Jar Jar Binks

Jar Jar Binks (born c. 50 BBY) is a fictional character from the Star Wars Prequels, The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith. Named by George Lucas' son, his primary role was intended to provide comic relief — based on his gangly way of walking and his unique accent — but he ended up being an important supporting character. Jar Jar was voiced by Ahmed Best. He is almost completely computer-generated. Although he was played on set by a costumed Best, Best was usually edited out and replaced by the animated character, except in some close-up shots where his face is not visible.

The creation and modeling of Jar Jar Binks marked the first time that such a highly detailed, photo-realistic CGI character had interacted with live actors in a motion picture. Director George Lucas and his effects team were quick to hail this as a major technical breakthrough, but the controversy surrounding the character has to some extent overshadowed his importance to the development of movie special effects.

From the time of his inception, the character was widely rejected and often ridiculed by sections of the Star Wars series' fanbase, who felt that Jar Jar was included in the film solely to appeal to children. That Jar Jar's role in the subsequent Star Wars prequels was greatly reduced has been acknowledged as a consequence of this reception.

Jar Jar Binks is a 1.96 m (6 ft 5.25 in) tall Gungan, with long ears and eyes mounted on stalks, and he resembles an anthropomorphized platypus crossed with an amphibian or a hadrosaurus.

Story

Episode I

Banished from his childhood home for his "clumsiness", the naïve Jar Jar is first encountered while living in the swamps of Naboo. In the events of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, Jedi Qui-Gon Jinn and his Padawan Obi-Wan Kenobi arrive on Naboo, ending up in the swamps rather than the intended destination of the capital, Theed.

Qui-Gon Jinn saves Jar Jar's life as the Trade Federation's droid army advance on Theed. Afterward, Jar Jar explains that, thanks to the principle of a "Gungan Life Debt", he is obligated to stay by Qui-Gon's side until he dies. Jar Jar is later arrested by troops loyal to Boss Nass when Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan visit Otoh Gunga, and Qui-Gon uses the excuse of this 'Life Debt' to free Jar Jar from Nass' custody.

Jar Jar travels with Qui-Gon's party to Tatooine and later Coruscant. It is on the latter planet that he informs Padmé Amidala that the Gungans have a 'Grand Army' (a term significant later in the Star Wars series - see Grand Army of the Republic), a contributory factor in her decision to return to Naboo and contest the Trade Federation's invasion militarily. After Qui-Gon and his party's return to Naboo, Jar Jar is instrumental in Padmé's brokering a deal with the Gungans for a joint attack on the Trade Federation's occupation forces, leading her and her allies to the Gungans' underwater hiding place. Throughout this ordeal, he befriends Anakin Skywalker, a nine-year-old slave whom Qui-Gon believes to be the "Chosen One" destined to bring balance to the Force.

Jar Jar took part in the Battle of Naboo, playing a key role after being given the rank of Bombad General in the Gungan Grand Army by Boss Nass, with whom he was now reconciled.

Jar Jar provides instances of comic relief throughout the movie, including a number of comical battle scenes. For instance, Jar Jar inadvertently sends a cascading wave of Boomas into a group of battle droids which destroys a large number of Trade Federation troops. This is a direct homage to Buster Keaton's silent film Seven Chances, in which Buster is chased down a mountainside by hundreds of prop boulders while trying to elude an army of women eager to marry him for an inheritance. Jar Jar's catchphrase of "How rude!", is a direct lift from C-3PO's line in Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back.

Episode II

In Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, Jar Jar has much less screen time but plays a pivotal, although substantially different, role in the narrative. He is portrayed as an idealistic politician who represents the people of the planet of Naboo in the Galactic Senate. Addressed as "Representative Binks," he is a member of The Loyalist Committee, referred to early in the film and is later deputized by Padmé Amidala in the Galactic Senate. He is manipulated by Supreme Chancellor Palpatine and his allies into proposing a bill that would give Palpatine emergency executive powers on the ostensible grounds that this is what Padmé Amidala would have done had she been present during the debates. Jar Jar's decision sets the Clone Wars, and ultimately the creation of the Galactic Empire (in Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith), in motion. These powers enable Palpatine to order the creation of the Grand Army of the Republic and implicitly, but obviously, mark the beginning of Palpatine's gathering of authority towards his own office and person. In terms of Star Wars' political content, this thread can be seen as demonstrating how innocent people can be manipulated into playing a role in matters with which they do not agree by the machinations and vices of evil forces.

