I was on Facebook earlier, and I noticed a friend had posted that The Empire Strikes Back premiered 40 years ago today. And damn, that is correct information. I remember Empire well, as it's one of the first live-action movies I saw in a theater. It was (to me, at that age) and unbelievably amazing spectacle (and to me at my current age, it remains my favorite of the Star Wars movies). It also helpfully put into context all of the Star Wars toys we were playing with (having mostly learned about the plot of the original Star Wars from older kids).
With the above in mind, it seemed appropriate to share this video I ran across (via Nerdist) on Twitter:
The scale of the Star Wars franchise spacecraft is pretty impressive. It was fun to see them next to various real-life objects for scaling purposes.
Thinking back to the days when I was a kid and we played with Star Wars toys a lot: later on, after having seen Empire Strikes Back, I recall going to a Star Wars themed birthday party. When it was over, the moms in charge piled us into station wagons and took us to see another sci-fi movie. In this case, it was the 1980 cult classic Flash Gordon (the one with the excellent theme song and score by Queen). If you haven't seen this movie, it is hard to emphasize how confusing Flash Gordon is for small children. I know. I was one of them. We all walked out of the movie, highly confused, and promptly went back to Star Wars as our sci-fi outlet of choice (we certainly didn't appreciate the performance by Max von Sydow or the whip fight with future 007 Timothy Dalton). I watched Flash Gordon again about 25 years later whereupon it (a) was immensely more enjoyable and (b) made a lot more sense.
If you are an adult, you halfway like the sci-fi genre, and you have a good sense of humor about campy things: then by all means have a couple of drinks and watch Flash Gordon. It is awesomely and hilariously campy (or incredibly, delightfully weird... however you want to define it). I started to describe it, but then deleted all of the sentences I wrote because I (a) did not want to set your expectations and (b) could not describe it in a way which does it justice. Just see it for yourself and enjoy.
Also, the original Flash Gordon comics, movie serials, and TV series were major influences on George Lucas as he came up with the initial concepts for Star Wars. Lucas first wanted to revive the Flash Gordon character but Dino DeLaurentiis (producer of Dune, Three Days of the Condor, and Blue Velvet, among other movies) already had the rights. Thus, Lucas decided to craft his own space opera. The more I've learned about Star Wars over the years, the more interesting it is to look at the some of the material which inspired Lucas. Furthermore, it's interesting to learn more about the role his wife (at the time) Maria had in shaping the original Star Wars movie.
I'm cutting myself off before I go down any more sci-fi movie rabbit holes. Now you have a few ideas for your next movie night.
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