Wesa Ticked!!

Saturday morning, not much going on. So I turned on the tube, and found a re-run of Return of the Jedi on one of the cable channels.

As I watched, I saw details that I hadn't noticed my first six hundred times through. Kind of like spotting a second nose on my wife after so many years of being married to her.

Most extreme: at the end of the flick, after the rebels are victorious over the religious right (sorry, couldn't help myself there!), we see scenes of celebration taking place in the cities of the second trilogy, cities which we had not seen in any of the original episodes. On the planet Naboo, Gungans are shouting "Wesa free!" as breakfast rises in the back of my throat.

And if that weren't much, much more than enough, when the spirit of Anakin Skywalker shows up with those of Obi Wan and Yoda for a big old High Five, it's Hayden Christensen smirking at me, instead of the kindly old fella who looked like Uncle Fester under the Darth Vader suit.

Hayden Christensen.

Hayden Christensen.

What happened?

Blasphemy!

The only thing I liked about it is that, compared with Jar Jar Binks, the Ewoks were down right tolerable.

"Yub yub," I say.

That's Ewok for "Off with their heads!"...

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Postscript: Chris Gould was kind enough to have cataloged and illustrated most, if not all, of the "improvements" to the original versions. You can find them here:

• CHANGES TO EPISODE IV: A NEW HOPE
• CHANGES TO EPISODE V: THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK
• CHANGES TO EPISODE VI: RETURN OF THE JEDI

And on the topic of "all these changes and you couldn't erase Jar Jar Bloody Binks!!??",

• CHANGES TO EPISODES I, II AND III

Munich

So, I'm home after a week of travel, not wanting to leave my warm house, not wanting to start my taxes. And Munich is on HBO.

While it was not epic in the sense of The Godfather trilogy (or the Lord of the Rings trilogy -- what is it about trilogies?), and while it was not platitudinous in delivering its message, its message was clear.

Violence begets violence. Revenge begets revenge. Blood cries out from the very earth. And the end result is not justice, is not righteousness, is not -- cannot be -- peace. Rather, it is destruction of the self, sacrifice of ones own soul.

I cannot help but be reminded of this passage from Genesis:

Now Cain talked with Abel his brother; and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him. Then the LORD said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” He said, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?” And He said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the ground. So now you are cursed from the earth, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. When you till the ground, it shall no longer yield its strength to you. A fugitive and a vagabond you shall be on the earth.” And Cain said to the LORD, “My punishment is greater than I can bear! Surely You have driven me out this day from the face of the ground; I shall be hidden from Your face; I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond on the earth, and it will happen that anyone who finds me will kill me.” And the LORD said to him, “Therefore, whoever kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold.” And the LORD set a mark on Cain, lest anyone finding him should kill him. (Genesis 4:8-15)

It is alienation: from ones home, from ones people, from God Himself -- and should retribution be taken on such a one so alienated, sevenfold vengeance would be the only result. The absolute entropy, the very metastasis of evil.

The most chilling moment of the whole movie was the final scene: Avner refuses to return to his homeland; Ephraim refuses to break bread with Avner, the simplest affirmation of his humanity; and in the background, tall but achingly vulnerable, the twin towers stand.

But even more chilling than that, scary as hell: when I sat down here, immediately after, to type this out, the headline from my comcast.net home page: Suicide Bomber Kills 121 in Baghdad.

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