Jan 29: In ‘The Force Awakens,’ Cinematheque’s 3-D program dovetails right into John Williams

Star Wars The Force Awakens Cinematheque John Williams

The Force Awakens bridges two generations as well as two Cinematheque programs

The relationship between JJ Abrams and “the mystery box” is well-documented; it’s even self-professed. Less discussed than his obsession with intrigue is Abrams’s infatuation with fan service. Abrams is a director but first and foremost, he is a fan, with a filmography that includes an unabashed love letter to Spielberg in Super 8 and an unabashed remake of The Wrath of Khan in Star Trek Into Darkness. Watch him geek out when Han Solo and Chewbacca return to the Millennium Falcon.

In the age of the Non-Stop Cinematic Universe Extravaganza, fan service has (often rightfully) been turned into a pejorative, with the Kevin Feiges of the world preserving the stakes of their franchises in bubble wrap. Movies are commodities, preserving an explicit memory or feeling — or rather, what a specific group of people deem that to be. The Force Awakens — which plays this Sun at 2:00p in 4070 Vilas Hall as the finale to Cinematheque’s 3-D program — is no stranger to appealing to the “fanboy.” Just watch them geek out when Han Solo and Chewbacca return to the Millennium Falcon.

What separates The Force Awakens from the vast majority of superhero films (or, for that matter, last month’s Rogue One: A Star Wars Story) is what it does with its fan service. Rather than insisting on superfluous “Easter Eggs,” the seventh episode in the Star Wars saga recalls previous story beats wholesale. Rey (Daisy Ridley) is a plucky young pilot in search of a family secret from her sandy outpost. Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) is a masked malevolent hell-bent on snuffing out a group of resistance fighters. The last act of The Force Awakens more or less retells the Rebel assault on the Death Star, swapping out A New Hope‘s original superweapon for a bigger and, allegedly, better one.

By all accounts, The Force Awakens is a clone of the best elements of the Star Wars franchise. Its reverence for Darth Vader creates a lesser, fanboy version of him, with Ren consumed by a constant need to live up to the Dark Lord’s legacy. Figures become legends, where Han Solo isn’t a smuggler but a “war hero,” and tales of the Jedi are myths made real. The Millennium Falcon is passed down, but not before Solo reminds everyone that it made the Kessel Run in 12 (not 14) parsecs. Rey and Kylo Ren and ex-stormtrooper Finn (John Boyega) quickly learn they’re following in the hallowed footsteps of General Leia Organa (Carrie Fisher) and the now shamed and reclusive Luke Skywalker. This is a movie whose MacGuffins are an old lightsaber and the secret location to the guy who owned it. This is a Star Wars movie about Star Wars.

Just as it wraps up Cinematheque’s 3-D program, The Force Awakens also introduces audience to the “Music By John Williams” series. The series doesn’t truly begin until Sun, Feb 5 with Jaws, but this is as good an entry point as any. Star Wars is far from the paragon of quality cinema. John Williams’s music on the other hand, is the greatest achievement in the composer’s 60-year career. For Star Wars, Williams has crafted a classically-minded set of themes and motifs with enough melodic sensibility to hold their place in pop culture decades after any box office streak. Now multiply that impact by seven (and counting).

The music of Star Wars is the greatest achievement in movie score history, and The Force Awakens only embellishes that legacy, occasionally adding to the intrigue to JJ’s “mystery box” tendencies with nods to old cues or inserts of suggestive new ones. One of Kylo Ren’s themes wears an “Imperial March” influence on its sleeve, and the gloom-and-doom of “Anakin’s Dark Deeds” haunt a second motif. Williams teases Attack of the Clones’s masterful, game-changing love theme for a fateful moment with Han Solo, and Supreme Leader Snoke’s string-pulling recalls the sounds of Supreme Chancellor Palpatine’s own machinations.

As with any JJ Abrams creation, some of these connections are only coincidences, the end product of a master who fully understands the musical language he’s created. It’s probably nothing that “March of the Resistance” has a hint of the Trade Federation’s martial promenade. Then again, the fan in Abrams knows when to invest in moments, too. When Rey makes a key self-discovery, the director inserts a quote of The Force theme from all the way back in 1977. For The Force Awakens’ most important moment, the old feels new again.

  • UW Cinematheque screens Star Wars: The Force Awakens this Sun, Jan 29 at 2:00p in 4070 Vilas Hall. Admission is FREE and open to the public.