Yue Han, terrific post. I agree with everything you said.
I’ve found it interesting that, when confronted with this slapstick, goofy character, people assume he is supposed to be a caricature of blacks. This despite the fact that, for one thing, there are actual black human beings in the movie, and they all hold positions of power: One is the head of the Queen’s Royal Security force, one is a ranking member of the Jedi Council, and one is a Naboo fighter pilot. There are others in several other scenes.
For another, many of Jar Jar’s actions, especially in the battle between the Gungans and the droid army, are lifted nearly directly from Harold Lloyd and Buster Keaton films.
When there are black people in the film, the assumption that Jar Jar is supposed to be “black” is, in my opinion, more reflective of the attitude of the person watching.
Oh, FTR, nobody in this film calls anyone “Massa” or anything even close to it with the exception of the two white Jedi and Darth Maul, who refer to their superiors as “Master.” And, according to George Lucas, the accents of the Trade Federation were supposed to be reminscent of Transylvanian, not Asian.
Jar Jar was far from the worst thing in the movie. After seeing the performance of a child actor like Haley Joel Osmont in “The Sixth Sense,” I can’t imagine what Lucas and his casting director were thinking.
The first time I saw Jar-Jar on the big screen I remember thinking, “Here we go, Jar-Jar T-shirts, lunchboxes, action figures, maybe a Saturday morning cartoon.”
Later, during the (overlong IMHO) pod race sequence, all I could think was, “Here we go again, watch out for the N-64 or Playstation video game in about two months.”
As if Lucas needs the money.
Of course I’m a crusty old adult now. If I had been eight years old last summer, it would have been a Jar-Jar Christmas.
Problem is, Jar Jar didn’t use a Caribbean dialect. Jar Jar used a nearly impossible to understand, over-the-top white person’s caricature of a Caribbean dialect.
Yue Han said:
If you can’t see the Chinese Shogun look and hints of Oriental dialect in the Nemeodians, “meesa thinks yousa nuts-a.” Or you at least need to watch the movie again a little more closely.
While the shooting script certainly contained elements of the final dialect used by Jar Jar, a great deal (if not the majo portion) of the enunciation and character was left to Ahmed Best who, last I looked, was in fact black.
Furthermore, anyone who has listened to a Caribbean dialect for more than about ten seconds would have a difficult time pointing out any real points of correspondence that wouldn’t be equally true for other dialects and languages.
Let me begin by saying that I wasn’t expecting much out of this movie to start with. There was entirely too much hype, and too high expectations to avoid mass disappointment. However, even going in with incredibly low expectations, I came out of that movie feeling like I had wasted my time. Now on to that stupid character . . .
The main thing I hate about Jar Jar is his voice. Dear Lord, could it get any more annoying!?! I mean, say what you like, but consistent and deliberate bad grammar is irritating to ANYONE. Yes, I realize that’s not his language, etc., but that doesn’t make it any less vile to viewers. You’d think someone would consider that before the movie was released.
Come to think of it, I never really cared for Yoda’s voice either, though it is far more bearable. Why? B/c it’s at a normal (well, close) tone and pitch. (But it still strikes a major nerve with me when my boyfriend impersonates him–and he does a dead on impersonation. Go figure.)
Hey, This may be a bit out dated of a post, but it is shown and reiterated in the movies on how Jar Jar Binks had literately made order 66, as a coalition signing with the Empire, in order to gain respectable trust and protection between the senator and the emperor Palpatine.
Put simply: Jar Jar binks literatly made it possible for the Jedi to be killed, in order to save his own hide.
You revived a thirteen year old ZOMBIE for that? (While ignoring the fact that he was hated two movies prior to the killing of the Jedi.)
Okie-dokie.
I will note that in the intervening thirteen years, we have a few new fora in which to discuss stuff.
I am moving this from Great Debates to Cafe Society.
I think the problem was Jar Jar was intended to be entertaining and he was not. And that reflected on the entire series. Realizing one character was just a bunch of hype made us stop and think about whether the movies were just hype.
We wanted a cool movie, the origin of Darth Vader! We didn’t want silly comic relief and virtual blackface behavior. And that voice, it’s so grating for anyone over the age of 8.
The original Star Wars featured a cast that was entirely of fighting age. I know using the word plausible when talking about Star Wars is stretching it, but the first 2 movies are plausible by fictional standards. The first movie was built on well established plot lines: the evil empire based on the Nazis; standard action fight scenes; and space battles based on WW1 and WW2 dog fight styles. The hero is a backwoods farm boy who accepts the call to action, gets trained, and wins by sheer determination and skill with the blessings of a higher spiritual force. What makes the first 2 movies work so well is that the empire looks competent and that makes victory more fun to watch and defeat a little more menacing.
But by the third movie, the Ewoks are childish and primitive. The Empire should have been able to mow them down and by not doing so it makes them look incompetent. Most fans regard “Jedi” as inferior to the other 2 movies for exactly this reason.
When Phantom Menace came out Lucas upped the ante by having small children and childish aliens become the main fighting heroes, they win by virtue of luck, and by doing so it takes away any notion of real danger that the other characters have to overcome. The Star Wars universe became implausible and fans resented it. Jake Lloyd and Jar Jar Binks got the brunt of the blame.
Huh, this thread predates my membership on this board.
Anyway, I’ve developed some latter-day respect for the Ewoks, though I can picture a slight re-edit of Jedi that cuts out the more clownish moments, leaving their rather impressive Viet-Congish deathtraps. Jar-Jar could benefit from this as well (and did, in the so-called “Phantom Edit”). Leaving the goofy comic relief in either film is just a tedious reminder to the audience that these are movies for children, and fairly stupid children at that.
I just saw ROTJ on TV complete with the animated band scene that crazy man added in. It’s just absolutely ridiculous. I don’t know what Lucas was thinking. You have a semi serious scene, I remember as a kid being scared of all the scenes with Jabba. And then suddenly thread a cartoon.
I think Jar Jar was the same way. It just doesn’t fit.
And I am dreading the Disneyfication of it. They might as well just do the whole thing in old school pen and paper animation and turn it into a musical.
