Thursday May 27, 1999
http://www.canoe.ca/JamStarWars/may27_jarjar.html
April 18, 2000"Star Wars' fans think Jar Jar mussa die"
By MICHAEL FLEEMAN -- Associated Press
LOS ANGELES -- And you thought adults hated
Barney. Just listen to what they're saying about Jar
Jar Binks, the flop-eared amphibian from the new
Star Wars movie.
Many fans, echoing the views of a number of film
critics, see the character as an annoying goofball at
best and a racial stereotype at worst.
Since George Lucas's Star Wars: Episode I -- The
Phantom Menace opened May 19, the Internet has
been afire with messages -- and several entire Web
sites -- calling for no less than the annihilation of the
creature.
"The tally so far is running about 10 to one in favour
a having a festive Jar Jar-B-Q," said a Web site
called Jar Jar Must Die.
By Thursday, the Web site deja.com had amassed
15,000 messages just about Jar Jar, with many
saying they couldn't stand him.
Jar Jar, a computer-animated character dropped
into the frames next to the actors, is a bumbling
sidekick who steps in animal dung and says things
like "yousa" and "meesa" for "you" and "me."
To some, his speech sounds like
Caribbean-accented pidgin English, and his ears
suggest dreadlocks. With his bellbottom pants and
vest, Jar Jar looks to some like the latest in a long
line of black stereotypes in movies. (Critics have
also complained of Asian and Italian stereotypes in
other characters.)
Film critic Joe Morgenstern of the Wall Street
Journal described Jar Jar as "a Rastafarian Stepin
Fetchit on platform hoofs, crossed annoyingly with
Butterfly McQueen."
Rick Barrs, author of The Finger column in Los
Angeles' alternative weekly New Times, wrote:
"This digit can only hope that Massa George comes
to his senses before Episode II and kills off shufflin'
Jar Jar among others."
The Jar Jar attacks certainly haven't dampened
enthusiasm for the film, which made more than
$100 million US in its first week and is expected to
go over the $200 million mark by the end of
Memorial Day weekend.
But the vitriol has caught the people at Lucas's
production company by surprise. The filmmaker
appears particularly stung by the suggestions of
racism.
"Nothing in Star Wars was racially motivated," said
Lucasfilm spokeswoman Lynn Hale. "Star Wars is
a fantasy movie. I really do think to dissect this
movie as if it had a direct reference to the world
today is absurd."
As for the criticism that Jar Jar is a grating
presence, she said: "It's a children's movie. Kids
love him. He's so childish."
As one Jar Jar defender wrote on the Internet: "Get
over yourselves. If you want to fight real racist
stereotypes do it, but stop picking on fictional aliens
in a kid's movie."
Entertainment: Star Wars: Lucas strikes back
Wednesday, July 14, 1999 Published at 17:00 GMT 18:00 UK
BBC Online Network
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/entertainment/newsid_394000/394542.stm
April 18, 2000
Star Wars creator George Lucas has defended his latest
film The Phantom Menace against allegations of racism -
and told BBC Two's Newsnight he blames the Internet for
helping to create such stories.
Criticism has been levelled at the
movie - a prequel to the original Star
Wars trilogy which started in 1977 -
in the US, particularly over the
character Jar Jar Binks.
Reviewers have attacked Binks'
Carribean accent - and have also complained about other
supposed stereotypes in the film.
But Lucas hit back in an interview with Newsnight
presenter Kirsty Wark - and blamed fans on the Internet
who took an instant dislike to the new character.
He said: "Those criticisms are made
by people who've obviously never met
a Jamaican, because it's definitely not
Jamaican and if you were to say
those lines in Jamaican they wouldn't
be anything like the way Jar Jar Binks
says them.
"They're basing a whole issue of racism on an accent,
an accent that they don't understand. Therefore if they
don't understand it, it must be bad.
