Review: "Revenge"
Oct. 17th, 2007 09:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lazypadawanRevenge: The Real Life Story of Star Wars Episode III Revenge of the Sith
by Jonathan L. Bowen
Two years ago, Jonathan L. Bowen unleashed Anticipation: The Real Life Story of Star Wars Episode I The Phantom Menace, a book that chronicled TPM's journey from the writing of the film through its debut on DVD in 2001. Anticipation is a pretty good source for fans or anyone else looking for facts about the film. It also does a terrific job knocking out a lot of misconceptions and inaccuracies that have surrounded the film since then.
Bowen more or less does the same with Revenge, although the tack he takes with this book is that ROTS vindicates George Lucas, fans who have stood by the PT, and the SW phenomenon as a whole. He doesn't go into as much detail with ROTS's pre-production as he did with TPM, but given that it's the last hurrah for a pre-assembled team and not a start-from-scratch film like TPM was, that's to be expected.
Bowen also covers AOTC's pre-release hype, if you can call it that, its run at the box office, in IMAX format, and on DVD. Bowen acknowledges, as I've been saying for years, that AOTC was underpromoted and that had an effect on its box office.
The way Bowen frames it, ROTS had to prove itself to naysayers and show everyone SW still had it. And it succeeded.
As with Anticipation, the best parts of Revenge is when it lets the facts tell the story. This is especially true when it comes to tracking ROTS's box office numbers, its merchandise sales, and its DVD sales. When it comes to the business/economic side of movies, this book excels. All of it is presented in a way anyone can understand and it's not dry or dull. Bowen did extensive research in a shorter time frame than the six years it took for him to write Anticipation. He tries to make his citations clearer this time. Not perfect, but definitely an improvement over the previous book.
Even though just two years have passed since ROTS graced theaters, Revenge brings back things you may have forgotten in that short period of time. Remember the people busted for pirating ROTS? (There's a chapter in the book about piracy of the film, though there's no mention of good ol' "Backstroke of the West.") Or parents allegedly getting up in arms over the PG-13 rating? How about Wal-Mart's 48 Hours of the Force promotion in April 2005?
He also has on record, in case anyone suffers amnesia, several critics who gave ROTS glowing reviews. ROTS may actually be the best-reviewed SW film since ANH. He bases his percentages of positive reviews on RottenTomatoes.com, though I think you'd have to do more in-depth research through means such as microfilm and databases like Lexis/Nexus (rarely used outside of legal/legislative circles) to really get the full picture of reviews from the OT era. Still, he's probably right.
Then there are the tidbits I didn't know about, such as how ROTS's merchandise earnings outdid its predecessors when everyone expected the numbers to fall in between TPM's and AOTC's. Not all of it is quite as sunny. Bowen discusses how for some reason, the Italians just aren't into SW. None of the six films performed all of that impressively in the land of pasta. Mamma Mia! Bowen also notes the few attempts by the international media to downplay or even distort ROTS's box office success. One columnist in Australia prematurely declared ROTS a flop in the land Down Under, which it was most certainly not. Crikey!
One problem with Anticipation that is carried over to this book is the lack of a really good editor. Bowen needed somebody to keep him focused and avoid going off on tangents. The chapter on LucasArts is interesting but it felt like a chapter from another book. It's not important to the story of ROTS and its success to go through the entire history of the company over several pages. As a fan, Bowen wants to pack in as much as possible, leaving nothing unmentioned, but as a writer you can't do that.
T'Bone at T'Bone's SW Universe noted in his review that if he had any criticism at all of the book, it was that Bowen injects too much of his opinion. Don't worry, he is generally favorable to the PT, but at times even I felt from a writer's perspective the editorializing was distracting. The facts in the book speak for themselves.
There's a chapter on the political controversy the movie generated but while the chapter implicitly denies the movie was meant as a commentary on the Iraq war or the Bush administration, in the next chapter "Understanding Revenge" he tries to argue that "only a Sith deals in absolutes" is a commentary on the Iraq war and the Bush administration.
What's this about SW being a guy thing again? It's stated more than once in the book ("especially young boys") even though Bowen gets statements from female fans as well as the dudes.
