What Star Wars Means To Me: A CCC Special

What Star Wars Means to Me

At this stage in human history, it’s pointless to review the Star Wars movies. Let’s face it: here in 2015, Star Wars has transcended its own status as a film series and become an integral piece of society. George Lucas’ original idea for a little space opera called The Star Wars evolved into an ever-expanding universe of movies, TV shows, games, books, comics, toys, and so much more, to the point where The Force Awakens, the newest installment in the franchise, pre-sold 50 million dollars’ worth of tickets over a month before opening and far surpassed every advance-ticket-sales record. 

Are. You. Listening? We’re talking the biggest pre-sales in the history of cinema. It’s insane. It’s unheard of. It’s Star Wars!

Perhaps more so than any other film series, Star Wars has attracted millions, if not billions, of fans since first premiering nearly 40 years ago. It means something different to everyone; maybe you hate all of the movies, maybe you worship them, or maybe (like me) you fall somewhere in the middle. There’s nothing I can say that hasn’t already been said about Star Wars, except my own take on it, so here’s my personal history/experience with Star Wars. It’s Stars Wars, the way I remember it. 

Let me start off by saying a phrase that I’ve heard thrown around a lot on the internet since Jurassic World opened back in June of this year: “Jurassic Park was my Star Wars as a kid.” This phase is 100 % true for me. I remember seeing Jurassic Park when I was five years old, and to say it blew my mind would be an understatement. Already a dinosaur fan before seeing it, Jurassic Park catapulted my love for dinosaurs to the extreme, and is easily among my favourite films of all time, if not my all-time favourite. Even if I had seen Star Wars first, I still don’t think it would have been more important to me than Jurassic Park. To this day, people are surprised when I say I’m not a huge Star Wars fan. The root of the reason might have to do with my parents. 

Wind the clock back 38 years. My mom and dad saw the original Star Wars in the theater (long before it was ever called Episode IV: A New Hope). My mom says she liked it. My dad remembered the part where the space ships were flying along that trench thing in space. They never saw The Empire Strikes Back or Return of the Jedi in theaters. They were unaware of the prequels until I recently informed them of their existence. If I say, “Let’s watch Star Wars,” they think I mean THE Star Wars. When I say, “Which one? Episode Four? Five? Six?” they look at me like I just turned into a little green puppet that speaks with deranged syntax. 

I was five years old when Star Wars: Episode I: The Phantom Menace was released on home video. I have vague memories of the trailer playing on TV. Queen Amidala’s face creeped me out, Jar Jar Binks was there, the music was loud and exciting, and of course Darth Maul with his double-ended light sabre looked striking and awesome. Over the next couple years, Star Wars began popping up in primitive pre-school and kindergarten conversation. It was just this vague concept that everyone sort of knew about, but no one knew why. 

I was either seven or eight when I told my mom I wanted to see Star Wars. Remember, her understanding was I wanted to see THE Star Wars. We went to the video store and my mom asked if they had it. “Which one?” the clerk asked. She looked confused. “The original!” she said. I had virtually no understanding of the conversation. It’s a miracle I actually saw the original trilogy in the correct order, and before the prequels, no less. 

I watched it alone that night while my mom and dad were outside at a camp fire. As it began I asked my mom why there were paragraphs of yellow words in space and, more importantly, why they were so far off screen I couldn’t read them. (Not that it mattered, I still couldn’t tell you what those paragraphs entail if you asked me now). I’ve attributed this to one or two reasons. 1) This VHS tape was not “formatted to fit your TV” and was widescreen, meaning the sides of the frame were stretched past the limits of our ancient 26” 4:3 screen. 2) As our TV became progressively more ancient, the tubes began to wear out, and even full frame pictures were stretched off-screen. It may have been both.

Beyond that opening title crawl, this is the main thing I remember from that initial viewing: the first time Obi-Wan Kenobi said, “…your father’s lightsabre.” And Luke turned that laser sword on and the sound it made as the glowing blue beam popped out the end. I sat bolt upright on the couch and my eyes went wide. I hit rewind on the tape and showed my mom (who just happened to come in the house shortly after) and exclaimed how cool it sounded. I’ll never forget that sound, and I think that’s one of the strongest aspects of all the Star Wars movies: the sound effects. The word iconic gets thrown around a lot when discussing Star Wars, and for good reason. There are iconic character designs (Darth Vader), iconic space ships (The Millennium Falcon), iconic weapons (light sabres) and iconic sound effects (light sabre, TIE fighters, Vader’s breathing, and so much more). 

