I am still a Star Wars geek. I realize that I've always been geekily excited about silly things for a very long time now, and that I am already drawing eye-rolls from Mom and Heather (at a bare minimum). But I just want you all to know that I am aware of my own geekiness. Self-awareness is a good thing, I think.
I have raged at times at George Lucas' inept handling of the Star Wars universe that I love so well, but I still like to go and play there. Today, the theater at Hill AFB (which shows movies for free on the weekends) had a Star Wars marathon. Due to other commitments, Nathaniel and I were only able to see one movie, so we chose Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back. This movie is my favorite of all the Star Wars movies. Seeing the movie in a theater again allowed me to view it with the same sense of wonder I had when I was 15. I didn't worry about the bad acting or the special effects which now appear slightly dated. My anger and cynicism towards Mr. Lucas were strangely absent. I just had fun.
It reminded me of taking the bus downtown to the Center theater in the summer of 1980 with George Rivera or Nathan Barnes to see it (again and again). I remembered the endless debates with school mates over whether Darth Vader really WAS Luke's father. I remember swooshing Lego ships through imaginary asteroid fields while listening to the soundtrack. I also remember (15 years later) when the internet was a much less complicated place, and I played Star Wars trivia on AOL every friday night with a bunch of people who like Star Wars as much as I did. Can you name the order in which the Rebel Pilots checked in before their attack on the Death Star? I still can. So could all those online friends. I wonder what happened to them...
The Star Wars juggernaut continues to roll along, making money hand over fist for GL. That's fine. I'm just glad that he made a movie as good as Empire, so that I can fondly reminisce about a skinny kid who spent so much time in a galaxy far far away.
3 comments:
That's awesome, Brad. I think it's great that you enjoy Star Wars so much.
I, too, have spent many wonderful hours exploring and hypothesizing about the goings-on in a galaxy far, far away. All my meighborhood arguments centered around how Anakin fell to become Darth Vader. I was close...
My older brothers had quite a few valuable Star Wars toys until they went to school and left their toys in reach of their younger brother. I wanted to see if the X-Wing, Y-Wing and Tie Fighter really could fly on their own so I threw them into a wall.
I remember my brothers coming home from school, seeing the damage, and then my memory suddenly becomes foggy. If only I knew then what I know now...
We all geek out about something. Passion is what makes life so enjoyable!
No eye rolling over here.
You'll be proud of Mark - he has introduced your niece and nephew to the Star Wars movies. Tonight while I was tucking her in, Sarah retold me the synopsis of each installment - including her opinion on the improvement in special effects.
Alex just loves pretending to slash people with his light-saver. :)
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