Take 5, Star Wars

Back in the 90s, when people asked me to recommend a good starter roleplaying game, I'd always give the same answer: West End's Star Wars. I said that because the game had a premise that new players could instantly understand and a setting they knew from the movies. "You are part of the Rebel Alliance." And you're off. The rules also featured simple character creation and were easy to pick up. Later West End even did a nice introductory boxed set, and you know how much I like those.

With today's announcement that the current license holder, Wizards of the Coast, is not going to renew, you'd think I might have some interest in who might pick up the rights. There's already speculation about which companies might have the desire and money to do so. I've got to say though that best thing Star Wars could do is go away for awhile. Say three to five years.

The interesting thing about the West End RPG is that it came out when basically nothing else was going on with Star Wars. There were no novels, no prequels, no cartoons--none of that. One of the cool things about it was that it was one of the few Star Wars things you could even get in 1987. Today the brand is just tired. Lucasfilm is just flogging it and flogging it and they show no signs of stopping. Star Wars is still everywhere and most of what passes for it is just crap (starting with the dreadful sequels).

So I think the RPG at least but really the brand as a whole needs a fallow period and then a reboot. Look at Star Trek. It had its time away and it came roaring back with the recent J.J. Abrams movie. Right now the only Star Wars thing that looks cool is the upcoming BioWare MMO, and that's because BioWare seems to understand the spirit of the original Star Wars movies better than George Lucas these days, as evinced by their excellent Knights of the Old Republic game from a few years ago.

It seems that Star Wars won't be going away anytime soon though. There's the upcoming TV show, which might have had promise if someone other than George Lucas was in charge. More toys, games, and novels get cranked out every year. What's funny is that the niche nature of the RPG business may actually turn out to be a boon in this situation. There are only a handful of companies that could hope to afford the license and launching a new game with all that WotC product on the shelf would be a challenge. So the RPG at least may have that fallow period but for the rest of the brand the flogging will continue until morale improves.

Excalibur Keeps It in the Family

Excalibur was the first R rated movie I saw in the theater. I guess I was 11 at the time. I think my father took pity on my brother and I because there were so few decent fantasy movies movies in that era. Sure, Hawk the Slayer was fun, but I wouldn't call it good. Anyway, I went on to see Excalibur dozens and dozens of times. When I was in college, we often would run movies in the background as we played Warhammer Fantasy Battle and Excalibur was a favorite.

One day I actually paid attention during the credits and noticed that the actress who played Igraine was named Katrine Boorman. As John Boorman directed the movie we thought it was probably his wife or daughter. She was young enough that daughter seemed the most likely and indeed that was the case.

As you may recall the siring of Arthur is graphically depicted in Excalibur, with Uther tearing off Igraine's dress and then mounting her while still wearing his armor (now that is a horny knight). So in that long ago college dorm, I joked to my friends about what that casting conversation must have been like for the Boormans. "Honey, would you like to have your tit sucked?"

So the other night I watched Excalibur for the first time in at least a decade. I had picked up the DVD cheap at some point but never watched it. When it was over, I noticed there was a commentary track by John Boorman, so I turned that on. I was curious what he would say during the infamous Uther/Igraine tryst.

I'm paraphrasing but his is more or less what he said. "People often ask me if it was difficult filming my daughter getting raped. First of all, Igraine doesn't think she's being raped because Merlin put a glamour on Uther. In any case, my daughter and I discussed it beforehand, we were both fine with it, so we did it and it was not a big deal. The bigger problem for Katrine was being so close to the fire in the background." He then spends the rest of the scene talking about the great job the set designer did on Tintagel castle!

I guess that means both Boormans are either incredibly professional or incredibly fucked up.

Hurm

Whenever a new Harry Potter book came out, Nicole would get it right away and plow through it in a day or two. She said she felt like she had to do that before the internet ruined the book for her. It was defensive reading in a sense. Now watching practically everyone I know talking and writing about the Watchmen movie, I know how she felt. I could not go to the movies this weekend. I had too much writing to do, and with my current schedule I figured I'd wait a few weeks before checking it out. I'm starting to feel like I either need to see it or stay away from the internet until I do.

