IN SEARCH OF "STAR WARS"
              (or, Why One Grown Man is Counting the Seconds
                        Until "The Phantom Menace")
                   by Joe Barlow  (jbarlow@earthling.net)
     			      March 31, 1999



	Call me crazy, call me stupid, call me anything you like, but
please, please, please, don't call me at all on May 19th.  I've been
waiting for that day since 1983, when a film called "Return of the
Jedi" exploded onto the silver screen, introducing words like
"Ewok," "Jabba" and "Endor" into pop-culture virtually overnight.
It's been far too long since I've been to that fantastic world of my
youth, and May 19th marks the end of my exile, the date on
which I'll once again become ten years old, after eight years of
bona-fide adulthood.  It's the day I come home.

	"Star Wars: The Phantom Menace" looms on the horizon like
the Death Star, bringing with it not only the highest level of
anticipation ever seen in motion-picture history, but also an
invitation to forget: to cheerfully shrug off the shackles of
day-to-day life and think about nothing but the power and
excitement of dreams.  An exaggeration on my part?  I don't
think so.  The "Star Wars" films are more than a mere
collection of movies: they are a celebration of life, of honor, of
the imaginaton.  Watching them, we have permission to be
children again, to bask in the glow of the movie screen while
we jam great handfuls of popcorn into our mouths, bouncing up
and down in our seat with pure unadulterated glee.

	The fact that I'm a "Star Wars" fan comes as no great
shock-- it's hard to throw a pebble without hitting one, and the
Internet overflows with web sites devoted to the films and their
creator, George Lucas.  But why?  What is it about these movies
that have allowed them to endure like no other films of the past
two decades?  Why are countless people (myself included) making
plans to get in line for "The Phantom Menace" hours (or even
days!) before its first showing?

	Nostalgia certainly plays a part, especially for twenty-
somethings like me, who discovered Luke Skywalker, Han Solo
and Princess Leia at an impressionable age and grew up
watching their adventures.  But mere nostalgia can't explain
the excitement and anticipation that the children of today, born
years after "Return of the Jedi" disappeared from movie
theaters, are currently experiencing.  Nor does it explain the
attention and respect the saga still commands.  Adreneline only
counts for so much; there must be more to the saga's appeal.

	Is it the story?  Possibly.  Lucas wisely recycled the
myths he grew up hearing into the raw material for "Star Wars"
(relying heavily on Joseph Campbell's famous textbook, "The Hero
With a Thousand Faces"), constructing his trilogy so that it
spoke directly to our love of classical epics and brisk
storytelling.  It's no mistake that the end result feels comfortable
and familiar: we've been hearing this same tale all our lives,
albeit with different names.

	"Star Wars" has permeated my life for as long as I can
remember: one of my first memories was being taken to see the
original film by my mother, when I was four years old.  The
effect it had on me is impossible to describe: never before had
I realized the kind of power that movies could have over me.
The story was way over my head at the time, but its vision
excited me like nothing I'd ever seen.  "Star Wars" taught me
to love the cinema.  It's entirely possible that I would not have
become a film critic if it hadn't come along.

	With three new films on the way ("Phantom Menace"
and two presently untitled sequels, scheduled to follow in 2002
and 2005), as well as a highly successful line of novels and
toys, the saga's appeal still entrances and enchants many of us.
A friend of mine said it best: he's planning to ask for May 19th
off work because he considers the opening of a new "Star Wars"
movie to be "a religious holiday."  I'm not sure he's wrong; after
all, those of us with spiritual beliefs do indeed celebrate the
things in life which mean the most to us.  "Star Wars" gave me
the gift of imagination, and for that, I will be forever indebted to
it.

	"The Phantom Menace" is coming at last, and I'll
continue to mark the days off my calendar until it gets here.
I haven't felt this excited about a movie since 1983!  And if I
have to spend a night in a sleeping bag outside the movie
theater to celebrate the occasion, then it's more than worth it.


 (The Force will be with us on May 19th, 1999.  See you in line!)



-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Copyright (c)1999 by Joe Barlow.  This article may not be
reproduced without the written consent of the author.

E-Mail: jbarlow@earthling.net
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