A Long Time Ago...
Hard to believe it's been thirty years since Star Wars changed the movie business and popular culture forever.
I had little interest in movies when I was a kid. We didn't go to the theater very often. Cable TV and video players were still years away. We watched some TV, mostly cartoons, but with only five channels the choices were limited.
So, one day in June of 1977, my mom thought it would be fun to take us to this film that everyone was talking about. None of us had any expectations of what we were about to see.
Thirty years later, I still remember that day. It was a life-changing event. Three years after my brother's death, Star Wars brought me out of my funk and opened up whole new worlds of imagination and creativity. It made me love movies and story-telling, but mostly it helped me see the endless possibilities that the future held.
I may have seen Star Wars a hundred times over the past three decades, but it's that first viewing that I remember most... The way the desert winds of Tatooine howled through the side speakers, the gasp from the audience as the Millenium Falcon shot into hyperspace, the thrill I felt when Han Solo swooped down to the Death Star to save Luke. The experience of watching that movie for the first time is still vivid in my mind.
My kids love Star Wars too. To them, it's an exciting story filled with strange characters and far-off worlds. My son has Star Wars posters on his wall, and a huge toy figure collection on his shelves. It's all fun and games for him.
Tonight, on our Family Movie Night, we'll sit down to watch the original film one more time. We'll laugh and hiss and gasp in the right places, and it will be a fun time for everyone. But a little part of me will still marvel at the possibilities.
Permalink posted by Phil at 10:40 AM
6 Comments:
Star Wars rules. I can't wait until my son is able to fully appreciate it.
I was 10 when I saw it in the theatre and it is still one of my fondest memories. I hope my boys will appreciate it like yours when they get a little older.
My dad was a high school teacher, and when the original Star Wars opened, one of his students gave him three of the posters from the movie theater he worked at. I had it on my wall forever. Sometimes, I wonder how much it would be worth now, but I'm afraid to find out.
It was one of the first movies my dad brought us to see when I was about 6 or 7. I didn't understand much; it's not in our native language, but I remembered how we marvel at the science fiction and technology portrayed in it. And the sheer pleasure of tugging dad's hands..
I was two years old when we went and saw the first one at a drive in. I remember glimpses and sensations of it, but we saw all three at drive-ins. This post, it made me tear up. I guess all the memories hit me at once.
I think the power of the memory of watching the movie ...is in the place. Meaning those who saw it the first time in a theater on a big screen, got the full power. Coming out of the theater with large eyes, and the WOW expression...The being there feeling...never to be forgotten.
The child who sees it for the first time on television, loses that feeling. They will love the story and marvel at the aspects of it...but it just isn't the same.
Too bad there aren't what we called B theaters still around. They were the ones that showed old movies. Like 5 and 20 year old movies. As it would be wonderful to have children always see it in the largness of the theater.
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