A Study of Opening Crawls

The Last Jedi has by far, the worst opening crawl, of all the Star Wars feature length films.

It makes no sense & adds little to the story. Luke is NOT going to lead or support the Resistance fighters.
Hux & the fleet do not know where the Resistance base is.
Rian Johnson & ILM made a lot of dumb mistakes. Starting with the opening.

TFM
PS: the no fan-fare or quiet opening is stupid too.

 

Since TLJ took place less than 12 hours after the TFA, it feels like the opening crawl is unnecessary, save for the last sentence. Maybe if something really different happened between TFA and TLJ, or if the film took place farther in the future, then the opening crawl would have more importance.

 

In my opinion, they did a good job with the opening crawl of TLJ. With the ending scene of TFA in mind they had no other choice than to let the film begin directly after TFA (or, in this case, maybe a little bit earlier). As a result they had to create an opening crawl that hasn't got a lot to tell about the time before the first scene of the movie (unlike the other opening crawls). So they did another thing, and in my eyes, that was the best decision that could be made: Eycept of the attack of the New Order they didn't try to tell too much about the past - becaue we know everything we have to know, when we have seen TFA before . Instead of this Johnson plays with the future in this opening crawl, he plays with our and the character's expectations - on the one hand considering Luke and his possible role as a new leader for the resistance, and on the other hand also considering the beginning of the movie: After the opening crawl I expected a remake of the Hoth attack from TESB... just to get something different.

 

But they were going to blow it up wth StarKiller base in Force Awakens so they knew.

 

Yeah, TFA explains how the FO knows where the Resistance base is at. They were going to blow it up with Starkiller Base, after all.
So it makes perfect sense the FO knows where to attack the Resistance Base in the beginning of TLJ.

 

In some ways I'd say that TLJ is the only one which does the opening crawl 'right'!

As I'm sure most of us know, the opening crawls are inspired by the serialisations that George Lucas was fond of. However, they traditionally served the function of recapping what happened in the previous episode and to bring us up to speed with the 'cliffhanger' situation we're getting thrown into. Most of the SW films don't really do this with the crawl.

When ANH (or just 'Star Wars' as it was called then) first was released, it just served the function of creating the sense of being part of a serialisation, without there actually being one. But as it did become serialised, the crawl became something that wasn't so much a recap but was used to tell us of events that we haven't actually seen - they give us bits of extra story and context to throw us into a moment. So although ESB does recap that the Death Star was destroyed, it moves into (vaguely) informing us of what has happened since then. It's filling a gap rather than picking up from where the last episode left us (even though conceptually at least, ESB does basically pick up where we left off; with the Rebel Base under threat of attack. TLJ does the same only much more literally!)

With that said, I'd say TLJ is arguably the only episode so far which, by design, remains somewhat true to the very origins of the crawl concept. It's the only one that does it 'right'!

However, with the release of Rogue One, ANH's crawl has retrospectively perhaps become the crawl which is the most true to the tradition, by virtue of the crawl being made into a movie in it's own right. Prior to that, if it was being true to its origins, we'd get a recap of the ending of ROTS!

As for 'Phantom Menace'... by rights, it shouldn't have an opening crawl at all! It's the first episode! There shouldn't be anything to tell about what has happened so far!

 

You need some context for why they're there on that ship though.

 

Well, I'm not genuinely suggesting it shouldn't be there, just that if it was being true to the origins of the crawl then it wouldn't be. But it's become its own thing in Star Wars I think - it's its own 'trope' - and so 'needs' to be there for that reason.

Having said that... for the sake of argument, you could say that the lack of context is more of a problem with the opening scene itself. If it lacks necessary context without a crawl then maybe that means the scene needs writing differently! Or it's the 'wrong' opening for the first episode maybe. Or just throw in a bit more expositional dialogue. Assuming it even needs any.

Besides, one of the criticisms of the Phantom Menace crawl is that it's dull and confusing. How 'needed' is it actually? Doesn't most of what we need to know just unfold anyway? I suspect a lot of people had forgotten what it said as soon as they'd finished reading it.

 

I suspect that's just the majority of the crawls though. I can only remember 4's off the top of my head, and that's only certian sentences.

 

Back then opening crawls were used because you couldn't rewatch TV episodes etc so easily. Now you don't really need repetitions like that anymore. You can just rewatch the pervious episode.

