May 25, 1977, the day the world changed. At least for some of us. I’m sorry if you can’t entirely relate, but for those of us born after 1965, History is divided into two parts, BSW and ASW. Before and After Star Wars.
Mind you, I am not some kind of huge science fiction nut who attends all kinds of conventions dressed up as all manor of space aliens, it’s simply a fact that this movie franchise, this new mythology, this story is one of the cultural forces that shaped and defined the lives and times of us who are now between 25 and 40.
That summer I saw the original “Star Wars,” the FIRST star wars, now known as “Episode Four: A New Hope” at least seven times. What an awesome escape from the blazing heat of a concrete and dirt Phoenix summer- to be inside a dark, cold air conditioned, theater physically and in the dark, cold expanse of space mentally.
When we all got back to school for second grade, most recesses were spent playing Star Wars. We made poor John Elliot have to play Chewbacca the wookie. Wookies are seven foot tall and John was the tallest kid in our class and had long brown hair. It didn’t hurt that he had such an enormous overbite that he was constantly wiping drool from his chin. He was also imitated the growl best.
John was the first kid in our class to see Star Wars, and he’d seen it the most times. Fourteen. So even though we made him be Chewie, he got to direct much of our playing, because he was the class expert on Star Wars and had most of the script memorized.
Robbie McAdam had to play C3P-O, the interpreter and protocol droid. He was the tallest and skinniest kid on the playground. Robbie was a third grader, the only one nerdy enough to play Star Wars with us second graders. The rest of them played soccer or football and such.
Some times Marko Sanders was Darth Vader. He was tall and had a deep voice for second grade. Other times Indy Eaton took the role. She was one of the few girls who liked Star Wars and she was really tall and was good at taking charge. John might have known about Star Wars, but Indy was the leader, fortunately she wasn’t evil like the real Darth Vader. They both liked playing storm troopers too.
It seems to me like I remember Patty Gail playing Princess Lea. She was blonde and actually put her hair those goofy buns. Of course we boys were always trying to get Cheryl Johansen to play with us. Every boy in second grade was in love with her.
David Neely or Michael Miller would both play Luke Skywalker or Obi Wan Kenobi interchangeably. They were both medium height, and skinny. David was blonde and even had the bowl hair cut like Luke.
I hated getting stuck playing Han Solo. How stupid could I have been? I figured they MADE me play Han because I was the only kid with dark hair and I had a vest. I wanted to be Luke, but they’d never let me. I thought that light saber duels were the coolest.
Almost three decades later, I realize that Han was the coolest. He was the swarthy, swashbuckling anti-hero that all the chick were in love with. He had the baddest ride- his Millennium Falcon was the fastest ship in the galaxy. Beside Harrison Ford was the only cast member to go on to have a kick-butt acting career. How many people even remember the name “Mark Hamel?” Exactly.
May 21, 1980: "The Empire Strikes Back" opens, it grosses $290 million in the U.S. and Canada. Fifth graders are much more savvy movie goers than Second graders. They’re also bigger consumers. That meant action figures. Truthfully, I only had a few so I’d take my few action figures across the street to my friend Ron Green’s house. He was in Fourth grade and man, he had a whole dang room full of action figures. He even let me play with his Millennium Falcon because he liked his X-Wing fighter better.
Then the greatest thing happened. Christmas, when Ron’s parents got him the mother load of Star Wars toys, an AT-AT Walker- and a snow speeder and a slew of storm trooper dolls (action figures.) MAN, that was cool.
But what a shocker! Darth Vader claimed to be Luke’s father after that big jerk put Han Solo on ice! He HAD to be lying. But we had to wait three more years to find out for sure.
John Elliot had the inside scoop on Yoda, he was actually a Muppet! John was a big Muppet fan too. One year we tried to make our own Muppets out of the insides of foam pillows and coat hangers. His mom was pretty patient.
May 26, 1983: "Return of the Jedi" opens, grosses $309 million. John Elliot told us that George Lucas planned on the speeder-bike battle on the forest moon of Endor to be between the Empire and Wookies as sort of a nod to Native American groups or maybe a commentary on Viet Nam. But instead, the movie people made him use these cute little teddy-bear like “Ewok” thingies. I guess he had to appeal to the girls.
Once Han got thawed out he finally hooked up with Princess Lea. Aw man, if he could only have seen her in that brass bikini, that would have been enough to thaw him out, hubba hubba.
My older brother and I saw “Jedi” as part of a triple-feature with the first two, only we got there late or something so we didn’t get to see them in order.
John Elliot said that there were going to be six more movies; three that would take place after Return of the Jedi and three that would take place before.
Winter-spring 1997: The first three "Star Wars" films are re-released, with new digital soundtracks, cleaned-up color, some new effects and at least one restored scene.
Bethany and I went to see the new and improved first one. It was a little weird to see Jaba the Hutt slithering around inside the space port, threatening Han if he didn’t pay him the “credits” he owed him. But it was fun nostalgia for a couple of twenty-somethings out in California.
May 19, 1999: "Star Wars: Episode I -- The Phantom Menace," made for $115 million, opens on 2,800-3,000 screens and eventually makes $431 million. God knows why or how, though. This was one of the slowest, dullest science fiction movies I’d ever seen. I couldn’t believe George Lucas could destroy something that had been such an important part of my childhood.
May 16, 2002: "Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones" opens. The movie makes $311 million, but I didn’t bother seeing it till it came out on video. Once again I was let down, but for different reasons. It was too busy, too cluttered, too full of special effects and convoluted secret political alliances and conspiracies.
Plus the futuristic city that was supposed to be the capital of the Republic reminded me too much of another science fiction movie, “Blade Runner,” an edgy, dark, futuristic film noir in which Harrison Ford played a detective in search of renegade clones. Had Lucas lost his touch so much that he had to steal ideas from Han Solo’s OTHER movies?
May 18, 2005: "Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith" opened and the circle will be complete. I haven’t heard anything but good reviews about this film. However, since it’s so scary, I’m unlikely to take my 6 year old to it- so again, especially since we’ve got two smaller kids to keep us busy, we’ll probably wait until video.
Besides, I’m not sure how I feel about the fact that all six movies turned out to be about Darth Vader. If I was George Lucas, I would have made them all be about Han Solo. I’m also a little torked off that since he spent so much time on Star Wars that now if he does make any more Indiana Jones movies, Harrison Ford will be too old to reprise his greatest role.
I haven’t seen John Elliot since say 1984, but I hear he’s a heart surgeon in Tuscon or something like that. Hope the dark side didn’t get him.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment