The Epic Legacy of Star Wars

We can all remember many events in our lives and unfortunately most of those are horrific incidences that stick with us throughout our lives. What I want to cover here is something fun, something that awed us into an adventure and something we will not forget. On May 25, 1977 a movie came out that everyone was seeing except me, I just wasn't interested. I had no inkling of going to a space movie with weird creatures and guys running around in what looked like white plastic armor.

Finally, about three weeks later my Mom and I decided to go see this movie. As we stood in line to go into the theatre a lady in line with us asked, “how many times have you seen it?” and my Mom replied this was our first time seeing it. This seem to be normal for those that had seen it once were seeing this film multiple times. After hearing of this for three weeks that people were plopping down money to see a film more than once seemed a little crazy. Though I had no room to talk because I had seen the movie, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid about 18 times. Since I was like eight years old when that movie came out I needed someone to drive me so I begged various family members to take me. Now back to this movie my Mom and I were waiting for that had done very well in the box office thanks to those that had been to see it numerous times.

We settle into our seats and wait for the movie to start. With popcorn in hand, with a soda and Mom with her Junior Mints we were ready. The lights dim and here we go. The music starts and streaming across the screen was text that read, "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...." and then the big space ship flies right over you, at least it seemed like it did. From that moment on I was hooked and so was a nation of moviegoers

The Star Wars movie as we all know spawned other movies, cartoons, merchandise, and books. Even today after 30 years kids want a light saber to battle make believe evil and to use the “force” against their opponents.

These epic films were the work of George Lucas with the first film being, Star Wars (A New Hope) followed in 3-year increments two more movies, Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. Sixteen years after the release of the Return of the Jedi, the first in a new prequel trilogy of films was released. The three films were also released at three-year intervals, first with The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith, which was released on May 19, 2005. An animated film released in 2008, Star Wars, The Clone Wawhich lead into a TV series by the same name.

For me the later movies, the prequels, lacked the flow and fun that the first 3 had but that is just how I feel about those movies. The prequels were a darker look and did not have the humor that the first three releases had. It was interesting to see what made Anakin Skywalker turn to the Dark Side and his transformation into the evil Darth Vader. How can you go wrong with the fun dialogue of the first movie and adventurous fun the characters were having? There were some serious moments but not as dark as the last three movies made in this epic saga. The Star Wars movies were like a modern day western were the bad guys wore black and the good guys wore white. There were evil villains and even a princess with a gallant scoundrel to the rescue.

There is a lot out there if you want to continue the adventures of Star Wars. The number of books written with many of our favorite characters is endless and seems to never stop. There is always a new book being released and if you are like me I like to know the chronological order. I have read a number of these books and the one's I have read I have enjoyed immensely.

They are divided up depending on the era:

• The Old Republic: before the prequels.
• The Prequel Era/Rise of the Empire: this is the time of Anakin Skywalker.
• The Classic Era/Imperial Era: just before the first released movies, with Han Solo, Lando Calrissian and Jabba the Hut are a few of the characters in the books that fall into this grouping.
• New Republic Era: after the movies. There are some good books in this grouping.
• The New Jedi Order: about 25 years after the movies.
• The Legacy Era: about 35 years after the movies.

If you like to read and enjoy the Star Wars there are a number of websites that give a list of books in chronological order.

Here is one, Star Wars Book List.

Enjoy!

George Lucas is converting all six movies into the 3D format. Each conversion is said to take up to a year to do. To be released in 2012.