Small Serial Items

Throughout the movies there are subtle and persistent reminders to the viewer that she is watching a serial movie of the Golden Hollywood style. One of the ones that most fans and critics still love is the the opening crawl including an episode number and summary of the story that occurred prior to the movie's opening. On the first viewing of Star Wars, Lucas believed that the films would take in a modest profit. Therefore, he left the Episode IV off of the title. When he saw it was well received, he put the episode number on the second release of the film. This emphasized the movie's placement in the middle of a series making it clear that it was a serial movie.

The opening crawl hearkens back to probably the most well known and well loved serial movies: the Flash Gordon series. Another little bit are the cool wipes that Star Wars uses. These were used heavily in the serial genre of the 30s and 40s. So, for Lucas to bring them back with his Star Wars films is a clear indication of his inspiration. Also the corny names are a reference to the old serials. Skywalker, Poggle the Lesser, Darth Vader, Darth Sidious, General Greivous; these wonderfully corny names are unmistakable references to the names of characters like Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, Ming the Merciless, and Dr. Zarkov.

Perhaps one of the most interesting parallels is the history that was the backdrop for these two seperate efforts. Star Wars came in the heart of the Great Malaise infamously described by Jimmy Carter. The saturday matinee serials came during the dark times of the Great Depression and World War II. Perhaps a part of why the otherworldly acting was so important to the success of both Star Wars and the original serials was the need of Americans to escape their reality rather than get more of it. Of course the irony of it all is that the visual style of storytelling employed in this genre is arguably better at capturing the essence of reality than the laboriously studied nature of method. At any rate, as more people get stuck in the unsatisfactory nature of current era, perhaps the serial acting style will become more appealing to us.

Though there are other items, these will do for now on the serial genre.