TPM was structered like ANH. A start in the middle of the action or conflict. So an opening crawl was definitely needed.

The funny thing is as soon as I've read the opening crawl of TLJ I was reminded of the crawls of the PT. Not a good sign for the start...

 

Right. But the Star Wars opening crawl is being made in that tradition of 'back then'. Besides, even in the time of the OT, rewatching episodes wasn't anywhere near as easy as it is now. Anyway, even some modern ongoing TV series do still include a recap, albeit a visual one in the form of a previous episode key moments montage.

I'm not complaining about the crawls - I think they're a great device that have played a large part in shaping what Star Wars is, and as a series of movies I think they all - or all the saga stories at least - should have them. Including Episode One! I don't dispute that. I'm just observing that they're not quite in the tradition of the crawls on which they are based.

Personally I suspect TPM would probably unfold perfectly fine without the opening crawl without changing anything else. I think the opening scenes probably do tell us all we need to know anyway. But I aslo suspect that's true of most, if not all, of the episodes. But that's not me arguing they shouldn't be there. I love that they are

 

The beginning of TPM's crawl almost reads like a joke:

"Turmoil has engulfed the Galactic Republic . . ."

Ooooh boy here we go!

". . . The taxation of trade routes to outlying star systems is in dispute."

wait what




It's a long fall from the space battles and spy missions described in the first few lines of New Hope's crawl.

 

i think the TLJ opening crawl sets the tone most perfectly from one film to the next.
it demonstrates escalation from TFA by hitting the exact same points from the first crawl; these are the connections that matter because they are about the state of the actual star war that is currently in progress. ROTS, ANH, and ESB are also strong openers. TFA is just okay. it feels a bit hobbled by having to address the Luke problem.

to me, the weakest of the batch is ROTJ. both ANH and ESB are about the state of the galaxy. ROTJ opens with: Luke's off to save his friend. it really should have been written to say: the galactic empire is constructing a new threat!!! yadda yadda ~ but first Luke Skywalker must rescue his friend Han Solo!

 

"Luke Skywalker has vanished." This first line can not be topped. What a bold move to open a movie of the Skywalker saga like this.

 

i dunno. that feels like baggage to me ~ hahahahaha
the reason i say that is because i come from the perspective that these crawls shouldn't be about Luke or any other character, they should be about setting the stage for the galactic conflict. i would have preferred it opened with "The sinister FIRST ORDER has risen from the ashes of the Empire". then you can get into all the other stuff. but putting Luke up front, it places potentially false/misleading emphasis on the significance of one character (and we've all seen where that led). : o p

 

But why did the FO rise? Because of the absence of Luke Skywalker. So Luke is more important in this case. Furthermore stating that Luke is gone shows that this movie isn't about Luke.

 

TFA crawl is perhaps the most essential of them all and may even be the only one that is essential. It has a lot more work to do, in terms of setting up the current state of affairs in the galaxy compared to the events we are familiar with from the previous episode. It's maybe the only film which might be confusing from the outset without it (although it's probably just as confusing with it!)

ANH just has to tell us that there's a rebellion since the last episode and that there's a Death Star. Although even all of that quickly becomes evident in the first few scenes anyway. Apart from that it just picks up from where Episode III left off. Nothing much else has happened since then (Of course it has, but that's all just inconsequential padding!)

But as I think more about it, I think even TFA could stand on its own without the crawl. At some point all those points are revealed to us through action and dialogue. We don't need to know from the outset that Luke is 'missing' - we learn it soon enough anyway. I suppose the crawl might be needed to establish the idea of the First Order? And more so the Resistance? But I'm not sure it being there actually makes it less confusing for anyone who finds it confusing.

 

oh hogwarts ~ Luke is not the cause of the rise of the FO. you just proved my point ~ hahahahaha

i don't disagree that it's essential, but like you said, i don't know that it sufficiently sets the stage and, to me, what it does set is a false premise surrounding Luke.
yes, Snoke and Kylo Ren are looking for Luke. the FO supports that and likely expects it's important enough for Snoke to demand resources toward it, but this is not the goal of the FO. they don't exist solely for Luke's sake, nor do they exist because of Luke's actions (or inactions). it's messy. XD