And to be really nitpicky, the events at Comic Con 2004 didn't exactly transpire the way he described it. The title wasn't announced by having Steve Sansweet whip off his baseball jersey to reveal his ROTS t-shirt. There was a specially-made video shown right before that which actually revealed the title. It's probably archived somewhere on starwars.com.
Overall Revenge is a fascinating and eye-opening read. Fans can get a lot out of Bowen's history of the final SW film and so can anyone who's interested in the business/economic side of the movies.
by Jonathan L. Bowen
Two years ago, Jonathan L. Bowen unleashed Anticipation: The Real Life Story of Star Wars Episode I The Phantom Menace, a book that chronicled TPM's journey from the writing of the film through its debut on DVD in 2001. Anticipation is a pretty good source for fans or anyone else looking for facts about the film. It also does a terrific job knocking out a lot of misconceptions and inaccuracies that have surrounded the film since then.
Bowen more or less does the same with Revenge, although the tack he takes with this book is that ROTS vindicates George Lucas, fans who have stood by the PT, and the SW phenomenon as a whole. He doesn't go into as much detail with ROTS's pre-production as he did with TPM, but given that it's the last hurrah for a pre-assembled team and not a start-from-scratch film like TPM was, that's to be expected.
Bowen also covers AOTC's pre-release hype, if you can call it that, its run at the box office, in IMAX format, and on DVD. Bowen acknowledges, as I've been saying for years, that AOTC was underpromoted and that had an effect on its box office.
The way Bowen frames it, ROTS had to prove itself to naysayers and show everyone SW still had it. And it succeeded.
As with Anticipation, the best parts of Revenge is when it lets the facts tell the story. This is especially true when it comes to tracking ROTS's box office numbers, its merchandise sales, and its DVD sales. When it comes to the business/economic side of movies, this book excels. All of it is presented in a way anyone can understand and it's not dry or dull. Bowen did extensive research in a shorter time frame than the six years it took for him to write Anticipation. He tries to make his citations clearer this time. Not perfect, but definitely an improvement over the previous book.
Even though just two years have passed since ROTS graced theaters, Revenge brings back things you may have forgotten in that short period of time. Remember the people busted for pirating ROTS? (There's a chapter in the book about piracy of the film, though there's no mention of good ol' "Backstroke of the West.") Or parents allegedly getting up in arms over the PG-13 rating? How about Wal-Mart's 48 Hours of the Force promotion in April 2005?
He also has on record, in case anyone suffers amnesia, several critics who gave ROTS glowing reviews. ROTS may actually be the best-reviewed SW film since ANH. He bases his percentages of positive reviews on RottenTomatoes.com, though I think you'd have to do more in-depth research through means such as microfilm and databases like Lexis/Nexus (rarely used outside of legal/legislative circles) to really get the full picture of reviews from the OT era. Still, he's probably right.
Then there are the tidbits I didn't know about, such as how ROTS's merchandise earnings outdid its predecessors when everyone expected the numbers to fall in between TPM's and AOTC's. Not all of it is quite as sunny. Bowen discusses how for some reason, the Italians just aren't into SW. None of the six films performed all of that impressively in the land of pasta. Mamma Mia! Bowen also notes the few attempts by the international media to downplay or even distort ROTS's box office success. One columnist in Australia prematurely declared ROTS a flop in the land Down Under, which it was most certainly not. Crikey!
One problem with Anticipation that is carried over to this book is the lack of a really good editor. Bowen needed somebody to keep him focused and avoid going off on tangents. The chapter on LucasArts is interesting but it felt like a chapter from another book. It's not important to the story of ROTS and its success to go through the entire history of the company over several pages. As a fan, Bowen wants to pack in as much as possible, leaving nothing unmentioned, but as a writer you can't do that.
T'Bone at T'Bone's SW Universe noted in his review that if he had any criticism at all of the book, it was that Bowen injects too much of his opinion. Don't worry, he is generally favorable to the PT, but at times even I felt from a writer's perspective the editorializing was distracting. The facts in the book speak for themselves.
