It's been over a year since my last post. Life has a way of doing that. It warps time and lets it somehow get away from you. Now I know my last post was about Star Wars. Well, guess what? So is this one. I took the kid the see an early showing of The Force Awakens last night. No 3-D. No IMAX. No dressing up in costumes or bringing a plastic light saber. Just old school, 2-D, Milk Duds and Coke movie goodness. I'm going to be all over the place here but I promise you guys this, no spoilers. I ain't that guy.
Jackass.
I'm going to get around to the new movie eventually, but I need to start at the beginning. In 1977, I was six years old. At that age where my mother didn't have to worry about me sticking forks into light sockets and able to basically keep myself entertained. Until May of that year, I was all about Matchbox cars. Always pushing them around. Always with a car or two in pockets for trips away from home, whether it was to my cousins' house or a just a quick trip to the store. Then spring rolled around and a little known director (That kinda looks like my Uncle Charlie) changed the way we will look at movies and pop culture forever. And I fell in love.
For obvious reasons.
One of my earliest memories ever is waiting in line at the Senator Theater here in Baltimore. The line stretched up York Road and around Northern Parkway. Us locals will get that. I remember walking through the lobby and sitting down to what would become (Borrowing Kevin Smith's words, because they're perfect) "a life long love affair" that would continue into my forties and beyond. To me Episode IV was a perfect movie. Why? Because it changed my life. Maybe it was the timing. Maybe I was getting bored with Matchbox cars. Maybe it was the lightsabers. But no other movie since has done that. And the last fifteen minutes during that trench run? The best fifteen minutes in the history of cinema. And nothing will ever change my mind.
"I can't shake him!"
After I left the theater, that was it. All Star Wars, all the time. The figures. The ships. (That X-wing of mine put on more miles than my Mom's old Pinto) Walking around the house breathing like Darth Vader. Proudly taking my lunch box to school every day. Begging my Mom to take me to see it every weekend. It was all there was. And it was perfect. Replacing the Matchbox cars in my pocket were now Luke and Ben (Obi-Wan) Kenobi. Even after the tips of their lightsabers broke off. Impromptu battles erupted in the back of the car on the way to school. Countless batteries met their end due to the "Real Laser Lights and Sounds" of my X-Wing and TIE fighter. I even remember losing my Ben Kenobi action figure and digging through a dumpster in our apartment complex looking for him. I still have him by the way.
This is fairly accurate, but with more tears.
A few years later the unbelievable happened, there was another Star Wars movie. What? Is that possible? I couldn't believe it. But there it was. The Empire Strikes Back came out three years later and dropped the biggest bombshell a nine year old could handle. Darth Vader was Luke's father? How is that possible? They don't even look alike. (I was nine and stupid.) Plus it introduced the coolest Stormtrooper ever, the Snowtrooper. Those figures were the best Imperials ever created. We saw new planets, new ships, and the first real lightsaber battle. All of the boys my age had figures with them at all times in case there was an opportunity to play, risks to health be damned. My cousin almost got crushed by a giant stone birdbath when we were playing with our Star Wars figures at our baby cousin's baptism party. After we got screamed at by our parents and he had his wounds treated, we went straight back to playing Star Wars. It's what we did. It's all we did. That year I met my friend Mark Lane who lived across the street from my Grandmother on Northway Road. He was the same age as I was and just as into the movies too. We also discovered the best lightsaber ever for nine year old boys world wide...
Still hasn't been topped.
After watching Empire, we all knew there was going to be another one. Mark and I still played Star Wars every day. Whether it was with our figures, bashing each other with our "lightsabers" or having dogfights on our bikes. The only thing we had to do was wait three years for the next one. Three years. Now imagine being a nine year old boy and having to wait for Christmas, your birthday and summer vacation combined for three years. In 1983 when Jedi came out, my Star Wars journey felt complete. Luke was always my favorite, so seeing him become a full fledged Jedi made my life then. There was closure to the movies, so I was satisfied. The playing of Star Wars started to wane. Like most things in life, Star Wars came to an end of sorts. I was getting older. And girls were getting breasts.
Priorities.
In the late nineties rumors were starting to fly around that Lucas was going to give us Darth Vader's story. I was genuinely psyched for the films to come out. New Star Wars flicks? Hell yes! I'm not going to spend a lot of time on the prequels because they don't really need them. But I won't lie, I liked them. If you don't think the Darth Maul saber battle was awesome, you're a moron. If you don't think the ground battles and dozens of Jedi running around with lightsabers in Attack of the Clones was fun, you're lying. I won't even pick on Jar Jar Binks. The floppy eared dude was fine. Let it go people. Even General Grievous made a great villain. The favorite prequel story of mine is when Episode II came out. My neighbor was a manager at the local theater and told me they were getting the film in Wednesday night and were going to watch it as they spliced the reels together. I could come watch it, but it was going to be after closing around midnight or so. I said, "I'll be there." Well, that morning at 6:00 AM I had to help unload an 18-wheeler full of cabinets. Then I had to put in a full day's work in at the office. After work I had to referee four hockey games. After the games were finished I went home and took a shower and waited for the call to come up to the theater. I got the call at 12:30 AM Thursday morning and started watching the film with maybe eight other people at one o'clock in the morning. After it was over, I went home, got my pregnant wife and drove to the airport for a flight to Arizona. On the way out to the Grand Canyon State, I read the Attack of the Clones novelization. So I stayed up for roughly 30 hours straight and put my health in jeopardy for Star Wars.
Totally worth it.
That brings us to now. For the past year, I've spent my time watching trailers on Youtube. Catching little snippets here and there on the web. All the while, trying not to learn too much. All of that came to a head last night at 7:00 PM in White Marsh, Maryland. After I picked up the kid from school, we went to Taco Bell and scarfed down a couple of soft shells and hit the theater. People were dressed up in costume. Full grown adolescents, like myself, were there with friends and family. Parents, again like me, were bringing their children hoping they would see the film like we did long ago. Well, here's all of the review you'll get from me. From the opening crawl to the final screen wipe, I wasn't a 44 year old man. I wasn't a cynical geezer that had "been there" and "done that". I was Sean Salisbury, Sacred Heart first grader. I was the same awkward blonde kid that got spanked by Sister Sara Marie in the middle of class, and embarrassed for weeks after. I was six years old and falling in love again for the first time like only a six year old boy can. There were parts where I laughed out loud. Parts where I cheered and clapped. When was the last time you did that in a theater? And there were parts where I started to well up with tears, the memories of Red Five and the old Senator Theater rushing back like a tidal wave. Like Darth Vader himself said in Field of Dreams: It was like I had been dipped in magic waters. Just see it. Just go. Fall in love again.
