La Fuerza de Mayo
May. 7th, 2025 05:59 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
setsuledTo celebrate May the Fourth and Cinco de Mayo, I watched The Empire Strikes Back while eating tacos. I boiled a little ground beef with cumin, garlic, paprika, salt, and pepper and then added some lime and cilantro to it. I put it on my homemade tortillas with shredded cabbage and cherry tomatoes. They were good tacos. No leftovers because I still can't afford a refrigerator at my new apartment.
I watched A New Hope last month and was eager to watch Empire Strikes Back. I seem to be in a phase of my life where I'm suddenly seeing the original trilogy with fresh eyes. Like Bruce Willis says in 12 Monkeys when he's watching Vertigo, old movies change because we change. We become different people and thus see them with new eyes. I couldn't guess how many times I've watched the original trilogy since I first saw it when I was three or four years old. But still, on Monday, I can laugh at the little incline of the head Leia gives to Han when he glances at her while talking to Lando. Their relationship still feels fresh, even after I've written at length about the dynamics between the two. How he correctly identifies her attraction to him but fails to see his own vulnerability, his attraction to her. He assumes that having insight into the feelings others can't control means he has control over his own feelings.
And here's a movie where the Jedi dialogue is about fear, hatred, willpower, and belief. It's right here, big as life, the thing Disney repeatedly fails to capture about the Jedi. This is what the Jedi are about, not bureaucratic manoeuvring or colonialism. Isn't there anyone working in Hollywood now who gets that?
It can't be said enough how handsomely shot Empire Strikes Back is. Cinematographer Peter Suschitzky's deep blacks and smooth, matte whites never look remotely artificial. Only Greig Fraser on Rogue One has approached this level of revelation in cinematography for Star Wars.
I watched A New Hope last month and was eager to watch Empire Strikes Back. I seem to be in a phase of my life where I'm suddenly seeing the original trilogy with fresh eyes. Like Bruce Willis says in 12 Monkeys when he's watching Vertigo, old movies change because we change. We become different people and thus see them with new eyes. I couldn't guess how many times I've watched the original trilogy since I first saw it when I was three or four years old. But still, on Monday, I can laugh at the little incline of the head Leia gives to Han when he glances at her while talking to Lando. Their relationship still feels fresh, even after I've written at length about the dynamics between the two. How he correctly identifies her attraction to him but fails to see his own vulnerability, his attraction to her. He assumes that having insight into the feelings others can't control means he has control over his own feelings.
And here's a movie where the Jedi dialogue is about fear, hatred, willpower, and belief. It's right here, big as life, the thing Disney repeatedly fails to capture about the Jedi. This is what the Jedi are about, not bureaucratic manoeuvring or colonialism. Isn't there anyone working in Hollywood now who gets that?
It can't be said enough how handsomely shot Empire Strikes Back is. Cinematographer Peter Suschitzky's deep blacks and smooth, matte whites never look remotely artificial. Only Greig Fraser on Rogue One has approached this level of revelation in cinematography for Star Wars.
