I was a "first fan" of the Star Wars franchise. I still have deep set admiration for the first three movies, the Original Trilogy. As I get older, I think about my lifelong "love" for A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back and certain parts of Return of the Jedi. I also recognize how infrequently I choose to watch them; not even once a year on average. I do that religiously with other closely-held movies from my childhood. Not a year goes by that I don't watch at least 20 favorite horror movies, the same number of comedy movies and a few less sacred sci-fi movies. There really aren't that many great sci-fi adventure movies from the 70's and 80's. Maybe that's one reason the original Star Wars movies are held in such high regard by people of my generation. The amazing special effects for the time are another reason. There are countless other reasons, based on logic, nostalgia and also a bit of stubbornness. The Original Trilogy is made of sweetly unique fantasy movies constructed with tons of heart and a creative spirit. The first two movies in the OT, the best Star Wars movies of all, are chill-inducing love letters to all kinds of movies that fans of film hold dear. They play on universal themes of good vs. evil, love and hate, teamwork and perseverance against enormous odds. You know, those "RA-RA!" themes that most good and many bad blockbusters include. But with Star Wars the intent seemed so genuine, so "not all about money". Even as a "first fan", I'm not the best representation of a Star Wars fan. Is it possible to adequately define such a thing, and is that thing "good" for movies?
I know why I cared about those first three movies. I sat in a theater for A New Hope's first run. That's really all it took. I owned the first action figures, the vehicles and ships, the Death Star Tower, the pajamas, the bed sheets, the wrist watch, the earliest flashlight light saber, the ANYTHING ELSE I could get my hands on with Star Wars stamped on the package. Seeing the other two movies really didn't increase my feelings about Star Wars, but when I did see them I judged them as equals to the original. I realize I'm not special because I saw one of the world's most popular movies in a theater or because I owned some toys. I don't own one piece of merchandise from those first amazing years to be a Star Wars fan anymore. Many of my age peers kept their trinkets and preserve their love of Star Wars in physical form. I sort of envy them. All of my collectibles disappeared after my parents divorced. Because of this, I see a strange symbiosis between maturing too quickly away from Star Wars and experiencing the breakup of my family.
Lots of people latched onto Star Wars as it helped open a uniquely exciting time in film history: the birth of the blockbuster event movie. Movies like The Exorcist and Jaws were surprising cultural events, exhilarating for moviegoers in a communal way and for movie executives with new powers to achieve enormous box office totals. There were plenty of highly successful movies before the 1970's (Gone With the Wind is still near the top of the all-time box office list when adjusted for inflation), but no one had seen big summer movies engineered in every way to please audiences before the days of Spielberg and Lucas. These two creators liked to make movies with universal themes, well-defined antagonists/protagonists and comforting three-act structures. In other words, they knew how to please ticket buyers and elicit repeat viewings. The way the best blockbuster movies know which buttons to push in us partially explains why they stick with us over time.
People still love Star Wars today. But is it real love, or is it better defined as nostalgia? Nostalgia is "a wistful or excessively sentimental yearning for return to or of some past period or irrecoverable condition; also: something that evokes nostalgia." That sounds a little like love, but still less organic than the real thing. Nostalgia is wishful thinking based on past experiences, wanting something to feel like it used to feel, or even feel like something for which we should feel nostalgic. That sounds like a snake eating its own tail a little bit more than it sounds like love. I think a lot of Star Wars love survives with nostalgia as the secret ingredient. I won't spend much time describing how much I don't relate to Star Wars fandom now, or how wrong-headed it is to anticipate a similar level of sheer pleasure from each new generation of films only because we found pleasure in the first ones decades ago. I will, however, try to explain how I perceive Star Wars fandom filtered through my own experiences and feelings, and draw comparisons to other forms of obsession based on nostalgic, often ill-conceived worship of assumed perfection. I imagine dogged, obsessive Star Wars devotees as holding on to the nostalgia of the original magic rather than consciously renewing love for a property because it is always worthy of such devotion. I will also try to separate current Star Wars fans into logical groups, from "original fans" like me (which includes several sub groups), to the successive generations who don't have that history but still find themselves drawn into Star Wars obsession by the people aggregating machine known as Hollywood.
