Star Wars Is 30 Today
This makes it older than me by almost exactly four years, so I don't have any of those memories of seeing it in the theater. Although I believe my parents (married 1978) saw it on a date. And we did camp out for both the Special Edition theater showings and Star Wars: Episode One when I was in high school.
But as anyone who's seen this site might be able to guess, I have a deep and abiding love for Star Wars that even the prequels could not quench. I think the first time I saw it I was five. And, like many kids who grew up in the '80's, we had our own crappy copies of the movies on VHS, taped off of TV, and we watched them every single weekend. We even had a homemade audio tape for when we went on car trips. Therefore I am really not kidding or exaggerating when I say that I can reliably recite every line of all three movies.
As evidence, I present a 2005 IM conversation between my brother and me:
Me: jabba wa ninchee co ee tane ti tanyee wanyaooska... he he he
Bro: Chuske nawa oochooto
Bro: Yes, I'll bet you have
Me: splat
Bro: Ches cuckoturo cristo crenho....yaposka!
Me: yaposka!
Which is, obviously, a reenactment of the scene where Han shoots first (but without the subtitles). Hel-lo.
I included this screenshot because it's my favorite scene in the Star Wars saga, and for me, it represents what Star Wars is all about. There is no dialogue in the scene, because there doesn't need to be. The music is enough. Because isn't this really what it's all about? Dreaming yourself somewhere bigger, somewhere with more adventure? Somewhere you can see the stars close up. Wanting more. And I think we are all glad that George Lucas found his "somewhere bigger."
Happy Birthday, Star Wars.
P.S. There are rumors that KOTOR 3 might be announced by LucasArts at Celebration IV tonight. It could just be a rumor, but I'm keeping an eye out!
9 comments:
Yes, on one of our first dates, May 25, 1977.
*sigh* i think these movies and ET lie at the core of who I am... the scenery, the music, the epic-ness of the story...
here's a bit of sweet irony for you. When the original movies came out, my mother was working at the local theater. When they were re-released, I was working at the local theater. Coincidence? I think not...
I love the original! I waited in line to see it at Lakeside, for two showings. I was 6:) I had the album which I had memorized and had all the figures and the starfighter and the blow up light sabers.
Ok, I'll admit I'm the old guy of this bunch, I saw the movies when they first came out. I did a post about what it was like seeing Star Wars when it first came out and what it meant to me. A great movie still.
It might be equally as sas as I look at that conversation way back when that some of the lines are out of order....anyways. Sad sad sad...maybe I'll go watch Star Wars again.
Bry, I think some of the lines are out of order due to the nature of IM... like when you reply to each other and the other person is already typing.
I guess I was eight when my older cousin took me to the theatre to see Star Wars. We missed the first 10 minutes or so, sitting in the wrong cinema until "The Goodbye Girl" started. I collected stacks and stacks of Star Wars cards and played with the action figures with all the kids in the neighborhood. We all had them. I tried to make my own Star Wars comics. They sucked. Awesome memories. Thank you.
Ahhhh, I was there with you for the 1997 re-showing of Star Wars. Those were good times. Good times.
Remember that time we were at Kerry's house and we were watching ANH and we muted it right before the part with the twin sunset and some of us were saying the dialogue, making sound effects, and humming the music? I just remember imitating Whiny-Luke. I think you were there! And I was humming The Force Theme from the twin sunsets. We knew those movies so well they didn't need a soundtrack.
They had a great special on the History Channel about George Lucas's inspirations for the trilogy (you know, the whol Bill Campbell/Hero With A Thousand Faces/Monomyth thing) and I was sitting there amazed...he knew how to write 30 years ago but then in 30 years Lucas went from being Luke Skywalker to the evil Empire as he forgot how to write a story with ANY semblance of coherence and became to big/rich/powerful for his own good.
Now people are putting Star Wars spoofs on YouTube that demonstrate more talent than all the prequels put together.
Cheers!
--Melissa
Melissa-
We taped that History channel show but I haven't watched it yet. I think Lucas' ego got too big... but dude, everyone needs an editor!!
Sit me and my brother in front of Star Wars and let us roll, for some real fun. My mom used to hate it when we quoted. She'd be like, YOU GUYS STOP IT JUST WATCH THE MOVIE!!
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