Darth Vader, The Great White Hope, and Perspective

An interesting thing happened to me last night. After a long and, sadly, not particularly lucrative poker game (though not as dire as some,) I found myself trying to find, for a friend, this hilarious video I'd come across on a website last week of a bunch of scenes from Star Wars recut so that they used James Earl Jones' voice from other movies to craft a slightly new narrative. Of course, I couldn't remember what the remix or mashup or whatever we're calling it this minute was called so I trolled YouTube.

This is the video I found first:





Pretty funny, right? I mean, I laughed, and my friend laughed at this one. Cause it's funny. But it wasn't the one I was looking for. This one was way more...well...obvious.

The one that I'd laughed my butt off a couple days before had struck me because besides being just funny, it actually took the thought to recast all of Star Wars as Vader's personal death (star) spiral: a journey that was partly racial, partly sexual in nature -- and far more the portrait of a Sith Lord in the grip of a serious existential crisis.

It was a more sophisticated piece of work. Yet it sprung from exactly the same idea -- and though entertaining, let's come out front and state for everybody, it aint exactly a rocket science, off-the-charts, original idea: take clips from other James Earl Jones movies and mash them into images from Star Wars.

See, what "The Vader Sessions" (the version below) has that the other doesn't is narrative vision. It actually arranges its clips in a cohesive way to explore a theme, and not just go for the easy laugh.

It also helps that the guy who arranged The Vader Sessions had access and knowledge of a much richer and wider palette of clips to choose from: including one of my favorite James Earl Jones movies, the film adaptation of The Great White Hope. (The story of Jack Johnson. No. Not the singer from Hawaii. Seriously. If you don't know who Jack Johnson is, or his story, go. We'll wait.) See? Like Ali, only earlier. Neat, huh? Okay.

See, this is what people talk about when they say that you can't copyright an idea. I you're serious about telling stories, the tale of the YouTube Vader mashups is where you can start on the idea of interpretation. You should also probably take a look at the two versions of the Exorcist prequel, by Paul Schrader and Renny Harlin.

But the other thing to keep in mind when you're exploring this territory is: what's your depth? What do you know? What have you read? What have you experienced? Are you sure you're attacking your story from a fresh point of view that actually takes into account what came before?

I remember when I was in high school, and I'd hear a song and someone would later tell me that the version that I'd heard was a cover, I'd feel a little silly or ashamed that I didn't know the original version. These days, I'm constantly running into people who -- never mind they don't know that riff or sample is from James Brown or whoever -- they don't care. Seriously. If you're looking to make music or generate filmed entertainment in the early years of the 21st century, and you don't realize that the medium has about a century's worth of history on you...well...then...ugh. Sad for you.

I know that this is a classic old fogey move...but I can say with conviction that over the last few years -- in the time that I've taught a new crop of 20 year olds every year...I've seen the appreciaton for and the knowledge of culture outside your immediate frame of reference go down. I think Hollywood TV weathered the storm a few years longer than it maybe should have because all those smartypants grads from Harvard actually had a good education -- but education doesn't replace curiosity, especially when it comes to culture.

And not knowing about "The Great White Hope" seriously burns you when you're trying to do the definitive James Earl Jones Vader mashup. Just sayin'.

Here's The Vader Sessions on YouTube:



Or check out the original site and tell them what you think.