A compelling and enjoyable article about the connection between Star Wars and shamanism.

http://www.huffingtonpos...rative-in_b_8819874.html

Cool!
It's shameless, but I'm just a little excited for this movie! Have tix for a late show tomorrow and even have been engaging in a short term pot-fast that will end about half an hour before showtime just to get the full affect.

Commercialism, Disney, blah blah, I'm not even a big fan of Star Wars but am one of those guys that grew up with it. I saw it 21 times the summer it came out, I was 7. (I said shameless) so yeah, nostalgic reliving of childhood blah blah. Sure it's going to rehash the story. This movie is going to an awesome hell of a lot if fun.

I've never been a huge fan of overused cgi and this one relies heavily on practical effects and has the worn out look of the originals.

Hee hew I'm like an excited kid waiting for the...new Star Wars movie!

Sorry CH just a little off topic..

Don't be so overoptimistic, Jar Jar Abrams is a Sith lord. I've seen the movie and I can say that the negative ratings on IMDB all nailed it precisely. I even assume Disney bought the movie from a complete mercantile view. Like:

Studio boss 1: Oh well, let's put $2bn in it and milk $3bn out of it. $1bn for private jets and new compounds in Malibu, yay!
Studio boss 2: Who is suitable for modernizing old classics until they're FUBAR?
Studio boss 3: Hey, let's ask Jar Jar, he's always in for the money.

I grew up with SW, too. I was never a big fanboi, but I've read the Thrawn trilogy and played the old school DOS games X-Wing and Tie-Fighter when I was a teen. I even went to the cinema on Nov 18 by accident, because I assumed they only showed a dubbed version, but I was able to see the original voice, which made me go.

But this event reminded me why cinema is dead for me and why the new VR goggles are the future. Consuming pictures for 2h without interaction or a story, plus annoying seat neighbors for good money? You have to be brain dead if you can enjoy this imo.

PS: the SFX and the actors are mostly cool. But if you don't give them room to develop, then they're useless.

---

Woops, did I say $3bn? $5bn it is.


ROI in 36 months with a $1bn surplus, not bad. And who knows how many billions the next years and movies will generate... The $4bn purchase price for Disney was really a bargain. The $200M production costs are negligible at this point.

Oh and the Jedi have little to do with shamanism. They are based on the Samurai. Ever seen a Jedi healing a person in a ceremony?

Commercialism blah blah blah

BLACK TIE FIGHTERS!

Stop peeing on my fantasy parade!

I'm afraid the same has happen to my beloved Star Trek as it has to Star Wars. Terrible writing and over the top special effects. Seems like script writers just stopped trying completely a while back, and no one noticed.

There's going to be a new Star Trek show (and another one of those god awful movies) next year.

http://www.startrek.com/article/new-star-trek-series-premieres-january-2017

Not sure I want to subject myself to any more of that torture.

It's possible to see some stupid humor in it,
only pity if earth resources have to suffer because.

At least you clearly know what it stands for: a folly.

This can't be said about freak fundamentalists and their also very over proportional hook ups. If so prone to emotion/brain teetering anyway, then they better [for sake of damage control and a lesser form of human disgrace] watched Star Wars & Star Drek with a bag of pop corn and a fat smile giggling their belly pulsing while spilling coca cola on the groin.

Isn't this how theater/cinema has worked for thousands of years? I liked the movie. I guess I am brain dead.

As for the narrative... I often think of my decisions in terms of the force. Like specifically, Star Wars style force, where I can use the dark side to make what I want happen by manipulating those around me or causing them pain (my MO for many years). Or I can acknowledge the light in all of us and know that trying to control others is never beneficial, and that if I have allowed someone into my life they deserve to be trusted. I am glad to say that I am moving toward the latter.

hmmm... rewatching the original film... I know this bit about the force has always stuck out for me. It resonates very heavily with my psychedelic/medatative experiences.


There is a force... an un-understanable force, but an experienceable force which makes the impossible possible. I will assume that other people on this forum have felt it and can use it. I think it is probably the salvation humanity, if we have any. And that a lot of powerful people use it without anticipating the consequences. I dunno if the movies intended for me to think about it this way but it is a very real thing to me, this force.

they killed "star wars" with this release

Being is excited for this I was, I wish I could say different. something I couldn't quite put my finger on, something missing.

It probably seemed an amazing idea at the planning stage...

Yes! this was really the revenge of the sith..

truly killed my childhood dreams..
the force was weak in this movie, other than lacking originality, it lacked the mysticism of the original

the worst star wars movie ever..


as for 'Shamanic' narratives in Star Wars (the real star wars) -

- when Luke has to go into the roots of the tree (where he must face his shadow) ...i thought that's a pretty 'shamanic' (difficult term) inititation.. (Empire Strikes Back)

- also, in the novel of the original (now New Hope) which actually came out before the movie, Obi-Wan (in his desert hideaway) draws on a 'water pipe' and gazes thoughtfully...

