A History Lesson
By R.Alexander Farrell
In late 1996….
I was eleven years old and I had never seen any of the Star Wars films. Yes, I was aware of its engraving upon the collective unconscious of “popular culture” and probably at some point, placed my face two inches in front of a fan and listened to the distorted declaration “Luuuuke, I am uuuur faaaaathhhaa….”
My introduction to the Star Wars universe was rather simple. I had gone to my local theatre with my father, it seemed to be a weekend tradition; Saturday morning cartoons, followed by doughnuts, a late afternoon film and then a large dinner. I can’t remember what film we saw that day, but I remember a certain trailer I saw before the picture began (to think, in a time where there were no Coca-Cola advertisements or the 20enty). It was for the Special Edition re-release of the Star Wars Trilogy. I’m sure you’ve all seen it, I remember it was included on the VHS release of the Special Editions that would come some months (?) later. My Dad tapped me on the shoulder and asked “Have you seen those, buddy?” To which I replied, “Nope.” To which he replied, “Well I think you’d like them.”
In early 1997….
I was just walking out of A New Hope: Special Edition. And you know what? I loved it. Suddenly, it was all about Star Wars. I bought the books (thanks to Grandpa I was already reading Stephen King at 11, so why not The Thrawn Trilogy?), the toys, the videogames, the VHS copies. And in another month, my mind was blown away again. The revelation on Cloud City by Vader hit me (forgive me whilst I extend a cliché), like the proverbial ton of bricks even though I knew what he was about to utter through that pyramid mouthpiece of his. And the month after that, I was able to watch in a mixture of dread with a sort of amazement and tension as Luke dueled with Vader before the Emperor. I was able to cheer along with the Rebels on Endor.
The point is, the Special Edition Trilogy did exactly what they set out to do. They brought the magic of Star Wars to a new generation.
And I’ve been a fan ever since.
In late 1998 or early 1999….
New millennium? Who gives a fuck?
My best friend Erik and I are in front of his computer. Two seventh graders for the first time in front of a CRT and they’re not watching porn. We’re on some shitty fan-made site. And we’re looking at a little feature they have called “PhantomCast” (A name for which Erik has become immortal in my mind, as he often recited it while using a rather disturbing English accent that brings to mind an Brummie with Down’s Syndrome). Liam Neeson, Ewan McGregor…cool, but we didn’t know who they were. They were in movies that Erik didn’t seem to care to see and I wasn’t allowed to watch. Movies like Schindler’s List and Trainspotting. Natalie Portman…now there’s something. My Dad sat down and watched Leon with me, so I’d run into her before. So had Erik. I think ‘Goddess’ was the only word we could come up with. And even in seventh grade we considered ourselves the Patricians out of little Middle School Rome. She was the kind of girl that made thirteen year old boys first think of the word ‘marriage’ in a positive light.
May 1999…..
Saw “The Phantom Menace” at 11:30am opening day with my friend Micah, who was a punk/emo kid who carried around a cane and cuffed up the legs of his jeans. Loved it.
May 2005….
Saw “Attack of the Clones.” I got out of swim practice an hour earlier to catch the 7:30pm opening day showing with some of my buddies from school. A guy named Jon (whose acne unfortunately made his face looks like Mustafar), and Perry. Loved it even more. Ewan is awesome.
In the time between The Phantom Menace, my Dad’s career as a Marine got us moved from Southern California, where I had lived for 15 blissful years, to Eastern North Carolina. It wasn’t that bad, I made good friends, and got good grades. Hell, I’m in college now. Anyways, I had so much going on with school and swimming and extracuriclar activities, I kinda got distracted. Episode II’s release caught me by surprise (a pleasant one, to say the least).
Winter 2004
I’m a Sophomore at the University of California, Santa Cruz. I’ve checked out every spoiler pic I can, downloading and reading every report and image, no matter how poor the quality. It’s the end, man.
What else was I gonna do?
Wednesday, May 9th, 2005…..
I just saw the trailer, thanks to Moiner007 and a handful of others. At first I was taken aback by the performance of Ian McDiarmid…Incredible acting. There’s nothing much left to say. But then I watched it again, and I noticed something else. Something more. I noticed that I was impressed. That I was very impressed. The dialogue and the delivery of it seems very somber, dramatically toned, and effective. It's not cheesy. And watching it reminded me of when I first watched the end of RotJ, when Luke was fighting the Emperor. It was a mixture of dread with a sort of amazement and tension as Obi-Wan and Anakin clashed cobalt blue lightsabers on Mustafar. The quality was poor, yes, but what you didn’t see in visuals was relayed tenfold in the dialogue and the atmosphere. I sent the trailer to my friend, William:
TheAnonBrit (11:18:59 PM): YES. YESS!!!!!
TheAnonBrit (11:19:06 PM): THANK CHRIST ALMIGHTY IT ACTUALLY LOOKS GOOD.
TheAnonBrit (11:21:16 PM): It looks like what star wars should be.
I was surprised to find that just watching the trailer, I had denigrated the former two prequels in my mind. They seemed corny, childlike, and superficial. They lacked in emotional depth and with a few keynote exceptions (Liam Neeson, Ewan McGregor , Ian McDiarmid, and Christopher Lee), I could understand why fans had been disappointed. The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones were underwhelming and mediocre. Revenge of the Sith can be a classic surpassing even The Empire Strikes Back.
So I declare a toast, to George Lucas and to 20th Century Fox, and to all the actors, crew, post-production artists and effects-makers, both Prequel and Original, for making a classic set of films which have affected the lives of millions and will affect millions more in the future.
Here’s to one last time.
P.S.
May 18th, 2005….
Sitting in front of the Signature 9 Cinema in Santa Cruz, located on Pacific Street with Erik (who has driven 6 hours from Irvine to SC), my roommate Chris (who has taken the night off work), and my aforementioned friend William.
Only a few more hours to go….
