2001-12-12 - 10:25 p.m.

On the internal soundtrack: Theme from "Star Wars"

So, my recent bit complaining about "The Phantom Menace" led Callie to ask me if I was a "Star Wars" fan. Then we started trading "What Star Wars Means To Me" stories (hers is quite impressive), and I figured I might as well post mine here, plus I few things I forgot to mention the first time.

Currently Poindexter and I are arguing over what the phrase "Star Wars fan" means. He says that I am merely "a fan". To say I am "a big fan" would be false, since I have no Star Wars paraphernalia and don't have enough dialogue memorized. He clarifies that someone who just thought it was a fun movie is not "a Star Wars fan".

You can decide for yourself, I guess. And if you're a "Star Wars" fan, share your story too, either as a comment in my LiveJournal or in your own journal (and give me the link)!

"Don't try to frighten us with your sorcerer's ways, Lord Vader. Your sad devotion to that ancient religion..."

I don't know if I got that right but I've always liked the way that line is delivered. All pissy and overenunciated and know-it-all and then he gets choked. Ha! Also, I think the droid on the table in that scene is cool.

When Star Wars came out, I was six years old, I think. I don't remember much except that I liked it a lot, and I told my best friend (Alicia, with the twins) that there was a robot who made "beep tweedleee boop" noises and she didn't believe me. Thought I was making it up.

To me, the "Star Wars" universe is REAL. Tatooine is real, the Death Star is real, the people are real, Darth Vader IS Luke's father, and there are droids that can speak six million languages. Star Wars goes beyond a nice little story and becomes REAL. Like the Velveteen Rabbit, a little.

I don't remember how many times I saw it. A few times in the theater, because my dad liked it a lot, too. The music was important. We listened to it a lot at home on the stereo. To this day I get sort of weepy seeing the opening credits and hearing the theme begin. No matter how many times I see the movie.

I always loved Empire the best, but I didn't really think about whether it was the "best" movie or not. I loved it because of the love story and because of what Luke was going through and the big shocker from Darth Vader when he's clinging to the weather vane.

I liked Luke when I was little, and later Han. I remember I was too young to understand the sexual tension between the two of them, so I was completely surprised by the kiss. Now when I watch it, I can see it coming a movie away.

Somewhere I have a copy of the novelization of Empire, and I must've read that thing twenty times. Back then I hadn't seen the movie with captions yet, so was missing a lot, and the book filled in the blanks.

My brother and I went to see Return of the Jedi, all by ourselves, with our own money. It was a big deal. I'm not sure why my dad didn't come! Maybe he'd seen it already on a date with my mom.

The original VHS tapes and TV showings of "Star Wars", btw, had hideous captions. They shortened and paraphrased everything everyone said, to the point that most of the jokes disappear. Fortunately somebody figured out that deaf folks who use captions can read REALLY fast and they do it verbatim now, much to my relief.

When the new editions of Star Wars came out (with much better captions), my dad bought the boxed set. I sat down and watched all three movies all in one day. That was fun. I'm now waiting rather impatiently for the DVDs to come out, so we can watch them in a 6' projection on the wall. We'll probably take the projector up to my Dad's so we can use his surround sound. That ought to be an experience.

I think have been Princess Leia for Halloween twice. Once in first grade, when my mom made me the white costume and put my hair in those ridiculous buns. I wonder if there are photos. I'm almost certain that I was Princess Leia again after "Return of the Jedi" came out, and my mom put my hair in that Heidi-type over-the-head braid. I'm not sure.

When the movies were re-released, Poindexter and I had been dating for about six months. Since "Empire" is his favorite, we made a big deal out of going to see it in San Jose together.

We quote lines at each other, sometimes. This was documented in a journal entry. Last night I was reading about Empire on the IMDB and yelled at Poindexter, "Why, you stuck up, half-witted, scruffy-looking ... nerf-herder!"

"Who's scruffy-looking?" was his reply.

We are such dorks. But happy dorks who keep each other amused.

[Which reminds me, once in a parking lot, he overheard a conversation among three people in which one of them said to another, "You fiend!" and everyone laughed. In relating the tale to me later, he said, "The first thing I thought was that the guy MUST be one of those people who plays roleplaying games a lot."]

One more good thing about Phantom: I liked seeing the relationship between Padme and Anakin. Despite Lucas's best efforts to get wooden performances out of everyone, they managed to show us a little bit of genuine affection for each other, which was nice.

Another of Phantom's flaws was that it didn't have a good clear villian (and the one promising one got killed too soon) but perhaps that will change in the next movie as Palpatine starts to do his thing.

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