Nothing But Bruges

I haven't had much to blog about lately. Or rather, I can't talk about the things I'd really like to blog about and the other recent developments (like, say, going to the dentist) aren't worth going into. I suppose I could talk about the GSL but I seem to change my mind every other day. That's why I'm going to let my thoughts gel before I say anything more.

I did finally see In Bruges and it is a fine movie indeed. Since it tells the story of two buddy hitmen, many reviewers have called it Tarantino-esque. That is lazy criticism in my opinion. Other than some basic elements, In Bruges has little to do with Tarantino's work and that's good. It tells its own story and tells it well. Brendan Gleeson is terrific as the older, more world-weary assassin. In Bruges is well worth checking out if you haven't.

Charlie Wilson's War

Before No Country for Old Men I saw a preview of an upcoming film called Charlie Wilson's War, based on the book of the same name. The trailer perplexed me. The movie is being marketed as one of those classic Hollywood "plucky visionary bucks the system" stories. Tom Hanks plays Charlie Wilson, a Democratic congresman from Texas who was instrumental in arming the mujahadeen in the wake of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Some people credit him with ending the Cold War, which makes him a funny subject for a Mike Nichols film scripted by Aaron Sorkin. I'm curious to see what kind of spin the film has because frankly from the previews I don't get it.

There have been far reaching effects of the Afghan war that continue to haunt us to this day. So many of America's current problems can be traced back to that conflict. America fostered Islamic radicalism by training and arming the mujahadeen, and this led directly to the rise Osama bin Laden and his ilk. So when I see a movie that seemingly celebrates the guy who pushed forward policy that backfired so disastrously, I have to scratch my head. My hope is that the film is smarter than its marketing but I must admit I am wary of Charlie Wilson's War.

Sympathy for the Underdog

I watched Sympathy for the Underdog by director Kinji Fukasaku (who would direct Battle Royale 30 years later) on Sunday and I’m glad I did. If you like crime dramas, this 1971 yakuza flick is a winner. It’s about a Yokohama gang that loses its turf to a big Tokyo outfit. The leader, Ginja, spends 10 years in prison. When he gets out, he puts the gang back together and heads to Okinawa. There, he says, it’s like the post-war days. A small outfit can still carve out territory and make a killing. This they do, going up against local Okinowan gangs trying to defend their own turf. Ultimately, of course, the Tokyo boys come calling once they realize there’s money to be made. The smart play for Genji’s gang is to take the bribe money and leave. The honorable thing to do is to stand tough and try to take vengeance for their betrayal in Yokohama, even if it means they all die. Can you guess which path they choose?

The movie has a great sense of time and place. The American naval base on Okinawa is an important part of the plot and this western influence is accentuated with a bluesy soundtrack. Genji’s sunglass wearing badass is a precursor to Chow Yun-Fat’s Mark Gor in A Better Tomorrow, and you can certainly see Fukasaku’s influence on Kill Bill. If you are ready to get your yakuza on, Sympathy for the Underdog is a great choice.

I Love Trouble

We’ve had a heat warning here in Seattle for the past couple of days. Supposedly it’s going to top 100 today. Tuesday nights are usually game night but we called it yesterday because many folks were out of town or unavailable. Rather than sit around a hot house, Nik and I decided to take advantage of the Noir film festival running at the SIFF Theater this month. We saw a film from 1948 called I Love Trouble. This is one of those lost movies that disappeared into a studio vault after its release. It was never released on VHS or DVD and only recently was the studio convinced to dig it out so it could be shown at festivals like this. Eddie Muller, author of Dark City: The Lost World of Film Noir, was on hand to talk about the film and give a little background on the author of the screenplay and the novel on which it’s based. His name was Roy Huggins. He started as a yet another crime author knocking off Raymond Chandler, but went on to have a lengthy career in TV. He created such shows as 77 Sunset Strip, Maverick, and Baretta. The film was a lot of fun. It is indeed Chandler-esque but it never takes itself too seriously. You might even call it a noir-comedy, as it was full of great banter and zingers. Muller warned the audience beforehand that they shouldn’t try to make sense of the plot, but I’m not sure why. I followed it just fine and it made sense to me. Anyway, I Love Trouble was an enjoyable romp and should it show at a festival near you, I recommend checking it out.