Whether you’re a fan of the franchise or not, I think it’s safe to say from the perspective of 38 years on, that Star Wars was the most important and influential movie in history.
Mind that I’m not saying ‘the best’ movie in history. Personally, I think Singin’ in the Rain takes that honor. The Wizard of Oz is second.
Singin’ in the Rain is 63 years old and TWoO is 76, yet neither movie has ever been improved upon. Neither needs to be explained to new viewers or excused for the lack of technology available at the time. There’s not a second of green screen or CGI in either yet sets, props, special effects and the pure talent of the performers transport the viewer to fantasy realms we all wish we could really visit.
But neither movie had the impact on even casual viewers that Star Wars had in 1977 and continues to have on the grandchildren of those first kids who wished they had lived a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.
I was a junior in high school when Star Wars opened at the Edina theater. No one had any idea what the movie was about.
I skipped school with my friend Marie to see the movie.
I remember sitting in the dark, amused but not terribly impressed.
Then came the cantina scene.
I actually thought “Whoa; Star Trek never looked like this!”
And then the Millennium Falcon jumped to hyper space and I was never the same.
Neither were movies.
Here’s what I told my own kids, years ago when the second trilogy was being made: Star Wars reminded the world that movies could be fun.
Between the Sound of Music in 1965 and Star Wars, there were very few fun movies. Hollywood went through it’s dirge period. Suddenly, entertaining the masses wasn’t enough, Hollywood decided they had to teach us something. Anti-heroes became the rage and the Cold War colored everything.
I’m not saying there weren’t great movies made during that time. The Godfather, the Exorcist and Death Wish were all made between ’65 and ’77. Great, timeless classics but not a lot of fun.
The most fun we had at the movies during that dozen years were at the Planet of the Apes franchise, which my friend Mary Lynne and I ate up with a spoon. But without the reality of the Cold War looming over every aspect of life, the whole thing just loses its potency. I doubt if most kids watching now would understand Taylor’s anguish at seeing the Statue of Liberty. If they even recognized it, they’d probably think global warming had something to do with its destruction. And the reboots? Yuck. Yuck with Marky Mark and double yuck with James Franco.
So that’s where we were in ’77 when the lights went down and we first saw those words, trailing off into a starry back drop just before getting blown out of our seats with the STAR WARS logo and theme music.
And movies weren’t just fun again; they were more fun than we’d ever had before.
I think it’s safe to say that without Star Wars, there would have been no further iterations of Star Trek, no Die Hard, which did for action/adventure movies what Star Wars did for cinema in general, possibly no Lord of the Rings movies and obviously, no Firefly.
But Star Wars was more than just fun.
Star Wars taught a generation of kids who cut their teeth on the Vietnam War that some things are worth fighting for. Some things are worth dying for and death isn’t always the end of the fight. Star Wars was unashamed to say that there’s something in the universe bigger than we are, that binds us together and that Good and Evil are real and each of us has to pick a side.
May the Force be with You. (And with your spirit, we Catholics automatically answer.)
Star Wars told us that you can too fight city hall and even if you’re just a whiny little kid from nowhere, you can beat the Empire. Each and every one of us is more powerful than we know.
Star Wars showed us that women can be kickass.
Princess Leia set new standards, right across the board. She was a princess, a spy, a smart ass, a rebel, a warrior and a leader. She wasn’t particularly pretty yet she was hotter than hell because she was confident and unafraid to be herself, guns drawn and balls to the wall. She proved you could be a deadly leader without giving up an ounce of feminine grace.
If it hadn’t been for Princess Leia, there would have been no Sarah Conner, no Ripley, no Dana Scully, Veronica Mars or River Tam.
It’s amazing what you can accomplish when you just set out to have some fun.
*also known as the ‘crap trilogy’.