January 8, 2016
Dear Everyone:
“Jeannie” and I spent New Year’s Day going to the movies, specifically
seeing the new
Star Wars
film, The Force
Awakens. When the
first movie
came out in 1977, we actually stood in line for hours to see it.
That was 38 years ago and, like some of the characters, we have
learned a few things, such as waiting for the crowd to thin a little.
With age comes wisdom.
Some times.
In the past 38 years a lot has happened, so here’s a quick recap:
In a nutshell… “A long time
ago, in a galaxy far, far away…”
An unscrupulous
politician manipulated various incidents to fabricate a crisis, thus
seizing power and establishing himself as the
Galactic Emperor. He did
so with the help of a strong, but young and naïve
warrior.
The young warrior chose power over family, puppies, kittens and
everything good in the Universe.
Those who abhorred the “Evil Empire” banded together into a “Rebel
Alliance”.
Fast-forward. Enter a new
young warrior.
This young warrior found a powerful new
weapon and rushed
off to rescue the
damsel-in-distress, collecting various helpful and colorful
assistants along the way.
Many battles, individual and galactic, ensued.
There were setbacks and there were victories.
Ultimately, the new young warrior defeated the Bad Guys.
Much happiness and celebration.
Fast-forward again. Not
everyone was happy with the “New Order”, particularly those Evil Beings
who had been thriving under the “Old Order”, which, technically lasted
less than a full generation.
So they established the “First
Order”. And they have
been terrorizing anyone who opposed them.
They also expanded on that nifty idea of “Storm
Troopers” by taking very small children and indoctrinating them into
warriors in their own right.
However. When the
Leader of the First Order, instructed the Storm Troopers to annihilate
the helpless inhabitants of a small village, one of them, designated
FN-2187,
couldn’t bring himself to follow orders.
He rebelled, hooked up with a
Resistance Fighter, who promptly renamed him “Finn”, and rushed off…
Does any of this sound familiar?
Every hero from Theseus
to Arthur found,
or was bequeathed, a
weapon that enabled him to overcome all odds and save the day.
As for unscrupulous politicians, the list is endless, of course; from
Julius Caesar
to Dick Cheney,
and beyond. The totally
unnecessary war on Iraq
leaps to mind. (Query:
When, if ever, is war really necessary?)
The
power vacuum caused by the defeat of
Saddam Hussein
led directly to the current problem with a certain
group of opportunists calling themselves the “Islamic
State”. One does not
need to look very far for parallels.
When George Lucas
first imagined his Star Wars Saga, he deliberately peppered it with
familiar archetypal
characters. The innocent
hero, raised among the “commoners”, unaware of his, or her, inherent
nobility. The evil
overlords, regardless of names.
The “happy”
outlaw with his extremely tall, and remarkably hairy, “Little
John” sidekick.
The obsequious and ever-helpful servants.
However, sagas frequently take a long time to bring to fruition and it
was time for George to pass the torch, so to speak, to a younger
incarnation.
J.J. Abrams is
the new producer/director, but he manages to retain much of the basics.
The Universe is still a tough place to live, particularly if you’re a
poor orphan,
or a Disillusioned Knight, like Finn.
There is a “treasure map” of sorts and a companion quest, in
between battle skirmishes and the traditional “Weapons of Mass
Destruction” (WMD).
All the regulars put in an appearance.
Princess
Leia is now a General, like anybody thought THAT wasn’t going to
happen.
Han Solo is still
living by the skin of his teeth, albeit a little long in the tooth,
while Chewbacca doesn’t look a day older.
Luke,
having failed with an apprentice (Hello,
Obi-Wan!),
has disappeared for the time being and everyone wants to find him.
And, of course, there are the “newbies”:
Rey, the scruffy desert scavenger who has an uncanny knack at
fixing things (sound familiar?), gives the Princess a run for her money
in the kickass department.
Finn, of course. And
Ren, the Black
Knight. After all, you have
to have a villain for the hero to vanquish, don’t you?
Especially if you’re already writing the next two sequels.
And, inevitably, we have the music composed and conducted by
John Williams.
Everything in its place and already setting records at the box
office. A perfectly valid
way to spend a few hours in the dark, with popcorn, of course.
Love, as always,
Pete
| Previous | Next |