creating the act and the level of danger in its presentation - unless it crosses the line into self indulgence.

Fight Club's creation was a high wire act. It combined effort in its crafting and danger in its content. It was a risky film to produce and poorly handled could have hampered the careers of Ed Norton and Brad Pitt.

It was released in 1999, which I believe marked the slow demise of a short golden age of film. An age where studios were more willing to spend money on quality writing and actors were more interested in their craft than their box office appeal. It was during this mini golden age we had such gems as Pulp Fiction, The Usual Suspects, 12 Monkeys, Fargo, The Big Lebowski and American Beauty. The end of this era was boldly stamped by the release of American Pie.

I know I have warned you before, but I must make it clear now. I will talk about spoilers from this point on.

Fight Club is a masterpiece. It is a movie that demands repeated viewings and has one of the best "Wait... what?" moments ever. Often the second viewing follows immediately after the first. Which is where you move past the "Tyler = Narrator" thing and listen to the actual message.

Unfortunately, I was told the twist of this movie prior to seeing it. Who does this? If you're going to get someone to see this movie, surely you say to them, "I can't tell you anything about this movie because the first rule of Fight Club is that nobody talks about Fight Club."

I missed this on in the cinemas because the trailers focused on the scenes of action and violence. It's like the marketing people didn't get the message of the movie at all. Which is quite ironic - that an anti establishment, anti consumerist movie is misunderstood by the people whose jobs it is to sell said movie.

So, on to the age to see this movie.

First, if you can't handle the violence of an MMA cage fight, you're too young to see this movie. The violence is presented in a way that is realistic. People are hurt, they wince in pain, they need first aid and they have scars that last. They get knocked down and don't get back up again and this can be confronting if you've been raised on a diet of Stallone, Schwarzenegger, Willis, Statham or anything starring a wrestler. This is not an action movie where Bond hits the bad guy in the face and he smiles. Nobody has ever done that in real life.

Second, if you haven't had a job and you don't know the pressures of conforming versus the limitations of a paypacket, you're too young to see this movie. You just won't understand if Mum and Dad are paying all your bills and you haven't done the maths to figure out how many hours it will take to pay for a new iphone while you're flipping burgers at McD's.

Finally, you have to have parents that are cool with you watching the content. And that's a pretty big ask. I would not be comfortable watching this with my parents, but I would be ok with discussing it with them afterwards.

Most countries have this movie rated at 18+. I would be ok with my kids watching this when they are around 20.

Over to you...

Star Wars - A New Hope

The first to be released in the Star Wars franchise and one that totally changed the culture of film making and film watching. Take a look at the top 50 grossing films of all time (according to Wikipedia). Find one that does not have a big special effects budget.

I know what you're going to say; a top grossing film does not mean it is a good film. True. But it does make it a popular film. And I would suggest that that popularity can be laid at the feet of New Hope.

Don't believe me? In 1976, New Hope won the best Special Effects Academy Award. What movie won in the previous year?

I'll spare you the Googling, it was Logan's Run.

So from Logan's Run, whose best effect was a flashing red light on the palm of the hand, George Lucas took us on a quantum leap in visual effects, creating green screens on the way and incorporating old school techniques like models and rubber suits. For that, we should forgive George all his subsequent sins - many thought they be.

But this film isn't just about special effects. After all, every summer is littered with the corpses of unprofitable films that spent big on special effects at the expense of a decent story. Lucas took the tried and true Western (or even further back - the Hero's Journey) and gave it a new backdrop. It could have failed miserably. Problems on set and Lucas' own flights of fancy could have destroyed the project - after all who would have predicted that Chewbacca would be a massive hit and Jar Jar Binks would be a massive annoyance? A New Hope was such a simple idea that was executed with great attention to detail.

And what we are left with is cinematic gold. A flawed film, one that should have been left in time (and never re-released under a Director's Cut) but one that has defined popular culture since it's release.

It is this impact on popular culture that leads me to think that I should show this film sooner, rather than later to my 5 year old. I feel he would be ok with some of the scarier scenes - the first appearance of Vader, the Tuskan raiders attacking Luke, the (unseen) Jawa massacre and the light sabre battle between Obi Wan and Vader.

