Force has roots in Canadian film
MOVIES: 1964 NFB short likely inspired Lucas
It is a question that has bedeviled Jedi scholars for generations: When and where did the Force awaken? Sure, the latest Star Wars movie carries the title The Force Awakens, but clearly it was up and about long before then.
The answer, at least for this galaxy, turns out to be Montreal in 1964. That was where a young Canadian filmmaker named Arthur Lipsett, working for the National Film Board of Canada, created an experimental film called 21- 87. The disturbing short, all of nine minutes and 33 seconds, features a hodgepodge of images that include a man acting like a robot; a robot hand picking up a beaker; and a Mercury astronaut in a space capsule.
It also features a startling snippet of dialogue, taken from a conversation between artificial intelligence pioneer Warren S. McCulloch and Roman Kroitor, another Canadian and the co-founder of IMAX.
Told by McCulloch that animals and even humans are nothing more than complex machines, Kroitor replied: “Many people feel that in the contemplation of nature, and in communication with other living things, they become aware of some kind of a Force, or something behind t his apparent mask which we see in front of us.”
In 1964, George Lucas was a film student newly enrolled at the University of Southern California, where the curriculum featured heavy doses of CanCon, including documentarian Claude Jutra, animator Norman McLaren — and Arthur Lipsett.
Lucas watched 21- 87 again and again. He credits the film for inspiring his student short film Electronic Labyrinth THX 1138 4EB ( which is set in the year 2187), and his first fea- ture, the less cumbersomely named THX 1138, i n which a character’s death is said to take place on the date 21/ 87. Six years later, Lucas unveiled Star Wars.
Lipsett died by his own hand in 1986, apparently unaware of the Force he had unleashed. But the 2006 NFB documentary Remembering Arthur opens with a tribute from Lucas.
“In terms of understanding the power of sound and picture relationships there no one better than Arthur Lipsett,” he says. “In the relationship of understanding the editing — cutting from dark to light, light to dark, movement from one side to the other, going from pastoral to shocking — there’s no better example than his films.”
Watching Star Wars, with its side- to- side wipe transitions, and a scene of Luke Skywalker’s gaze passing over his pastoral desert dwelling to the shocking view of his murdered aunt and uncle, it’s clear that Lucas took these lessons to heart. And he (along with sound designer Ben Burtt) helped the original trilogy pick up half a dozen Oscar statues for its visual effects, editing and sound.
Luc a s even included a cheeky homage to the Montreal filmmaker in the first Star Wars movie. When Luke and Han Solo arrive in the Death Star detention centre to rescue Princess Leia, Han stops to consult a computer. “We gotta find out which cell this princess of yours is in,” he says. “Here it is: 2187!”
And the number lives on in The Force Awakens. John Boyega’s character, Finn, starts out as a renegade stormtrooper without a name. His designation is FN- 2187. To quote another l i ne f rom Lipsett’s movie: “Somebody walks up and you say: ‘ Your number is 2187, isn’t it?’ Boy, does that person really smile!” Indeed they do.