Star Wars Week: A long time ago…
Me and part of my collection
For all of you who don’t know me yet, my name is Maurice Mercado and I am a big Superman geek and an even bigger geek of Star Wars. I have now for the last 25 years. My love affair with Star Wars stared at the age of 5 when I saw “The Empire Strikes Back” on HBO for the first time. Yes, that is correct; the first Star Wars movie I saw was on cable and indeed the best one in the series in my opinion. After that I was hooked. I must have watched Empire at least 50 times over the months that followed. I had just begun my journey in the ways of the Force and my life as a fanboy. I remember thinking that Empire was the first Star Wars movie, you can imagine my delight when I found out that there existed another Star Wars movie now known as “A New Hope”. I remember asking my dad to rent it for me, and sitting with such excitement in my living room as I popped the big VHS tape into our VCR. I must admit I was not as impressed with it as I was with Empire, but then again, can you blame me. I mean Empire is by far a superior film. However I loved it anyway and watched it over and over again. Then to my amazement I was floored to find out that my local video rental store had the next and final chapter in this classic saga, “Return of the Jedi”. You must remember that in the early 80’s there was no Internet or spoilers. As a 5-year-old kid I had no idea how legendary Star Wars was when it originally was released in 1977. I did not have the privilege of seeing any of the original episodes when they originally came out in 1977, 1981 and 1983. So here I am, a 5-year-old kid, in 1985, discovering Star Wars right after Return of the Jedi had been released on video.
So, the stage was set, I once again asked my dad to take me to our local video store and rent the concluding chapter of the Star Wars trilogy. I got my milk and cookies all set up on the night table in my room, I popped Jedi in the VCR and I laid on my bed and watched it on my 20 inch TV for the first time. No surround sound, no THX, no home theater setup. I was just a 5-year-old boy excited to see what happens next. Is Darth Vader really Luke’s father? Will Han Solo be rescued and taken out of that frozen carbonite? Who is this “other” that Yoda was talking about? Will the rebels finally defeat the empire? My little heart couldn’t take the excitement. I watched in awe and was absolutely satisfied. My journey towards Star Wars fandom was complete. I remember going to school and playing Star Wars at recess. Going to “Odd Job”, a local general store and seeing all the Star Wars toys and just wanting to own all of it. Of course my parents only got me a handful of action figures but with that I was ready to relive Star Wars and continue their adventures at home in my imagination. In retrospect I really wish my parents had the foresight to have bought some more Star Wars paraphernalia and kept it in a safe place. I might have been able to put a nice down payment on a house by now. But I digress, the point of all this is so you can share in my love of Star Wars.
Photo: http://images.wikia.com
As you are reading this I’m sure you can recall how your love of Star Wars began. We’ve all come a long way. We’ve seen the famous trilogy go though many changes over the years and many re-releases. We’ve had to endure everything from rumors of George Lucas working on episode 7, 8 and 9, to rumors of prequels. (Which unfortunately came true, but that’s an argument for another time) Through it all, we the fan’s have remained faithful to the trilogy that captured our imaginations forever and inspired us to dream and imagine and feel like a kid again anytime we want. As long as I have Star Wars, I’ll be ok. Sure we may not agree on the tweaking and “improvements” of the Special Edition, released in 1997, but in the end it’s Star Wars and as long as Mr. Lucas keeps giving us just a little bit more of it, we eat it up. I myself am not too happy with the state of the saga today. I’m not happy with the outcome of the prequel trilogy or the current stories being cranked out called “The Clone Wars” in which we see the story that took place between episode’s 2 and 3. In the end all I have is my love for the original trilogy. It’s a childhood love that will be part of my life forever. To give it up would be to let go of my childhood, and that is something I never want to do. So here we are in 2011, I’m married now and hoping to start my own family soon but I can still geek out over Star Wars. As you see in the photo above, I have a big investment in Star Wars. Some might call me crazy, but I call it my emergency fund or an investment in something I love. Either way Star Wars will always be a part of my life. Especially now that it has been announced that the entire saga will be released on Blu-Ray this September. (http://maythe4th.starwars.com) Why is this exciting? For starters we get to see the saga in all its high definition glory. Not that compressed fake HD that SPIKE TV has been broadcasting for the last couple of years. And hopefully we will get to enjoy the Original Trilogy in all its “Original” glory. Rumor has it, this Blu-Ray release will include the Special Edition and Original cuts in HD. Plus, more behind the scene material then we will ever need to see. But the icing on the cake is that there will be deleted scenes and bonus footage never before seen from the original trilogy. An example of this was shown in August at “Star Wars Celebration V” where George Lucas, Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill appeared for the Blu-Ray announcement. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0750bfNQx8&feature=youtube_gdata_player)
Photo: www.geeky.gadget.com
So what else can I say, I’m excited to have another excuse to sit and watch these classic films one more time. I will personally be hosting a viewing party to once again relive our childhood love and years from now when I have children of my own, I will sit down with them and share this love I have with them. Hopefully they will appreciate it as mush as I do. Otherwise there’s always plan B. Superman.
