Slashdot Mirror
Star Wars Virgin Takes the Plunge
Entertainment Weekly is running a short account of one Star Wars virgin who recently sat down to watch all six Star Wars movies in their originally intended order while recording his thoughts. From the article: "So after watching the sun set on all six of the Star Wars (or sun rise, in my case), what do these movies mean to me? I have to be careful where I tread here, because people's love of these movies is passionate to say the least. (Personal note: My friends had a Star Wars-themed wedding.) The cynical and tired side of me wants to say that George wanted Episode I to be shown first because after watching 14 straight hours of Star Wars, my memories of young Anakin and Jar Jar are almost long forgotten. I've tossed them aside along with my package of caffeine pills and bottle of Coke."
Yes, because watching 6 good movies in a row AUTOMATICALLY means your penis has never been inside a vagina.
it was not some great intention or design. If he wanted to do 1 first, he would have.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Whoever said it was inteded to be watched I-VI and not IV-VI+I-III? I'm quite happy I grew up with IV-VI and later saw I-III as they came out.
These days, Star Wars seems to be more nerdy than Trek. 10 years ago, Trekkies were considered hopeless nerds, obsessed with detail and continuity, and who never get dates, and Star Wars was considered cool and retro. These days, Trekkies are still considered hopeless nerds, but in a much more affectionate way, whereas the Star Wars fans are now nerdier, even more obsessed with detail and continuity, and even less likely to get a date.
The only problem with that is that only two of those movies are good. I thought Jedi was good when I was a kid, but then I saw it again and now I realize it's only amusing. Ep.IV was an epic, Ep.V was just beautiful and the closest thing to believable that we saw through the whole thing. Ep.VI was an action movie. Episodes I-III are properly subtitled the same way Spaceballs II would be. They are crap.
Perhaps the statement should be that thinking all six movies are good automatically means your penis has never been and will never be inside a vagina worth being in? You don't have to be gay, you just have to have no sense of what is and is not good...
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
When Anakin died in Return of the Jedi, he cried. It was a much different experience in chronological order.
Not that I cried, but I felt like that was a pretty emotional scene regardless of the order you watched the movies in. I thought it was pretty clear by that time that Darth V was totally conflicted and deserved some sympathy.
...that the correct order to watch them, if you haven't seen them before, is IV, V, VI, I, II, III, IV, V, VI.
Whatever Lucas' intentions were, I, II and III were made to be shown to millions of people who had seen IV, V and VI. The first time you see the original trilogy, it's about Luke. The second time, it's about Anakin.
Sam! If you will let me be,
I will try them.
You will see.
It's interesting that because slashdot tends to stay in a single age group, most of today's slashdot readers weren't alive when the first trilogy came out. The lightsaber swinging, cape wearing, watergate babies that grew up watching Starwars are now really old, carrying around babies, wearing suits to the office, and couldn't care less.
Your post reminded me of some musings I've indulged in myself sometimes. Though I'm not at the stage in my life where I'm even considering having kids, I'd given some casual musings to how I would intriduce them to certain things, like Star Wars. After giving it much thought, I came up with what I would think is the ideal order for introducing someone to Star Wars.
Start with Episode IV, for many reasons. It was the first film released, thus the first taste anyone got of Star Wars. It's also the most self-contained. It has all the elements that make the rest of the films impressive, but its scope is tighter and much more limited, thus it's more impressive without seeing it in the context of the much more broad visions of the other films. (Plus, as after watching the entire saga one can claim Palpatine is the true arch villain of the entire series, it's strange that he is only briefly referenced once in dialogue early in the film and never actually appears, when viewed in context of his dramatic turn in Episode III.) Move on to Episode V, so you get the huge shocker about Vader, and end on the cliffhanger about Han. Remember, audiances had to wait years for the resolution of that cliffhanger in the original release cycle.