I don’t recall anything else specific about that first viewing of the film. You may or may not be wondering if I witnessed the original, un-altered cut or the much-loathed “special edition” (which has become subsequently more loathsome with each release). I can’t remember for certain which version it was. The odds are 3,720 to 1 it was the special edition, but think it might not have been for three reasons: 1) the video store was old, and had lots of old copies of tapes. 2) I have no recollection of seeing Jabba the Hutt in the scene re-instated for the special edition, though this could just be due to my general lack of remembering specific things from my initial viewing. 3) The Cantina/Mos Eisley scenes did not seem as hectic/crazy to my child self, which is the strongest piece of evidence supporting it was the original version, because the special edition features a lot more dinosaur-type creatures, and those would have made me go crazy at age seven/eight and I’m sure I would’ve remembered them. I barely remember seeing Mos Eisley for the first time. 

I watched Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi very soon after, and I know they were the originals, not special eds. (barely saw the Wampa, Luke didn’t scream when he fell, The Sarlacc pit didn’t have a weird venus fly trap-like thing, and Yub Nub played instead of weird light jazz). Strangely enough, I don’t remember anything blowing my mind the first time I saw Empire, which is odd given it’s now my favourite of the trilogy. I can’t even remember the first time I heard the line “I, am your father.” but it probably wasn’t in Empire. It’s a line that’s permeated pop culture to the point of being used so much, people hear this line and know it’s from Star Wars before they ever see a Star Wars movie. It has to be the most widespread spoiler for a film in the history of cinema. 

I distinctly remember Jabba the Hutt from my first viewing of Jedi, as well as the emperor, who I found terrifying. The scene where Luke unmasks Darth Vader at the very end had me glued to the TV screen. Here was the ultimate villain in the galaxy, crippled, stripped down to his true form, and he’s just this pale-faced old man. It’s a revelation that, for whatever reason, struck a chord with me, and remains the second strongest moment I recall from first seeing the original trilogy.  

I never saw the original movies again in their entirety for a very long time. I was either eight or nine when I discovered there were even more Star Wars movies, but these took place before the others, which I didn’t think much of. Episode II: Attack of the Clones was the first of the prequels that I saw, unaware it was a second chapter of a trilogy. To sum up, I didn’t get it. I was totally bored, until the ending with the colosseum and the three creatures (only because they were dinosaur-like). Then Yoda said the line “Begun, the clone war, has.” And I was expecting the movie to continue with the clone war, but then it was over and I was left even more confused. I checked the DVD. 

Oh, it’s part two? 

Oh… 

I backtracked to Episode I: The Phantom Menace. The stuff from the trailers I saw years earlier started coming back to me—Darth Maul, the music, the action. I remember enjoying it a lot (The underwater creatures remain my favourite part of Episode I), and for most of my childhood (ages 8-12, approximately) it was my favourite Star Wars movie. Bear with me here, prequel haters, I’m not done yet. 

At 10 years old, I rented Episode III: Revenge of the Sith when it came out on DVD. This was in 2005, so it was the first time I actually saw a Star Wars movie when it was still relatively new.  I distinctly remember watching it on my portable DVD player while playing with Lego (which included the Star Wars Green Speeder Lego set). I recall my initial review to my parents in hilariously vivid detail: I said it was pretty good, some bad acting (!), a few boring parts, but General Grievous was cool, the ending was good, and there was a lizard creature with feathers that Obi-Wan rode on which was awesome. There you go, prequel haters, even at 10 years old, I saw how bad the acting was. 

After that, I never thought much about Star Wars for a few years. My friends and I started doing movie marathons during these years—we marathoned all the Scary Movie’s, Alien movies, Jurassic Park movies, plus more, and we considered doing a major Star Wars marathon of all 6 movies, but we never did (thankfully). I would be amiss if I didn’t at least mention the Family Guy Star Wars spoofs from this period of my life. I’ve probably seen Blue Harvest more times than A New Hope. Most of the jokes were lost on me until I revisited the original trilogy years later. But at that time, that was what Star Wars meant to me: very little. It was just something Family Guy was making fun of, and I was laughing at it, not realizing the spoofs were as much celebrating Star Wars as they were making fun of it. 

Then came high school. I was 14 when a long-awaited sequel to one of my favourite franchises of all-time came out: Terminator Salvation. I was at school gushing about how awesome it was going to be to see it opening night, and a friend said seeing Revenge of the Sith at the theater in a full audience was one of the coolest things ever. I didn’t think much of his comment. Salvation came and went, leaving little impression on me. 

