Why We Can’t Give Up Star Wars

Thirty-eight years ago, in a screen grab far, far away...

Episode VII is months away, and although interest have been piqued and most of the people who have sworn off the Star Wars universe will break down and see, it there will still be whiners.  Not the nerdy whiners that insist that their SW memories of the ‘70’s and 80’s be eternally frozen in carbonite, and any additions to the original trilogy are heresy and downright dumb.  No, I meant the outsiders.  Doesn’t Hollywood have any new ideas?  What can’t we come up with new shit instead of going to the same well over and over? (The short answer for them is: Money, stupid.)

However, the Star Wars universe of films, TV shows, and kids’ stuff is a little different.  I have to travel back in time for a minute to explain.  Try not to fall asleep.

Back in 1977 when the first one arrived in theaters, we all know by now that it was with perfect cultural timing.  Movies were gritty and realistic and Star Wars came along with aliens and robots and a laser swords. It was fantasy and escapism and so different that it caught on instantly across the world.  But what isn’t often discussed, at least in the U.S, is that 1977 was also not yet the kid-friendly era we live in today. Barely anything existed for children’s entertainment after the age of 6.  Once you were done with Sesame Street, you could watch a bunch of old cartoons that came out when your parents were kids, or old movie reruns with Don Knotts and Tim Conway.  No Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network or MTV, YouTube, Kids’ Choice Awards, Disney Channel, and certainly no sitcoms or nighttime TV for kids.  It was the Muppet Show on Sundays and then you went to bed.

Star Wars was for us.  The whole cultural and cinematic shift that Star Wars brought, for better or worse, had a bunch of little Gen X-ers in Underoos riding its wave.  To say it was just a movie, or even a series of movies it’s not giving it its due.  It was as big as punk or rap on the scene.  It spawned a decade of copycats and a new era of imaginative fiction.  It breathed life into comics and storytelling and toys and brought nerds and non-nerds together for maybe the first time. 

Generations need these delineations.  It is lodged deep in our DNA strands to search for the things that separate you from your parents.  Han Solo had nothing to do with hippies or peace and whatever the hell was going on in the 70’s. 

You have to remember, there was nothing else like Star Wars at the time.  Not just stylistically, but there were no other films or stories at the time that could rival its popularity.  Anytime in the next two or three years, we could have  Marvel, DC, Star Wars, Mad Max, Terminator, Hunger Games, and I think there are movies coming down the pike from the Avatar and Harry Potter universes. Back then, movies could stay in the theaters for a couple years.  It was everywhere for a long time and we had longer attention spans. Star Wars was like the Beatles.

These movies were an element of my playtime as a child. That type of imprint lasts forever.  It’s like hearing an old song or a small memory.  A little piece of it will always be a part of you.  Hear that, Potter fans?

When the prequels arrived in 1999, I was psyched like all the other kids of the 70’s and 80’s.  I had little boys who could jump right in with new characters and spaceships and Legos and playtime.  It was awesome. But we know what happened.  The movies were duds. They could never have the longevity of the original trilogy anyway, because it was a different time.  The movies being the stinkers they were didn’t help.  My kids liked them anyway, and they had the lightsabers to prove it.  I have the DVD’s on a shelf.  They gather dust as I write this.

I remember when Iron Man came out.  It had been a couple years of just terrible or boring super hero films and I thought that they were just digging a little too deep in the catalogue to make a good popcorn movie.  It succeeded anyway.  It was well done and fun to watch and is still one of my favorite hero movies ever.  Anything can succeed, even if it’s well-trodden ground, if the right people are involved.  Episode VII is helmed by people my age, who understood what made the original characters work and what made the stories fun.  Maybe they are the right people this time.