I can’t help but the recall the old SNL sketch with Bill Murray as the lounge singer piping out “nothing but Star Wars” while playing the all too familiar theme in the piano. He should’ve been in a Vader costume.
People were lined up for days outside the Chinese Theatre in Hollywood waiting to get tickets a month before the show only to find out Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith wasn’t going to be shown there. They didn’t believe it and they still didn’t leave.
Fans have dressed up as all the different characters over the years for the premieres of this now legendary series of films. You can be stormtroopers, wookies, ewoks, and a bunch of other folks MSWord doesn’t know how to spell. Ahhh the life of the geeks and fanboys. George Lucas has cultivated quite the vegetable garden for his Revenge of the Sith outing.
When all this started way back in back in 1977, I was a wee lad but Star Wars was larger than life. I saw it at a theatre in Louisville, KY (home of the KY Derby this weekend[had to make the plug]). It was fantastic I must say. One of the most vivid memories was Darth Vader in that impressive black suit and that James Earl Jones voice. Man that was incredible. Then there was Princess Leia. She looked great, puberty hadn’t set in but she still looked nice. The dual between Vader and Ben Kenobi was really cool too.
Then came the ship battles with the weird but cool looking wookie names Chewbacca and the hip bad boy Han Solo masterfully played by Harrison Ford. The combat sequences in the trenches of the Death Star with the tie fighters and the X-wing fighters were just too awesome. Those were the days. The Empire Strikes Back and The Return of the Jedi were really good and I must say I thoroughly enjoyed them. But nothing really matches the overwhelming awe of seeing the very first one for the first time.
Few movie moments are like that. I’d say Jurassic Park was one. Maybe Lord of the Rings. It’s a moment when the suspension of disbelief and excitement overtake your senses for a while and you become childlike once again. There’s much anticipation with the Revenge of the Sith. Some folks have already seen it and reviews are coming out and that’s fine. But I would have to say none will be as good as the first time seeing the first film. They may be good, they may be fun and enjoyable and you’d sooner wet your pants after the giant bladder buster pop than leave the seat but that first time you see the first film is something incredible.
I’ll go see this one. I didn’t wait inline for weeks. I’m not the true geek I once was I guess. My brother named his truck “Executor” and I think he has “Death Star” toilet paper so he’s one for sure. But I intend to enjoy it and not worry so much about the critics or the disappointments of this or that. I intend to sit back and enjoy the film for what it is. But it will never be what it once was.
John Stith is a staff writer for murdok covering technology and business.
