Just thought someone here might be interested in my email response to the "New Yorker". I felt the only way to respond was to be simply as obtuse as they are...
"I just had the pleasure of reading "Space Case" by Anthony Lane. Simply put, just as humorous as your fine publication's nationally renown cartoons. Ziggy couldn't have written it better."
😈 😆 😈
Indeed, I agree with your argument JP. But by replying and responding to the guy is giving him what he wants....publicity. This guy knows he was going to generate negative responses as well a little publicity. Controversy sells and this guy is seeking popularity. Give him his 15 minutes and toss him into the trash bin. He isn't worth it.
That guy is clearly an idiot his statements are all over the place, he obviously hates star wars to begin with. I don't understand some critics that if they review a movie they have no intrest in, they bash it and tear it apart, if I was a critic review a jblo love movie, I wouldn't even do that, you just have to say the movie is not your cup of tea, but for the crowd that likes that sort of movie should enjoy it. same should holds true for star wars, but this guy is too much of a retard to understand it.
Some points to consider when e-mailing the New Yorker magazine:
For those who have not read it before, it is an upscale, we here in NY are hipper than you, arts, entertainment, and the world outside of Manhattan sucks (except for the Hamptons) magazine.
That being said, when I was in college, I would read their movie reviews because sometimes the reviewer made valid points about film technique, acting, and writing.
This a-hole is seriously just a "...I couldn't be bothered seeing this crap but they pay me to, soooo...." writer. Starting with the word Sith...a word I believe that comes from the Irish or Gaelic language (look it up). Yes, GL is not Tolkien (himself a professor of old languages), but he is educated and may have taken words from all kinds of languages. I'll have to Google search some to see but I know Darth Vader is Dutch for Dark Father.
He also goes on about no one eating/ingesting (sorry pal, dinner at Shmi's house, Anakin and Padme eating in her palace, Vader and Boba Fett at the dining table) and excreting (WTF!) being a problem. How clean and unused everything looks (GL's OT was supposed to look lived in: everything looked dirty, worn, rusted and used...stormtroopers on Tatooine were dusty)? Well, the prequels are supposed to be when the Republic was clean and shiny...before all things turned to hell.
I'm sure when you live in BOHO, SOHO, or the Village (all in lower Manhattan), hang out with all of the artistes and my sh*t don't stink types, you can look down your nose at all the plebes who enjoy something as pedestrian as popular entertainment.
Just let the magazines editors know that their movie reviewers should review the movies, not give wankers a job to vent ironic so they can sound oh so very smug.
The comment about everything looking clean is bullshit and just goes to show how deluded he is. The only places that look clean and unused are the Jedi Temple, The Senate and other places were the hierarchy dwell. The rest of the planets like Tatooine, Utapau and Kashyyk look totally lived in from what I've seen.
Re: OK SW fans, time to write an angry email to The New Yorker!
Originally posted by Jedi Priestess
Check this out 😠 😠 😠I know its a big read, but take the time to read it. It's quite infuriating.
[b]
SPACE CASE
by ANTHONY LANE
The New Yorker
“Star Wars: Episode III.”
Issue of 2005-05-23
Posted 2005-05-16Sith. What kind of a word is that? Sith. It sounds to me like the noise that emerges when you block one nostril and blow through the other, but to George Lucas it is a name that trumpets evil. What is proved beyond question by “Star Wars: Episode III—Revenge of the Sith,” the latest—and, you will be shattered to hear, the last—installment of his sci-fi bonanza, is that Lucas, though his eye may be greedy for sensation, has an ear of purest cloth. All those who concoct imagined worlds must populate and name them, and the resonance of those names is a fairly accurate guide to the mettle of the imagination in question. Tolkien, earthed in Old English, had a head start that led him straight to the flinty perfection of Mordor and Orc. Here, by contrast, are some Lucas inventions: Palpatine. Sidious. Mace Windu. (Isn’t that something you spray on colicky babies?) Bail Organa. And Sith.
Lucas was not always a rootless soul. He made “American Graffiti,” which yielded with affection to the gravitational pull of the small town. Since then, he has swung out of orbit, into deep nonsense, and the new film is the apotheosis of that drift. One stab of humor and the whole conceit would pop, but I have a grim feeling that Lucas wishes us to honor the remorseless non-comedy of his galactic conflict, so here goes. Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) and his star pupil, Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen), are, with the other Jedi knights, defending the Republic against the encroachments of the Sith and their allies—millions of dumb droids, led by Count Dooku (Christopher Lee) and his henchman, General Grievous, who is best described as a slaying mantis. Meanwhile, the Chancellor of the Republic, Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid), is engaged in a sly bout of Realpolitik, suspected by nobody except Anakin, Obi-Wan, and every single person watching the movie. Anakin, too, is a divided figure, wrenched between his Jedi devotion to selfless duty and a lurking hunch that, if he bides his time and trashes his best friends, he may eventually get to wear a funky black mask and start breathing like a horse.
This film is the tale of his temptation. We already know the outcome—Anakin will indeed drop the killer-monk Jedi look and become Darth Vader, the hockey goalkeeper from hell—because it forms the substance of the original “Star Wars.” One of the things that make Episode III so dismal is the time and effort expended on Anakin’s conversion. Early in the story, he enjoys a sprightly light-sabre duel with Count Dooku, which ends with the removal of the Count’s hands. (The stumps glow, like logs on a fire; there is nothing here that reeks of human blood.) Anakin prepares to scissor off the head, while the mutilated Dooku kneels for mercy. A nice setup, with Palpatine egging our hero on from the background. The trouble is that Anakin’s choice of action now will be decisive, and the remaining two hours of the film—scene after scene in which Hayden Christensen has to glower and glare, blazing his conundrum to the skies—will add nothing to the result. “Something’s happening. I’m not the Jedi I should be,” he says. This is especially worrying for his wife, Padmé (Natalie Portman), who is great with child. Correction: with children.
