Tuesday, December 19, 2017

The Last Jedi – 8 out of 10 on the JWO Scale

I saw the movie last weekend. Coming out of the movie I loved it. I wanted to wait a few days to let it sink in, and after thinking about it more, I loved it even more. I rank it as the third best Star Wars Movie. (Empire Strikes Back #1 because of a sentimentality for Yoda, and Rogue One #2 because it actually was the best of the movies)  The movie had it’s obligatory Star Wars moments. A bar scene (casino in this one) with many different alien species. Cute little creatures (porgs in this case) that will become big holiday gift sales. and instead of just a whiney Luke, we have an old whiny grumpy Luke. And although I found Luke’s new found humor funny, I sort of felt it was just put in to have funny lines in the movies. It didn’t seem to be in his character at all based on previous movies. I could rationalize that with the fact that through his suffering he now found life as absurd.
With that out of the way, I thought the movie raised some very interesting and theological and political questions. Do we learn wisdom from books or do we learn it from our direct experiences. This question has been asked throughout history going as far back to the Hebrew Scriptures Book of Job. It raises the issue of letting go of the past and moving forward. Much like the Buddhist saying “If you meet the Buddha on the Road, Kill the Buddha.” To me this statement means we must find enlightenment by ourselves, and not just take the word of the ancient religious leaders. Must we destroy the past to move forward? Or can we incorporate what we know from the past and  infuse it with current knowledge to create something new. Every Fundamentalist and Reformer religious leader deals with this question.  I think the movie also as has previous star wars movies raises the question of redemption. Is everyone redeemable? In previous movies Luke believed Darth Vadar was redeemable. In the end he was redeemed, but after countless, countless murders and only while he was dieing, in order to save his son. Is Kylo Ren redeemable? Even after killing his father? This series constantly asks that question.
I think the most poignant part of the movie is the question as to whether leaders and heroes are chosen/born, part of a priestly class,  or are they created by the circumstances of their life. Can anyone be a hero/leader? Are leaders supposed to come from one family line as if ordained, like so many religions, kings and rulers throughout history proclaimed.  I admit I never really liked the Midichlorian storyline that only a special few and their offspring were especially strong with the force. Previous star wars movies showed the diversity of the Jedi, so it is unclear as to how those two concepts (diversity and choosiness) go together  in episodes 1-3.  I tended to like Yoda’s teaching that the force is there for anyone to tap into if they become awake to its power and presence and practice using it. This movie’s story line focuses on this latter teaching.
This movie again shows us the folly of hubris, from both good and evil. It also speaks to the question of balance. If there is a Jedi there is an equal dark side and vice versa. I am not sure I agree with this. We have seen throughout history the unchecked power of evil and violence has not always led to the rise of the good. In fact one of the question that is still left open is why after Vadar and the emperor were killed did the republic not come back into existence. Where did Snope come from?
From a political (and maybe religious) front the movie asks the question we ask in our political lives. Is aggressiveness and/or sacrificing oneself, the best course of action, or is a calculated retreat necessary at times? I guess one other sticking point for me, is that the movie continues a line of thought that I hear a lot in the ether about our fetish and idealization of failure as a teacher. Failure is failure. Failure is only a teacher if you use the information you learned from failure to be successful in the future. Failure for failure’s sake is meaningless. Yes we should not fear failure, but we should takes steps to mitigate it. Jedi’s hubris led to them failing to recognize the Sith taking power. Clearly defeating the empire still led to failure and ongoing retreat for the resistance. Luke Skywalker hubris, being the strongest Jedi, and then his low self esteem, led him to failure and retreat from the world. I don’t know if the message is that Evil is stronger then good, or an overview about how Democrats struggle to be organized and don’t have staying power and about how the oppressed don’t join together to overthrow systemic injustice. Or perhaps the message of the movie was a view of our current society as encapsulated in the character of  the amoral codebreaker played by Benicio Del Toro, who had no allegiances and saw no difference between good and evil, and focused only self-preservation.

It was a fairly depressing movie in that sense, with a few hopeful notes thrown in here and there. However from seeing the negative, we can cull from it, what should be done. Perhaps if Luke had not given up, and instead of retreating had honed his powers and matured, perhaps he could have lifted up the resistance over the first order. It is a reminder for us to not give up and to be vigilant.  It is Rey, who is the great hero of this movie. Looking for the good in others and looking for meaning in her life as she says “I need someone to show me my place in all of this.” I think we all are looking to find purpose for our lives and meaning in the world. Rey epitomizes this, realizing her own power to change things for the better, and looking for the better in others and she constantly learns and grows. So not a simple or ra ra movie, but it gave me a lot to think about. I am curious where it will go from here. Lots of good questions and metaphors, and no easy answers. That is why I liked it so much.