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Popping in for a moment before I see The Force Awakens to just say a few things about my favorite movie.
For better or for worse, I have never know a life without Star Wars. It wasn’t the first movie I ever saw, but it might as well have been. I saw the entire original trilogy at age 2, so, yes, I don’t even remember the first time I saw Star Wars. But I don’t remember I time where I hadn’t seen Star Wars. From that moment on, Star Wars was my favorite thing. I used to watch it constantly and repeatedly. I had toys, games, shirts, etc. There’s a picture of me dressed up as Vader for Halloween at age 2 - I scared all the kids at my daycare apparently.
I loved Star Wars for all the reasons everyone loves Star Wars: the characters, the action, the alien worlds, the adventure. Everyone who loves movies can pinpoint the the film that did it for them. For me, it’s Star Wars. Star Wars is a great movie not just because it’s a fantastically told story, but because it is a story that could only be told properly on film. It’s true cinema. More, it’s inexorably tied to film history. Not only did it go on to inspire and influence the next four decades of filmmaking, but it was itself inspired by four decades of filmmaking. It is the ultimate movie for movie lovers. So then it should be no surprise that someone who practically started life as a Star Wars fan would go on to become a big movie fan. Movies are everything for me. When I was a kid, I had a dream that I would become a filmmaker some day. For better or for worse, I can thank George Lucas and Star Wars for that. What would my life be like without Star Wars? Very different.
I think Star Wars has affected me in more ways than that. I value friendship, hard work highly- I think I have Star Wars to thank for that. I’m a steadfast optimist - have to thank Star Wars for that.
I also think I have Star Wars to thank for my patience. Not just because of Yoda’s teachings, but, as a kid, waiting for new Star Wars movies was quite an ordeal. When I was 3, I saw an advertisement for The Phantom Menace. I was confused. It said Star Wars, but I didn’t recognize any of the characters. My mom said it was a prequel (a concept she would have to explain for me). I wasn’t sure why they had decided to go backwards instead of forwards, but I said whatever, new Star Wars! I saw all the prequels and loved them (I was just a kid), but they were never quite the same as the originals for me. I had heard that Lucas was going to make a sequel trilogy after the prequels were done, and those were the ones I was really excited for. But then something terrible happened. Sometime before Revenge of the Sith, I heard that the prequels were going to be it. Only six films total. This broke my heart, but I rolled with it. For seven years I rolled with it. Star Wars was a six episode saga, and would only ever be six episodes.
Then, of course, the unimaginable happened in 2012. And I’ve been trying to convince myself that it’s really true ever since. Tonight, whether I can believe it or not, I’m finally seeing the sequel to Return of the Jedi. Will it live up to a life’s worth of expectations? Probably not. But, as long as the 2 year old inside of me can enjoy it, I’ll be happy. There might be some crying tonight.
May the force be with you all.
