The morning commute can set the tone for the day. If it is a ball-busting, white-knuckling hassle, filled with stops and starts and inexplicable traffic jams and angry road ragers, it’s hard to get to the office with a cheerful attitude.
Lately my drives to work have been like that. I take I-670 into Columbus, and for months the Third Street exit to the downtown area has been closed. As a result, all downtown traffic has been funneled into alternative routes.
My alternative route, frankly, sucked. I felt like Luke Skywalker following Wedge down into the trench of the Death Star as I banked into a sharp left turn onto I-71, then maneuvered through a narrow cement canyon as cars tried to merge in from the left. I kept wondering when one of the speeding cars ahead would nick the temporary concrete barriers channeling the detour traffic and go tumbling off into oblivion, like one of the doomed Rebel X-wing fighters. Fortunately, there was no Darth Vader lurking nearby — just frustrated commuters dodging the orange cones and dealing with constantly changing traffic patterns on their way to work.
This week I noticed that “closed” sign had been removed from the Third Street exit. Yesterday, with hope in my heart, I bypassed the dreaded detour and gave Third Street a shot. Sure enough, it was open, and I sailed regally into downtown with a happy sigh. Of course, I didn’t see any changes that would justify closing the exit for months in the first place — but I’m just happy it’s open again.
Amazing how one little sign can change your day for the better.
Many fans have expressed concern about the sale to Disney, how it will affect the Star Wars franchise, and whether the movies will stay true to Lucas’ vision. I’m not one of them. I loved the original Star Wars films — I remember watching the first movie, with awe and wonder, in the old University Flick theater on the Ohio State campus, and then promptly watching it again — but I eagerly anticipate a fresh look at the characters and the Star Wars universe.
First, 2001 ushered in the golden age of movie special effects. Before 2001, movie special effects were little used and were pretty much confined to Ray Harryhausen pictures or stop-motion effects. 2001 was a quantum leap ahead. Whether it was the classic space station docking scene, or the weightless pen grabbed by the stewardess on the space shuttle, or the astronauts jogging in a seemingly endless and weightless circle, or the giant fetus floating in Jupiter orbit, the special effects on the movie just blew people away. 2001 seemed to destroy all of the barriers and preconceived notions about what could be depicted, visually, on the big screen. Thereafter, special effects became hugely important parts of movies — some might argue too important. In any case, films like The Matrix, The Abyss, The Fifth Element, Blade Runner, Star Wars, Jaws, and countless others owe a great debt of gratitude to 2001.
Second, 2001 seemed to be one of the first movies to fully integrate music and on-screen action. If you watch movies from the ’50s and before — at least, movies that weren’t musicals — the soundtracks typically are muted, background music, where strings might play in a particularly sappy scene. In the late ’60s, however, soundtracks began to assume a more prominent role. In 2001, the soundtrack music really played a crucial role. Everyone remembers The Blue Danube Waltz and the space station docking scene because it was a perfect marriage of sight and sound. But the scene where the apes discover that a bone can be used as a weapon as Also Sprach Zarathustra rises to a crescendo, or the creepy “eeeeeeeeeeee” music that is heard during some of the suspenseful scenes, or the sad music that plays as the space ship takes its lonely voyage to Jupiter, are equally stunning and effective uses of music. Now, the use of music to specifically convey messages and advance storylines is so commonplace that it has invaded TV as well as cinema. On House, for instance, it is not unusual for the final scene to involve no dialogue, but only a carefully chosen song that plays as the show cuts from character to character as they deal with the events of the preceding hour.
The other day I was driving near the airport when a jet plane came up behind me and passed by close overhead. It reminded me, inevitably, of the first time I saw the movie Star Wars.
