Review - The Star Wars Holiday Special (1978)

It wouldn't be the seasonal holidays without assessing a work of art dedicated to the holidays.  While the norm around Christmas time is to revisit either Elf or Home Alone, I - being the glutton for punishment I am - opted instead at the start of the month for a piece of work that's not even available on an official release!  

'The Star Wars Holiday Special' is available in all its gory online without paying a penny, and evidently it was recorded on an American telly going by the ads that are featured.

Now there may have been a time where either Phantom Menace or Attack Of The Clones would've featured at the bottom when ranking your favourite films in the saga.  Heck, if you're like me, you might be old enough to recall when Return Of The Jedi held that mantle alone; maybe or maybe not by default.  The more recent sequel trilogy undoubtedly divides opinion as well, where it could be argued that portions of The Last Jedi should never have left the editing room.

The Holiday Special was broadcast a year after the original instalment, a.k.a A New Hope, took the international box office by storm and left a permanent footprint on the sci-fi genre.  Essentially it could've easily killed the rest of what was to come had its aftermath been worse.  Thank the Lord for Empire Strikes Back anyway but even more so that it maintained positive opinion in the Star Wars universe.

There were positive elements to the film and it would be unfair not to acknowledge these - the main one being the introduction to the series of Boba Fett, the bounty hunter character.  It turns out Empire was actually his second appearance!  

Most of the original cast takes part in this special, a nice continuity link and a stroke of luck having them all available to reprise their parts.  The film bravely breaks up the story structure by inserting an animated section about halfway through.  Whilst not without flaws, it paved the way for later cartoon spin-offs Droids and Ewoks in the following decade.  

Devoted fans will also be mindful of the recurring Chewbacca family experiment as an early nod to the concept of Kasyyyk, the wookie's home planet revisited in Revenge Of The Sith.  Unfortunately that's where the positivity ends.  The feature on the family of wookies grows tiresome, especially as their 'dialogue' is so restricted.  

Mark Hamill, who played Luke Skywalker, was reported to have been involved in a nasty car accident prior to filming hence the abundance of make-up he's wearing;  however his poorly edited conversation with Chewie becomes uncomfortable with his staring in to the camera, stopping short of breaking the forth wall.

Trippy, dream-like sequences, including one with a young woman dressed up like a disco ball and bordering on soft porn, feel out of place and just plain weird.  All well and good if you're watching with your mates but surely this is a family programme?  How does one explain the audible sounds to Junior?..

To make matters worse, Carrie Fisher sings in the final scene along to John Williams' iconic theme.  Yes, Princess Leia gets her own moment to shine vocally, whilst everyone else looks on pretending to care in an attempt at a happy ending.  What was going on in Harrison Ford's mind at this point requires subtitles if a Blu-Ray edition ever surfaces, as earlier on he gives the impression of just not wanting to be there.

It's no wonder George Lucas reportedly wanted to take a sledgehammer to the original master tapes: this abomination is all over the place.  The official saga, including the various spin-offs, each possess an intensity that adds to their storytelling momentum but this has none whatsoever.  Admittedly this was, as the title suggested a 'special' thus implying it was out of the norm with what it had to contribute, but surely to goodness a similar job could've been created in a tidier, tighter fashion.

There was potential to have a feature-length after one chapter, however one can only think the usual committee treatment led to a mish-mash output.  After mulling over why neither Fox or Disney haven't officially put it out for sale, a distributor could arguably be prosecuted for stealing if it were to charge money for this.  If you're not a Star Wars fan, avoid like Jar-Jar Binks.  If you are and have yet to see it .... may the force be with you!