A Disturbance in the Force [Fantasia International Film Festival Review]

by Mike McGranaghan

As one interview subject puts it, most casual Star Wars fans don’t know much about The Star Wars Holiday Special, so demonstrating detailed knowledge of it proves you’re a hardcore fan. The enormously entertaining documentary A Disturbance in the Force, which screened at the 2023 Fantasia International Film Festival, takes an in-depth look at the creation of – and reception to – this 1977 CBS television special that aired once and was subsequently hidden from public view by George Lucas. Whether you’re just now hearing about the special or own one of the bootleg VHS copies that have circulated, this is a movie for Star Wars buffs of every stripe.

For their film, Jeremy Coon and Steve Kozak have managed to achieve something incredible: they got several participants of the special to do on-camera interviews. Director Steve Binder and writers Bruce Vilanch and Lenny Ripps are on hand to reveal the bizarre process by which the show came together. Two different factions were essentially at war. Some of the people involved wanted to make a special that was true to the Star Wars movie. But many of the key creatives were from the variety show world, a format that ruled television in the 1970s. What resulted was an unholy mix of sci-fi storytelling and bizarre musical/comedy sequences. The interviewees provide very specific details to explain how that happened.

From Bea Arthur as a singing bartender in the Mos Eisley cantina, to an out-of-nowhere performance from Jefferson Starship, to Harvey Korman in intergalactic drag, The Star Wars Holiday Special proved both baffling and disappointing to young fans. Celebrities including Seth Green, “Weird Al” Yankovic, and Kevin Smith appear in A Disturbance in the Force to offer hilarious recollections of seeing the show, along with perspectives on its inherent strangeness. What comes across is that the special was a complete betrayal of Star Wars, yet somehow also an important acknowledgment that nothing can be awesome 100% of the time. It taught a generation of kids to be critical of art.

The Star Wars Holiday Special is very much a product of its era. Cheesy variety shows were all over the airwaves, hosted by the likes of Donny and Marie Osmond. An episode of their show that featured C-3PO, R2-D2, and Darth Vader as guests helped set the stage for what was to come. TV and movies were on separate levels, meaning nobody knew how to transfer what worked on a cinema screen to the style of television. Coon and Kozak make that clear.

Similarly, the documentary reinforces that VCRs did not exist at the time; therefore, anyone who wasn’t in front of their TV that fateful November night lost their chance to view the program. That lack of easy accessibility led to its mythic status. Availability solely through bootlegs only added to its mystique.

Past interview clips with Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, and Carrie Fisher, who were various shades of embarrassed to be part of the special, help round out the exploration of an all-time oddity. This is the kind of movie where you hang on every word because the interview subjects have such juicy things to say. A Disturbance in the Force is a vital deep dive into the darkest recess of the Star Wars universe, populated by people unafraid to spill the tea more than forty years later.

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