What I'm about to tell you is 100 percent true, no matter how much you will
want to tell me I'm full of it: there are American adults who have never seen
"Star Wars."
The 1977 George Lucas film is a timeless global phenomenon and may be one
of the most embedded of all our cultural artifacts. It spawned an empire that
Disney ended up buying for $4 billion, in large part because of the passion and
commitment of its worldwide audience. But still some people, even those who
watch other movies, and are part of mainstream society, managed to make it to
2013 without ever seeing it.
For one group of "Star Wars" newbies, though, their lifelong exclusion from
one of the biggest clubs on Earth is over.
Take Zeal Caiden, and Jaqueline Marie, for example. A couple for two years,
neither had seen what might be alternately called "Star Wars," "Episode IV," or
"A New Hope." Until Saturday night, that is, when along with at least a dozen
other first-timers (and several dozen "Star Wars" veterans), the pair finally
laid eyes on Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Princess Leia, Darth Vader, and the rest
of the gang.
The occasion was a screening for "Star Wars" newbies timed to the global
May the 4th Be With You celebrations and hosted by Change.org and Mashable
deputy editor and "How Star Wars Conquered the Universe" author Chris
Taylor.
Caiden and Marie didn't meet or bond over their mutual "Star Wars"-free
lives. In fact, the two only recently discovered that neither had seen the movie
-- a befuddling statistical improbability in my book. But when word went out
about Saturday night's screening -- an attempt to set the Guinness World Record
for most people to see "Star Wars" for the first time together (in the 21st
century) -- they knew it was time to do something about one of the gaping holes
in their cultural repertoires. "We're just black sheep," Caiden said. "But not
any more."
How could it be?
Taylor, who's in the middle of writing his book, believes that even those
who haven't seen "Star Wars" nonetheless still know its characters, some of its
plot, and many of its signature lines. I wanted to see if that was true. I also
wanted to know how it was even possible that these otherwise normal folks had
skipped one of the 20th century's biggest cultural touchstones. And what it
would be like for them to actually see the movie.
Talking to 32-year-old Jamie Yamaguchi, I heard an explanation I could at
least understand. The Oakley, Calif., resident told me her parents were strict
and religious and she saw very few movies growing up. "Star Wars" wasn't one of
them.
Yet Yamaguchi's own young children had seen it, and her lack of having done
so was a handicap in helping them understand the film's subtleties. "They asked
me if Luke and Princess Leia know they were brother and sister," Yamaguchi said.
"And I was like, 'they are?'"
When "Star Wars" isn't a big part of your life, it simply doesn't mean all
that much. That might explain why Yamaguchi had fallen asleep every time she had
tried to watch it before. Saturday night, though, she was determined to finish
the task, so she loaded up on coffee beforehand.
I asked her what she knew about the movie. She said she knew about Princess
Leia, Obi-Wan Kenobi, R2-D2, and "the gold guy." "Oh, and Darth Vader," she
added.
Another one with a vaguely acceptable excuse was Jorge Tovar, 33. He's from
Mexico. I thought about it, though, and decided that it was still
incomprehensible. After all, they have "Star Wars" south of the border. But
Tovar said he was just never interested in "Star Wars," despite the fact that
when he was a kid he had little R2-D2 and C-3PO action figures. "They were just
toys," he said. "Robots."
So what did Tovar know of the plot? He said that he knew that the "bad guy
is Darth Vader," and knew the line (from "The Empire Strikes Back"), "Luke, I'm
your father."
Of course, Tovar's girlfriend said that when she first met him, "He thought
the phrase was, 'Luke, I'm your daddy.'"
The big reveal...not!
The explanation I had the hardest time understand was that of Tami Fisher.
A 32-year-old who grew up in Southern California and Utah, she said she just
wasn't interested in movies about space. Then again, she also said her parents
limited her movie watching to National Geographic and Care Bears films. As such,
"Star Wars" was never a draw.
And what did Fisher know about the movie, or at least the franchise? "I
know the big reveal," she said. "The father-son relationship between whatever
their names are."
I tried not to tell her that she wouldn't be seeing the big reveal. That
didn't seem fair.
The oath
Before the film began, Taylor stood up and explained the genesis behind the
evening's event. It turns out, he said, that a year ago, it came out that a
Mashable writer hadn't seen "Star Wars." The reaction of the staff was kind of
like "if you saw a live unicorn."
Clearly, he wanted to do something for the world's "Star Wars"-less
population. This was his chance.
Only one thing remained: administering an oath. "I solemnly swear that I'm
about to watch 'Star Wars' for the very first time," he had the newbies recite.
"May the force be with you."
And?
Afterward, I circled back to some of the newbies to see what they'd
thought. They all seemed to have liked the film, even if it maybe didn't have
that much of an impact.
Fisher told me she was "bummed out that the big reveal didn't happen," and
admitted that she had had expectations after all. She also said that she
expected to see "The Empire Strikes Back" and "Return of the Jedi" soon.
For her part, Yamaguchi did stay awake through the whole film and said that
though she thought "Star Wars" was a little slow, she'd enjoyed it and probably
will watch the other films in the series.
Caiden had perhaps the most "Star Wars" experience among the newbies. He'd
played hundreds of hours of "Star Wars" video games and had even seen "Episode
I: The Phantom Menace." But even he recognized that he'd done something
significant. "It's been sitting in a time capsule for [decades]," he said,
"waiting for us to see it."
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