Just How is the New Star Wars Move Being "Made"?

It’s finally been announced; the principal cast of the coming Star Wars trilogy will include Hamill, Ford and Fischer. And the original Chewbacca, C3PO (Anthony Daniels) and R2 will be along for the ride. Great, I say, great. Let’s do this!

This success of this first movie is absolutely critical to the entire Disney-planned reemergence of the Star Wars Universe. This picture is expected to be so excellent, so absolutely epic, that it will lead to numerous sequels, prequels, side-quels, cartoons, shorts, commercials, action figures, PS4 games, etc. It could do for Disney what the Marvel Universe has already done, but on a much larger, more complex level. And it aims to launch a zillion careers in writing, acting, directing, producing, animating, and on and on and on.

They weren't just "acting"; we now know they probably

contributed as much to the first movie as Lucas did

But first, the movie must be good, really, really good. It’s got to be as good as, or better, than any of the original Star Wars movies. And man, that’s gonna be hard to do. Really, really hard. And the pressure will be enormous – suffocating really.

And this is where it’s going to get really, really interesting. Most teens and adult Star Wars lovers already know the truth. The original cast members have long said it. George Lucas, of course, was responsible for the original concepts and plotlines; credit needs to be given there. He was (and remains) a cinematic genius, a man of incredible vision. But the magic of Star Wars – the original trilogy I’m speaking of here – the brilliant and near-perfect interplay between the original characters, from their diction to their appearance to their snappy lines – most of that credit goes to the actors themselves.

Decades ago, when asked about Lucas’ skill as a director, Carrie Fischer laughed and said that the only advice Lucas gave as a director were for scenes to be played more intensely or faster. Otherwise, it was entirely up to the principal players. What I’m saying here, and what so many of us know, is that much of the original trilogy, especially its most memorable scenes and lines, were improvised. Improvised!

So the concepts might have been Lucas’, but the alchemy was Hamill’s, Fischer’s and Ford’s. And it's so obvious, too, because anyone who has viewed the prequel trilogy knows that the effects and scenes were far more colorful and intense than the original trilogy…but the acting, on the whole, was simply terrible. In scene after scene from the opening score of the Phantom Menace to the closing moments of Revenge of the Sith, actors and their lines resembled so much as cardboard. From the most “intense” scenes to the most “romantic moments,” the Prequel trilogy’s actors seemed stale and frankly, terrified. From my unscientific point of view, almost every one of them seemed scared beyond belief, entrusted with a storyline that they knew might make or break their hopefully long careers. It was only the more experienced actors, like MacDiarmid as Palpatine and Jackson as Windu, do we get more confident, risk-taking, depth-digging, flesh-and-bone performances.

So one can only wonder how Disney and Producer-director J.J. Abrams aim to repeat the miracle that was the Original Trilogy. After all, how can J.J. Abrams turn to Harrison Ford and literally “direct” the actor on how Han should properly act when “driven” or “furious,” or “frustrated” in any specific moment? How does one direct these actors at all, aside from simply informing the actors what is about to transpire in a particular scene?

And here’s a more interesting question. What if an actor, say Mark Hamill, disagrees with the director? What if he says something like, “I really don’t think Luke, under these circumstances, would say or do this or that.” Or perhaps even more seriously, what would Abrams do if Hamill and Ford went to him and said, “there’s no way this scene that you wrote would work; we can’t see the characters going in that direction.” What could Abrams possibly say to them? The original actors made these characters. They brought life into them in situations when Lucas could only scratch his head and hope for the best.

And here is another thought. These three principal actors, really, cannot be intimidated, pressured or fired. I cannot see how Disney could really simply dismiss any one of them due to “creative differences” and then change the entire script mid-way. Especially if the three ever approached Abrams and/or Disney as a united front.

So the question here is, how is Disney actually making this movie? Is there a complex script with a zillion orders for each and every actor, or is each scene being presented to the actors in “scaffold style,” only to be fleshed out in a dozen or more takes? How much is Disney and Abrams entrusting to the original actors at any given time?

As a Star Wars fanatic, an absolute lover of all things from that Galaxy Far, Far, Away, all I can do is wonder. Regardless, I am beyond excited for familiar opening scroll of the first sequel. What comes after remains, of course, a mystery. 

Did Jersey's Pre-1973 Abortion Ban Really Kill Women? The Research Says Yes, Absolutely.

The debate over abortion is one of the central issues in American politics. Actually, abortion brings on a set of questions, one often feeding off another to shape opinions and passions. Is a person created at conception? If so, what rights does a fetus have? When, during the course of a pregnancy, is “personhood” reached or achieved? What is the proper role of the state in regulating abortions? If abortions were again banned, what would be the consequences for the women who would surely seek them?

