Kennedy honours more like revenge of the '70s

The latest Star Wars flick, “The Force Awakens”, is due in theatres momentarily.

Lucas received a trophy or something for Lifetime Artistic Achievement, while the gala televised ceremony also paid tribute to his fellow 1970s throwbacks actresses Rita Moreno and Cicely Tyson, singer-songwriter Carole King and Boston Symphony Orchestra conductor Seiji Ozawa.

The Eagles, whose 1976 tune “Hotel California”, is still required by Thai law to be played in every bar every night, were supposed to honoured too, but postponed their appearance until next year because founding member Glenn Frey is ailing from some undisclosed affliction.

You can’t fault the Kennedy Centre and the White House – which sends the president over every year to applaud from the VIP box – for paying tribute to Lucas. “Star Wars” is one of Hollywood’s greatest success stories, much to the surprise of a lot of people, including Lucas, who expected it to flop.

Yet, as Steven Spielberg said at the Kennedy, “Star Wars changed movies absolutely forever”.

Spielberg co-created the “Indiana Jones” franchise with Lucas, so he might be expected to say something like that, but millions and millions of film buffs agree. The two of them gave birth to a new genre of science-fiction movies with hi-tech special effects. Lucas was naturally invited to make a pitch for the seventh “Star Wars”. “The fans are going to love it!” Agence France-Presse quotes him as saying. “It’s very much the very kind of movie they’ve been looking for.”

Lucas sold his Lucasfilm production company to Disney in 2012 and is no longer associated with the franchise, but he banked $4 billion, so what he describes as “a painful break-up” surely wasn’t all that painful.

Among the more serious, less mercenary moments at the Kennedy that night, Yo-Yo Ma sawed at his cello for a while and declared that the annual honours “keep away the darkness of fear, of terror, of hate, of violence”. And Carole King added, “We hope that we can, for a moment, having people think about music, and arts, and film and dance.”

That must have soothed the soul of President Barack Obama, watching from the posh seats, who’d just addressed the nation about the mass shooting in California. The president and his missus had had the honourees round to the White House earlier, praising them for helping “tell the story of the first American century through music, theatre and film”. 

Lucas, he said, was “at the vanguard of the New Hollywood, blending genres and combining timeless themes with cutting-edge technology. “It’s pretty remarkable that, nearly 40 years after the first star-destroyer crawled across the screen, we are still obsessed with George’s vision of a galaxy far, far away.”

Fortunately Obama’s not quite as obsessed with star wars as was Ronald Reagan, preferring to keep his hi-tech combat in a lower orbit.