For the last couple of years we've been teased with the idea of a Star Trek movie that could be directed by Quentin Tarantino. While the idea certainly has some appeal, it's unclear just how real a possibility such a film is. It's even less clear what a movie like that would really look like. However, if your fandom leans a bit more toward Star Wars, we now have something of a clue what a Tarantino Star Wars movie would look like, and it actually looks like a lot of fun.
The YouTube channel Imperator Cuts put together a video for the movie, Once Upon a Time...In a Galaxy Far, Far, Away, which takes Star Wars: The Revenge of the Sith, and gives it a massive tonal shift by giving it the music of Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood. It's remarkable how well it actually works. Check it out.
It's impressive just how much you can change the tone of a movie with music. The "trailer" here isn't exactly the one we got with Star Wars: The Revenge of the Sith, but none of the film itself is altered, the look and the dialogue are all right out of the George Lucas movie. All that's different is the soundtrack, which has been pulled from the trailers for Quentin Tarantino's last movie.
There are a few things that help it work. For one, George Lucas made a point to give characters like Hayden Christensen haircuts that looked very 1970s, so as to make the movie not look too out of context with the original Star Wars. That certainly helps the look work with the Tarantino movie that was based in the late 1960s.
If nothing else, this is a testament to the importance of music in film. The same scenes, with an epic John Williams score, feel one way, but add some pop music and the same moments feel much lighter. Even Anakin Skywalker about to murder a bunch of small children feels less awful. And honestly, if Quentin Tarantino had directed that scene, that's probably how it would have played out.
Quentin Tarantino has said that he's a much bigger Star Trek fan that a Star Wars fan, and honestly, whichever popular franchise he tried to take a shot at would certainly end up with an entry that's wildly different from anything we'd seen before. But this clip does show that such an idea isn't entirely bonkers. Somebody, at some point, should make a Star Wars movie that feels more like this, if only to see how well it actually works. As the galaxy far, far away continues to expand with new creative people making their own attempts, nothing should be entirely off limits.
At this point, it doesn't look like we'll ever get the Quentin Tarantino Star Trek movie we've been teased with. Has he tried calling Lucasfilm?