"How in the world you could
take an orange amphibian
and say that he's a
Jamaican? It's completely
absurd. Believe me, Jar Jar
was not drawn from a
Jamaican, from any stretch
of the imagination."
He said the allegations said
more about the people
making the claims than they
did about his film.
"There is a group of fans for the films that doesn't like
comic sidekicks. They want the films to be tough like
Terminator, and they get very upset and opinionated
about anything that has anything to do with being
childlike.
"The movies are for children but they don't want to admit
that. In the first film they absolutely hated R2 and
C3-PO. In the second film they didn't like Yoda and in
the third one they hated the Ewoks... and now Jar Jar is
getting accused of the same thing."
Internet fascination
He believes the US media's
fascination with the Internet
created the controversy.
"The American press uses
the internet as their source
for everything, so when
people were creating
Websites saying, 'Let's get
rid of Jar Jar Binks, he's
terrible' and some of the
critics were describing him
as a comic sidekick, they
came in and they started
calling the film racist."
He added: "It started out as a way of just selling
newspapers and then other people have sort of picked it
up. But it really reflects more the racism of the people
who are making the comments than it does the movie."
Lucas also insisted the storyline of
Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom
Menace had not suffered because of
the amount of special effects in the
film.
He said: "The big complaint about the first film was that
it was a special effects movie and that there was no
character to the story. It was a children's film, and that is
pretty much the way the critics have addressed all the
movies.
"We are moving into a
different era in terms of
cinematic experience. I liken
it more to the move from
painting frescos in the
mid-15th century - when you
had to finish that piece of
plaster that day otherwise
you couldn't go on.
"Now we've moved into the
era of oil paintings, which
gave the artist more control
and more time to think about
what they're doing."
Lucas also said he was uneasy about the cost of the
film's merchandise - which is due to make over $1bn by
the end of the year.
He said: "I wish there was a world
where nobody had to get paid and
people could just do things for free but
they don't. All the tens of thousands
of people that make the toys and the
films, they all have to pay their bills and so they demand
to be paid.
"Most people don't like toys and don't think children
should be able to play with toys. But I'm a big fan of
toys, and I think it helps kids be able to play and expand
their imaginations. To contribute to that is I think a good
thing.
"I'm not ashamed of doing anything, if we could convince
Hamley's to cut their prices I'd certainly be the first
person to encourage that."
---
Tuesday, July 13, 1999 Published at 07:01 GMT 08:01 UK
BBC Online Network
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/americas/newsid_392000/392971.stm
April 18, 2000
World: Americas Church blasts 'new age' Star Wars
Ewan McGregor and Liam Neeson star in the film
By Correspondent Peter Greste in Mexico City
Like millions of people the world over, tens of thousands
of Mexicans have been smashing local box office
records by flocking to cinemas to watch Star Wars:
Episode I - The Phantom Menace.
But now the nation's religious
leaders have warned that the movie
that tells the story of a fight between
the Force and the dark side is also
undermining traditional Christian
teachings. In an article called "Reactions to the Theology of Star
Wars", the Church publication says director George
Lucas uses stories from the Bible to tap into a spirtual
emptiness that's taking hold in the lead-up to the next
millennium.
'Spiritually hollow'
At one point the movie's young hero, Anakin Skywalker,
appears before a council of Jedi knights, just as Jesus
did before Jewish elders in the temple in Jerusalem.
In both the Bible and Star Wars, the young boys are
quizzed about whether they are the chosen ones,
annointed to lead their people away from evil.
But the author also argues that although Star Wars
parodies the Biblical stories, it corrupts them.
Instead of promoting a belief in God, the article says, the
movie promotes popular New Age philosophies that are
spiritually hollow.
Knowing the public does not view the images it sees
with a critical mind, the author says, audiences could
easily be influenced.
The movie-makers were not available for comment but
the Church publication is not likely to divert Mexican
audiences from seeing Star Wars.
"It's ridiculous," said one fan, "The movie is a good
old-fashioned fantasy about good guys and bad guys. It's
nothing new."