"Patience young padawan, keep your focus in the here and now"
Qui-Gon Jin, to Obi Wan Kenobi
Before you start reading, why not get a little background music? Click on the one you want.
This will be my humble little tribute to the Star Wars Saga, and in order to keep
it as popular as possible, you will Groovy Star Wars sites you should see before the y2k bug kills everything...
www.starwars.com is the official site so go see it.
A long long time ago, in a galaxy far far away...this dude named George Lucas had an idea for a story. When he finished the basics of it, he realized it was way more than one movie's worth. It turned out to be nine. As a young and relatively unknown director (having only done THX-1138 and American Graffiti), Lucas felt he couldn't start his story from the absolute beginning so rather he started in medias res with his saga...the first movie released in 1977 was "Star Wars-Episode IV-A New Hope".
In 1997 Special Editions of these three classic films were cleaned up, remastered and rereleased to the public in theaters. Of course the response was overwhelming, and this led up to the release of the long awaited first story in the saga...Star Wars-Episode I-The Phantom Menace. Released in May of 1999, the masses were amazed by space battles, lightsaber duels and droid armies. The person well acquainted with Episodes 4, 5, and 6 will see a detailed time line unfold. It starts with the fall of the Republic (to give way to the Empire) and the rise of Senator Palpatine (who will soon become that Emperor dude).
We also see a much younger Obi Wan Kenobi with his teacher Qui Gon Jin. And we see a young Anakin Skywalker who will eventually grow up to be Darth Vader. (but he seemed like such a cute little guy in this movie! how could he become evil? )
Qui-Gon (Leeam Neeson), Darth Maul (Ray Park), and Obi Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor)
Star Wars Main Title Theme
Imperial Death March
Creature Cantina Song
Emperor Palpatine's Theme
Final Battle Music
NOT
find Ewoks nor Jar Jar here. You will however find a link to www.jarjarsucks.com
"And a mighty roar was heard from the crowd...there was much rejoicing" (quote not from Star Wars)
www.episodeii.com is the rumor mill for all kinds of fun stuff on the movie everybody waits to see.
www.jarjarsucks.com is the aforementioned site for dissing the freak from The Phantom Menace.
I just HAD to have this page linked!!
Star Wars was more than a movie back then, it was something that redefined motion pictures. It was an event...a happening. Nobody had seen anything like it. Before Star Wars, science fiction movies were bland and uninteresting (see 2001 or star trek-the motion picture). This movie came along and captured the imaginations of an entire generation of movie goers. And special effects for Star Wars required Lucas to start an entirely new company to handle it, now one of the forerunners of cinematic special effects called Industrial Light and Magic or ILM.
So anyway if you haven't seen Star Wars yet, what are you waiting for? It's great. In 1980, the long awaited sequel was released, The Empire Strikes Back. Episode IV had the good guy Rebellion beating the evil Empire. Episode V, The Empire Strikes Back, has Darth Vader and his minions whooping rebel butt all across the galaxy. Many Star Wars fans' favorite film is this one...including mine...there are some excellent plot twists in it. And from a technical point of view, this movie is absolutely phenomonal. The AT-AT fighting scene on the Ice Planet of Hoth was done with stop-motion cinematics.
And the Millineum Falcon's flight through the meteors is dramatic indeed. Plus we meet Yoda, who would inspire a Weird Al song soon after.
In 1983, the final film was released. Originally called Revenge of the Jedi, it was changed after Lucas realized that Jedi don't look for revenge. He changed it to Return of the Jedi (and made collectors' items out of "Revenge" merchandise, like Revenge of the Jedi posters that typically go for 250 dollars). ROTJ focused on the final massive battle between the Empire and the Rebellion, and on Luke Skywalker as a Jedi Knight facing the most evil Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine. Oh yeah, and the good guys go down to this forest moon of Endor where a bunch of stupid teddy bears help to beat up on the bad guys.
There are a bunch of Jedi in this movie, although once Darth Vader comes around, he'll go and kill off Jedi left and right...cuz he's a bad dude! This will happen in the Clone Wars (probably to take place in episode iii...see the aforementioned www.episodeii.com for rumors) and there will be lightsaber fights galore! And who doesn't like a good lightsaber fight...
Weird Al Was Here!
Here are the lyrics to Weird Al's song "The Saga Begins" which goes along the lines of "American Pie".
The Saga Begins
A long long time ago
in a galaxy far away
Naboo was under an attack
And I thought me and Qui-Gon Jinn
Could talk the Federation into
Maybe cutting them a little slack
But their response, it didn't thrill us
They locked the doors and tried to kill us
We escaped from that gas
Then met Jar Jar and Boss Nass
We took a bongo from the scene
And we went to Theed to see the queen
We all wound up on Tatooine
That's where we found this boy...
Oh my my, this here Anakin guy
May be Vader someday later - now he's just a small fry
And he left his home and kissed his mommy goodbye
Sayin' "Soon I'm gonna be a Jedi"
"Soon I'm gonna be a Jedi"
Did you know this junkyard slave
Isn't even old enough to shave
But he can use the Force they say
Ahh, do you see him hitting on the queen
Though he's just nine and she's fourteen
Yeah, he's probably gonna marry her someday
Well, I know he built C-3PO
And I've heard how fast his pod can go
And we were broke, it's true
So we made a wager or two
He was a prepubescent flyin' ace
And the minute Jabba started off that race
Well, I know who would win first place
Oh yes, it was our boy
We started singin'... My my, this here Anakin guy
May be Vader someday later - now he's just a small fry
And he left his home and kissed his mommy goodbye
Sayin' "Soon I'm gonna be a Jedi"
"Soon I'm gonna be a Jedi"
Now we finally got to Coruscant
The Jedi Council we knew would want
To see how good the boy could be
So we took him there and we told the tale
How his midi-chlorians were off the scale
And he might fulfill that prophecy
Oh, the Council was impressed, of course
Could he bring balance to the Force?
They interviewed the kid
Oh, training they forbid
Because Yoda sensed in him much fear
And Qui-Gon said, "Now listen here
Just stick it in your pointy ear
I still will teach this boy"
He was singin'... My my, this here Anakin guy
May be Vader someday later - now he's just a small fry
And he left his home and kissed his mommy goodbye
Sayin' "Soon I'm gonna be a Jedi"
"Soon I'm gonna be a Jedi"
We caught a ride back to Naboo
'Cause Queen Amidala wanted to
I frankly would've liked to stay
We all fought in that epic war
And it wasn't long at all before
Little Hotshot flew his plane and saved the day
And in the end some Gungans died
Some ships blew up and some pilots fried
A lot of folks were croakin'
The battle droids were broken
And the Jedi I admire most
Met up with Darth Maul and now he's toast
Well, I'm still here and he's a ghost
I guess I'll train this boy
And I was singin'... My my, this here Anakin guy
May be Vader someday later - now he's just a small fry
And he left his home and kissed his mommy goodbye
Sayin' "Soon I'm gonna be a Jedi"
"Soon I'm gonna be a Jedi"
We were singin'... My my, this here Anakin guy
May be Vader someday later - now he's just a small fry
And he left his home and kissed his mommy goodbye
Sayin' "Soon I'm gonna be a Jedi"
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