You might ask a relevant question or two at this point before I begin to lay out all of this unsolicited analysis: How am I qualified to judge the preferences of other Star Wars fans on any objective level? Also: Why do I find it necessary to question someone's love of a fictional entity if they enjoy it benevolently and it isn't hurting anyone? I'm not sure I can answer either question in a satisfactory way. Everything ounce of motivation I have for for writing this post is about perception and feelings about the prospect of new Star Wars movies. Past quality does not promise future quality. Can original fans really take the time to temper their feelings about a movie they worshiped so long ago, so the new product can stand on its own merits? If so, the culture doesn't seem advanced enough to use that Star Wars obsession power for any other societal good. I am worried that people who wait around for Star Wars movies so they can celebrate that magical past portion of their lives that makes them the happiest also don't do anything else with as much devotion and our society is in deep trouble because of it. I won't compare Star Wars devotees to violent extremists, although there are similarities in emotional attachment to purity and rejection of those who do not respect the faith.
Although this writing could be seen as a rant, I'll admit to writing out of mild disgust and anger to some extent, because the thing I loved so dearly for a few hot years only exists as a profit source for a mega corporation now regardless of its ability to entertain. It feels like a well-publicized con that still finds plenty of willing marks. It was probably such immediately after Empire Strikes Back, but the gag didn't feel so forced then. I fell hard as a kid, became a member of the SW church, held the text close to my heart, marveled at every parable and revelation on the page and then...lost pace with those other members of the church who weren't satisfied with the source myth anymore. They wanted to write their own gospels, compete with the Good Book and renew the pleasure of original discovery in every possible way. They never let that first love of Star Wars be informed by the subsequent events in their lives. They set the shrine in concrete and refused to leave its kneeling place.
There is no denying that there was something special about Star Wars in the 80's. People who wanted more out of the story than was given in the movies weren't doing anything wrong, but they were establishing what a true "geek" was. When other kids talked about the Star Wars "geeks" they were showing fear and ignorance of that obsessive nature. They were not able to understand how the growth of the story beyond the borders of the movies began to work on some young minds. Knowing that there was a whole universe of characters and species and battles future and past had almost a biological effect on some young adults. They were different animals after knowing Star Wars, as if they fell into a radioactive pit of New Hope. Some of those same people passed the genetic traits of Star Wars fandom to their children and have kept the longing for more Star Wars movies in the public consciousness to such an extent that even the quiet years and the weakness of the Prequels couldn't extinguish the franchise. I wonder what young kids today really think about Star Wars? Do they hold it up high and beg for the toys for some subconscious reason or are their "geek" parents and grandparents coaxing them along as proxy fans to keep the franchise alive? Obsession feels good for the obsessed, but the after effects can be a sense of loneliness, because no one else feels the exact same way, and the movie industry knows how to market to the obsessed, by keeping all the elements that attract us the most intact for future products.
I'm going to attempt to categorize Star Wars fans in 2015. I won't prejudge the current movie or plans for future movies. They may or may not be a return to greatness for the franchise. I really don't care about that debate right now. Let's assume that The Force Awakens is good enough to draw huge profits (which it will) and to justify future installments (almost a foregone conclusion). So it will exist in the near-future as a movie franchise and likely attract new fans based solely on the new stories. One gripe though: including classic characters in the new movie is shameless pandering to old fans and will not matter at all to the younger generations. But let's progress from oldest to newest fans. I'm a member of the oldest group, but I don't worship Star Wars now and haven't for a long time. So my group is partly comprised of original fans who liked the movies and toys but have moved on. Then there are original fans who did not move on or spent more time with the novels and other offshoots of the original movies. Some of those more stubborn fans have also moved on, but a large portion of them are responsible for the continued success of the Star Wars universe. Next are carryover fans who didn't see the films when they came out but caught on to the remnants of the original merchandising effort and watched the movies on video or cable, played the arcade games and bought the second or third generation of toys. I know there was a time when the endless rows of hooks for three-inch action figures stopped filling toy departments, but I don't have a good feel for it because I was past haunting the toy aisle on a regular basis by then.
So in the gap between the mid-80's and the release of the first Prequel film, it is unclear who was propelling the franchise forward culturally. It must have faded for some fans a little. There were lots of novels and comics to aid in mapping out the Star Wars universe, but I never paid much attention to them. I was pleased when the Original Trilogy was finally released as a set on VHS, but I had recorded all three movies from USA Network long before that and only discarded those tapes in the past ten years or so. I played the arcade games and then missed out on most of the console games as they hit because I never tried to keep up with console technology. I was compelled to resist the gravitational pull of these products by some unseen "force", but many people did not. Is it possible that the games, comics and books kept Star Wars moving at a sustainable pace until the Prequel Trilogy swooped in to promise new momentum? If so, that proves the creation of a new subset of fans: those who played the games or read the books (maybe at the insistence of their parents after being introduced to the OT) and then wanted more movies.
