Jim Jarmusch Will Never Watch ‘Star Wars’ Films: I ‘Resent’ Their Cultural Impact
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Jim Jarmusch won’t be traveling to a galaxy far, far away anytime soon.
The “Dead Don’t Die” director revealed to The Believer that he will “never see” the “Star Wars” franchise out of protest over its cultural impact.
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“I have particular things I will never see. I will never see any ‘Star Wars’ films, because I resent that I know so much about them and the characters,” Jarmusch said. “Why is all that in my head when I’ve never actually seen one, you know? Why do I know about R2-D2 and Darth Vader and all these things when I’ve never even seen any ‘Star Wars’ film?”
He continued, “I’ve never seen ‘Gone with the Wind’ and I never will, just because I feel like it’s forced on me and it’s some kind of corny thing.”
Jarmusch noted that while he is “not hierarchical,” he does have his “preferences” against “mass things” for sure. “But because I really, deeply love the craft of filmmaking, I, of course, like masterful filmmakers’ work. But I watch all kinds of stuff,” he clarified. “On a plane recently I watched ‘Cruella.’ I love the ‘Naked Gun’ movies because they’re so stupid. I’m sort of amazed by the ‘John Wick’ movies, just by how many people he can kill. I haven’t seen the ‘Twilight’ movies.”
Jarmusch continued, “These are very subjective, just kind of stubborn things on my part. I don’t like mass things being shoved on me, but I will go see them. Like ‘The Terminator’ is a masterpiece of cinema. It’s a big action movie, essentially. So I don’t really differentiate.”
The director added that he has a particular filmmaking pet peeve: “But I have to tell you one thing I hate — and you can just do a little test yourself: watch any recent action-oriented movie and look for any shot that’s more than three seconds long. I find that really insulting and shit filmmaking: like they have to keep it moving every three seconds. And that’s the longest they’ll leave a shot on! And then cut. One second, cut! Two seconds, cut! Three seconds, cut! Man, I get a headache. I just turn it off. I’m like, Come on, man, go to film school! Watch something! Go read a book! Look at a painting! Look at something. This is nonsense. I can’t stand that.”
Jarmusch previously said that “Twin Peaks: The Return” was the best piece of American cinema over the last ten years, calling the series an “18-hour film.”
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