I’d like to open with the hope (not a new hope) that my fellow Star Wars devotees enjoyed ‘Star Wars Day’ this past Sunday, May the 4th, and that the Force was strong with you in whatever way you chose to observe it.
Our ad hoc ‘garage theater’ that we often set up for “Star Wars Day,” with our digital projector and collapsible screen. It’s still surprises me how a decent-sized screen, comfy chairs and a nice, darkened space can approximate the theatrical experience.
This was from Star Wars Day 2021 (hence the COVID masks) when we introduced our friend’s young son Joshua to the original Star Wars trilogy; he was already very curious, since he’d read the stories in children’s books. He even had lightsabers for the occasion…
On a personal note I’m facing a leg surgery soon and I’m walking with a cane, so my wife and I scaled back our plans a bit for this year. However, our May the 4th/Star Wars Day was nice enough. We invited a very good friend of ours over for dinner and a Star Wars movie (the same friend who introduced us, nearly 27 years ago). Since it was atypically cold and raining, and since I was in no shape to set up our “garage theater” for this screening (as we did a few years ago, when we introduced our friend’s son to the original trilogy), we just piled into the home office for a cozy, digitally-projected screening of 2016’s “Rogue One”; one of our favorite of the recent Star Wars movies (and the best of the Disney Star Wars movies).
Chirrut Îmwe (Donnie Yen) plans a jailbreak with his friend Baze Malbus (Jiang Wen) in “Rogue One,” which we projected in our much smaller ‘home office theater’ this year; less spacious venue than our garage, but it still worked out well enough.
The “Rogue One” screening was nice. Lively commentary from the three of us (all Star Wars geeks) was openly invited, since we’d seen the movie multiple times. With this screening, I was more keenly aware of cowriter (and script doctor) Tony Gilroy’s touch, including his darker and harder-hitting look at life in a brutally authoritarian “galaxy far, far away…” (something we’re all relating a bit more to here in the United States these days, I’m afraid). Gilroy is currently head writer/showrunner of the current “Andor” series, which is a prequel leading up to the events of “Rogue One,” just as “Rogue One” directly segued into the 1977 original. All things considered, with my bum leg, we had a good enough May the 4th, though I wonder if perhaps we fans should follow Disneyland’s lead, and extend Star Wars Day into Star Wars Month?
Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) is joined by a group of Rebel volunteers to steal the Death Star plans in “Rogue One.” Just as the ending of “Rogue One” segued directly to the original 1977 film, the “Andor” Disney+ prequel series leads directly to “Rogue One.”
While that line was a bit too on-the-nose, it was great to hear James Earl Jones (1931-2024) return to voice Darth Vader for “Rogue One,” in the scene where he confronts Director Krennic (Ben Mendelsohn). My friends and I all noted that while it was great to hear Jones once again, he sounded quite a bit older. It was also clear that his mask had the same red lenses the character wore in “A New Hope” (or as we simply called it, “Star Wars”).
In addition to the cutesy ‘May the Force be with you/May the 4th be with you’ pun, there’s also May the 14th, which is Star Wars creator George Lucas’ birthday (he’ll be 81 this year), as well as May 25th; the day that “Star Wars” opened in the United States with a somewhat tepid release in 1977 (four years before “Episode IV: A New Hope” was added to the title). Its release was so mild in fact, that my ten-year old self didn’t even see the movie until August of that year (on the day just before Elvis Presley’s death).
You have to understand, there was nothing like this before that summer of 1977, with the sole exception of “2001: A Space Odyssey” (1968), which I wouldn’t see theatrically until a rerelease six years later, in 1983.
This scene, combined with John Williams “Force theme,” is the most perfect distillation of youthful yearning I’d ever seen in a film to that point. To this day, I’d say it’s my single favorite moment of the 1977 film, which I only reluctantly call “A New Hope.”
And until Disney took the reigns of Star Wars with its purchase of Lucasfilm in October of 2012, the Star Wars movies had a tradition of opening in late May; “The Empire Strikes Back” on May 21st, 1980; “Return of the Jedi” on May 25th, 1983; “The Phantom Menace” on May 19th, 1999; “Attack of the Clones” on May 16th, 2002 and “Revenge of the Sith” on May 19th, 2005. Apparently, Lucas took the late-May openings as a good omen, and he continued the summer ‘event movie’ explosion that truly began with his filmmaker friend Steven Spielberg’s runaway shark thriller, “JAWS”; which opened on June 20th, 1975 (in fact, “JAWS” is turning 50 next month–but more on that in a future column).