The less said about the Prequel Trilogy the better (I for one have not seen them all the way through but I saw enough to know that the messy, over-stuffed CGI scenery, annoying lightsaber barrages and bad writing were not enough to feed nostalgia for another generation). The subset of fans who saw those movies as kids have my sympathies. If they consider themselves fans of the franchise solely based on the Prequels, there truly is an invisible "force" holding our universe together like Elmer's Glue. How can they continue to care? Again, maybe the video games and subsequent cartoon series were good enough to make it seem worthwhile, but did those things encourage the core-of-your-being devotion that many experienced with the OT? Surely the Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter movies have surpassed Star Wars in modern movie fandom. But maybe they have also sustained the instinct to care deeply about franchises in general, and there is enough residual love left over for Star Wars to keep it in the conversation.
Movie theaters today are full of people of all ages who don't want to sit still for a movie in public. The culture of patiently enjoying the large shiny thing being projected in front of us has evolved because distraction by technology has become the norm, and some unseen "force" now makes us want to engage with the small screen in our pockets instead of the large screen shared by everyone in the big dark room. So what does it take to grab the attention of these people now, let alone their obsessive love? Market saturation plays a part, in my mind. When three unrelated AM radio station sports shows simultaneously transition to the topic of the new Star Wars movie, as they did on my drive to work tonight, finding a way to avoid hearing about Star Wars in the modern world becomes a losing proposition. There is an emotional wave of advertisements on every possible platform that threatens to suffocate movie goers if they don't go buy a ticket on opening day. There's an air of "you are the outsider" if you don't buy into the hype on something as big as a new Star Wars movie. The former geeks have become the cool kids now. And hey, even girls might see this one! This final subset of Star Wars fans are the ones who don't know any better. They would take a chance on much less pedigreed genre films anyway. If it turns out to be the new reason to love Star Wars again, that's a bonus. Like it or not, this last group of Star Wars fans might track the progress of future films religiously, but they will likely not be monogamous. There are too many other franchises that pursue them just as relentlessly.
By breaking down Star Wars fans by generation and by willingness to love it unconditionally, it may seem like I'm attempting to anoint the one subset that contains the best Star Wars fans. It would be easy to state outright that I and people like me are the best fans because we demand the thrilling sensation we received from the oldest movies and will settle for nothing less. I'm being obtuse. There is no sense in defining our feelings in such simple terms. We as adults cannot be thrilled in nearly the same way as we were back then. I've seen movies as an adult that were just as entertaining, more so even, but nothing has ever rewired my imaginative engine like A New Hope did. I'm not sure a human brain gets more than one of those EUREKA! moments that ignites a love of movies. I don't want to proclaim any Star Wars fans as the best, the smartest, the ones whose devotion has paid off the most. One feature of fandom that I can speak about definitively is that fandom is always personal. Yours is not mine, and neither of ours is better than the other's. I may use mine more frugally, like I've only dressed as Empire Fitness Suit Luke for Halloween once and would never do it at a convention or movie premiere, but I don't hate you for still sleeping on Star Wars sheets. Those are some sturdy sheets.
And because everything relates back to food here:
In the late 1990's, Cheetos brand cheese puffs introduced a nacho cheese flavor variety. I'm no expert, but to me the difference between regular cheese and nacho cheese is like the difference between low quality well whiskey and the cream of the crop aged stuff. The advancement in flavor is undeniable to anyone willing to think about the difference. Nacho cheese is probably just plain cheese powder with some tomato and garlic powder added in, but so what?. Whatever it is, it is better. During the short time these Cheetos were available, I ate more Cheetos than I had before or than I have since. They were delicious, and they changed my thinking about cheese puffs forever. When Frito Lay discontinued them, I continued to look for them for a few years after that, hoping maybe they weren't discontinued but that the stores I visited just didn't carry them. Not many people even remember that Cheetos had a nacho cheese variety. But I remember them because they were great, and any variation of the same product released since then have not been as good, or even worth my snacking time. Do I score any karmic/coolness points for having rigid standards about Cheetos? No. But, as with anything I like, the memory of that great thing that existed at the right place and time for me to find it minus any pressure to "Just consume it damnit!" makes it special in my memory. If I never eat another Cheeto, I'll be okay. I loved them once, and that was enough.
I have loved Star Wars, but the flavor I want most will likely never return.
