Often hailed as one of the worst attempts at entertainment ever made, The Star Wars Holiday Special is indeed one of the worst attempts at entertainment ever made. Hard-core Star Wars fans will be bored stupid, others may require medical attention. Approximately seventeen minutes of material are stretched to a full two hours, and the problems only begin there.
Appallingly lit and shot uninspiringly on video, this grave insult to the viewer features endless scenes with no noticeable advancement of plot, comedy sketches that would receive only polite applause from parents at an eighth-grade talent show, musical numbers with no connection at all to, well, anything, and many other items to vex and confuse all who can stand to watch them.
Most of the Star Wars people have cameos. Carrie Fisher, for example, is there, and apparently shot her scenes while testing the merits of various chemicals. James Earl Jones records some Darth Vader lines, which are played over "appropriate" footage from the movie. Mark Hamill and Artoo appear together in a scene that will leave you saying "Huh??" for a good long while. Only Harrison Ford comes off pretty well as Han Solo, who is trying to get Chewbacca back to the latter's blockaded home planet in time for "Life Day."
Several others fulfill the late 70s "variety show" requirement for guest star appearances. Bea Arthur (!) is most admirable as the woman who runs the Cantina and sings a sad and sweet song about her life there. Harvey Korman appears in three "comedy" sketches, but I find it difficult to discuss them. Art Carney is one of Chewbacca's family's closest humanoid friends and a member of the rebel alliance, which comes in handy when imperial soldiers stage an interminable search of Chewbacca's house. The talented Dihann Carroll sings beautifully, but her musical number would be far more impressive if it weren't the center of Chewbacca's father's virtual erotic fantasy.
I so very much wish I had just made that up.
There is a cartoon segment about Chewbacca and friends that is by far the best thing in the special, but don't expect to be uplifted, even if it does mark the first appearance ever of Boba Fett. (Yay.) The presence of the cartoon is justified as being something viewed by young Lumpy (Chewie's son) to pass the time while his house is being ransacked. Classicists may see this as a clumsy allusion to, among other things, Vergil's "Aeneid," in which characters see depictions of themselves in travels they have just undertaken. But the real reason the cartoon is shown at this particular point in the program is that hardly anyone involved in this production bothered to put any thought into anything they did, so that one part was just as good as another for a cartoon.
It goes on and on and on, with a finale that will convince you that God just doesn't like you or else He never would have permitted you to watch it.
I suppose it is my duty to inform the reader that George Lucas did not direct this slow-motion car wreck, and also that this special has practically no redeeming characteristics whatsoever. The Star Wars Holiday Special is not laughably bad, it's depressingly bad.
On the other hand, you may want to see it for yourself, provided you can find a copy.
You've been warned.
Appallingly lit and shot uninspiringly on video, this grave insult to the viewer features endless scenes with no noticeable advancement of plot, comedy sketches that would receive only polite applause from parents at an eighth-grade talent show, musical numbers with no connection at all to, well, anything, and many other items to vex and confuse all who can stand to watch them.
Most of the Star Wars people have cameos. Carrie Fisher, for example, is there, and apparently shot her scenes while testing the merits of various chemicals. James Earl Jones records some Darth Vader lines, which are played over "appropriate" footage from the movie. Mark Hamill and Artoo appear together in a scene that will leave you saying "Huh??" for a good long while. Only Harrison Ford comes off pretty well as Han Solo, who is trying to get Chewbacca back to the latter's blockaded home planet in time for "Life Day."
Several others fulfill the late 70s "variety show" requirement for guest star appearances. Bea Arthur (!) is most admirable as the woman who runs the Cantina and sings a sad and sweet song about her life there. Harvey Korman appears in three "comedy" sketches, but I find it difficult to discuss them. Art Carney is one of Chewbacca's family's closest humanoid friends and a member of the rebel alliance, which comes in handy when imperial soldiers stage an interminable search of Chewbacca's house. The talented Dihann Carroll sings beautifully, but her musical number would be far more impressive if it weren't the center of Chewbacca's father's virtual erotic fantasy.
I so very much wish I had just made that up.
There is a cartoon segment about Chewbacca and friends that is by far the best thing in the special, but don't expect to be uplifted, even if it does mark the first appearance ever of Boba Fett. (Yay.) The presence of the cartoon is justified as being something viewed by young Lumpy (Chewie's son) to pass the time while his house is being ransacked. Classicists may see this as a clumsy allusion to, among other things, Vergil's "Aeneid," in which characters see depictions of themselves in travels they have just undertaken. But the real reason the cartoon is shown at this particular point in the program is that hardly anyone involved in this production bothered to put any thought into anything they did, so that one part was just as good as another for a cartoon.
It goes on and on and on, with a finale that will convince you that God just doesn't like you or else He never would have permitted you to watch it.
I suppose it is my duty to inform the reader that George Lucas did not direct this slow-motion car wreck, and also that this special has practically no redeeming characteristics whatsoever. The Star Wars Holiday Special is not laughably bad, it's depressingly bad.
On the other hand, you may want to see it for yourself, provided you can find a copy.
You've been warned.