Chewy72 said:
Dude, you seriously need to go back in time and understand what happened during the days of The Original Trilogy. First of all it wasn't a fad, they were pop culture, and remembered years later. I don't know if you are American or not, but our President, Ronald Reagan, called our defense system to block Nuclear Weapons, "Star Wars" and he would say in many speeches during his presidency about the Russians, "They are the Evil Empire, and the force is on our side."
Now why would he do that? Because EVERYONE knew what those words meant, because EVERYONE loved Star Wars, as that is why it was the highest grossing movie of all time until ET broke that record in 1982, and still remains the top 5 even today.
i'm canadian/american [was in canada during 77, and in america during 80->present]
yes, 'star wars' the movie was a 'fad'.....
'star wars' pop culture wise only manifested itself much later, it's hard to see it's presence
until 'return of the jedi' and much much later than that..
i don't consider a few references here and there to be indicative of a larger sign of significance,
other figures such as 'the terminator', 'rambo' etc, are also just as popular in speech.....
just because a movie makes a lot of money doesnt' signify much : see 'titantic', 'dark knight' etc..
it's actually the merchandising which remains much more significant... i think i mentioned
that the series has generated some US$20 billion in revenue, which is something the
movies will never be able to generate...
As for after Jedi, sure it wasn't on everyones mind everyday, but there were no more movies, why should it? But in 1987, a movie called Spaceballs did a spoof of Star Wars and was a hit with characters like Lord Helmet and Princess Vespa.
Sure the SE & PT brought back SW in a mainstream way, but that happens when any sequel comes out years later. I bet when The Hobbit comes out in 2 years, Lord of the Rings mania will be in full force again, but as I said, that is just the way it is with movie series.
But Star Wars was never a fad, cause a fad goes away, and doesn't have continuous VHS releases in the late 80's and early 90's of The Original Trilogy that is in the top 5 sales every year on VHS, a fad is Bell-Bottoms, something that is popular that is gone within a year and never sees the light again.
i think you're agreeing with some of what i was saying..
but i stand by my original assertion that the popularity of the 'star wars' FILMS WAS A FAD,
because by it's very nature, they only came out for awhile, were only popular for a short time,
and were promptly forgotten until their rereleases (SE), and releases on other media..
maybe we're just debating about semantics now..but that was not my original intent.
later
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