There's a chapter on the political controversy the movie generated but while the chapter implicitly denies the movie was meant as a commentary on the Iraq war or the Bush administration, in the next chapter "Understanding Revenge" he tries to argue that "only a Sith deals in absolutes" is a commentary on the Iraq war and the Bush administration.
What's this about SW being a guy thing again? It's stated more than once in the book ("especially young boys") even though Bowen gets statements from female fans as well as the dudes.
And to be really nitpicky, the events at Comic Con 2004 didn't exactly transpire the way he described it. The title wasn't announced by having Steve Sansweet whip off his baseball jersey to reveal his ROTS t-shirt. There was a specially-made video shown right before that which actually revealed the title. It's probably archived somewhere on starwars.com.
Overall Revenge is a fascinating and eye-opening read. Fans can get a lot out of Bowen's history of the final SW film and so can anyone who's interested in the business/economic side of the movies.
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no subject
Date: 2007-10-19 06:30 am (UTC)T'Bone can kiss my butt. After he looks in the mirror to see what "someone who injects his own opinion" into allegedly neutral SW matters looks like.
Sorry...I don't much care for T'Bone.
It does sound like Mr. Bowen could've done with a good editor. But oh well. As far as I'm concerned, the SW bashers all over the message boards, and their representatives in Darth Media, could do with a good editor, and fact-checker, and B.S.-detector, and a sharp right hook in the kisser...
SW is a guy thing? Well, it was created by a guy and most of its characters are male, but despite the occasional accusations of sexism I've seen leveled against Lucas, by feminists as well as pholks who weren't feminists at all but just wanted to jump on the "bash SW and cloak it as moral outrage" bandwagon (similar example: the pholks who, out of nowhere, became champions of racial equality and bashed TPM's alleged "racist caricatures"), Lucas has, fairly consistently, created interesting and strong female characters in his storylines. Leia, Marion, Sorsha, Padmé -- they are not idealized pillars of PC virtue, they're no better or worse than their male counterparts. Even the much-maligned Willie from "Temple of Doom" does, in her own way, prove her mettle.
Which is why Mara Jade never was and never will be a genuine SW character, not just because Lucas didn't create her, but because she's a generic pseudo-feminist uberkewl kick-butt girl whose smart mouth and "dark past" are mere substitutes for any kind of depth, but who is rendered untouchable simply because she's female, and therefore, you must be a knuckle-dragging Neanderthal if you dislike her.Lucas grew up with three sisters, and I doubt even the most
delusionalfervent Lucas-hater could say he was ever anything approaching macho. He raised two daughters, and from what I can tell, raised them no differently than he raised his son.I personally used to know someone who visited "Skywalker Ranch" to do some voice-over work, and happened to run into a short, hirsute man in the hallway, who promptly turned and all but ran in the other direction -- the no-doubt bemused security escort informed her, "That was George." So I can see why people might call him "cold" and "unfriendly." But sexist? That's a stretch.
But back to SW being "a guy thing." Fneh. There are plenty of we womenfolk who like SW! I've always liked TV shows and movies that were thought of as being aimed at boys, and despite being a chick and happy to be one, I usually dislike "chick flicks" and am happier watching an action movie.
Lucas has admitted aiming SW at 12-year-olds (and he's done so since 1977, despite what bedwetters like to say about him pulling that out of his butt to "defend" the "kiddieness" of TPM), and it's pretty obvious that he aimed it at not just 12-year-olds but 12-year-old boys. But so what? Like all timeless tales, SW's appeal crosses all boundaries, and I'll always take a "boy's story" with interesting female characters over an excruciatingly PC movie/TV show/whatver with a perfect uber-heroine and a guy who is a loveable, but emasculated, goofball who never fails to recognize the woman's superiority
kind of like EU Luke after he married Mara.no subject
Date: 2007-10-20 02:58 am (UTC)I've been to two Celebrations and the crowd each time was close to a 50-50 split between guys and gals. When it comes to some aspects of fandom, you'll find more males than females. At the first couple of collector's club meetings I went to when I lived in VA, I was the only girl there. More women showed up later, but I can see that while there are plenty of female fans who collect, it's an aspect of fandom where there's going to be more guys. But if you look at fan fiction, it's dominated by females and it has been for decades. The growing crafts scene seems to be mostly female fans.
no subject
Date: 2007-10-20 04:08 am (UTC)She finally managed to let go of some of her SW stuff, with the help of eBay. Made a pretty penny, too, although her primary motive was making space for her growing family.
