Let’s Talk about Star Wars

“It’s May the Fourth!” you chant. “May the Fourth be with you!” you say to ev­eryone, and anyone. You do this because there is literally nobody in this world that can’t appreciate Star Wars, and if that person exists they are absolutely wrong.

Well you know what? You’re right. Star Wars is fantastic. End of story.

Okay, it isn’t the absolute end. I still have a lot to say on the subject. There are a lot of things that make the Star Wars wonderful (Space! Light Sabers! Chew­bacca!) But there are some facts that are less known, less celebrated that make the movies more Star Warsier by a parsec. So sit back, relax, and learn about the things that I think make Star Wars even better.

First of all, Han Solo, am I right? Without a doubt one of the coolest char­acters in the film, brought to life by the great Harrison Ford. George Lucas chose Ford for the role after working with him on American Graffiti. Ford was nearly passed over, however, in favor of Chris­topher Walken because he was newer on the scene.

Now, Ford is a master carpenter. Af­ter having gone back to that day job, he had been hired to come fix a door that was busted in the studio where Lucas was working. That broken door was the key to Ford’s career—because when Lucas watched the swagger-overloaded badass that is Harrison Ford wander into that studio, he decided it had to be him.

It was a good choice, too. Harrison Ford was essentially a normal guy that accidentally stumbled into acting (over, and over, and over) and he brought that very normal, very cool guy attitude to his movies. For instance, the famous “I love you,” “I know” line exchange between Han and Leia in the Empire Strikes Back was improvised by Ford.

Originally, the line he was supposed to return with was simply “I love you, too” which Ford deemed not nearly cool enough. With that, history was made.

Speaking of history being made, how about the actual creation of Star Wars? A film trilogy that will be famous for centuries, and was also a total accident.

What I mean to say is, George Lucas is a bad filmmaker. You can tell by look­ing at the Star Wars prequels. Despite popular belief, there are worse things about those movies than Jar-Jar. You can also see this in Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull, a film that was so badly written that it couldn’t be saved by Steven Spielberg at the director’s helm.

So why were the original movies so good? This is just speculation, but I think that the limits on technology through the ‘70s and the ‘80s were just the miracle they needed. George Lucas wanted all of the weird stuff like Jar Jar and hilari­ously weird looking slave drivers in those original movies, but had to tone down the script due to limitations. This is why he added them into the original trilogy’s re-release DVD.

Do you know what else is crazy cool about Star Wars? They’re making more of them. We trust Disney after what they did with the Marvel franchise, and JJ Abrams has a strong grip on modern Sci-fi.

These films are also incredibly excit­ing because they bode well for the future of diversity in cinema. The cast of the upcoming episode seven has far more female and non-white characters than any Star Wars film before it. It’s very pos­sible that they learned a lesson from the Avengers franchise, whose main issue has been an entirely straight white male cast (and one overly sexualized Scar Jo).

Not to mention, the second an­nounced film, Rogue One, will feature Felicity Jones who will play a rebel captain and lead protagonist (who is hopefully not weighed down by her love of some loser pilot).

To conclude: Ugh, Star Wars is so good.