BFett wrote:Let's talk about what we love about Star Wars instead of all the negative things we can say. I personally love the fact that Star Wars has depth. Everyone has a unique history that shaped them into the characters they are. There's crime, corrupt leaders, smugglers, information brokers and so much more.
Why are you a Star Wars fan?
Nicely put
Why am I a star wars fan? Well i was too young to see the first movie at the cinema, so i first caught it on tv at christmas when i was about 7 years old. It was really that first film, in particular my identification with Luke as that 'far away from everything' young man. I lived in the middle of no-where myself, so much of the cinematography in the early part of the film just clicked for me, i got it.
Then the story unfolded and he suddenly found even he, remote as he was, was actually not that far away from a repressive evil that was blighting the whole galaxy, the Empire. They came and killed the only family he had ever known, and everything changed.
That struggle against injustice was just the main back thread to a whole lot of amazing stuff that was not just a film for kids. These films (the originals) didn't patronize me just because i was a kid (which the prequels do from the start), they didn't protect me from 'life', they allowed me to grow with the adventures of the main characters (OMG - Darth IS Lukes father! etc). They were 'true' stories, or more real and believable stories than the 'specifically aimed at what we think kids are' movies like the prequels.
When ever i look back at the first Star Wars and then Empire Strikes Back, the last thing i ever think is 'yeah these are kids movies'. They were obviously marketed at kids, all the merchandise etc, but i don't ever feel that Lucas, in those first 2 films in particular, was doing anything other than making the really cool sci-fi/fantasy films he had imagined in his mind, and i think that is very much why those two films in particular stand up the strongest. The huge success of the first film, once word started to spread about it, caught pretty much everyone by surprise, Lucas as well.
So yeah the whole reason i'm such a huge Star Wars nerd was because of the honesty and non-patronizing tone of those first two films and the pretty cool but traumatic adventure they allowed me to take part in, and the imagination that sparked in my young mind. It is entirely down to Star Wars that i became interested in other things like astronomy, space, science and sci-fi. Those two films in particular had just a huge impact on my life, my moral code, my desire to be like Luke and see justice and good prevail over evil etc.
And despite the...i just don't really have a polite word for it, 'mistake' that was pretty much most of the prequels, that awesomeness those first films gave me, the actual positive effect on my life and person, can never be taken away, no matter how hard it feels like Lucas tried to later with the prequels and then the 'special edition' remakes of the original films. Just remember that Han did, and should, shoot first.
May the force be with you.