Star Wars is all about certain points of view, and each time I watch the films I have a new lens on, shading the events, arousing new questions, and coming to new understandings about the mythology as a whole.
One of the things I strive to do is imagine what it would be like watching the saga unfold from Episode I through to Episode VI as though I’d never seen a Star Wars movie. It’s a hard thing.
But I’ve found something as rare as a Unicorn, a person who has never seen a Star Wars movie. And they’re willing to let me ask them questions and probe them about it and write up their first hand experience and my vicarious experience through them.
The young lady who agreed to give up her Star Wars virginity with me explained to me what she knows of them going in:
I kind of know the basic story line of the original trilogy and I’m fairly familiar with the characters. I know the basic story because I love spoofs, and because of Fanboys. I know the first one is based on either The Odessy or The Illiad, I don’t recall which. I never saw it because I’m a die hard Trekker and I think Luke Skywalker seems like a whiny little bitch. I would have rather watched the spoofs than the real thing. I absolutely loved the Ewok movies when I was little, though. I still want them on DVD.
So tonight we’re watching The Phantom Menace. She seems like a tough audience, but we’ll see how she reacts.
Why did she agree to watch them with me? She told me, “I’m willing to watch it with you because it means so much to you. I share the movies I’m passionate about with my friends, and I know how it feels when they’ve never seen it and they end up loving it. I am also breaking down and watching it so I can answer your damn pub quiz questions. Also, so FanBoys will be even funnier to me.”
We’ll check in in the next day or two and get her impressions of The Phantom Menace and her predictions of what is to come.
This should be quite the interesting experiment.