Family Fridays – Star Wars Edition

Ok, so today is May the third, which means that tomorrow is May the fourth. As in, May the Fourth Be With You, also known as Star Wars Day. (See CollegeHumor’s take here.  Since this is a Family Fridays feature, I’ll warn you that there is a “b-” word in there.) So for today’s Family Friday I’m going to celebrate Star Wars. I will spare you all a rant detailing George Lucas’s many sins after first releasing the original three movies…except to say that of all the horrible things he did to the original movies, I think the worst one is inserting random flashes of light during fight sequences. For those of us who tend to be headache-prone, this was not only completely unnecessary and distracting, but also potentially painful.

Anyways, the original movies are really fun family movies. Apart from the dialog they’re just great. Some of the effects look a bit aged now, and the splicing in of later technology was not done very well, but this epic, “Good Shall Triumph” saga is well worth sitting through a few bumps in the road. All three are rated PG, and the most risqué thing in all three films is Carrie Fisher wearing a metal bikini. There is fighting and death, but also some great themes of friendship, loyalty, redemption, good vs. evil, family bonds and so on. The newer movies seemed much more graphic to me than the original trilogy. When I did some research online, I saw that people were letting their kids watch Star Wars as early as five years old (or younger!), and some were waiting until ten years old. I wish I remember how old I was when I first saw them, but I do remember being very afraid of Darth Vader. Then again, I’ve always been kind of a wuss. I don’t know what we’ll do with our son – he loves the soundtrack; sometimes the Imperial March (Vader theme) was the only thing that would calm him down and get him to sleep (should I be worried that he has a natural affinity towards evil?). I personally would probably lean more towards waiting until he’s closer to ten than five, but my husband may have other ideas.

I haven’t read any of the adult books set in the Star Wars universe, but for Christmas last year my brother gave me a book called Darth Vader and Son by Jeffrey Brown. It is absolutely genius. It’s a collection of one page cartoons (so it doesn’t follow a story line), exploring the theme of how Darth Vader would go about his business if he also was raising young Luke Skywalker. Many are laugh out loud funny, some are poignantly sweet, and if some make you tear up a little bit (hey, I was nine months pregnant!), just remember how the story ends. [As an aside, my other brother gave me “Goodnight, iPad”, which deserves its own post. It was an excellent Christmas.]

This weekend, treat yourself to a trip down memory lane and watch Star Wars. After you’ve done so, check out Darth Vader and Son. And whatever you do, remember: “May the Fourth be with you!” Force. I meant Force.