Wells is 2:40 PM PST and its roughly less than 10 hours before I see the LAST Star Wars movie ever made. This is definitely a bitter sweet day for me. Bitter because I now realize that the saga is complete and over but sweet to finally see it all come together.
I don’t know about you but these movies had a real effect on me (especially Star Wars IV: A New Home and the Empire Strikes Back). I guess part of it is because I was 5 years old when I first saw Star Wars. I believe that when your 5 or 6 things can have a huge influence over you positive or negative. (I know this also by having twins that just turned 6 this month). There is very few things I remember before I was 6 but I still remember to this day the first time my mom and dad took to me to go see Star Wars. After that 2.5 hours my life changed forever. That’s all I could think about. Star Wars was IT! I breathed Star Wars. Everything I owned was Star Wars. I had to listen to Star Wars.
However I was not the only one. I had friends that were fanatics over it too. One friend I remember the most is Richard. Richard also had a sister who was about 4 years older than us. She was also a Star Wars nut. The one thing we would do when I would go over there was put on this Star Wars record (yup those huge black disks) that had the entire movie played out. We would not just listen to it but re-enact the entire movie. We would do this over and over. We had guns and light sabers! This was the days before VHS and Beta! We had only seen the movies a couple of times but this allowed us to replay the movie in our heads over and over again! I can still remember my friend as clear as day playing Han Solo and yelling “This is not like dusting crops boy. We could fly too close to a star … and that would end your trip real quick now, wouldn’t it!” as it played on their turn table.
We went the first day Empire Strikes Back came out! The funniest thing that happened to me was the next day. I was talking to my 3rd grade teacher and I said “I CAN’T BELIEVE DARTH VADER IS LUKE’S FATHER!”. The Teacher actually started to scream at me! “I CAN”T BELIEVE YOU TOLD ME THIS! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU!” and walked off so pissed off. How the hell was I supposed to know not to say anything when you’re 8 years old! That goes to show how much of an impact this movie had on people. Even the adults loved these movies.
Then there was Return of the Jedi! My brother and I stood in line for over 5 hours to be the first people to see it (Along with the rest of the family, but they went to eat and go to the mall before they showed back up). Star Wars as the only time when the lines would go around the entire movie theater.
Now fast forward 16 years later for the Phantom Menace! I could not wait to see this movie! It was over 16 years since a new Star Wars was released! I was now an Adult with 4 kids. My twins were born not only 2 weeks before this. I took my then 5 year daughter to see it with me. Kim was still recovering from an emergency trip to the hospital because of complications after the birth of the Twins. We were coming home from the hospital when she dropped us off. To this day I still get an evil look from her that I left her alone with the twins in complete pain to go see Star Wars. But I also think she realizes how much I would been pissed off if could not to go see Star Wars after waiting for 16 years! (I Love you Kim!)
After seeing it I was pretty confused. I could not figure out if I loved it or if it was just ok. I enjoyed it but I wanted more! I wanted that feeling I had when I saw the previous three movies. I guess 16 years of waiting for something like this, I expected more! However I did go see it over 15 times while it was out! I put it 3rd on my list: Empire, A New Hope and then Menace.
Boy, did a lot of people hate this movie. It then became the COOL thing to hate Star Wars! I think people forget that is made for the kids, not us adults. If you had gone into the movie as if you were as child, I think you may have enjoyed it alot more. I know my daughter really like it.
But looking back, that damn kid who played Anakin really screwed it up for me. Jar Jar was bad but I did not have that much problem with him. Also I think we could have skipped Phantom and started the prequels with Attack of the Clones. Then we could have made the last movie over two movies. This is what we all wanted to see anyways!
What I really love about Star Wars is that I am able to share this with my kids! They love these movies and play with Star Wars toys all the time. They seem just as excited when the commericals come on as I do. My wife makes a good point though. They get excited because this is something they can share with Dad! But I think they would like these movies regardless if I did or not.
Star Wars has influenced so many parts of my life. If it were not for John William’s music score, I don’t think I would be into classical music as much as I am. Star Wars also got me really interested in Space, which got me interested in mathamatics which got me interested in Computers! I guess I can say thanks to Star Wars for so many things and I am going to miss it when it’s all over and done with.