May the Force be with You! :-)

Rating: Null/10 (20 September 2009)

Okay, so it's a hot San Juoquin Valley summer afternoon in Sacramento, and I'm there with the parent outside one of the old brown dome Century theatres on opening day for this thing. In addition to the blistering Sacramento summer sun there's a slight hot breeze, but I'm in the shade with the family, so it's not a big deal. I'm just happy to be waiting for that space movie I heard about on TV. I'm just hoping it won't be scary.
The doors open, and we go inside, and are given a booklet of some-kind describing the characters, places and back-story. Neat :-) I flip through it, see some color pages, see some black and white pages, and don't really understand a thing of what I'm looking at or reading. Rebels? Imperials? Huh? Who, what, where, when? And... why?
Oh well. The lights dim and the movie starts. I'm just hoping I don't see the wires on the "special effect" models. The lights dim, that blue font opening line appears, then the scrolling text. Hey, this is just like that Flash Gordon thing I saw on TV ... well ... almost. The story stuff vanishes up into space, and the camera pans down.
Thank god, I think, this doesn't look too fake. Hopefully it'll be a little better than Star Trek on TV where the effects go. Then the two ships race by overhead. And you can pick up the collective psychic connection of every sci-fi type sighing in relief and saying to themselves "Thank God! Somebody finally got it right!"
Yeah, it was a WOW moment. Star Wars re-heralded old fashioned film making. In a day and age of the 70s when edgy art films were all the rage, and old overweight police detectives dominated the TV air waves. Oh sure, "King Kong" came out the year before, but sci-fi was more of a 1950's genre, because at that time that's when most of those films had been made.
Star Wars was a much needed relief from a lot of over wrought films that were promoting some kind of new social stigma. Where were the heroics? Where were the cavaliers? Where was the derring-do that we used to see? Well, it was back in a piece of high-adventure space-opera. :-)
Star Wars is a film about human endeavor, and the value of heart and soul. It's not a codified social statement as much of science fiction tends to be, but a true fairy tale to take the viewer and audience to a time and place where there are clear boundaries between right and wrong. In the day and age of the Cold War with proxy wars happening around the globe, and with the memory of Vietnam still fresh in everyone's memory (and Afghanistan coming into the forefront), Star Wars was a unifying reminder of the consequences of delegating freedom to a kind of social automation of the spirit; i.e. allowing extreme organization and ceremony to act as a mechanism for social order, the consequences of that, and how a single soul can combat such stalwart foes.
Personally, I love the film for what it is. As a kid I bought the Marvel comics' adaptations, bought the sketch and art books because I loved the artistry of the film as a whole, but I never bought any of the action figures. I bought the magnificent soundtrack, but not the toys. I also never had a favorite character. Nor did I ever really get into the story too much, though I liked the story. Add to that, I understood people liking the film, because it was very entertaining, but I couldn't understand the extreme fandom that accompanies it to this very day.
But hey, that's just me :-) Truth is I do understand some of the fandom, but I'm not really a Star Wars fan as such. Love the films. I worked for a couple of the SFX guys when I was in my 20s, and was even offered a job up at ILM after working my tail off to impress those guys, but I liked the spectacle of the films more than the message, because the message was pretty basic. And I guess that's the real charm of Star Wars for tons of people the world over.
It's a basic positive message with some fantastic artistry. Personally, I also happen to think it's the film director's personal story; i.e. a young man striking out on his own and facing adversity, and that resonates with people everywhere. It might explain the age demographic demarcation between young and old SW fans in terms of liking the newer films and the "classic" SW films. But perhaps that's another post for another time.
In the meantime, May the Force Be With You. :-)