Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)Don't listen to disgruntled Star Wars fans on this book. There are only a few out and out negative pieces here (one, "Jedi Uber Alles" by Tom Carson, is actually pretty good); most are fond, respectful, but above all they're *interesting.* No, this isn't a licensed love fest. Nor does it claim to be. It's about how the movies have affected our culture and our minds, and it's done so in good and bad ways. Star Wars, as this book's editor Glenn Kenny points out, did not at all kill movies. But it seems pretty inarguable that it made them louder and dumber, which (again as Kenny points out) is weird because George Lucas is the world's biggest independent filmmaker who controls with an auteur's pickiness his own product. But anyway: The really good essays here are Jonathan Lethem's (about seeing Star Wars 21 times in one summer), Tom Bissell's (about Boba Fett), Todd Hanson's (about The Phantom Menance), Lydia Millet's (about Darth Vader), Elvis Mitchell's (about Lando), and the above-mentioned Carson essay which I hate as a fan but admit makes some good points. There are also some really quite dreadful essays (say nothing but good of the dead) which I won't stoop to name. All Star Wars fans should get this book; it's important, and it's funny, and it has smart, tough things to say.
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