Today is apparently a holiday of sorts, or at least one of those days that seems to merit special attention solely because of the numbers that represent it: May 4th, or, “May the fourth be with you.” Star Wars Day. Granted, there isn’t much that goes on, save for social media and the occasional post (ahem,) but you know, even that would have been welcome thirty, forty years ago, had either such thing existed. You see, I was a Star Wars fan from the moment I saw it in the theater, or theaters, because I saw it multiple times on its first run, and so you know, Star Wars refers to the first movie – that ‘A New Hope’ bullshit didn’t appear for years afterward, once George Lucas figured out that the movie not only wasn’t bombing, it was becoming a brand – he was trying to create a ‘Lord of the Rings’ thing after the fact. And I can tell you, in that time period while Star Wars and the two sequels were tearing up the box office, people that were ‘into’ Star Wars were still widely considered nerds and basement dwellers. Wearing a Star Wars shirt, having a model kit of R2-D2, making any reference at all to the characters or quotes or whatever, was decidedly uncool. Granted, I was in high school at that time and it took no effort at all to be considered uncool, because teenage insecurity and pissing up trees is typical, more so in the late seventies in a rural farm area.
Yet now we have a day for it. There are Lego kits of the Millennium Falcon and Star Destroyers costing hundreds of dollars being bought routinely. One of the more popular streaming shows is spun off from the lamest character from the original trilogy (seriously, Boba Fett was hyped significantly for his appearance as a new villain in the second film, to have two lines I believe, only to die as comic relief in the third, with a belch even.)
It’s funny, because I no longer follow it all, and couldn’t possibly be considered a fanboy of any sort – I’m not even sure how many movies there are anymore, to say nothing of the streaming series and the animated stuff. But I would have appreciated the current popularity back a few decades ago when it would have been useful. Granted, I now have the immense prestige and respect of being a nature photographer, especially of bugs and lizards, but this was a long time coming.