Rian Johnson Says the Goofy Humor in STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI Is "Deeply Star Wars to Me"
Star Wars: The Last Jedi is arguably the most divisive Star Wars movie out there. Some fans hated it, with some backing it up, but many were angry about the incongruence of the storyline and even the feeling of it being a true Star Wars story. An editor on the movie said The Last Jedi tried to "undo" the story of The Force Awakens. Star Wars author Alan Dean Foster disliked it so much that he actually ended up writing his own treatment for Episode IX to try and fix the damage that he thought was done. But to this day, the film’s director Rian Johnson still says he’s as proud of the film as he’s ever been.
He went on to defend the movie in a recent video from GQ's "Breaks Down His Most Iconic Films" series saying:
"For me, everything in the movie is Star Wars, and everything in the movie I can trace back to deeply, in a deep way, what Star Wars is for me. Everyone has a different take. I know there are Star Wars fans who somehow think that Star Wars was a serious thing, like the Batman movies or something. I was so young that when I watched Empire Strikes Back, it had this deep, profound impact on me, because it was terrifying, because I was just young enough to not experience it as watching a Star Wars movie, but to have it feel like too real."
The filmmaker called out two specific moments from the original trilogy of movies. Johnson called out in Return of the Jedi when Han Solo is tied up over a pile of tinder and the ewoks are preparing to light it on fire and cook him. In response, Solo tries to blow out the flames.
"Anyone who thinks that slightly goofy humor does not have a place in the Star Wars universe, I don't know if they've seen Return of The Jedi. Even the first movie, they're in the heart of the Death Star and they're trying to do this desperate gambit to get out with their lives and save the princess, where they're pretending that Chewbacca is their prisoner. The little imperial droid comes up, Chewbacca roars at it, and the droid, like a scared dog, goes [screeching]."
Johnson then went on to talk about his approach to the film, saying:.
"It's not very interesting to just think in a meta way about Star Wars. At the same time, you're dealing with a story that's about heroes, and about a younger generation meeting their heroes, and a generation that is now the older generation of heroes dealing with being role models for the younger generation, and still being human beings with faults and foibles. And somebody who has the role of a legend but who feels fallible as a human being, by the end of the movie realizing the value that that legend has, and realizing their place is to step up and be that for the younger generation. When you're dealing with all of these things, the legends that we grew up, that I grew up with, was the characters in Star Wars. If I think about the thing in my life that's been the most consistent thing of that, it is these movies. And again, anyone who makes a Star Wars movie today is in some way gonna be engaging with their relationship with Star Wars itself."
Does any of this change the way you see The Last Jedi? Have you been able to go back and see it with kinder eyes, or did you like it from the beginning? Let us know below.