By the by, she told me the Mara Jade figurine that was put out in the mid-90s wasn't very valuable. 0:-)
Nice review
Date: 2007-11-07 06:41 am (UTC)I actually wrote Anticipation in 2000, I finished the final draft in early 2001. It found a literary agent in New York, actually one of the top three biggest agents in the country, but that was the problem. Sometimes, you have an agent who is too big for you, and he wanted a huge deal for Anticipation that it was not going to find. He abandoned the project after receiving reject letters from the major publishers, who always cited its "small potential audience." I rather thought that was nonsense considering the size of the Star Wars fan base, but what do I know. Anyway, it took me until 2005 -- after Anticipation sat on the shelves for years -- to bring the book out finally.
I have on both books been criticized for too much editorializing, which I felt was somewhat true on Anticipation. I wrote it in high school originally! There were points where I did not need to grind home the facts as much as I did because, as you said, the facts speak for themselves. I tried to avoid that with Revenge, through 15 drafts, and the book was edited three times by other sets of eyes, professional edits I mean through the publisher. I could not believe how much it changed those last 4-5 drafts, as sometimes between edits (from another set of eyes) I completed two of my own drafts. The version I initially submitted, for instance, had boring chapter headings, no subheadings at all, and weaker documentation. I spent about 100 hours redoing the documentation alone; it was painstaking. I think it was worthwhile, though, at least for showing readers where I drew the information.
I can understand your complaint about the LucasArts chapter as I had considered not writing it or removing it, but ultimately it was an area of merchandising I wanted to cover and felt I had not done adequately with Anticipation. I pride myself on my editing skills, as much as my writing skills, because I believe editing is vital to a great finished product, but what I think I may have left out of the book that fails to explain the way I see my works is probably an inclusion that I should have made. I cheated with the title of the second book, actually, that's what I am trying to say. I drew inspiration from Garry Jenkins who wrote Empire Building, which I thought of as Star Wars history 1975 through 1985 (he cheated too, his subtitle is "The Remarkable Real Life Story of Star Wars," yet it goes on to cover ESB and ROTJ). I saw Anticipation as the next logical step, Star Wars history from 1985 (or really, since nothing happened in "The Dark Ages" of SW history, 1991) through 2001 or so, after the DVD release of The Phantom Menace. Then I saw Revenge not as a book about Revenge of the Sith, but as a Star Wars history book covering where I left off in 2001 through 2006. That is why I say I cheated when I named it "Revenge: The Real Life Story of Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith," because I desperately did not want to leave out everything about Attack of the Clones as I felt it was still a great film, an important film, that deserved some recognition. I felt that I could do it justice better by giving it one great chapter than a small, more boring book, which is why I included that in Revenge. I saw the LucasArts chapter in a similar way, tying into the merchandising of Revenge of the Sith, which was still the primary focus of the book and its driving force. That being said, a lot of content was cut from the book just to make it somewhat smaller. I was concerned by how large it had gotten, compared to Anticipation, and I think I cut about 10,000 words from the book.
I am really grateful for fans who read my books and enjoy them, because that is the only reason I write them. They sell a small number of copies, and it is purely a hobby, one that takes a lot of time, but I love writing and I love trying to give something back to the fan base, to the franchise, really, because I have gained so much from its influence.
Oops, one addition
Date: 2007-11-07 10:32 am (UTC)Re: Oops, one addition
Date: 2007-11-08 04:04 am (UTC)If you can read this, would you mind doing an interview for my site The Star Wars Prequel Appreciation Society?
Hey
Date: 2007-11-09 05:11 am (UTC)For sure. Send me an e-mail at jonathan at Shutzi.com and we can set something up!
-Jonathan