Hm.

Two days of sunshine. I could get to like this, but I know that the minute I get used to it, they will snatch it away with a cruel laugh.

When the Future was White

So last week, in honor of the 30th anniversary of The Empire Strikes Back, Skywalker screened the movie for employees and family in the Blue-Ray edition. I went up, and as always, it's a great place to hang out and work, as well as see a movie. But because I've seen this film so many times, I focused on things beyond the story (the fact that Mark Hamill acts better with his voice than his face--not surprising that so much of his work has been voice talent). One of the things I realized is that all of the Vader army are not only white, but they look like they were from the same gene pool, give or take. I don't know that this was deliberate, but I can't rule it out. Long nose, small, protuberant eyes, thin lips, narrow faces--to a man.

And boy, is that a white future. Other than Lando Calrissian and one extra moving around the city-in-the-clouds, I saw no person of color. Which made me remember the extent that, 30 years ago, the future--and the present--in film and TV, was so much whiter. I remember the buzz that went around when it was discovered that Lucas had cast a black actor in the second Star Wars movie, as if it were a great step forward (and at the time it was). Of course, I also remember the buzz that said that Boba Fett was really Luke's father, and we all know how that panned out.

It's still the best of the Star Wars movies, I think, and it's still fun to watch. But it also has become, in the words of Galaxy Quest, one of the Historical Documents.