Just a bunch of thoughts for that in-between time between 2015 andn 2016.
Watched George Lucas being interviewed by Charlie Rose and being almost Lucas's age I remembered very much the origin of Star Wars and who it's for.
Like most kids in the late 1950's, I went to see western movies which were the equivalent of today's action movies like Fast and Furious and super heros. But there was also something called serials.
Serials were sort of like a TV show, except they were shown in movie theaters before the
movie. They were usually around 10 minutes and always featured the hero ending up having to jump off a cliff or trapped in a mine with dynamite blowing up. The idea was - will he survive, or will he save the girl. We loved this little features which would often have twelve to fifteen "episodes". Most of them were from the late 40's and the special effects were very basic.
I remember Flash Gordon, a space serial and Batman also. The cost of these shorts were minimal, space ships looked like toys, probably because they were toys.
But we couldn't wait for the next one.
That's why, when I first saw Star Wars, there was something on the screen that was quite familiar. And that was the title words of what was going on, you know, they were moving away from us on an angle.
That was exactly what all the serials we watched had.
And when the movie began to play I also realized that what Lucas was doing was exactly the same as those badly made serials. What was different, however, is that the technology was definitely far superior.
Everything in Star Wars was a grand version of those serials.
And Lucas didn't forgot the western movies, Han Solo has his gun in a holster. A "homage" of the classic western gunfighter.
And I liked it. But I also realized it was really made for kids. Just like the serials.
That's what Lucas wanted. He agrees that adults go to see Star Wars, I'm going this afternoon after the rush, but that this new movie was still meant for kids.
Lucas also was giving up kid movies and is now going to make adult movies, of which he can finance himself, given that Disney paid billions of dollars for the Star Wars franchise. So get ready for Star Wars 8 and more.
And Disney is already building a Star Wars ride on their Disneylands.
Everything old is new, as they say. They might look bad to you, but we loved them for what they were... stories out of this world.
