5/25/77Mention this date to any self respecting geek, and they will know immediately what you're talking about. This is the date that the original Star Wars was released. Star Wars defined my childhood. I was 5 years old when it came out and thankfully, I had a dad that took me to see it 6 times in the theater during the original run (not counting re-releases in the theaters). I had action figures all over the place, I had the 12 inch high Luke Skywalker and my sister had the 12 inch high Princess Leia who she made to things with each other that would have been bad if we'd known they were brother and sister. I even had "The Story of Star Wars" album that I played on a little LP player all the time. Literally, all the time. It's because of that album that I can basically quote the whole story. And cool enough, I just found mp3s of that album doing research for this post!!!!! Ahem.
It was Star Wars that introduced me to science fiction and fantasy. It was the gateway for me into Blade Runner and Tolkein and even Raiders of the Lost Ark. And even down to today with Heroes (season finale tonight!!!) It was some of the first mainstreaming of science fiction into culture and honestly, Star Wars and the cliffhanger at the end of The Empire Strikes Back made it ok to be really into SciFi and have t-shirts and toys. And it allowed people to find community with others.
I love Star Wars and Kinsey already loves it too. Not to the same obsessive extent that I did, but there's time...
5 comments:
You know, there was another very special day this week 29 years ago. 29 years ago today, in fact.
I saw Return of the Jedi in the theater, and fell in love with the Ewoks. It took a while, but eventually I learned to love all the other films, too.
you are true geek mr. phil.
You'll be buying the new Star Wars stamps I guess?
We had the soundtrack. My brother didn't see it SIX times in the theater, but it did have a far-too-long-lasting impact. He has framed plates of Star Wars characters. He probably has every Star wars novel ever written, and there are a ton. He has a dictionary of all the characters that appear in anything Star Wars ever. And those are just the things I remember from a perusal of his living room bookshelf one time.
We had some of the toys, too -- don't think they survived.
I liked the love story aspect -- only in recent years have I somewhat understood the politics in the stories. The prequels really helped with that, and I like the movies, even if Luke and Leia's parents were kind of cheesy.
I mean, a woman with two newborn babies lost the will to live over a man. Could she really be the mother of the Leia we saw Carrie Fisher portray?
Heroes tonight! And 24!
Nice! I had the 12 inch Darth Vader with removeable cape and light saber. I also had the record with the read-along book. My brother and cousin would make recordings of multiple read-alongs on a tape that made a silly story. We'd listen to it over and over until we laughed so hard that we peed in our pants. Oh the good 'ol days.
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