Thoughts While Watching Star Wars

A couple weeks ago, I mentioned on Facebook that I was thinking about watching all the Star Wars movies. I saw the first one in the theater in 1977, but I never saw the others. FB friends wanted to hear my reactions – so here you are:

Episode 4 – A New Hope (? When did it get that title?)

- How did I sit through this and understand it when I was nine? I don’t think I did understand it. I’m not sure I really understood it all at 56.

- I was bored through the first half. Bored enough that I had to watch it again because in the second half I got into it and wondered what I missed in the first half.

- So, honestly, the effects are good enough even fifty years later to not be a big distraction . . . and that’s pretty amazing. I bet they blew people away at the time.

- It’s unfortunate how much this has been parodied. I feel like I’m watching a spoof. “Use the force, Luke.” I almost laughed at that. It’s hard to take it seriously sometimes. I have to keep reminding myself that this was the first time this stuff happened . . . and the reason these moments have been parodied so much is because they were so impactful that they stuck in the collective consciousness.

Episode 5 – The Empire Strikes Back

- I know the scrolling backstory at the beginning is pretty iconic, but now it’s just feeling lazy to me. I tell my students when they write stories that it’s much more interesting to work the backstory in as you’re telling the current story – let the reader figure things out rather than just telling them. Maybe this was too much information for that? But honestly, I think I’d have been more drawn in if I were trying to figure out where they were and why.

- I’ve seen Yoda over the years. I’d never heard Yoda’s voice (at least not young Yoda). That was a shocker. And he’s a comic character? What?? When he first showed up at Luke’s camp, I believed him that he was going to take Luke to the real Yoda because he didn’t seem at all like the all-wise being I’d been hearing about.

- His weird grammar wasn’t as prominent as I expected, either. But I did recognize that line: “Do or do not. There is no try.” A student at school wrote that on a whiteboard one year, and we didn’t have the heart to erase it – it stayed for weeks, maybe until the end of the year. I think a teacher put it on her bulletin board eventually.

- And I’m sadly distracted by Mark Hamill’s new face. I read up on that accident. That was a shame. But my daughter didn’t know anything about his accident when she saw the movie, and she said she didn’t even notice.

Episode 6 – Return of the Jedi

- What up with all the disgusting-looking creatures?? I mean, it seems like their main goal in this episode was to show off their effects department. And to gross everyone out.

- Of course, I’ve heard about the “I am your father” shocker many times . . . but I don’t know if I ever heard about Vader saving Luke’s life. That was a pretty powerful moment. Why is that not a bigger deal?

- And I didn’t know Yoda dies in front of our faces. Oh, Yoda! I see why you are so beloved. And now he’s inverting his sentence patterns more, too. Maybe it’s an old age thing.

- My daughter had warned me ahead of time about the teddy bear-ish Ewoks that she just couldn’t handle. Again, was this episode all about the effects? I mean, yes, major character moments with Luke and Vader, but those seem casually sprinkled in between the look-at-what-we-can-do stuff.

- Those three “ghosts” he sees at the end – is the third one his dad? I’m assuming so . . . and now I’m curious how much he will look like the Anakin in Episodes 1-3.

I’ll get to 1-3 at some point. Watch this space.