I don't think I need to be concerned with the political machinations of the Empire versus the old Republic. It has very little impact to the viewer when this movie is taken on its own. Later, when viewing Empire for the first time, we would need to review New Hope to give a little context.

So over to you. Do you agree that 5 is an appropriate age to view Star Wars: A New Hope?

Update: My five year old (must think of a better nickname...) saw it on the weekend and couldn't get enough of it. He's off to visit Granny and Grandad today and begged to take the DVD with him. No can do son, the grandparents will not sit through a SciFi movie.

My fears over the scarier scenes were unfounded.

I'm glad I saw this again. Any good movie should show you something new each time you watch it. While looking at the mundane farming existence of Luke's family, I couldn't help but think "You'll be dead tomorrow." Luke and Owen spent most of their time bickering over joining the Academy and getting chores done. It made me think of my own mortality and the mundane moments in my life, how should I fill my days...?

Their relationship had reached an impasse where Luke's priorities were developing beyond Owen's needs of keeping their farm going. I think Mark Hamill's performance was hampered by one fact: he was too old. Most males make this rebellious transition around the age of 16 to 18; Mark was 25 at the time of filming. It's a meaningless hypothetical, but what if Lucas had access to some of the actors born in 1959- 61: Kevin Spacey, Sean Penn, James Spader, Tim Hutton, George Clooney...? Would it have made New Hope a better movie? How would it have affected the franchise? Or would we have ended up with Scott Baio, Danny Bonaduce or Ralph Macchio in the role?

How To Read This Blog

Let me say this up front: I love film. I love film as art, popular culture, satire or escapism. I am a film nerd. And it is this love of film that I would love to pass on to my two children, both boys.

The desire to start writing came about from two separate events. Indulge me, as I relate these stories.

The first was a discussion with an employee at a video store at a time when the market was being saturated with low quality horror...

Me: I would like to find something that's really scary.

Video Guy: What have you found scary in the past?

Me: Remember the first time you saw Alien? Something like that.

Video Guy: I don't remember, I was too young.

Now, I have a problem with this. Not necessarily that my Video Guy saw a scary movie when he was too young in the eyes of the censors and he might get nightmares. No, I have a problem in that he was too young to understand and appreciate it. In my opinion, if you're that young, you're seeing monsters jumping out of dark shadows and not really getting the context of biological warfare and corporate manipulation which makes the movie that much more frightening.

The second involved Blade Runner. I saw the movie when I was 12. I had the discussion around "Deckard was a replicant" when I was around 18. That delay coloured my perceptions of the film, so much so that I wished I had seen it when I was older.

And so to the point of these discussions. My two boys are 5 and 2 years old. They are both at an age where they can sit down in a theatre and see a 90 minute film without becoming too fidgety. There are many films that I want them to see as they grow up, but...

At what age should they see these films?

I want them to see classics - Hitchcock, Capra, Coppola and Kubrick. I want them to see quirky - Tim Burton, Spike Jonze and Coen brothers. I want them to see funny - from Charlie Chaplin to Adam Sandler (hey, funny is in the brain of the beholder). And I think you, fellow interwebbers can help me.

Some rules:

• When I talk about a film, I will be discussing it with the view that you have already seen it. Therefore I will gleefully cover spoilers without warning. Do not leave a comment asking me to write "Spoiler alert" at the top of the post because you have been warned now.
• I am quite happy to talk about the relative merits of a film, but I do not want to get into discussions about what is appropriate from a Chiristian or family friendly perspective. I am not particularly fussy about depictions of bare skin, guns, drug taking, violence or any of the more controversial aspects of mainstream cinema. If a film is released in my country, eventually my children may end up watching it. The age that they watch the film is important in terms of their maturity level, not so much in terms of what is "right" or "wrong" to watch.

Otherwise, anything goes. I am big enough to handle being called names; if you don't agree with me, feel free to call me an idiot. Just be prepared to back it up. If you want me to review a particular movie, let me know and I will give it a shot.