May the Force be with you...always.
I'm really dating myself here but I remember when the first "Star Wars" movie came out. It was the first movie I ever became obsessed about. I saw it a dozen times in the theater -- The Gods only know how many times I've seen it on video. Before the movie came out there was considerable buzz -- I remember seeing the trailer on the tv months before the actual release, and then the heavy promotion in those Scholastic weekly readers we used to get in elementary school...and I knew I had to see it the first night. The dogfighting scenes around the Death Star and the laser sword duels, and that guy in black armor... it was unlike anything in SF I'd ever seen and yet had longed for since before I could remember.
The first night it landed in theaters near my hometown I was dropped off by my mother about two hours before showtime. I being 10 at the time, this was my first solo trip to a movie and there was already a long line. I'm sure momma was nervous about dropping off her baby boy, but this only heightened my anticipation. I was about the 1ooth person in line, I'm sure, ad the wait was excrusiating. I was astounded to learn that I was the second to last person allowed in for the showing. There were dozens of people in line behind me that were sent away. I rushed in to find a seat, catching one in the front row but at the far right. And I had to sit next to some smelly old grandma-like lady. Every single seat was filled...there were even people standing and sitting in the aisles. I'd never experienced anything like this.
From the opening sequence I was hooked. The Star Destroyer firing laser bolts at Princess Leia's fleeing Rebel Blockade Runner ship -- wow! The shear magnitutude of what was transpiring on the screen was awe inspiring. I became totally immersed in the movie and its mythology. The Jedi Knights. The Force. The Empire and the Rebellion. When the movie ended, people actually stood and clapped, just as they had cheered and oohed and ahhed throughout the feature. I had never seen this before and haven't since. Star Wars touched a nerve in the collective psyche of the entire world. At least, for sure, it touched a nerve in me. It was a religious experience and has colored my world view ever since.
I bought the novelization, the comics, the toys... I was all things Star Wars, and though I don't buy the merchandise anymore, I still thrill at the thought of the majesty of it all. Empire, for me, was even better than the original, building on the myth and constructing a dark image of the universe that as a thirteen year old I was already starting to embrace. Return of the Jedi left me cold however (damn Ewoks!), though there were some fine moments (Slave Girl Leia anyone?)... in my mind, you see, I turn the Ewoks into originally proposed Wookies and all becomes right with the world once more (OK, not really... by the Gods but ROTJ pissed me off).
Menace and Clones have come nowhere near the magic of the first two films and now I stand at the threshold of midnight madness and the Revenge of the Sith. My inner fanboy is all aflutter despite the disappointments of the previous three films. Can ROTS unsuck the suckiness of the previous prequels? I don't know... I honestly don't know... but I can hope and I can dream... and no matter how hard he tries, George Lucas can never take away what he gave me as a ten year old boy.
Star Wars is Dead! Long Live Star Wars!
The first night it landed in theaters near my hometown I was dropped off by my mother about two hours before showtime. I being 10 at the time, this was my first solo trip to a movie and there was already a long line. I'm sure momma was nervous about dropping off her baby boy, but this only heightened my anticipation. I was about the 1ooth person in line, I'm sure, ad the wait was excrusiating. I was astounded to learn that I was the second to last person allowed in for the showing. There were dozens of people in line behind me that were sent away. I rushed in to find a seat, catching one in the front row but at the far right. And I had to sit next to some smelly old grandma-like lady. Every single seat was filled...there were even people standing and sitting in the aisles. I'd never experienced anything like this.
From the opening sequence I was hooked. The Star Destroyer firing laser bolts at Princess Leia's fleeing Rebel Blockade Runner ship -- wow! The shear magnitutude of what was transpiring on the screen was awe inspiring. I became totally immersed in the movie and its mythology. The Jedi Knights. The Force. The Empire and the Rebellion. When the movie ended, people actually stood and clapped, just as they had cheered and oohed and ahhed throughout the feature. I had never seen this before and haven't since. Star Wars touched a nerve in the collective psyche of the entire world. At least, for sure, it touched a nerve in me. It was a religious experience and has colored my world view ever since.
I bought the novelization, the comics, the toys... I was all things Star Wars, and though I don't buy the merchandise anymore, I still thrill at the thought of the majesty of it all. Empire, for me, was even better than the original, building on the myth and constructing a dark image of the universe that as a thirteen year old I was already starting to embrace. Return of the Jedi left me cold however (damn Ewoks!), though there were some fine moments (Slave Girl Leia anyone?)... in my mind, you see, I turn the Ewoks into originally proposed Wookies and all becomes right with the world once more (OK, not really... by the Gods but ROTJ pissed me off).
Menace and Clones have come nowhere near the magic of the first two films and now I stand at the threshold of midnight madness and the Revenge of the Sith. My inner fanboy is all aflutter despite the disappointments of the previous three films. Can ROTS unsuck the suckiness of the previous prequels? I don't know... I honestly don't know... but I can hope and I can dream... and no matter how hard he tries, George Lucas can never take away what he gave me as a ten year old boy.
Star Wars is Dead! Long Live Star Wars!
posted by Bob Freeman at 10:56 AM
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