It’s crazy to think that 14 years ago today I was skipping school with Clang! Boom! Steam! to see Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope on the big screen for the first time.
I was a junior in high school and this might have been the biggest, coolest, thing I did during High school.
We slept out overnight in the cold Utah winter to see it at The Academy theatre in Provo, Utah. A one room movie palace that was one of the last few of its kind. Sadly, it’s since been torn down to make for a high rise… I must have bought tickets to see it three times that first day. And there was nothing so tremendously exhilarating as seeing the Star Wars logo appear on the screen for the first time. I mean, I’d seen Return of the Jedi as a baby, I was three when it came out and it’s truly my earliest memories, but this time… This is the first time I knew what was going to hit me.
Sure, there were problems with the Special Edition. Han not shooting first and Jabba the Hutt, but there were so many additions to this version of the film that made it that much more intense and incredible. My favorite addition to the Special Edition of A New Hope, more than any other, was the inclusion of the scene with Biggs toward the end. It turned his loss into something truly heartfelt and much less anonymous.
On the other hand, it’s been 14 years since some people began to turn on the saga. And instead of going quietly into the night and ignoring it, they’ve become one of the loudest minorities in the world (particularly on the Internet) about how much Star Wars has sold out or turned into something they hate or whatever.
But I don’t care. On that cold January morning, during the first matinee, 14 years ago, none of that existed, and I was left with the pure and holy experience of seeing Star Wars on the big screen for the first time.
Truly, one of the best and most memorable days of my life.