This week: Star Wars Day Edited by: Robert Waltz More Newsletters By This Editor
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Your focus determines your reality.
—Qui-Gon Jinn
I’d just as soon kiss a wookiee.
—Princess Leia
I can arrange that.
—Han Solo
I have a bad feeling about this.
—pretty much everybody at some point |
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I don't know what I like more about Star Wars Day on May 4: its celebration of one of the most popular fantasy settings of all time, or the pun on its most famous line of dialogue ("May the Force be with you").
And yes, it is fantasy—with science fiction props, but still fantasy.
Whatever you may think of some of the newer installments of the franchise, there's no denying its cultural impact, which means it absolutely deserves its own day of recognition. It could have been May 25, the anniversary of the first movie's release, but the pun is more fun.
We don't have a lot of pun holidays here in the US, sadly. March fourth (March forth!) is considered National Pun Day by some reckonings, but come on, really? That's a stretch. Some put Pun Day on February 13, which not only doesn't make sense, but is a good way to ruin your Valentine's Day; excessive punning is a legitimate reason for a breakup.
Japan, though... the calendar and language there lend themselves quite well to puns. Force-unately for you, Reader, this is the Fantasy newsletter and not the Comedy or Cruel and Unusual Pun-ishment newsletters, so that's all I have to say about that.
So, what to do on Star Wars Day?
There was a time period of more than 15 years when you could watch the entirety of the franchise's output in less than a day. You can still hark back to those simpler times by just watching A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi. Maybe throw in the universally-maligned Holiday Special, if you're with people you hate.
Watching all the movies and TV shows in the series now is a long-term commitment. I know this because I've done it. Yes, even the mediocre ones.
If there's an installment you haven't seen, Star Wars Day would be a good time to catch up. And obviously, if you haven't seen any of it, at least watch the first one (Episode IV, retroactively titled A New Hope) to see what all the fuss is about. I can understand if you don't want to, though; there are movies I refuse to watch because they're just too popular.
I had a cinema professor in college who divided movies into three eras: silent, talkies, and post-Star Wars. (If the description of movies with dialogue as "talkies" bothers you, consider the actual meaning of the word "movies.") The point being that not only did Star Wars have impact beyond just geek fandom, but it also changed the way films were expected to be done.
Whatever you do, though... May the Fourth be with you. |
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