So, the writer, actor, and comedian Patton Oswalt has written a memoir called Silver Screen Fiend, in which he examines what he feels was an unhealthy relationship with movies in his younger days. Yes, he does use the word “addiction,” and he makes a pretty good case for why it applies in an interview that aired recently on NPR.
He also says he was finally able to break his compulsion, in part, because he was so disappointed with Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace.
No doubt some of my readers probably just snickered. I, on the other hand, reacted to the interview’s title, “How ‘Star Wars’ Helped Patton Oswalt Beat His Movie Addiction,” with a disgusted roll of my eyes, and I almost didn’t bother to read the article. Seriously, I am so sick and tired of the kneejerk negativity that erupts whenever anyone mentions the Star Wars prequels, and The Phantom Menace in particular. I mean, come on, people, it’s been sixteen years since that movie came out… let it the hell go! The absolute last thing this world needs is any more prequel bashing. I certainly don’t have any interest in that conversation anymore.
Nevertheless, some kind of morbid curiosity compelled me to click through and find out what the hell Oswalt was actually saying. I don’t know, maybe I just wanted to find out how much of a dick the guy was or something. But to my surprise… it wasn’t quite what I thought, based on the headline. I mean, sure, he really didn’t like The Phantom Menace and he’s not afraid to say so… but he also said something about George Lucas that I found genuinely refreshing, considering the depressing “he’s a hack” groupthink I encounter everywhere these days:
I’ll put it this way — I was the worst kind of movie fan. I’m the kind of guy who saw 6 movies a day, didn’t write any movies, didn’t make any movies, but then could be armchair quarterbacking on a movie that I had no hand in making.
Yes, I thought [Phantom Menace] was a failure, but the dude took a shot at it. It hit me that I was spending days and days and nights and nights with my friends, arguing back and forth about this film but this guy made a movie. Good or bad, he made a movie. He’s on a different realm than you.
I remember saying before The Phantom Menace opened that, if nothing else, Lucas had some major cojones to even attempt to go back to Star Wars after so many years. I don’t think I would’ve had the courage to do it, myself, not after the original trilogy blew up into this enormous cultural institution that a significant number of people thought of as genuinely sacred. It seemed to me an impossible mountain to climb… there was just no way he was going to be able satisfy the incredibly overheated expectations and hopes that people attached to Episode I.
Before anyone starts ranting in the comment section, let me state for the record that I have exactly zero interest in debating yet again the merits or flaws of the prequels. But I would like to say that I have long been frustrated with the truly astounding amounts of bile directed at Lucas personally. Fanboys used to think he could do no wrong; now they think he can do no right. Both positions are equally nonsensical. Uncle George may not be a genius, but he’s also not a hack. He’s human. He got old and grew rusty in his craft. His vision drifted out of sync with the culture. He let us down. You know, it happens, guys. And it happens to a lot of creative people, unless they follow the Harper Lee route and retire after their one big hit. George Lucas didn’t do that. For whatever reason — and really, who knows what truly motivated him, but I’m pretty certain it wasn’t money, as so many sneering Comic Book Guy types claim — he decided to give writing and directing another go. And he failed, in the eyes of many — but certainly not all — Star Wars fans. But in the end, he tried. And as Oswalt points out, that’s more than the vast majority of his most vociferous critics can claim.
Give the man a break. He deserves some degree of respect simply for creating this thing that we love so much that we couldn’t handle being disappointed by it.
