Star Wars Smear Campaign

This is a repost of a topic originally posted in the AOTC forum, but was locked. Thanks to DarthSapient, it's reopened here.

You meet odd people in bars. I do, anyway. I was at a little hovel called No Idea last night and I got to talking to this guy in a black turtleneck who somewhat resembled Andy Warhol crossed with Harry Potter. That?s the best I can do for description, people.

At any rate, over the course of a few brews, we got to swapping stories about strange jobs that we?ve had. I mentioned my days as a phone psychic the summer that I drove one of those ridiculous amphibious vehicles in the Wisconsin Dells. This seemed to amuse him and he leaned in, conspiratorially and informed me that he had a job that few people could add to their resume:

?Off and on, for extra coin, I help with smear campaigns.?

That?s what he said. He went on to elaborate on how film studios will get this wild hair up their ass about movies that they fear will mop up the floor with the ass of their latest intestinal offerings and hire freelancers to poison the names of aforementioned flicks. Of course, critics? palms are greased heavily, he said but as not all moviegoers pay attention to them, ?normal? folks are enlisted to put yet more nails in the celluloid coffin.

I found this fascinating and probed further. He refused to tell me which studio(s) had hired him, but seemed to have no qualms about elucidation in regards to specific technique.

(paraphrased) ?They hire some people to go to theatres and badmouth the movie when they come out. I don?t do that. Most of what I do is online.?

He then went on to explain that he and others write negative reviews on sites like Epinions.com and so forth. They find movie chatrooms and unleash their magma there. They find movie forums, register and slash the hell out of whatever they are hired to ?smear?.

Interesting.

So, I asked him to which films he?s been assigned and he said that his first job was for G.I. Jane, ?but the real biggie is Star Wars.?

?Star Wars?? I ask.

?Oh yeah. That?s the biggie. Mostly, we just pretended to be fans of the old ones saying that the new ones sucked big time.? He said.

Intrigued beyond recognition, I ask him if he genuinely thought that ?the new ones sucked?.

?Not really, but it?s money.? He said. He then went on to deliver this insanely longwinded rant about how people will believe whatever they?re told. If they hear often enough that a movie sucks, they?ll start hating it. ?At first they just don?t wanna look bad, so they play along.? He said. ?But eventually, I think they start actually believing it.?

?So, all the crap about Jar Jar Binks; all the hoopla about how the dialogue was bad and there was too much CGI, that was all just part of this propaganda campaign, huh??

He said that he wasn?t sure if people would have hated Jar Jar despite the smear campaign, but that he was an obvious first target. The dialogue in Star Wars films had always been bad, he offered, but pointing it out in the new ones and pretending like it was good in the original ones worked well.

I wasn?t entirely sure what to say. He could have been lying, but he seemed sincere and let?s face it ? that isn?t really the kind of lie that one would tell to impress a stranger. Eventually, I added, ?So, the Star Wars movies were still huge box office successes. I guess you didn?t really get the job done, huh??

His response: ?Shut up?.

Just thought I?d share.

 

Next time you see him, ask him to start work on TTT

 

Poor Lucas, but I think he will still manage with a few millions dollars less income.

BTW, I dislike the prequels for free, trust me.

 

Classic...

 

hum makes some since I wonder how many are on this board.

business stragies suck sometimes but oh well I know who I am and I listen only to myself thankfully and am my own judge on films.

 

Poor Lucas, but I think he will still manage with a few millions dollars less income.

BTW, I dislike the prequels for free, trust me.

And yet you choose a nick and avatar of a character only seen in the Prequels? Strange!

 

I know what you're trying to say with this thread, and I say it's complete and utter drivel. I was disappointed with the TPM in the movie theater. I remember had a numb feeling of shock/betrayal as I stumbled out into the blazing sunlight of late morning. I don't think it was an internet article that I read 3 years later that bummed me out. Besides... if we're to follow your logic then some of YOU folks are also brainwashed into absolutely adoring the PT movies because Rick McCallum says, "this is going to be so awesome, you have to see it" at least a dozen times per minute.

So anyway, since even if this tripe were true and it worked the way this guy says, the equation works equally on both ends and it's all a wash. TPM and AotC didn't bomb at the box office, but that doesn't prove a thing. If everyone you knew were clamoring to see the movie and you saw it oozing out of every television commercial and ad sign, wouldn't you be curious enough to buy a ticket and check it out? Thought so, and so do the masses. It's human curiosity.