So after Episode V, with Han carted off by Boba, Yoda mentioning "another" hope, Luke smarting after getting his ass kicked by his sociopathic dad, and with the viewer begining to see some depth to the Vader character (and without having had a real introduction to the Emperor beyond a brief hologram) we let those elements hang and linger, and go back to the prequel saga. We see Anakin grow and his backstory fills in some of the depth to Vader's character we only started to see in Episode V. Not having seen Episode VI, the viewer doesn't immediately identify Senator/Chancellor Palpatine as the Emperor/Darth Sideus, and when the little robot obsetrician announces that Amidala has twins and one gets named Leia, that's a genuine surprise to the viewer. (On a side note, that one scene where they name the twins explicitly always struck me as very very stupid fro ma story point of view if they were actually intended to be viewed chronologically. The author of the article makes a great point about how, despite Lucas's claims, the films are actually less satisfying dramatically if watched in 'chronological' order.)
Now that the backstory is filled in for the viewer, and we can see the Emperor as the true puppetmaster and Darth Vader as a manipulated, confliced tool of evil, and we can understand and empathize with Luke's desire to reason with, rather than kill, Vader; we move on to Episode VI. So the cliffhanger regarding Han finally gets sorted out (phew! More of a relief of tension watching 3 films to see that, rather than immediately seeing it resolved, even though it's one of the dumbest rescue plans ever...) and Boba Fett, with whom we have added empathy after seeing his dad raise hell in Episode II (though the vengeful undertones present in the shot where he's seen lifting Jango's severed head/helmet are never really realized, unless you count him briefly fighting Luke as some kind of anti-Jedi vengeance) meets his comically undramatic end, we move to the final set-piece. We've seen Yoda introduced as the unassuming little green guy, then saw him in his heyday, now we see him die. We saw Obi Wan as kindly Uncle Ben, then young kickass Jedi / flawed mentor, now we see him offer final advice to Luke. And when Vader meets his end and redemption, it's the culmination of it all.
This I think gives a great balance to the two approaches to the trilogy. On the one hand, all the best plot twists are preserved for the viewer, and the most limited film is seen first. On the other hand, Episode VI is truely the culmination for the viewer, and despite all the prequels' flaws, Anakin showing up as a blue force ghost in Jedi rock and roll heaven is actually more satisfying after having seen them.
Yup...
There is one universal message in SW #4, #5, and #6. The message is that life is full of dangers, disappointments, and loss. Yet, somehow, in the end, you will find sanctuary by avoiding being suckered into evil doing. Stay true to all that is good, and the goodness shall be the force that ultimately triumphs. This path to the light is available to everyone.
Fast forward 20+ years and $1 billion.
Lucas destroys that egalitarian message in SW #1. He changes the story to say that you can triumph only if you are born with the right midi chlorians (e.g., mitochondria). Lucas, in one fell swoop, transforms egalitarianism into a snobby sort of class warfare.
SW #1 sucked. SW #2 sucked even worse. SW #3 was somewhat improved, but the acting was wooden.
I don't think that word means what you think it means.
That's a totally different geek genre, get your movies straight!
You can't moderate if you comment. How many Slashdotters are not going to want to say something about Starwars?
Common sense is not so common
Right. That's what happens in the story. In stories, sometimes stuff that isn't nice happens. That generally makes them more interesting.
Think about it this way: By skipping that scene, what are you teaching your kid? If you don't skip that scene, what are you teaching your kid? If he complains about being disturbed by the scene, what would you then have the opportunity to teach him?
-- The act of censorship is always worse than whatever is being censored. Always.
Wonderful films for their intended audience - ten year old boys.
Its a shame that something a bit more grown up hasn't been made in the last twenty years
Firefly was pretty good but it didn't last long...
Facts are history now plebs have politics for religion on social media.
What about Babylon 5? That seemed pretty "grown up" to me. Lots of adult issues being dealt with in that series beyond just "kill the badguys 'cuz they're BAD!".
There is no mod option "-1: Disagree" for a reason. "Overrated" is not an acceptable substitute. Post something instead.