Return of the Jedi

Return of the Jedi

I have talked to several people who can think of nothing else but Star Wars: Episode III-Revenge of the Sith. These are huge fans who have waited a long time for this movie to come out. All of their excitement reminds me of a night in my life a long time ago at a movie theater far far away...

During the spring of 1983 I worked on the school paper. We wrote several articles and posted pictures of the most anticipated movie of the decade; Return Of The Jedi. It was the talk of the school and the excitement grew the closer the release date neared.

One local theater got the, then novel, idea of showing the movie at 12:01 AM on the day of its release. This meant getting to the theater the evening before to buy the tickets and wait in line. Our father miraculously agreed to go with Scott and I.  Patrick did not come with as he was not the Star Wars fans that Scott and I were.

We bought our tickets around 8:00 PM. The ticket price seemed suddenly higher than normal, but our notoriously cheap dad surprisingly paid with minimal grief. He asked us if we wanted to come back later or wait in line. As the line was already forming Scott and I decided to stay. I was again delighted that our dad so easily agreed.

We spent the hours talking to each other. I remember Scott and I laughing as two girls showed up at 10:00 to buy tickets. They got all pissy because the tickets were sold out.

As we waited in line, Sue, a girl I had a crush on all through high school, approached us and we talked briefly. She had friends who were serious science-fiction fans and were one of the first fans in line. After our conversation she went up to the front of the line to join her friends. I then had to answer several questions about Sue posed by our dad.

Finally we were let into the theater. The concession line was huge and we just wanted to find our seats, so we skipped the snacks. The theater quickly filled in. The packed house was filled with conversation and buzz. Then the lights went out and as if by magic the room fell silent. The 20th Century logo displayed and the drums played. Everyone in the theater was instantly transported to a galaxy far far away.

The movie started and every time one of the major characters first came on the screen the audience would applaud as if excited to be reunited with an old friend. We all watched in a rapture of imaginative joy. The movie played fast and exciting. We all waited for the answer to the big question posed in The Empire Strikes Back. Was Darth Vader really Luke's father? It had been the subject of many conversations of Star Wars fans.

The huge space battle and the duel between Vader and Luke mesmerized the audience. Some of the dialogue became instantly classic. "Oh, I'm afraid the deflector shield will be quite operational when your friends arrive." "If you will not turn to the Dark side...then perhaps she will?" "You rebel scum." "I'll never turn to the Dark Side. You've failed, your highness. I am a Jedi, like my father before me."

Return of the Jedi

The movie that we in the room wished would go on forever, finally ended. We all walked out of the theater reflecting in awe of the special effects and amazing space battles. Getting to watch that movie was like being a little kid finally getting to open presents on Christmas morning.

Looking back now, I realize that going to see that movie represented a lot of things for me. It was near the end of my adolescence as I would graduate from High school that next year.  I was a shy kid, I liked Sue but had no idea how to make a play for her.  We came from vastly different worlds.It was also the last good thing I would do with my father. Later that year he would leave us for a woman he had been seeing. Perhaps he was so accommodating that night because he knew the end was near? Or perhaps he was so agreeable out of the guilt for having an affair.

Either way, Return Of The Jedi marks an important time in my life. It was a goodbye to my youth and a hello to some ugly realities that were about to happen. Looking back at Return Of The Jedi I realize that the movie was not as great as I remember. Those damn Ewoks!  What was Lucas thinking? Yet, I will always remember that evening I spent with my Dad and brother watching a movie that became, in a small way, a very important moment of my life.