W
hen I was roughly about four years old,
my father introduced me to a galaxy far,
far away. I’ll never forget it- he made all kinds
of snacks and popcorn for us to eat, he dimmed
the lights of our living room, and we snuggled
up on the sofa to experience one of cinema’s
longest standing masterpieces- Star Wars: A New
Hope. Though I was young, I was immediately
hooked. Star Wars had action, had an incredibly
cool looking bad guy, a princess, a hero, a rouge,
and even a walking carpet (sorry Chewie). I was
born a few years too late to have this magical
happening in a theater, but my dad made due
with what we had back in 1990.
Fast-forward to 1999 when Star Wars: The
Phantom Menace was reaching a fever pitch.
George Lucas had tip toed out of his Skywalker
Ranch dwelling to bless us with all that was Star
Wars again, and me and my dad were standing in
line to see it opening day. But when we walked
out, we weren’t gushing about what we had seen,
we didn’t cry, I think the only goosebumps I got
through the whole thing was when the opening
credits creeped up on the screen. It was the
MOST underwhelming experience I had gone
through up until that point in my life. There was
no main character to speak of, the CGI was too
much, and though Jar Jar Binks COULD have
been a cool character, he wasn’t. We left that
theater defeated. It wasn’t what we had wanted.
It wasn’t what Star Wars fans NEEDED. Though
my love for the original three never dimmed, I
was embarrassed by the story’s “Prequels”, and
like “Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The
Crystal Skull”, I did my best to forget it had even
happened at all.
Skip to April, 2015. I was in a production
van, headed home from a music video shoot in
Monument Valley when Facebook let me know
that the FIRST teaser trailer for Star Wars: The
Force Awakens was available for the world to
see. Being film enthusiasts, my driver pulled
over on the side of the road and we gathered
around my phone to witness what could be the
most profound moment in movie history of 2015.
I won’t lie, out of the five adults in that van,
there was not a dry eye once that trailer ended.
We proceeded to watch it about 10 more times,
and finally got back on the road, speaking of
nothing but until we made it back to our homes
in Virginia. I didn’t want to get my hopes up,
I didn’t want to dare to dream again that Star
Wars could be revived to it’s original glory. As
the months rolled on, we got trailer after trailer,
and not once I thought “This movie is only going
to stain the franchise even more”. We all were
waiting with the anticipation of children; this
year Christmas paled in comparison to the real
holiday of the year: Star Wars Day.
December 17th, 2015. I conveniently live
walking distance from a Regal Cinemas, so I
woke up early that day and bought tickets to the
10:15PM Thursday showing of the film, and
then I waited. I would have gotten an earlier
showing, but alas, they were sold out. 9PM
rolled around that night, and my friends and I
made the two minute walk to the theater and got
in line for our showing. The general atmosphere
warmed my soul- as a film fanatic in general,
it is always refreshing to see theaters packed
out in this internet downloading age. People of
all ages, colors, creeds and gender stood in line
waiting for this experience- and it dawned on
me, this wasn’t an ordinary movie, this wasn’t
your typical blockbuster raking in cash; THIS
was an event. This was like a family wedding,
it was a happy occasion that you got dressed up
for, made your arrangements, and prepared to
witness something that didn’t happen everyday.
As people walked out of the previous showings,
all gushing to the person or people they saw it
with, I knew that they were not like me anymorethey were changed, THEY were different from
me because they had witnessed the cultural
phenomena of our lifetime. My heart fluttered as
every passing minute moved closer to 10:15PM.
Finally, our theater opened and being close to
the front of the line, my friends and I entered the
theater and prepared to take in what our hearts
had truly desired for not only months now, but
TRULY for years. And as that oh so familiar
title card appeared reading “A long time ago,
in a galaxy far, far away…”, I couldn’t help
but let the tears roll down my cheeks. For no
reason other than for a short period in the history
ENTERTAINMENT 13