moonlighting as a Times film columnist?
April 21, 2005
I am your fantasy father
by Kevin Maher
A long time ago we first laid eyes on a galaxy far far away. Soon it will end, having changed the face of science fiction on film
MAY 25, 1977. Sci-fi obsessives would call this date the Jonbar Point. Named after John Barr, the hero of a celebrated 1930s fantasy story, it describes a seemingly innocuous moment that can suddenly split the entire Universe into two parallel realities — one bathed in the serene light of advancement, the other plunged into darkness and confusion.
Our May 1977 Jonbar Point describes the moment when that first strip of celluloid ran through the projector at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, emblazoning across the screen the seemingly anodyne legend: “A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away . . .”
And the Universe was split in two. In one reality we continued, blissfully unaware of Star Wars, to watch the modestly hyped and intermittently successful Oscar-nominated likes of Last Tango in Paris, Cries and Whispers, A Woman Under the Influence, Chinatown and Lenny. In the other universe we spent £2.5 billion on plastic figurines and video games. We passed three dark decades in the multiplex, watching re-releases, revamps and reissues of the same movie. We silently witnessed the emergence of the proudly spectacular yet no-brains blockbuster as the dominant American film form. We cheered excitedly as the once mercifully short summer movie season oozed slowly across the calendar (it now lasts for half the year, from April to September). We celebrated the wholesale co-option of the media into the movie-marketing business. We greedily devoured studio-sanctioned interviews about stars acting in front of green screens, genius technicians rendering multiple computer-generated shots, and tyro directors boasting about the enduring power of myth.
April 21, 2005
I am your fantasy father
by Kevin Maher
A long time ago we first laid eyes on a galaxy far far away. Soon it will end, having changed the face of science fiction on film
MAY 25, 1977. Sci-fi obsessives would call this date the Jonbar Point. Named after John Barr, the hero of a celebrated 1930s fantasy story, it describes a seemingly innocuous moment that can suddenly split the entire Universe into two parallel realities — one bathed in the serene light of advancement, the other plunged into darkness and confusion.
Our May 1977 Jonbar Point describes the moment when that first strip of celluloid ran through the projector at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, emblazoning across the screen the seemingly anodyne legend: “A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away . . .”
And the Universe was split in two. In one reality we continued, blissfully unaware of Star Wars, to watch the modestly hyped and intermittently successful Oscar-nominated likes of Last Tango in Paris, Cries and Whispers, A Woman Under the Influence, Chinatown and Lenny. In the other universe we spent £2.5 billion on plastic figurines and video games. We passed three dark decades in the multiplex, watching re-releases, revamps and reissues of the same movie. We silently witnessed the emergence of the proudly spectacular yet no-brains blockbuster as the dominant American film form. We cheered excitedly as the once mercifully short summer movie season oozed slowly across the calendar (it now lasts for half the year, from April to September). We celebrated the wholesale co-option of the media into the movie-marketing business. We greedily devoured studio-sanctioned interviews about stars acting in front of green screens, genius technicians rendering multiple computer-generated shots, and tyro directors boasting about the enduring power of myth.
