(A Disturbance in the Force) brought back some fond childhood memories, but I don’t know how well it will play to someone too young to remember those strange days.
If you’re a Star Wars fan and were old enough between the release of 1977’s Star Wars and 1980’s The Empire Strikes Back, you probably remember 1978’s The Star Wars Holiday Special. If you’re a Star Wars fan and weren’t born yet (or don’t remember that era,) you really need to watch A Disturbance in the Force, a new documentary by Jeremy Coon and Steve Kozak.
The film is an entertaining look at the oddball circumstances that led to the creation of the holiday special. It also does an outstanding job describing the weird world of network television in the late 1970s. I remember the programming of that era fondly but trying to describe it with the appropriate combination of incredulousness, accuracy, and hilarity is difficult. Coon and Kozak have assembled footage from shows like The Brady Bunch Variety Hour, Wayne Newton at Sea World, and The Paul Lynde Halloween Special to illustrate how bizarre things were back then. Except, at the time, kids didn’t think it was all that weird. We knew it wasn’t good, but the format was pretty standard for the time.
If you’ve watched any recent documentary featuring a bunch of talking heads — each with some tenuous connection to the subject — yammering about various aspects of it, you’ve got a handle on the format used here. Thankfully, A Disturbance in the Force features many of the actual participants in the creation of The Star Wars Holiday Special. And, unbelievably, it includes footage from the special itself. (And it also includes comments from Kevin Smith, “Weird Al” Yankovic, Taran Killam, and the late Gilbert Gottfried among others.)
After the release of Star Wars, merchandising and fan-relations were certainly a priority, but Lucasfilm had no guidebook that governed what the film’s characters could or couldn’t do outside the films. In 1978, TV production and movie production sensibilities came from two different worlds. So, when the movie’s characters were shoe-horned into the world of TV, you could wind up seeing Imperial Stormtroopers singing and dancing with Chewbacca on an episode of the Donny and Marie variety show. Or, possibly, a blaster-wielding Mark Hamill (in character as Luke Skywalker) might show up on a Bob Hope special or The Muppet Show. (Both happened.)
The Star Wars Holiday Special was a co-creation of Lucasfilm and CBS meant to keep Star Wars in the public eye until a proper sequel could be released. George Lucas pitched a story outline to some television writers — envisioning some variety show-type guest appearances — but otherwise gave them very little guidance. The writers — including Bruce Vilanch and Lenny Ripps, who are interviewed in the documentary — did their best with what they had. Making matters worse, original director David Acomba, who came from Lucasfilm, had no idea how to handle a TV budget. Soon, the money ran out and Steve Binder (also featured in the documentary) was brought in to salvage the production in his place. The final product, which aired only once on November 17, 1978, featured Star Wars stars Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, and Harrison Ford alongside TV veterans Harvey Korman, Art Carney, and Bea Arthur. It’s a strange amalgamation of elements from drag shows, circus performers, Wookiee family dynamics, and horrible musical numbers. Princess Leia sings a tune as well.
A Disturbance in the Force celebrates the lunacy of the late 1970s, the naivete of the business when it came to merchandising movies, and the willingness of early Star Wars fans to gobble up whatever was placed in front of them. It brought back some fond childhood memories, but I don’t know how well it will play to someone too young to remember those strange days.
4.0 out of 5.0 stars
