The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
The Force is strong
As Star Wars: The Last Jedi hits cinemas, Michael Alexander explores some of the unrivalled connections between the multibillion-dollar film franchise and Courier Country
Slightly over 40 years ago in a London film studio not that far away, the finishing touches were being made to George Lucas’s original Star Wars movie – the first episode of a film franchise still going strong four decades on.
Ten films and a global cultural media phenomenon later, the value of the Star Wars franchise was estimated at US $42 billion in 2015, making it the second highest-grossing of all time behind Pokemon.
As the latest eagerly awaited instalment, The Last Jedi, jumps out of light speed to hit cinemas, there’s no doubt the Force is strong in Courier Country, with high-profile connections between the Star Wars universe’s fictional back catalogue and the Tayside/Fife area.
Crieff actor Denis Lawson famously played X-Wing pilot Wedge Antilles in the original Star Wars trilogy – the only Rebel pilot to survive both attack runs on the Death Stars at the battles of Yavin and Endor!
Lawson is, of course, the uncle of Crieff actor Ewan McGregor who played a youthful Obi-Wan Kenobi in the Star Wars prequel trilogy.
Let’s not forget that the evil Emperor Palpatine was played in the original films by Carnoustie-raised actor
Ian McDiarmid.
Now 73, he first appeared as Darth Vader’s master in Return of the Jedi in 1983, overseeing the last stages of the second Death Star’s construction. He returned for the Star Wars prequels in 1999’s The Phantom Menace.
But perhaps some of the most memorable recent local connections have come from that grey zone between fact and fiction.
It’s just weeks since police released a statement confirming they were hunting for a man dressed as Jesus who assaulted a fellow Halloween reveller dressed as a Jedi Knight in Dundee.
Then, on Tuesday, a Stormtrooper was spotted with British Transport Police at Dundee Railway Station. And who can forget Jim Smith’s superb ‘What if Darth Vader came fae Fife?’ sketch, which became a hit on social media after being aired on BBC Radio Four.
One of the finest tributes came in spring when Newport film-maker Gary Gowans commemorated ‘May the Fourth’ by recasting Dundee’s underconstruction V&A Museum as the Death Star in a short film that also achieved widespread popularity.
The 57-year-old senior graphic design lecturer at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design created a short clip that sees the Millennium Falcon shoot from the roof of the V&A Dundee.
The spacecraft is swiftly chased by Imperial TIE fighters, as R2-D2 looks on, and the video racked up more than 200,000 views in less than 48 hours.
“I remember seeing the TV adverts being broadcast before its arrival in cinemas in the UK,” says Gary of the original Star Wars release in 1977.
“I was 17 and I cannot stress how exciting that was. I loved it! At the beginning of this year Kengo Kuma’s new V&A Dundee building was so redolent of the design of that film, that I couldn’t help humming the ‘Imperial March’ tune every time I drove by. That’s how I was inspired to make my little tribute video.
“I think the original trilogy endures because we still believe in these characters and we love to be carried on their journey each time we meet with them. Those early incarnations are mythic and mystical, full of love, camaraderie, self-sacrifice and adventure, and 40 years on there’s a lot of nostalgia there, too.
“It is a bit disappointing, however, to realise that, at the end of the day, our original heroes end up as possibly the most dysfunctional family in the history of the galaxy.
“It was obviously a difficult transition for Han Solo to do the school run every morning when he was used to doing the Kessel Run in 12 parsecs!”
Paul Carey, 41, chief projectionist at the NPH Cinema in St Andrews, was on duty in the early hours of this morning for the midnight screening of the new movie. He says: “Being born in the late ’70s, I grew up with Star Wars. It was a huge part of my childhood. Every birthday and Christmas, I would always ask for Star Wars figures.
“Friends and I would recreate and act out scenes from the films using the toys. It was great escapism. The films were always amazing to watch and even now, looking back as an adult, the special effects still hold up amazing well.
“Now, with the new Star Wars films, they are continuing the story for the next generation of kids and for the nostalgic adults.”
Cam Kennedy, the legendary Judge Dredd and Star Wars artist who helped to launch a new postgraduate programme for aspiring comics artists, writers and scholars at Dundee University last year, also praised the appeal of the original films.
He adds: “Star Wars was very unique, the first time it started. Something like that had never been done before.
“The people were really shocked when the huge Star Destroyer came flying over your head with no zipper on it, not shaking, no wires.
“They looked at it and said: “It’s real! The special effects reached a quality that hadn’t been seen before – maybe with the exception of 2001... from Stanley Kubrick!”
● Star Wars: The Last Jedi is on general release at cinemas now.
Now, with the new Star Wars films, they are continuing the story for the next generation...