Throughout that year, I was in a drama class with a bunch of good friends who all loved Star Wars. They loved all of them, and could tell you who was a Jedi and a Sith and their names and what colour their lightsabre was and their favourite moments and how awesome the fight scenes in the prequels were and how boring they were in the original movies by comparison, and so on. I didn’t get what was so great about Star Wars. It was just some fantasy space movie. I could barely remember the prequels from the originals.

I decided I was going to buy and watch all of the Star Wars movies, starting with Episode I. This was around the time I started getting really into buying and collecting DVDs. I re-watched The Phantom Menace, and still liked the same parts I always liked, but overall, it wasn’t as good as I remembered. I never got around to buying the others on DVD, and eventually sold my copy of The Phantom Menace at a garage sale when I heard about the blu ray box set coming out. 

Back in 2008 when Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull came out, my younger cousin became obsessed with all of the Indiana Jones movies and, soon after, all of the Star Wars movies, mainly thanks to 1) Star Wars Lego sets and the Lego-themed video games 2) annual showings of all 6 films on Spike around Christmas and 3) the inexplicable Star Wars fandom his age group became enamored with. At this point I told myself liking Star Wars was lame. It was something everyone liked, for whatever reason, something people went crazy for, something that was held in such high regard by so many, the reality of the movies paled in comparison (in my mind) to the way people talked about them. So, I said I didn’t care, and it was at this point in my life Star Wars held the least amount of importance to me. But that all changed in October of 2010. 

I was on YouTube, waiting to go for Thanksgiving dinner, when I noticed something odd in my suggestions box: “Star Wars The Phantom Menace Review (Part 1 of 7)” by RedLetterMedia. Without thinking I clicked on it. Part 1 began with the title of the film and a glum, mumbling narrator stating: “Star Wars: The Phantom Menace was the most disappointing thing since my son.” It instantly grabbed my attention and changed my life more than Star Wars itself ever would (but that’s another story). 

I had to go for dinner, but I told my cousin all about this weirdly hilarious review, and watched the entire thing when I got home later, following it up with the Attack of the Clones review shortly after that, and waited patiently for the Revenge of the Sith review at the end of 2010/beginning of 2011. Not until Mr. Plinkett’s eye-opening reviews had I realized how bad these movies were, and to be honest, I was initially upset by his reaction and analysis (remember, Phantom Menace had been my favourite) but once the shocking humour settled and I paid attention to his actual comments on the material, I realized how accurate he was. More importantly, I realized how good the originals were compared to the prequels. 

I was unaware prior to this how many fans hated the prequels, and how altered the original films had become since their initial release. It was thanks to RedLetterMedia that my interest in Star Wars was reinvigorated. I wanted to re-visit all of these movies, to see if Plinkett’s opinions were actually valid or not, and to see if they held up the way I remembered them. For Christmas 2011, I got Star Wars: The Complete Saga on blu ray—it was a truly merry Christmas, as I watched through all six movies, from Phantom Menace through to Jedi. I saw both the prequels and the originals in a new light, largely thanks to RedLetterMedia. Did I instantly hate the prequels just because of what Plinkett had said? Absolutely not. I still don’t outright hate them, but they definitely lack the heart and fun of the originals. I realized how vastly different they were, in terms of tone, visuals, acting, etc. I definitely disliked them more than when I was a kid, but still didn’t hate them like Plinkett. 

Despite the newest alterations to the original trilogy, I appreciated all three movies more than ever, from a technical standpoint and a storytelling standpoint. The characters and plot were so well designed, it was now clear to me why these films had resonated with so many people for so many years, and why they continued to be so important. 

In October 2012, I was in the library of the University I had just started attending only two months earlier, when the gigantic news dropped that Disney had bought the rights to Star Wars. At the time, I didn’t understand the magnitude of this event, but shortly after, Episode VII was announced, with a release date of December 2015, and J.J Abrams was going to be directing, with original Episode V writer Lawrence Kasdan attached to write the script. Now this was big news. 

My initial reaction to a new Star Wars film from Abrams was basically: meh. I liked what he did with Star Trek (especially considering I had never been a Star Trek fan) but now he was doing Star Wars? Wasn’t that slightly blasphemous? It never occurred to me until much later how Star Wars-ey his Star Trek movies had been. I was skeptical at first, but once I heard more and more about what Episode VII would feature (less cgi, more practical sets like the originals, little to do with the prequels, Han, Leia, and Luke all returning, all played by the same actors, new villains and heroes) I started getting more excited. Around this time, I took my love of film to the next level, and discovered numerous YouTube reviewers and Movie Podcasts. Until then, I hadn’t realized just how many people were excited for a new Star Wars movies (Mr. Plinkett included). The excitement was infectious. 