So what does it prove? Well, I've got an answer for that, but I won't speak it here because honestly I'm not in the mood for a basher/gusher debate that will inevitably find itself in Locksville. Not now, anyway. I frequently fight from my place in the middle anyway, and it's tiring to discuss/argue with both gushers and bashers.

Hehe.

 

Cool fictional story.

 

OnlyOneKenobi, don't you mean...curious?

 

?So, the Star Wars movies were still huge box office successes. I guess you didn?t really get the job done, huh??

His response: ?Shut up?.


If this actually happened, then that was a great diss you gave him.


I wonder if I could get paid to smear movies.

 

Malthus, if you hated Episode 1 so much, why did you pick one of its characters as your avatar? I don't follow your logic!

 

The notion that rival studios thought there was a need to PAY people to turn word of mouth against Jar-Jar Binks is one of the most colossal wastes of money I have ever heard of.

I wonder, are there smear-agents also paid to tell the world that poison isn't good for you?

 

>>>And yet you choose a nick and avatar of a character only seen in the Prequels? Strange!


- Plo: Palestine liberation organization
- Koen: my first name

The icon stays, like a scar to remind me of my vain faith and past mistakes.

Are you offended by my sentiments towards the PT?... The feeling is not mutual, I can only be happy for you.

 

Plo_Koen, nope I'm not offended, I just figured it's strange to use a nick and avatar of something you don't like! But that's ok! I just figured it would be like me hating the Harry Potter movies, but wearing a Harry Potter t-shirt anyway.

May the force be with ya!

 

OnlyOneKenobi, I'm sorry but I missed the part where I said I hated TPM. I never said that. Does "disappointed" mean "hated"? If so, I hope you never have kids. You seem to take issue with my choices in user options (icon). Curious that you haven't read my bio, eh? Here's a hint: I don't hate TPM, just disappointed in it.

In addition, I guess you think you're making a good point by saying that it's "strange" for someone to have an icon gleaned from a movie that's less-than-favorite. Has it ever occurred to you that some folks choose their icons because it looks cool? While that's something to consider, it's not exactly my story. Want to know? I think Darth Maul was the biggest waste of a major character in all of Star Wars because he could have been so much cooler and relevant (even if Lucas decided he needed to die at the end of TPM). Prior to May 1999, I thought Maul was the coolest because I'd seen glimpses of him in action and knew him to be the new saber-rattling bad boy. I choose Maul with memories of what I was teased and marketed that he would be.

Plus no icon in the archive here has the sneer that I desire moreso than this one.

 

This story, at least for my part, is by no means fictional. That isn't to say, however, that HIS story wasn't fictional. He could very well have been lying, though he did seem sincere and I can't imagine why someone would make something like that up, let alone tell it to a stranger in a bar. My basic opinion is that it is "possible, however unlikely."

 

Did he say how much it paid?

 

I've heard of people who did that in favor of stuff, not against it. Marketing, etc. If "in favor" is considered by some as anti-ethic, this surely is over the line.

I don't know, this sounds more like a great conspiracy... Wouldn't Lucas be aware of this, the Sith Lord that he is?

 

Apparently the SW saga isn't the only one facing some bashing, this year. TIME magazine has just released its Best and Worst of 2002 list. It listed "Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers" as one of the worst movies of 2002. You've got to see it to believe it:

http://www.time.com/time/bestandworst/2002/cinema.html?cnn=yes

 

No, actually, it didn't. One critic chose it for his personal 10 Best List.

 

Time Magazine has also been known for its extremely positive reviews of all the Star Wars films, including TPM and AOTC.

What a fine publication, indeed

 

While I would take it with a grain of salt that this guy actually participated in what he's describing, I don't doubt for a single second that that sort of thing takes place. One of my friends used to work for a local affiliate of NBC. The behind-the-scenes antics she told me about would curl your hair -- open drug use, open extramarital affairs, rampant egos, vicious personal vendettas. And that was just the newscasters.

Showbiz is very seedy. If it had a surface, you could lightly scrape it and come up with an astonishing amount of scum and sleaze.

So I do not find it in the least hard to believe that there is a smear campaign against SW, and probably against other movies as well, though I imagine SW is a favorite target, being the most successful indies ever made (indies aren't supposed to be that successful; it takes away their "nobility") and being as they are made by a man who makes no secret of his disdain for Hollywood.