Yknow, I have been, in my life, a fan of Star Wars. Most science fiction fans have probably seen "The Trilogy" more than once. And why not? Star Wars and its sequels are landmarks in the history of genre filmmaking, and, in retrospect, they're pretty damn good movies too. I could go on for paragraphs about breathing fresh new life into classic old themes, and the mythological overtones to the struggle between dark and light, and so forth. But I won't. I didn't come here to talk about the Star Wars films.
I came here to talk about the peculiar religion of Star Wars.
Maybe I'm getting old, but isn't everyone just a bit nuts about this new film, The Phantom Menace? There are reports of people lined up around the block already to buy tickets, weeks in advance of it's release. You cannot turn on the TV, pass by a magazine stand, or say four words to another person without hearing about it. It's making front page news in major metropolitan newspapers. Think about that. We're dropping bombs in the Baltic, but the front page story is...Star Wars. Horrible.
Almost as peculiar is the amount of enthusiasm given over to lauding George Lucas as a cinematic genius with the Midas touch, an innovator with a passion for pushing the envelope. Steven Spielberg, yes, I'll grant you, can carry that description, but I'm afraid that George Lucas is really a disappointment, if you want to think about it. Sure, Star Wars was fantastic, and The Empire Strikes Back was better. But Return of the Jedi was a major disappointment by comparison, and since then, what have been George Lucas's major accomplishments?
Willow. Howard the Duck.
Horrible.
A lot of you are probably thinking to yourself, "Hey, Rob, lighten up, willya? It's only a movie." And that's my point. It's ONLY a movie. It's a couple of hours of celluloid distraction, a seven dollar chunk of entertainment. It is entirely likely that it will even be a good movie, though given Lucas's track record over the last fifteen years, I don't see any reason to think that is a given.
But it's not a cultural event that will change your life. Cultural events that change your life don't come pre-packaged. You find them unexpectedly, around a blind corner, or under a previously unexamined rock. It's a book that sat on the shelf for years before falling into your hand and sweeping you away. It's the movie no one heard of before it took everyone by storm.
Like Star Wars.
Maybe that's the genesis of this peculiar religion that surrounds the saga of that galaxy long ago and far away. Maybe it's an attempt to recapture that exhilaration we all felt when we first heard that stirring John Williams score flare up, the first time we strained to read the scrolling prologue as it stretched off into the distance. Maybe, after 20 years of "science fiction" films that offered us a lot of flash and sizzle but no substance, we desperately and want -- even need -- for Lucas, the man who brought us here, to take us back -- to give us back our innocence and wonder.
It's only a movie. But its also a symbol of what we lost, and what we hope to regain. A struggle against our own Dark Side of jaded cynicism and weary worldliness.
It's only a movie. But maybe it can be more. Maybe it can transport us back to the first row center of 1977, when our mouths gaped and our breath caught and we were young again, for just two hours.
It's only a movie. Save me a seat.
Robert Wynne ("Doc") is a gentleman rogue and a scholar of truth. He has been, at alternate times, a writer, an editor, a salesman, a teacher, a freelance computer consultant and a charming vagrant. You can reach him via e-mail at doc@america.net.
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