I decided in summer 2013 to re-watch the original trilogy first, then re-watch the prequels (which were worse than ever, and I don’t plan on re-visiting them for a long time), so that in 2015 I could re-watch the original trilogy right before Episode VII. It was a super long term plan, but somehow I did it, because now it’s December 2015, I’ve re-watched the original trilogy, and The Force Awakens is only days away.

So what’s the deal with Star Wars? Well, the only way I can comprehend the nearly universal acclaim for it is by identifying two things: 1) The filmmaking brilliance, and 2) the expanded universe. If you are someone who likes watching movies, but you don’t go nuts over a movie or get too overly invested in a movie, you can still love Star Wars. If you’re someone who goes crazy for a particular genre, like fantasy or sci-fi or action or westerns, then chances are you’ll find something to like in Star Wars. If you enjoy a well-written story with strong characters, Star Wars has you covered. If you’re into the technical aspects of filmmaking, there’s tons to learn from Star Wars. There’s just an endless supply of things to love about it (“It’s so dense, every frame has so much going on…”). 

It’s one of those instances of catching lightning in a bottle, and getting so many things right, it’s impossible not to at least admire the sheer imagination and scope of George Lucas’ original vision. To do a movie like Star Wars today would be nothing special. We get endless superhero movies and blockbusters and sci-fi epics almost weekly it seems, but those wouldn’t exist if not for Star Wars. Whether you think it’s overrated and overhyped or not, you can’t deny the importance it has to all of humanity. There have been entire books written about the impact of the franchise, every frame of film has been scrutinized, the entire history of it recorded and shared by millions. What other movie could make millions of voices suddenly cry out in terror when a character goes from shooting another character before they take out a blaster to the other character shooting slightly before? None! 

So what does Star Wars mean to me? It’s never affected me on a seriously personal level, it wasn’t an integral part of my childhood, it isn’t part of my identity, and it isn’t something that’s elicited a heightened emotional response from me (The Force Awakens trailer aside). But…as a film fan, I have to respect the cinematic brilliance of all three original movies, and as I said before, the love for them is infectious. To see so many people all share a singular passion is both inspiring and baffling. To me, they’re still just movies. But at the end of the day, they’re well-told, exciting, timeless stories. Star Wars is inescapable. Even during those times in my life where I wasn’t thinking about the Star Wars movies, I wasn’t forgetting about Star Wars altogether. I got a Star Wars comic book for my ninth birthday, which I still have, I had Star Wars Rogue Squadron for Nintendo 64 and Star Wars Battlefront 2 for PC, and even though I sucked at both, I still played them for countless hours. I still have The Force Unleashed for PS3 and Shadows of the Empire for N64. I watched chapters of Star Wars: Clone Wars on Teletoon as a kid. I went as Darth Maul for Halloween when I was eight, before I even saw The Phantom Menace! Star Wars has been prevalent for my entire life, and shall be for the foreseeable future. But I’m okay with that. 

To say you’re a Star Wars fan seems to come with this predisposition that you know the names of every character in the Star Wars universe and you know every scene and every bit of dialogue, and if you don’t, you aren’t truly a fan. This is part of the reason I never considered myself a true fan. I say I’m a fan of Star Wars, but I’m not in love with the original trilogy. I can’t tell you the name of every planet or who Porkins is or what ATST stands for. I wouldn’t even put Empire Strikes Back in my top ten favourite films of all-time (Top 20 though? Yeah, definitely). I really like all three of the originals, I like re-visiting them, they hold some nostalgia for me, and I like how big the world has become since its initial release. The fans of Star Wars (and I mean the hard-core fans) have dedicated so much time and effort and imagination to keeping this fictional universe alive and ever-growing, it’s no wonder people still love it so much. 

So, do you have your ticket for The Force Awakens yet? I do. I’m pretty excited for this new movie—maybe not quite as excited as I was for a new Godzilla or a new Jurassic Park—but unlike any movie I’ve ever seen, I’m as excited to see it opening night with the fans and see their reaction (positive or negative, either will be entertaining) as I am to just see the movie. There is so much riding on The Force Awakens, from the promises made about seeing the return of characters we know and love and doing them justice, to seeing how this will set up a new trilogy of films, it’s perhaps the most anticipated film since, well, The Phantom Menace. (I’m not trying to psyche out The Force Awakens, really, I’m not!) 

Whether it’s amazing or just satisfactory or forgettable or whatever it ends up being, I’ll be happy. Just the idea of seeing a Star Wars movies in the theater for the first time with an audience full of fans is awesome enough. If J.J Abrams nails it and makes something even marginally better than the prequels, that’s just a bonus. Thanks for reading, and may the force be with you.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens opens in theaters December 18th.