STAR WARS LINES

Yesterday marked the anniversary of Star Wars, which made its debut on May 25th, 1977. The third film in the original trilogy, Return of the Jedi, also screened on May 25th, six years later in 1983. It's amazing to think there was a time without The Force, Luke, Darth Vader, C3PO, R2-D2, Han, and Leia. I remember first hearing about Star Wars (it wasn't popularly referred to as "A New Hope" yet) from my cousins during a family trip to California during the summer of 1977. They were all fired up about light sabers and The Force. I had no idea what they were talking about, but I knew I had to find out- and fast! I wish I could remember my first viewing, but it's all a blur. What I do recall is a period of seeing the film over and over and being mesmerized by this awesome universe created by George Lucas. I was a kid who waited in long lines, collected the bubblegum cards, and spent many hours listening to the movie pressed into vinyl on The Story of Star Wars LP record. And seeing each film became a great tradition to share with my mom, who I tended to see mostly on special occasions. If the movie lines seemed long, it was nothing compared to the long periods we waited for the second and third films to come out. I recently taught a Star Wars history course for High School students. I showed them the original theatrical versions- as they appeared in my childhood and before digital alterations to the characters and stories- and I tried my best to take them back to a time when the saga was slowly unfolding and we had no context to the larger Star Wars universe or to spoilers about Darth Vader, etc. I wanted them to experience the story through the eyes of a kid in the late 70s and 80s and urged them to "unlearn what they had learned" from years of prequels and pop culture analysis. They seemed to really dig it, and we all awaited the release of the new film, the sequel to Return of the Jedi, with great anticipation- much like I had felt as a kid! We also watched the documentary about the history of Star Wars toys, Plastic Galaxy, and this really blew their minds. Somehow re-approaching the original movie through the eyes of the original toy designers gave them another way in, like my own personal accounts, of how the films looked to fresh viewers back in the day. Those designers literally photographed the movie screen during their preview and went back to make toys not knowing who the popular characters would be, which vehicles would become classics, or even what some of the aliens looked like from the waist down. I looked around the Internet this morning for some examples of various theater openings and those long lines of new Star Wars fans. Here are a few to celebrate the anniversary. Enjoy and MTFBWY!