Frequently, we hear a lot of rhetoric from the pro-choice side pointing to the dangers of banning abortion. If Roe v. Wade is reversed, many say, the reemergence of the illegal abortion industry (as well as dangerous self-inflicted attempted abortions) will occur. These shady practices of the past, according to pro-choice organizations like NARAL and NOW, resulted in illegal abortion ‘mills’ that operated outside the law and accepted medical practice. Modern day abortion advocates continually remind us that women seeking abortions died atrocious deaths at the hands of untrained, corrupt, and greedy quack doctors.

As a history educator with a lot of newfound, electronic access to newspaper and magazine archives, I find myself in the unique position to research the topic. I was interested to see if there is a solid historical record concerning such abortion mills and macabre deaths. Did they exist? Did women really die in any sort of numbers at their own hands or through the botched efforts of medical imposters and frauds?

After just a short search on abortion-related deaths involving New Jersey women before 1973 (the year Roe v. Wade established a nationally based, legal right to a first trimester abortion), I can honestly say, they did. Absolutely. And the deaths, or at least press coverage of them, go back far into our state’s history. How far? Try the 1840’s.

One of the earliest records of this comes from Morris County in the Denville/Rockaway area in November of 1846. According to the National Police Gazette, a popular magazine at the time, a “young” woman by the name of Elizabeth Peer had died as a result of an abortion. The unmarried Peer had gotten pregnant due to a scandalous affair. Fearful of the devastating social consequences, the young woman had approached several local doctors for help in attaining an abortion. One doctor testified that:

“In the month of July, the deceased first visited witness and requested him to produce an abortion. Witness refused. She came again about a month afterwards on the same errand. Witness fully stated to her the dangers…of such an operation. She told him…that she would rather die than suffer the [social]

The Abortion debate provokes 

historical questions

as well as moral ones.

disgrace.”

Eventually, according to court papers, Elizabeth Peer found an abortionist, a woman who ran a rather large and profitable New York City-based operation who went by the name of “Madame Costello.” Costello charged Peer $30 for the abortion – a huge sum at that time.

Peer had gotten the abortion only to succumb a month later to a nightmarish infection and/or hemorrhage. One doctor testified:

“He found her bowels uncommonly swollen - pulse small…vomiting with cold sweat and diarrhea…she then stated she had gone to New York to one of those famous female physician-houses, and that the membranes were ruptured by an instrument…”

There are other reports in later years. An August 1867 newspaper article informs us of the tragic death of one Elizabeth Ball, 28, from a “respectable family” in Newark. Ball had become pregnant as a result of an extramarital affair involving a man the newspaper called her “seducer”, Jacob Wilson. As in earlier stories, Ball was frantic to stop the pregnancy early on, and had traveled to Brooklyn to get an abortion. Before her death she told one doctor that the procedure had cost her $80 – a sum several times the average worker’s monthly wage. Ball had to endure ten agonizing days between the abortion and her passing.

One June 1868 account is particularly disturbing, as it recounts the grisly death of one exceptionally desperate 38 year old, Jersey City area woman and mother by the name of Henrietta Berry. Berry was so distressed to end her first trimester pregnancy that she underwent two self-inflicted attempts. The first was some kind of orally administered concoction, but this failed. The second proved painfully fatal:

“On Thursday she resorted to the use of some kind of instrument, by which it is supposed that the was injured internally, as she immediately grew worse, and although a physician was called in, death resulted in twenty four hours…deceased was 38…and the mother of four children.”

The deaths continued, some right up to the decade before Roe v. Wade. In May of 1963 the pages of The Washington Post revealed a grisly discovery. Angela Lach, a single 26 year old Sayreville educator, was found in a scene reminiscent of a horror movie:

“Miss Lach’s body, sprawled face up in the rain, was found last night in the driveway of a Lutherville (Maryland) estate when the owner returned home.”

Lach, in her first trimester of pregnancy, had apparently traveled from central New Jersey to a Baltimore motel to get an abortion and had not been seen by family since. Upon searching her purse, Police traced the man, a salesman, who had arranged the abortion to a local diner, where they arrested him:

“[Police] described him as a 42 year old traveling salesman who sells kitchen utensils in New York and New Jersey…the salesman said he drove Miss Lach to Baltimore from New Jersey Friday…but insisted that his last contact with her was a telephone conversation early Saturday…He was not charged.”

It was obvious that the abortion went wrong and Lach quickly died, only to be disposed of in a grisly, undignified way.

Over the course of my research I found numerous other New Jersey-based cases, but these three struck me as especially tragic. These women were from all different walks of life. In their desperation to preserve their dignity and control their own bodies they were forced to turn to the most despicable, greedy quacks that operated in places such women would have never otherwise visited, from back rooms in Brooklyn to cheap, seedy Maryland motels.