Episode III

In Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, Jar Jar has only a cameo. He reportedly had a total of fifteen words in two lines in the script, and thirteen of these were cut out. In Revenge of the Sith, Jar Jar is only seen three times (most noticeably walking solemnly in Padmé Amidala's funeral procession at the end of the film, along with Boss Nass). He has no speaking part at all except in one scene (near the beginning of the film, after Anakin and Obi-Wan land with Palpatine, and as the senators file behind him, Jar Jar gets in the way of the obese Senator Orn Free Taa and says a brief "Excuse me"). Deleted scenes from the movie, available on the DVD, portray him as a member of the Delegation of 2000, a Senatorial committee dedicated to democracy — indicating he has learned from his mistake in Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones and is attempting, albeit unsuccessfully, to rectify it.

Fate

Rumors as to a depiction of his ultimate fate (or rather, lack thereof) proliferated when the 2004 DVD version of Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi was released, featuring a newly added shot of Naboo in the celebration montage featuring a distant Gungan standing atop a pillar who shouts "Wesa free!" exactly 2 hours, 5 minutes, 49 seconds into the movie. The official Star Wars website's character databank file on Jar Jar, however, does not list Return of the Jedi as one of his appearances, while Gungans are listed, suggesting that a conscious distinction may have been made.

This topic of disagreement, however, within fandom has been largely put to rest recently as George Lucas has personally stated that the Gungan in question is not Jar Jar. He has also debunked the rumor that Jar Jar perished on Alderaan when it was destroyed by the Death Star in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. The most recent claim is that Jar Jar returned to Coruscant and served in the Imperial Senate and eventually settled down with a family, presumably dying of old age. According to Lucasfilm's official system, this is regarded as G-canon.

Controversy

Upon the release of The Phantom Menace, Jar Jar Binks became the subject of a great deal of media and popular attention, though not in the way his creators intended. Binks became symbolic of what many thought were the inherent creative and critical flaws of the film. The character was widely rejected and often ridiculed by sections of the series' hardcore fanbase, who felt that Jar Jar was clearly included in the film solely to appeal to children. In part, his character clashed with the expectations of some fans, who perceived the earlier films in the series as having a more adult tone. One fan, Mike J. Nichols, even released a modified version of the movie, entitled The Phantom Edit, which cut out most scenes featuring Jar Jar Binks. Another group of fans created "The Phantom Re-Edit" which takes footage of Jar Jar Binks and turn the character into what they felt was a likable and enjoyable character. This was accomplished by cutting out scenes that they felt served only as comic relief and re-editing scenes with Jar Jar's dialogue being removed and replaced with subtitles.

Some also object to any portrayal of excessive cuteness in the Star Wars series. Lucas has himself stated that he feels there is a section of the fanbase who get upset with aspects of Star Wars because "The movies are for children but they don't want to admit that... There is a small group of fans that do not like comic sidekicks. They want the films to be tough like The Terminator, and they get very upset and opinionated about anything that has anything to do with being childlike."

Additionally, Rob Coleman, who was the lead on the Industrial Light & Magic animation team, warned Lucas that there was concern among the team that the character of Jar Jar was coming across poorly for the team and how the character was to be projected. Lucas told him that he especially put Jar Jar in the film to appeal to small children. After that, the issue was dropped.

Allegations of racism

Some of the most serious charges against Jar Jar (and consequently against Lucas, his creator) suggest that he is a modern incarnation of racist stereotypes used as comic relief in many motion pictures of the first half of the 20th century. Many aspects of Jar Jar's character are believed to be highly reminiscent of the archetypes portrayed in blackface minstrelsy, a theater form prevalent in the United States during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Jar Jar's bodily expressions and tendency to get into trouble have also been said to remind many of Stepin Fetchit and other similar stereotypical characters that persisted after the general demise of blackface. It's been suggested that Jar Jar's physical appearance can be seen as a caricature of a black man, most notably his lips.

Jar Jar's dialect has been argued to sound stereotypically like Jamaican English, however the scale of the resemblance is disputed. Lucas spoke about these issues on British television in 1999. Interviewed by Kirsty Wark on the BBC's political review programme Newsnight on July 14 of that year, he countered that criticisms of Jar Jar's mode of speaking were "...made by people who've obviously never met a Jamaican, because it's definitely not Jamaican and if you were to say those lines in Jamaican they wouldn't be anything like the way Jar Jar Binks says them."

It can be argued that any resemblance comes from a confluence of Best's own voice and the "broken" English the character speaks. In support of this, it can be pointed out that the other Gungans featured in the movie speak in the same manner, and use the same disputed phrases, but their accents (such as that of English actor Brian Blessed) do not create the same accidental semiotic link in some audience members' minds. Also, in his Newsnight interview, Lucas seemed astonished by this area of controversy and commented, "How in the world you could take an orange amphibian and say that he's a Jamaican? It's completely absurd. Believe me, Jar Jar was not drawn from a Jamaican, from any stretch of the imagination."

