I hate the opening text crawls in the Star Wars movies
The opening of every Star Wars movie is iconic. The 20th Century Fox fanfare (for most of the episodes). The steely Lucasfilm logo. The cyan text over a black, silent background: “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…”
And then, like a wave, the giant, yellow-outlined words “Star Wars” crash onto the screen, quickly shrinking back into the starry background as a flurry of brass, woodwinds, and string instruments fill the emptiness of outer space with wonder. It’s exciting on a visceral level.
But then words start crawling up from the bottom of the screen. I hate these opening text crawls.
I understand setting the stage for a visual story. I have watched movies that have a short paragraph at the beginning to give a little context to what’s about to unfold, and I often appreciate it.
The opening text for the very first movie, Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, is helpful to establish the universe of Star Wars, I’ll admit that. We’re coming into this story in the middle of a conflict and knowing just a little bit about what’s going on helps clear up any potential confusion for new viewers. It doesn’t give you just a little bit of information, though. It’s 88 words long and over-explains the setup. It doesn’t need to be that long.
And after that first movie, why does every subsequent movie need opening text? Almost all of them just explain what happened in the last movie or what we are about to see and therefore are completely useless. If there was no text crawl at all in front of the Star Wars movies, we’d all figure out what was going on with them. Luke Skywalker is already an analog to the viewer, having almost no idea about what’s going on in the galaxy and so much is explained to him clearly.
In Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, do we really need to be told that the rebels have set up a base on Hoth? No. We see it immediately.
Even if we pretend that we need these opening monologues of text, like they’re somehow key to our enjoyment of these movies, we can’t ignore the way that it’s presented, the way it moves, crawling up the screen.
It just keeps going, inching upward at a speed that’s too slow for even a slow reader like me. But if you look away for a second or two, you’ll immediately lose your place. It’s disheartening and stressful.
I recently watched the entire series of movies over the course of about a week and a half, including Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker, and there wasn’t a single movie where I was able to stay focused for the entire duration of the introductory text crawl.
They aren't exciting. They memorable. They aren't necessary.
I enjoy the crawl, and I figure my enjoyment counters your hate and returns the universe to balance.
ReplyDeleteBut they’re iconic and instantly recognisable 😪
ReplyDeleteNever seen a starwars movie in my life!
ReplyDeleteCool story, bro.
DeleteWhen the original came out in theaters it was groundbreaking. Not to mention necessary since nothing like Star Wars existed and from the outset was so weird that it needed this to set up the story.
ReplyDeleteThey’re iconic, they DO serve a purpose, and IMO it wouldn’t be a Star Wars opening without them
ReplyDeleteYou must not have been of an age to have seen the first Star Wars movie when it was released. It was epic! There’d never been anything like it.
ReplyDeleteFar more memorable, exciting amd necessary than your desperate group
ReplyDeleteWhat a load of crock.
ReplyDeleteAgain, written by a guy who graduated high school in 2012. He gets no opinion.
ReplyDeleteThis article is unnecessary
ReplyDeleteAre you serious? Is that there nothing in your world that concerns you more than this? Get some fricken relatively
ReplyDeleteDue to the drastically sub-luminal speed of the crawl, relativity is not a factor.
DeleteIt's a harmless tradition. Simple as that.
ReplyDeleteI hate reading the same article over and over.
ReplyDeleteToday in first world problems... "I HATE" some text from a movie...
ReplyDeleteThey also use 4 dots after Far, far away. An elypsis has 3 dots not 4
ReplyDeletethat actually does annoy tf outta me
DeleteI look for things to hate and to ratio nalize that hate because I want to feel Superior to the rest of the peasants
ReplyDeleteMore relevance and exciting than mashable
ReplyDeleteThe wrong speak!
ReplyDeleteAnger leads to hate. Hate leads to sufferingggg
ReplyDeletehttps://media.giphy.com/media/Ll1rEkDebTIdO/giphy.gif
Hate leads to suffering
ReplyDeleteSucks that you have to be able to read...
ReplyDeleteThey say that opinions can't be wrong, but you sir have disproved this.
ReplyDeleteThey are a throwback to the old serials like Flash Gordon.
ReplyDeleteStop that hate for old traditions. "New is alway better" is so millennial.
ReplyDeleteThey were great until the last one
ReplyDeleteWhaaa?? No way will a Star Wars movie be the same without them.
ReplyDeleteI can't believe that's a title to anything
ReplyDeleteGotta love when millennials get into "journalism".
ReplyDeleteTell that to the New Trilogy.
ReplyDeleteJust being the desperate cool kid on the block who pretends to hate what everyone else likes
ReplyDeleteYou seriously don't get it, do you?
ReplyDeletePuts me to sleep every single time
ReplyDeletehttps://tenor.com/view/vader-star-wars-faith-gif-8081360
ReplyDeletehttps://tenor.com/view/haters-gonna-hate-snow-white-gif-8796144
ReplyDelete