September 28, 2004
Yeah, yeah, the NY Times Magazine has a lengthy article on Wong Kar Wai and 2046 -- of course I'm going to link to it.
James and Amy and I had our would-be Star Wars marathon today. Would-be because, after going through all four hours of featurettes and such and going out to eat and then watching the first two films in the trilogy, it was already 2 AM, and James had to open the restaurant in the morning. So we're saving Return Of The Jedi for later. I could write so much about these movies -- especially since it's been so long since I've seen them, about five years or so -- but instead I thought I'd dig out an entry from the diary I kept for a brief period when I was twelve. On July 7, 1993 I wrote:
Then we watch ROTJ...for the first time, when I saw the scene where Yoda died, I realized how great the Star Wars films really are. I man, they have always been great to me, but they really struck me hard on the emotional level.
I think I wrote that to explain to myself why I started crying at that particular scene.
I just have to say, though, that watching the original trilogy with the prequels in mind...I couldn't help but see everything differently. And I also thought about how wonderful an experience watching this DVD set has been, and how it seems so special and unique to me...but that there are millions of other people out there feeling exactly the same thing. It's a beautiful thing. And I also thought about how in the end I don't mind any of the changes (and some of them are actually good), and that I fully support Lucas's right to do what he wants, but instead of going further into that, let me link to this post from Wiley Wiggins who has some good things to say on the subject (it's a topic that's received a lot of coverage lately, but I chose this particular link because a post or two from now I'm going to be talking quite a bit about Linklater and Slacker).
There's nothing like Star Wars to make you forget how red your bank account is. I wish I still had my lightsaber.
Posted by David Lowery at September 28, 2004 04:05 AM