What can you say about a civilization where people zip from one solar system to the next as if they were changing their socks but where a woman fails to register for an ultrasound, and thus to realize that she is carrying twins until she is about to give birth? Mind you, how Padmé got pregnant is anybody’s guess, although I’m prepared to wager that it involved Anakin nipping into a broom closet with a warm glass jar and a copy of Ewok Babes. After all, the Lucasian universe is drained of all reference to bodily functions. Nobody ingests or excretes. Language remains unblue. Smoking and cursing are out of bounds, as is drunkenness, although personally I wouldn’t go near the place without a hip flask. Did Lucas learn nothing from “Alien” and “Blade Runner”—from the suggestion that other times and places might be no less rusted and septic than ours, and that the creation of a disinfected galaxy, where even the storm troopers wear bright-white outfits, looks not so much fantastical as dated? What Lucas has devised, over six movies, is a terrible puritan dream: a morality tale in which both sides are bent on moral cleansing, and where their differences can be assuaged only by a triumphant circus of violence. Judging from the whoops and crowings that greeted the opening credits, this is the only dream we are good for. We get the films we deserve.
The general opinion of “Revenge of the Sith” seems to be that it marks a distinct improvement on the last two episodes, “The Phantom Menace” and “Attack of the Clones.” True, but only in the same way that dying from natural causes is preferable to crucifixion. So much here is guaranteed to cause either offense or pain, starting with the nineteen-twenties leather football helmet that Natalie Portman suddenly dons for no reason, and rising to the continual horror of Ewan McGregor’s accent. “Another happy landing”—or, to be precise, “anothah heppy lending”—he remarks, as Anakin parks the front half of a burning starcruiser on a convenient airstrip. The young Obi-Wan Kenobi is not, I hasten to add, the most nauseating figure onscreen; nor is R2-D2 or even C-3PO, although I still fail to understand why I should have been expected to waste twenty-five years of my life following the progress of a beeping trash can and a gay, gold-plated Jeeves.
Etc............
[/B]
At least the mag got the plot-line and title correct ;
This magazine (The Cinema Referance) i got as a supplement with the Newspaper had the Poster of ROTS on its cover..and it was that that prompted me to buy the Newspaper.
Now i go home, open the mag to page 2 to fint the article, and its written as 'Return Of The Sith' ! I had already intended writing them an e-mail but lets get to the creme-de-la-crem ; The article on page 8.
On Page 8 Its the same mistake : Return Of The Sith ! I read through the synopsis and what the movie is about AND THEY HAD THE CHEEK TO DRAW UP THE WHOLE STORYLINE OF ATTACK OF THE CLONES !!!
I was like 😠 😠 😠
So i proceeded to write them an e-mail. And i did not get a reply. So I re-write them another e-mail 2 days later and this Olga tells me that the person in charcge is abroad. The Next week no-one replies me.
My point is that they copied and pasted an article thats 3 years old just for the sake of putting it there. Besides this mag serves more as a mouthpiece for commercials as its 60% made of commercials (Yes I counted the ads compared to the Pages ! )
Until this day the ' Person In Charge ' hasnt replied my attack on their incapacity of publicity.
Originally posted by GCG
actually i was writing an angry e-mail to some mag for getting it all wrong.This guy can get pissed on for what i care ; Its his opinion that CLEARLY shows that he hasnt seen any Star Wars, or is being paid to bring it down.
My opinion of Mr. Lane is below
piss2
I doubt any film critics exist that haven't seen any star wars films before. Just because he didn't like ROTS doesn't mean he hasn't seen SW films. That's a pretty silly assumption.
but when he says:
some Lucas inventions: Palpatine. Sidious. Mace Windu. (Isn’t that something you spray on colicky babies?) Bail Organa. And Sith.What kind of a word is that? Sith. It sounds to me like the noise that emerges when you block one nostril and blow through the other
These names were already known; he isnt saying anything new. why bring it up now ?
What can you say about a civilization where people zip from one solar system to the next as if they were changing their socks but where a woman fails to register for an ultrasound, and thus to realize that she is carrying twins until she is about to give birth?
WHY would Padme want to have it disclosed that she is pregnant ? SHE HAS TO HIDE IT !
Any educated moviegoer would know what to do, having watched that helpful sequence in “Gremlins” when a small, sage-colored beastie is fed into an electric blender.
Yoda is a movie Icon.....does that make Lane better than me or should i say he implies that i am uneducated ?
What I find amusing is you guys coming here and stating that no one should respond to this guy. Now thats all well and good, but if you are going to take that tack, then you guys should never complain about politics or anything else. It is the exact same thing. And sending a letter to the editor, or your congressman, etc is very much an OK practice. I do however think that such a letter needs to be worded in such a manner so as not to appear like some raving fool.
Re: OK SW fans, time to write an angry email to The New Yorker!
Originally posted by Anthony Lane
Nobody ingests or excretes. [/B]
and why does he say that nobody eats ? Surely Lucas isnt going to get Palpatine exeunting his bathroom tucking his robes saying ' Master Windu sooner than expected..... with the flushing noise in the background. There was a mild referance in TPM when Jar Jar Binks (who else ; he cant help not being clumsy!) steps on a pile of Shit.
But Lucas does have eating in star wars as sharply contrasted to being drained.