This controversy was referenced by Wayne Brady on an episode of the American edition of Whose Line Is It Anyway? While playing Let's Make a Date, Wayne's card told him to imitate Jar Jar Binks. Running out of things to say later on in the game, he quips, "Mesa one big stereotype."

Jar Jar is not the only character in The Phantom Menace whose accent has been used to generate controversy. Notably, detractors claim, the greedy Trade Federation spoke with East Asian accents (French accents in the German version, Russian in the Italian and French versions). In addition, the character Watto is said to speak with a Jewish or Middle Eastern accent and having some physical caricatures such as his hooked nose, and his personality is covetous and greedy, leading some to believe that the character is an anti-Semitic stereotype. These allegations are controversial and not universally agreed upon.

The plot thread in the latter two prequel films which concern Jar Jar's manipulation by other political elements and the manner in which his innocence betrays him (leading him to inadvertently cause the undoing of the Galactic Republic) has been interpreted by some as a shift in significance and character emphasis initiated by Lucas in response to the criticism he received originally. Other commentators contend that this shift was most likely planned far in advance and was always intended as a comment on, and re-contextualisation of, Jar Jar's role in The Phantom Menace by the series' creator.

As a result of all of the controversy above, Jar Jar has been one of the major springboards for vehement anti-Lucas sentiment.

In Popular Culture

• In an episode of Batman Beyond that was inspired by Star Wars Terry (The new Batman) says when giving an answer of yes to a question says "Was Jar Jar lame?"
• Aaron McGruder's popular comic strip The Boondocks has frequently referred to Jar Jar Binks both as an unlikeable character and as a portrayal of Racism; most notably, a strip once appeared in which Binks realized his own existence was Racist and became a follower of Malcolm X named "Jabari Jabari Binko".
• Jar Jar, or at least a parody of Jar Jar, appeared in the TV movie The Fairly OddParents: Abra-Catastrophe! in a Star Wars parody. In the parody of the scene with Luke (Timmy Turner) and Darth Vader (Cosmo) fighting in Cloud City (although the exterior of the area resembles the Death Star), Jar Jar comes in, speaking in gibberish before they throw him off the balcony. He appears in the next scene, still falling, while Timmy saves him as Spider Man. Seconds after his save, parody Jar Jar is used to whack Green Goblin off his glider. In the last scene involving Jar Jar, he is trampled by a giant Wanda T-Rex.
• In The Simpsons episode Revenge is a Dish Best Served Three Times the ending had a list dedicating the episode to everyone who died in the Star Wars movies and on the list it said "unfortunately, not Jar Jar Binks."
• In The Simpsons episode Half-Decent Proposal during the opening scene Comic Book Guy is seen hugging a Jar Jar Binks action figure and mutters "Oh Jar Jar, everybody hates you but me". Later, in My Big Fat Geek Wedding, they view Cosmic Wars, and Lisa complains about the character "Jim-Jam" for being a stereotype. When she and Bart confront Randal Curtis, the creator of Cosmic Wars, he replies that the character is better because of the graphics used to create it and brushes off the idea that poor writing made it a bad character.
• In the South Park episode Jakovasaurs, the eponymous Jakovasaur species is a clear parody of Jar Jar, and the Gungan race in general.
• In the movie South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, an African American soldier asks "Issa people gonna die?", a line Jar Jar speaks in Episode One, in a parody of the allegations of racial stereotyping.
• The character Tim in the TV series Spaced has a long running dislike for Jar Jar; believing that he didn't fit in with what Star Wars was originally, going as far to shout at a small child for asking about Jar Jar figures.
• On the October 11, 2006 episode of The Colbert Report, George Lucas made an appearance to showcase his entry for Stephen Colbert's "Greenscreen Challenge", which features Colbert fighting battle droids with a lightsaber and having a conversation with Jar Jar, in which he attempts to imitate his Gungan accent.
• In the Star Wars special of Robot Chicken one sketch shows Darth Vader looking out of his ship when Jar Jar suddenly shows up. He proceeds to increasingly annoy Vader, asking what happened to his "Annie bo Bannie." At one point, he pulls Vader's helmet off his head, screaming as the face underneath is revealed. Aggravated, Vader throws Jar Jar into the air lock and sends him in to space, killing him. Jar Jar later reappears in Vader's bedroom as a Force Ghost, able to annoy his former friend for the rest of his life. This bedroom scene shows Jar Jar repeatedly leaping into the air, letting out high pitched squeals of merriment. After the end credits, the tortured Vader is shown once more, with the ghostly Gungan still at his bedside.

External links

• Jar Jar Binks in the StarWars.com Databank
• Jar Jar Binks on Wookieepedia, a Star Wars wiki
• Star Wars Episode I in the Internet Movie Database
• Ahmed Best at the Internet Movie Database