Dave on "Star Wars"
Another new "Star Wars" is out and certain to make another gazillion dollars. I thought this classic Dave Barry column from 1999 about an earlier "Star Wars" was still timely. Sample:
What explains the powerful appeal of the ''Star Wars'' series? Speaking as one who saw ''Return of the Jedi'' on video at least 14,000 times when my son was 4 and refused to watch anything else but also refused to be left alone with Jabba the Hutt, I would say that the key element is the theme of Good vs. Evil. Good is of course represented by Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), who has the Force, a mystical, universal power that causes him to be attracted to his sister. Fortunately, Luke gets over that and meets a wise Jedi master named Yoda (Raymond Burr) who trains Luke to harness the awesome power of the Force so that he can speak lines of really bad dialogue without laughing.
Along the way, Luke meets many memorable characters, including Han Solo (Indiana Jones), Chewbacca (Sonny Bono), Princess Leia (Prince) and two quirky, lovable robots, C-3PO (Tony Danza) and R2-D2 (F7-Z9). After many hair-raising adventures, Luke finally goes to the Death Star (Marlon Brando) where he confronts Evil in the form of his father, Darth Vader (voice by Perry Como) and, in a heartwarming scene of reconciliation, beats him up. The dramatic climax comes when Luke removes the helmet from the dying Vader and gazes, at last, into the eyes of the person beneath the harsh, forbidding mask (Martha Stewart). In the end, Good triumphs over Evil, and Luke and his friends celebrate on the planet of the Ewoks, a race of fun-loving, short, hairy creatures (Robin Williams).
I can't wait to see the new one!
What explains the powerful appeal of the ''Star Wars'' series? Speaking as one who saw ''Return of the Jedi'' on video at least 14,000 times when my son was 4 and refused to watch anything else but also refused to be left alone with Jabba the Hutt, I would say that the key element is the theme of Good vs. Evil. Good is of course represented by Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), who has the Force, a mystical, universal power that causes him to be attracted to his sister. Fortunately, Luke gets over that and meets a wise Jedi master named Yoda (Raymond Burr) who trains Luke to harness the awesome power of the Force so that he can speak lines of really bad dialogue without laughing.
Along the way, Luke meets many memorable characters, including Han Solo (Indiana Jones), Chewbacca (Sonny Bono), Princess Leia (Prince) and two quirky, lovable robots, C-3PO (Tony Danza) and R2-D2 (F7-Z9). After many hair-raising adventures, Luke finally goes to the Death Star (Marlon Brando) where he confronts Evil in the form of his father, Darth Vader (voice by Perry Como) and, in a heartwarming scene of reconciliation, beats him up. The dramatic climax comes when Luke removes the helmet from the dying Vader and gazes, at last, into the eyes of the person beneath the harsh, forbidding mask (Martha Stewart). In the end, Good triumphs over Evil, and Luke and his friends celebrate on the planet of the Ewoks, a race of fun-loving, short, hairy creatures (Robin Williams).
I can't wait to see the new one!
1 Comments:
Very cute.
OK, I felt this one was a bit of a let down, though how I can say that after how awful the first two of this trilogy were is perhaps silly. It was better than those two but still didn't live up to my expectations of what a horrible battle it all was that made Alec Ginness look so traumatized in the original Star Wars.
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