May the fourth be with you!
Star Wars Logo
Some people apparently refer to today as Star Wars Day – but that can be confusing because May 25th is also known as Star Wars Day.
The choice of May 25th is, perhaps, easy to understand because that was the day, back in 1977, when the original Star Wars film went on general release.
The choice of May 4th, on the other hand, isn’t so obvious … and, in fact, it has no real “official” standing, but is more an informal designation. This is somehow emphasized by the fact that some people refer to it as Luke Skywalker Day rather than the more formal Star Wars Day. It is based on a pun – a play on words – today being May the Fourth and a oft quoted line in the Star Wars films being “May the Force be with you“.
I suppose the fact that there are two designated Star Wars Days shouldn’t be too surprising, after all it was full of what appeared to be surprises and nonsequitors.
The original film was designated as Episode 4; the opening credits, (or crawl), began with the words “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away …” before the Star War’s logo is displayed and a text setting the background to the story that is about to unfold on screen scrolls up and into the display as if into the distance. This clearly establishes that the story is set in the past and in another part of the universe and thus is not connected with us, our present … or our future. We seem to have burst into the middle of a saga … and yet the film stood as a stand alone story on its merits.
At least that how it seems to me … but then, Star Wars forms part of my history … my background … and every now and again, I am reminded by the kids how the world has changed from that in which I grew up.
It’s not just that I am in a different country, with a different culture, systems and attitudes. Time has moved on. References to things that were all the rage in my youth now elicits blank stares, confused faces or pitying looks.
We were talking about films the other day and the conversation turned to the Star Wars series of series of movies. Boring, was the general impression. The cartoon series, “Clone Wars“, got a begrudging nod of approval as “Not too bad”, but the films, (especially the original trilogy, episodes 4, 5 and 6: Star Wars – A new hope, The Empire Strikes Back and The Return of the Jedi, filmed in 1977, 1980 and 1983 respectively), they definitely didn’t find inspiring. The fact that the original Star Wars, (episode IV), won seven Oscars, (something that would, usually, have them fawning over a film), didn’t help.
I tried to explain how George Lucas had shocked us all back then … taking an old B-Movie formula and dressing it up in a way that caught the imagination … the characters in the bar scene … the pure, malevolent evil of Darth Vader … the spiritualism of Obi Wan Kenobi and Yoda, the Jedi Master … All of these were elements which helped to shape the world as we know it today.
As an aside: In 2001, according the UK census, there were 390,000 Jedi Knights in the country – having declared belief in the Force as their religion. Although it is likely that most of them were simply making fun of the whole census process, there are people who do seem to take the sayings of Yoda very seriously.
We had a similar conversation over the Terminator films. Terminator II also received a grudging acknowledgment as “Not too bad”, but it still didn’t receive the acclaim of more recent films like Transformers – which I, personally, reckon to be childish nonsense – possible to watch and even enjoy as a “family event” or just as a time filler, but exceedingly lacking in any gravitas or significance.
I was a little surprised to learn that they knew who the Beatles were, (well, had a vague idea of who they were), but I wasn’t surprised to discover that they didn’t exactly rate their music.
I can’t help wondering what their reaction will be when it is their turn to look back on Avatar and The Avengers … Kate Perry and Linkin Park … what will they make of the inevitable cultural shift that will have taken place.
Bishkek