..ultimately the narrative is, to me, spiritual in general terms...
only with compassion can one overcome the netherworld of death and retain one's form..

When as a child I received the Jabba the hut toy, my older brother had quite a laugh at the little toy water bong it came with. Doubt well see that kind of subversion again...

That's a very strong and somewhat alienating criticism. Not only did I enjoy it, I loved it. This film was a cinematic fountain of youth as I've heard it described.




Yup. This topic isn't for reviewing the movie. Too much anti-commercialism bias. I've never felt the nexus attracts enough of the kind of mind mind that can give an honest review of a pop-cultural phenomenon like Star Wars. Good job that's not why we're here.

Getting back on topic...
To me the article comes off as linking shamanism to the tropes that Star Wars fits well, so by extension linking Star Wars to Shamanism.

For some Star Wars is a religion. I LOVE Star Wars, but I wouldn't go that far...

I think of this more like a manual instruction than a criticism.
Before you leave the car, beware to set brain to its most bottom level and keep it there until you step in the car again.
It worked for me

Jeez Null how many times would you have seen it if you actually were a fan? Though i do get where you are coming from, i went to see Grease at the cinema 3 times when it came out (that Frankie Valli intro tune still gets me).
I thought that Star Wars was about people growing up to realise their potential and about choices made along the way. I can see how the idea of the force could be related to the primacy of consciousness.

I also suspect that star wars, like many popular films, is the celluloid equivalent of the chemical kosh designed to subdue the masses into delusional apathy. Unfortunately Luke skywalker will never come to save the masses when the meteor size pile of excrement hits the fan.

The new star wars film appeared to me to be an excercise in retro/ nostalgia. Re hashing old popular stuff with a new set of clothes says as much about the consumer as it does about the suits that are peddling. As for the script, i watched it in a language that i was not 100 per cent fluent in and so was able to pad it out with my imagination.

I was sceptical of JJ Abrams after he molested the star trek film (the only positive thing to come out of that star trek film was that it made the next generation series look good) but i actually quite enjoyed the new star wars film. Then again i wasnt that much of a fan and therefore dont take it too seriously. Having said that, i would probably get a bit shirty if JJ Abrams dug up Travolta and Olivia neton John for a Grease cash in.

I was seven, my folks loved getting me out of the house and I lived in the theatre that summer. Lolz. SW was a HUGE part of my childhood. What I mean by not being a fan is that you won't find an iota of memorabilia on my home nor hear me espouse the detailed intricacies of any of it.

Nostalgia was what I wanted with this one, but not to the extent of it just being a rehash of the original. There's more to plot than just switching around characters and tinkering with their motivations little if at all. I mean the big baddie is just a snot nosed teenage brat!

I wanted a fun escape with the added benefit of rekindling childhood glee and fascination. But alas, you can't go home again...

I am girded against the backlash, but having Abrams at the helm was a good part of my reasoning that SWVII would rock. . I absolutely loved his take with the original, haven't seen the second one. Then again, I'm truly not a fan of ST; while I dig it and love the messages it's placed into the common psyche, I'm not married to faithfulness to canon. I thought it was an exciting, well written and acted visual your de force. That's me though, and I hoped that the SWVII would resemble that as far as taking great source material and reinventing it into something more suited to the "nothing's shocking" quick cut attention spans we all enjoy nowadays. Kind of like a cool remix/mashup of "walk on the wild side" playing over the pizza shop PA right now as I type this in between bites. Something old and familiar with a snazzy new beat.

Still though, BLACK TIE FIGHTERS, man!

Black TIE fighters.

I'm kind of with null on this one. Was it a great work of art? No, definitely not. Was it spiritually/existentially earth shattering? No. Was it an obvious money grab by a big soulless corporation? Obviously.

Did it have a badass guy in black with red serrated lightsaber with cross guards? Hell yes it it did, and that was exactly what I wanted to see when I went to the theatre. Also: Black TIE fighters and a machine that eats suns.

There's something to be said for mindless spectacle - it takes you out of yourself for a little bit and can be really fun. It's the same reason that a lot of folks go take drugs at festivals which, despite the alternative, hippy-dippy cultural stuff, are really no more or less synthetic than a big blockbuster film.

There's nothing wrong with having fun. Being cynical all the time just sounds unpleasant and dull.

I do wish they hadn't just rehashed Episode IV thought - pretty much every major change that Abrams made was pretty great (defecting stormtropper, Miyazaki-esque badass female heroine, ect), and it would have been nice to see him make some more.

Blessings
~ND