and Words
I’m alone, sitting with my empty glass
My four walls follow me through my past
I was on a Paris train, I emerged in London rain
And you were waiting there, swimming through apologies
I remember searching for the perfect words
I was hoping you might change your mind
I remember a soldier sleeping next to me
Riding on the Metro
Lyric excerpts from Musixmatch.
Right as I entered high school, music permeated much of my life. With the launch of MTV just the year before, music not only had the audio element, but also the visual elements. At times we would finally visualize our favorite bands and put a face to the voice. Some artists used video exceptionally, like Duran Duran; they were often accused of using sex to sell their product, though never denied it. Other artists like AC/DC lazily released concert clips; their efforts a merely checkbox in a list of ‘must do’s’.
The video for the single release of ‘The Metro’ launched Berlin’s success and put them on the map. Terri Nunn’s vocals anchored the group distinctive sound, a combination of synth-pop that was so popular in the 1980’s. The video pulls you into journey, nay… an adventure, through the European train (“I was on a Paris train”). While the song painted a picture of European flair; the video crystalized it with cut-scenes that mimicked and array of cities. Nunn’s voice had a sliver of an accent, which I assumed to be of German descent.
However, the joke was on us. Much like bands with the names Boston or Kansas, we expected each group to have originated from the namesake city. Berlin did not originate from Berlin in particular or even Germany in general. They started in Los Angeles. My perception of Nunn’s subtly foreign accent was merely my imagination. She too is from California.
Flashback a few years to 1977, where I, a boy of nine who barely spoke English, watched a little Science-Fiction/Fantasy film in the theaters by the name of Star Wars. As you might imagine, the movie assaulted my senses. I barely understood the concepts of The Force or its influence on everything that existed, indeed its own fictional spirituality. I did accept the concepts of ‘good and evil’ between the Jedi and Darth Vader, an imposing figure from the very start of the film. The climax of the film resolves with the destruction of the Death Star but with subtle hints of more to this story.
However, with any good story, the plot alone does not sustain you and hook you. The characters and their interactions will keep you coming back for more. Today, we’ll contemplate the role of Princess Leia, played by Carrie Fisher. While she is a princess and is subsequently rescued, she hardly fits the prototypical role of ‘damsel in distress’. Leia is hardly a helpless damsel, saturated in passivity. She fights as much as any of the other characters in the film. Furthermore, she delivers some great lines, such as, “Would somebody get this big walking carpet out of my way.” as she walks past Chewbacca.
As we follow the films through the second sequel, Return of the Jedi, we continue watching the characters as they develop. Leia is no exception. Her scenes in a metal bikini with Jabba the Hutt spawned many boyhood fantasies. While captured (and eventually freed) she remains a force of nature, eventually strangling Jabba himself with the chain from her captivity. Absolutely symbolic.
Carrie Fisher herself was a force of nature. As one might expect, they frequently typecast her into that early role of Princess Leia, which she played in her teens. In some ways, she’s Hollywood royalty, the daughter of Debbie Reynolds. The book, and subsequent movie, Postcards from the Edge, is a semi-autobiographical tale about her relationship with her mother. Fisher got a BAFTA nomination for best adapted screenplay.
Why such interest in Carrie Fisher? Because as you might imagine, like on most films, other actors auditioned for the different roles. At this stage, decades later, we can’t imagine anyone else playing the role of Princess Leia, but of course, there were others. On a lazy evening, I watched a Star Wars documentary on Disney+. They played old grainy footage of another young woman auditioning for the role of Leia. That young woman was Terri Nunn; the same woman who led the vocals for the band of Berlin.
We could trivialize that selection from all those decades ago. Some roles don’t linger in memory in the same way as others. For instance, in Back to the Future, Claudia Wells played Marty’s girlfriend on the first film, only to be replaced by Elisabeth Shue on the sequels. However, the role of Princess Leia was not a trivial selection. Fisher played that role with both vulnerability, edge, and assertiveness; dare I say that she was a force on screen? I can remember scenes with many other characters almost verbatim.
The way that this plays back in my head is like another episode of Mr. Destiny. The premise is that one boy, Larry (played by Jim Belushi) goes back in time and alters one event in his life. In this case, he hits a homerun instead of striking out in a pivotal at bat. In his head, that gives his boyhood self some closure. The unexpected outcome is that event sends his life in an entirely different trajectory. The film is endearing in its own respect; I recommend it.
Do we know for a fact that Terri Nunn’s portrayal of Leia wouldn’t have been better? Nunn might have played a better Leia in ways. She might have played those scenes with more snark and venom than Fisher. She might have had more on-screen chemistry with Harrison Ford (or Mark Hamill for that matter). The libido from my 15-year-old self naturally wonders what she might have looked like in that metal bikini from Return of the Jedi. Of course, there’s no way that we can conclusively know.
The other bookend to that decision is that Nunn would’ve almost definitely not have joined Berlin in 1979. Not only would we have missed songs like this one, but also hits like “Take My Breath Away”. Would the movie Top Gun made the same impression without this iconic song?
We don’t have magical means to go back in time and definitively resolve all the possibilities, but if nothing else we can take a minute to imagine a different Princess Leia… and that amuses me.