“Star Wars: The Last Jedi”
Old ideas, new ways: Episode VIII is on TV tonight
Kylo Ren wants to overthrow the old order, and Rey resists using the old Jedi values. The eighth “Star Wars” episode no longer makes such shameless use of the old films – and creates a future that not everyone will like.
It’s an old idea that has been told anew for more than 40 years: In the previous seven films, “Star Wars” was always about the brave fight of a band of rebels against an almost overwhelming empire. Nothing changed in “The Last Jedi.” At the beginning of the eighth episode, things are looking bleak again for the resistance group around Leia Organa (Carrie Fisher in her last role). She is on the verge of her final destruction.
The only remaining hope is Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), Jedi Knight and the last of his kind. But he has turned away from the world and its power struggles. He has retreated to a deserted island and lives the life of a hermit. Rey tracked him down there in the last episode and gave him his lightsaber. But Luke now dismisses this contemptuously. The old man has graduated from Jedihood. He guards the ancient writings of this religion on his island as if they were evidence of a lost era. Ideas that have been dead for a long time.
But they are not. Ideas can’t die. Skywalker eventually has to realize this. The old stories, the powers and bonds – they are simply too powerful to shed and break away from. So he submits one last time.
“Star Wars” and parricide
That is the real theme of “The Last Jedi”: the conflict between old ideas and the radical new that is violently overthrowing the old world tabula rasa want to do. This approach is embodied by Kylo Ren (Adam Driver), the son of Leia and Han Solo. Anyone who wants to end the old order must commit parricide. That’s literally what the Dark Knight did – when he killed Han Solo.
Scene from “Star Wars – The Last Jedi”: Rey (Daisy Ridley) wants to be introduced to the secrets of the Force by Luke Skywalker.
© Disney/dpa
And nothing else seems sacred to him: the student of Snoke, the sinister leader of the First Order, doesn’t even think about continuing the centuries-old fight of the dark side of the Force against the Jedi. He has been planning a new time for a long time. That’s why he wants to win Rey over. Conversely, she believes she still sees good things in him and hopes to be able to turn him around. She draws her confidence from the old stories: After all, Luke Skywalker once succeeded in doing this with his father, Darth Vader.
These struggles within the characters make up one part of the film. The second storyline, on the other hand, is action-heavy and told at a fast pace. In it, the rebel Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac), who was introduced in Episode VII, tries to take down a dangerous First Order system and goes into the lion’s den to do so. Only in the last third of this film, which at 152 minutes is clearly too long, do both strands finally come together and the decisive battle between old and new occurs.
“The Last Jedi” finds a middle ground
A contradiction that the makers of the “Star Wars” films also have to face. Some critics criticized “The Force Awakens” for being too shameless in its reference to the old trilogy. “The Last Jedi” (written and directed by Rian Johnson) is more balanced, ultimately finding a middle ground between reference to the past and the need to continue telling a story from the 1970s in the new millennium.
The clearest difference from before is the diversity of the staff – this was already apparent two years ago. While it used to be mainly white men like Han Solo, Luke Skywalker or Obi-Wan Kenobi who ensured the balance of power, the rebels are now a diverse bunch. When it comes to the gender question, the film goes even further: While the old Skywalker is approaching his replacement like a depressed Wotan, Rey embodies the hope for a better future and gives Leia the reliable leader. The male rebels, on the other hand, act time and again in a headless and testosterone-driven manner – and thus put everyone in danger. It cannot be overlooked: the future in the universe is female.
“Star Wars: The Last Jedi” will be shown on ProSieben on Friday, January 26th from 8:15 p.m