A Galaxy Far Far Away: 10 Years Later

Can you believe it’s been ten years since the release of Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Meance? It seems like only yesterday that I was sitting in the audience watching. . . . hmmm. . . maybe I shouldn’t say. You know a lady never reveals her age.

It’s also been ten years since the release of the original Star Wars fandom documentary, A Galaxy Far Far Away. Back in 1999, filmmaker Tariqu Jalil decided to take his camera along on an exploration of the Star Wars phenomena. He hung out with fans who camped for more than a month outside of Grauman’s Chinese Theater, captured the frenzy of the new action figure releases at Toys R Us and he profiled those that saw Star Wars as a way of life. He cut this all together with celebrity interviews and other madness to form an 80 minute pop culture documentary that was called “incredibly clever” by Fim Threat.

Me? I say, not so much.

On April 21, 2009, Cinevolve Studios released A Galaxy Far Far Away: 10th Anniversary Collector’s Edition and they sent me a copy for review. I’m sure they thought I’d praise it up one side and down, but sadly, I can’t. Working backwards here, I have to say, “collector’s edition?”

What you have here is the original documentary from the 90’s with a new package, and two additional commentaries by the filmmakers to go along with the old commentary, deleted scenes and new interviews. Seriously, fellas, you had that much to say that you needed three commentary tracks to do it? And when you take into concideration that this is a documentary — which by the very nature of the beast, IS a commentary on the subject matter being explored. . . it gives me a headache.

The bigger issue here is the documentary itself. It’s predictably a look at the freakiest of fans, the ones that can’t form an English sentence. The ones that think Luke Skywalker is the messiah, the ones that name their kids after the characters despite the fact that they’ll be teased unmercifully for the rest of their lives. I’m a fan, so I get it and I’m not denying that there are plenty of fannish people who need a reality check — but we’re not all like that. All I’m asking for is a little balance. I’m cool with the guys dressed as Stormtroopers, but where’s the guy who was so inspired by the movie he became an award-winning filmmaker.  How about those fans who put together a charity auction to help the bushfire victims in Austrailia? Or the talented Japanese artist whose work was influenced by Star Wars?

Mocking is easy, and we’ve seen it time and time again. But why is it that If a guy paints himself blue and sits in the bleachers with no shirt in 30 degree weather he’s a football fan! Whoohoo! But if a guy dresses up a Yoda and goes to a convention then he’s a reality-challenged freak.

Enough with the mocking already. Fandom rocks. This DVD, doesn’t.