This was just before the world went into COVID lockdown, when my wife and I joined our friend Alison at Disneyland’s Galaxy’s Edge. The closest I’ve ever been to living Star Wars on our own planet.
I was 53 when I tried this, but inside I was ten years old, all over again. The Star Wars franchise–despite its many flaws–can still stir those deep feelings of play within me.
Since the 2015 opening of “The Force Awakens,” most of the Disney Star Wars films to date have opened in December, though “Solo: A Star Wars Story” premiered on May 25th, 2018. Unfortunately, the date wasn’t a good luck charm for that particular movie’s box office. Personally, I still think it’s a decent flick if you scale back your expectations a bit. And I’d still like to see a Donald Glover-led “Lando” movie someday, even if only on Disney+.
While 2018’s “Solo” didn’t exactly set the Star Wars galaxy ablaze, I enjoyed it well enough, and I’d still like to see a “Lando” movie or miniseries starring Donald Glover on Disney+ someday…
While the Star Wars franchise has sadly lost much of its magic these days, I will never forget the astonishing power it had on me back in that summer of 1977, when my ten-year old self’s DNA was rewritten by its heady mix of transformative cinematic technology combined with old-fashioned storytelling that changed the art of moviemaking (and movie presentation) forever.
The sequel that changed everything…
R2-D2 (Kenny Baker) and Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) meet Yoda (Frank Oz) in “The Empire Strikes Back”(1980). Despite many memorable moments sprinkled here and there, the Star Wars franchise would never quite reach the operatic heights of this amazing sequel that actually surpassed its predecessor in many ways.
Extending Star Wars Day to Star Wars Month would allow fandom more than a single day to reflect on the legacy of a movie series that, if nothing else, yielded two of the most perfect pieces of cinema yet created; “A New Hope” and “The Empire Strikes Back.” Even if most offerings from the Star Wars universe lack the pure kinetic alchemy of those first two films, I still get that familiar goosebump sensation whenever the screen goes dark before a Star Wars film. It’s that power of expectation, even when it fails to deliver on that enormous promise. Based on memory and sentiment alone, I’m still vicariously transported to that “galaxy far, far away…,” if only for a moment.
Rey (Daisy Ridley) welcomes you into the Resistance, via hologram, at Disneyland’s Star Wars attraction “Rise of the Resistance”; whatever one’s opinion of the Disney Star Wars sequels, “Rise of the Resistance” is a bucket list item for any Star Wars fan.
So while the rest of the world unofficially celebrates May the 4th as Star Wars Day, I prefer to think that childlike sense of anticipation deserves celebration for at least a full month. I’m 58 years old now, and despite a slew of disappointments with the franchise (the first being the “The Star Wars Holiday Special” from 1978), the Force hasn’t quite left me since that summer of 1977. With my increasingly aged and arthritic body, one month of the year is a bargain price for experiencing that fleeting passion that comes with youthful anticipations, met or not.
As Obi-Wan Kenobi (Sir Alec Guinness/Ewan McGregor) might say, “The Force will be with you … always.” And it still is, even after 48 years. With that, I wish you a Happy Star Wars Month.
I hope your leg injury heals soon. May the Force be with you.
Thank you, my friend.
I’ve got a surgery evaluation early next month. Fingers crossed. 🤞🏼
Star Wars Month? Why not?
My wife and I watched the entire original trilogy on Sunday. First time for her. Probably last time for me. No, I’m not dying (as far as I know) but it’s official that I really, really hate Ewoks. I agree that there have been some disappointments since then, but I keep hanging around because there’s still magic to be found. I’m sure people who “discovered” Star Wars during the prequels are equally possessive of their “trilogy.”
Rogue One is a good movie, period. I also liked Solo. It wasn’t really necessary, but it was fun. Donald Glover as Lando again? I’m on board.
Glad to hear I’m not the only one who liked Donald Glover’s Lando! And yes, I was never fond of the Ewoks, either; saw them at age 16, and I just cynical enough to feel the marketing ploy at work.
Happy Star Wars month, Sebastian! I hope your leg gets better. Let me know if you need a bacta tank. I know a guy who deals with them (very short, wears a hood, lives in the desert, not sure if is a he or she).
LOL! Thanks.
Maybe an Olympic-sized bacta pool…? ;-D