Later, Vader or: Sith Happens

The new Star Wars flick is out. Whoop-de-frickin'-do.

There was a time when it would have been a big deal. No, I take that back: there was never a time when catching the latest George Lucas space opera was even on my top-ten list of priorities (In my view the best Lucas flick ever was American Graffiti). I did see the first three Star Wars installments and liked The Empire Strikes Back the best; it was certainly the darkest, the least pandering to the popcorn set, and the one that did the best job of tying in all the Joe Campbell mythological influences.

I'll see the new one when it comes out on DVD - maybe. In the meantime, one quick anecdote:

Spring, 1978 - I was in line to see the first Star Wars (yeah, it took me a year to get around to seeing it; I've always been a world-class procrastinator). A rather frail-looking youth a few steps ahead of me in line turned to the guy next to him with a major compost-eating grin on his face.

"This," he said, "is the seventeenth time I've seen this movie."

"This," the other guy said, "is my girlfriend."

Touche...