“wouldn’t that future have been more interesting if, say, three-quarters of the rebel pilots just happened to be Oriental women – rather than the guys who didn’t make it onto the Minnesota Ag football team. It would even be more interesting to the guys at Minnesota Ag. This is science fiction, after all.”
Oriental? Even this appropriate call for diversity is seriously dated in its inappropriateness.
Delany had all the basic bigots who would moan about diversity locked down from the start.
Kurasawa in his turn borrowed heavily from Shakespeare. Everyone borrows from everyone else.
There are elements that Lucas took from Kurasawa like the prominent role of the two bumbling robots, but most of the plot is so generic it has been told over and over again. SW worked, not because of a creative plot, but because it was visually stunning and told the story in an good way. It also, as Delaney mentioned, came at a time where space adventures were unfashionable so it had no competition.
Peter Mayhew would probably have some thoughts about characterizing his performance this way, i think.
It’s been pointed out (by George Lucas, I believe) that Star Wars is a movie about a clueless, naive farmboy and a wisecracking macho idiot who get their asses saved by a smart, savvy woman.
Elsewhere, we’d ‘agreed to disagree’ about our VERY different opinions and tastes in pop culture and entertainment a while back; let’s continue to abide by that agreement.
Have a good day, Franko.
True as that may be, it’s still relatively devoid of other women and people of color (other than Lando).
There were a few more people of color in Empire and Jedi, but still pretty lacking overall. It wasn’t until the prequels that the ratio began to increase in a meaningful way.
OK so everyone commenting here seem to be fans of SW yet no one seems to point out the obvious, It’s not the future nor are they Earthling. “A long time ago in a galaxy far far away”! Samuel Delany didn’t even pay attention to the context. Not to mention SW was meant to be a modern day myth-telling of the Hero’s Journey created by a white guy that came of age in the 50s.
Based on his track record… nope.
Very true! Even Luke’s female friend Cammie was left on the cutting room floor.
Originally, Obi-Wan Kenobi was supposed to be played by Toshiro Mifune and the part was supposedly written for him, but he turned it down. So we ended up with a very white male future.
Yeah, it’s definitely weird. That’s old Sci-Fi though, full of inaccurate use of scientific terms. Hell, in the Flash Gordon movie they called floating islands in breathable air/space “planets”. Even as a 7 year-old I objected to that.
Except the sequel movies have been relatively full of women and people of color… Just because it was made by a white dude doesn’t mean he had to hire an almost all white, male cast. I don’t think there was any malice on the part of Lucas, just blindness.
Such a great little review. It’s clear Delany thoroughly enjoyed the movie and appreciated it on its merits – but was still able to make a sharp critical point, while remaining upbeat. Good stuff.
just pointing out that an actor in a costume portrayed Chewbacca, he was not a puppet as was Yoda. have a good day.
Did not know that! I did know that samurai films were a big influence on SW!
You"re right.
But to give context, there was SF that was feminist. There was a two book set where women dominated men, I can’t remember the author but it was from Berkely or other mass publisher. There were lots of new woman SF writers in the seventies, like Marge Piercy and Elizabeth A Lynn, who had been part of the civil rights movement or the anti-war movement and the feminist movement who found a place in SF and brought their i deas. Though on checking, Lynn’s best books came a couple of years after Star Wars.
And who can forget 1974’s “Planet Earth” with John Saxon from the past, and Diana Muldaur as a leader in a woman dominated society, where the “Dinks” ecist to serve the women? Hardly a feminist separatist movie, but at least part way there.
*shrugs