These women, their sufferings and ultimate demise are part of the historical record. Believe what you want about the central questions of abortion today, but their deaths were definitive results of a state where legal, safe abortions were impossible to get.  

Poverty's Terrifying Specter Haunts 600,000 of Jersey's Children

Like Marie Antoinette entertaining at Versailles, our state policymakers continue to debate and propose a myriad of new laws and regulations that, as usual, address rather marginal issues. Smoking on the beach? Sure, Trenton’s debating on it. Animal cruelty? We’ve got loads of proposed bills on that one. Internet decency and bullying? Absolutely…the Garden State’s reps are all over that. But in the midst of all of this legislative excellence came really big news. News, of course, that after its initial reporting was tucked away, forgotten, marginalized, even by a so-called "Progressive" Democratic majority in the Legislature.

The shocking information emerged earlier this month from the yearly “Kids Count” report of the highlyrespected Advocates for Children of New Jersey. The raw number, one that is hard to hide, is shameful and highly indicative of our state’s inexorable slide into a Third World status. One third of New Jersey’s Children – over 600,000 - are living in a de facto state of poverty. And more than half of those children – some 300,000 - are living in a state of extreme poverty.

We’re not talking about adults here. We’re not examining the numbers of New Jerseyans who, in fine right-wing fashion, are expected to resolve their own poverty through the magic of full-time employment. We are talking about kids. Remember them? They are the people that we, as a state, are collectively responsible for. No, this isn’t a socialistic jibe. I’m not proposing a Communist nirvana. I’m simply stating that the children of our state – well over a half million of them – are in desperate crisis.

Six Hundred Thousand. The number needs to be fleshed out. What does 600,000 look like? Try imagining a sold out Yankee stadium. Then stretch that thought to embrace 10 or 11 of them, all filled to capacity, with every seat, from the prime locales along the first base line to the seats in the distant rafters, occupied by a child. And all kids, nothing but kids. This isn’t Rio de Janiero, Mumbai, Damascus or some other Third World city. This is New Jersey, right now.

As an educator/blogger with a profound interest in our state’s fascinating history, I think this present level of poverty can only be described as Dickensian. Charles Dickens remains famous for his descriptive and touching stories concerning those who were desperately poor in an era of declining social mobility, insecure employment and a callous, uncaring state. From this mid-19^th century British writer we get such classics as A Christmas Carol, Oliver Twist and A Tale of Two Cities. His stories are filled with such terrors as urban starvation, brutal bosses and environmental degradation. With no meaningful social safety net to depend on, Dickens characters, regardless of class, were continually filled with the terror of sliding into hapless poverty. Doubtless to say 600,000 of our state’s children would probably fit into one or two of Dickens’ novels, and neatly at that.

Oliver Twist: Think this character is ancient?
New Jersey has 600,000 of them.

Just like today, during Dickens’ era of the mid-1800’s, New Jersey had an abysmal record in caring for its poor. During that era there was a so-called ‘answer’ to poverty, and one that is still hinted at by politicians on the right today. It went by many names - the poorhouse, the workhouse, the almshouse. But in all its manifestations it was a ghastly place where the poor were forced to work for their bread and shelter, frequently under the supervision of municipally-appointed masters or bosses that amply represented a state that so despised the unfortunate. The workhouse was a destination of last resort – much like our homeless shelters of today. It was a place of utter humiliation.

One of the worst examples emerged out of Paterson in September 1867. The city’s so-called Almshouse was at the center of a well-publicized scandal involving its city-appointed Steward, a man by the name of Sigler.

During the course of the state’s investigation of him, Sigler’s victims testified to the horrific conditions of the almshouse. Current and former residents reported that Sigler had repeatedly abused those under his care. He routinely whipped people who were clearly mentally ill, banishing some of them to rooms where they subsequently froze to death. Additionally, many children were under his supervision placed there by the state and parents who could not afford to care for them. Kids who gave him trouble were routinely lashed by an instrument of torture that can only be described as a smaller version of a cat o’ nine tails. Bed-wetters and other young “troublemakers” were regularly deprived of meals and punished in other cruel ways.

It is interesting to note that even during his trial, the authorities made no move to separate Sigler from the residents, a fact that at least one publication stated was “for political reasons.” Sigler was under the protection of a higher authority.

Through my research I was unable to find out if Sigler was ultimately convicted and punished. But that’s not really the point. The point is that in this age of wireless Internet and email, our state, by allowing such a huge number of children – 600,000 - to remain and fester in poverty, is committing a moral outrage – a sin – equal in every way to Sigler’s.

Helping these kids is something that is going to take bold leadership, big ideas and yes, money. This problem is so huge that it makes the debate over abolishing reality transfer fees rather laughable. These kids need help, now. We’ve got to get them out of this modern-day version of the poorhouse.