The Best & Worst of Star Wars

In 1977, I watched Star Wars in silence, with my mouth agape, according to my mother.  It was the first film I saw in a movie theater, and I was about 4 years old.  Like many people my age, it defined my childhood play.  Even when I saw Jesus of Nazareth the week before Easter at my Catholic elementary school, I was making parallels between the Roman soldiers and the Imperial stormtroopers.  It was the only video game I would put quarters into for quite some time, and as I look at the screenshot above, I can hear the game soundtrack in my head.

I recall in the 4th grade, after Return of the Jedi came out and we all went to see it, sitting around the lunch table and listening to the kids talk about something like this:

Kid 1: “You, know, Darth Vader is half robot.”

Kid 2: “How did he get that way?”

Kid 1: “He fell into lava.”

For most of us, that was an intriguing theory, and I don’t know where this kid got his information.  It turned out to be pretty good.  But this mystery was one of those dark, contemplative mysteries.  So, after I saw the “prequel” films, now in my 20s, and with old high school friends Brian and Gary, the degree of our disappointment was difficult to put into words.  We agreed that while George Lucas made a great film with American Graffiti, and intrigued children everywhere with Star Wars, he was not a good director.  Our feelings were solidified through the serial drama that unfolded in the second two “new” films.

But maybe it was different viewing contexts of 1) childhood naiveté and 2) the wry sarcasm of ones’ 20s that lead to our dissatisfaction.  I’m not sure. But there is a good and bad with Star Wars.  I think the worst, most merchandising-driven example was the 1978 Star Wars Holiday Special, which is nearly excruciating to watch:

The best, in my opinion, is the various forms of fan fiction, re-mixing, and reappropriation of the original concepts that has unfolded over the last three decades.  I love this video of IG-88 in particular.  The bounty hunters, featured in a very short sequence in the best of the films, The Empire Strikes Back, have always attracted fan interest and references in popular culture.  Mostly because of the mystery that surrounded them.  Boba Fett was the epitome of cool until we learned about his background in the newer films.  The more we learned about him, the less interesting he became to me. The other bounty hunters, their biographies still unexplored except for a sentence or two on the back of an action figure package, might elicit curiosity 30 years later. IG-88 is one of my favorites.  Who was this droid, who lashed out on his own and started a little bounty hunting business? We find out a little more about him in this great video. Enjoy: