3/25/23
There is never going to be anything better than this, I said to myself. 1977 was a great year for superlatives. 1977 was the year Star Wars: A New Hope came out. I watched it on 86th in Manhattan, a small theater by today’s standards, which probably only had two screens. I didn’t realize what an earth-shattering event it would be. Only 32 movie theaters in the U.S. showed the movie on its opening day because the movie was expected to be a flop.
That’s not what happened, of course, so I wasn’t the only one who got their money’s worth. But I bet I was the only one who saw it 17 1/2 times during the movie’s first two weekends. I know that sounds crazy. Thinking back, I realize my weekend calendar must’ve been wide open to watch the same movie so many times. But I knew something extraordinary was happening.
I’m not going to tell you why I love Star Wars. If you feel the same way, no explanation is necessary. If you don’t, there’s nothing I can say to you that will properly convey my feelings. Forty-six years have passed since I spent two entire weekends in the movie theater. In those days you didn’t have to leave your seat when the movie was over. So, I didn’t. I risked a bladder infection and stayed put.
I even attempted to memorize the dialogue of the movie. But it didn’t take, no matter how many times I watched the movie. So, I brought a tape recorder into the theater. Can you imagine watching a movie four consecutive showings (that was the most I did in a day), then going home to listen to a bootleg recording of the movie you just watched? I would fall asleep hard listening to Star Wars, as if Princess Leia’s life depended on it.
That wasn’t the worst of it, of course. Audio duplication of a movie was illegal. Or at least I believed it was. So, I had to be very covert with where I placed my tape recorder. (I did it more than once.) But the effort was worth it. I loved falling asleep to the sounds of my new favorite movie with the soundtrack of a crazed audience behind it. Even when the audience cheered or laughed over parts of the dialogue, I didn’t care. My recordings (kept on multiple tapes) were priceless.
So, at this point in my blog, some of you may be asking yourselves, “What is he leading up to? Is this a sales pitch for a one-of-a-kind, authentice Star Wars recording?” I wish. That would mean I still had my tapes, which I don’t. No, the reason I’m talking about all of this is because of The Mandalorian.
The Mandalorian is a Star Wars spinoff show on Disney+. If you’d told me in 1977 that Star Wars spinoffs shows would soon become a part of our vocabulary, I probably would’ve called you a liar. But when The Mandalorian came out in 2019, it became the most well-received Star Wars production in decades. Two seasons later, everything about the show—the plot, the special effects, the action scenes, the characters–continue to blow me away.
…and something else.
Do I dare say it? I think The Mandalorian may even be even better than the Star Wars movies. All of them, even A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back, the best two Star Wars movies. I know it’s an apples-to-oranges comparison, because The Mandalorian isn’t a movie. It’s a running series. But I just watched Episode 4 of the third season of The Mandalorian, and I’m starting to feel like I did back in 1977. This show is making history the way Star Wars: A New Hope did.
I don’t know if people will still be talking about The Mandalorian in 46 years, but if, in 1977, you’d put me in a darkened move theater and showed me The Mandalorian, I would’ve stayed in my seat and watched it as many times as I could. And I might even have gone home and come back with a tape recorder.
#IthinkmywifeisaJedi
