Thoughts on "Sith"

It's less than two weeks until the highly anticipated release of "Star Wars III (or VI, depending on your frame of reference) Revenge of the Sith." I am really excited to see how Anakin finally becomes the evil Vader. I know I'm really old, in some people's eyes, but Star Wars was one of the first movies that I ever saw at a movie theater. It was 1977, and I was only 10 years old. It was the days of Jimmy Carter ("Panama, you can have the panama canal back") and high gas prices ("somethings never change"). I remember my aunt Linda coming and taking me to the Gem Theater in Kannapolis. The price (I don't remember since when your 10 years old, you hardly pay for anything) was probably not much more than what a ticket to the Gem is today ("somethings never change"). I also believe some of the sticky places on the floor are the same today as back in 1977 :) When your 10, you still have a great imagination and everything seems larger than life. The movie was an incredible thing to see on the big screen. Videos on a TV, regardless how large your TV is (darel), does not do these movies justice.

I remember the opening scene, with the scroll telling about "A New Hope" but here was this space ship being attacked and taken over by these "storm troopers." Even at the age of 10, I thought that only Adolph Hitler had these soldiers, and that was 30+ years earlier. There was this firefight on board the ship, and throught the smoke came this creature, Darth Vader. For a 10 year old in the Gem Theater, He was really scary. The voice was the worse thing about him. He definetly sounded like he needed to sit down to talk to Oprah or Larry King, but they were not around in 1977. When and where was this "New Hope" going to come from. The movie did have a happy ending with the Death Star destroyed and, I thought, Vader spinning out of control in his ship to never be seen again. Boy, I was wrong about that in 1977. Vader and company would come back for more, in 1980 (Ronald Reagan, enough said) and in 1983 (U2 becoming popular, Amen). He came back in 1999 (NKCA basketball sucked, "let's be honest here") then in 2002 (NKCA basketball was conference champions!!!).

It's 2005, and I'm really excited about going to see how this will end up with Anakin putting on one of the most famous costumes, and getting "that voice" back. I hope to see it at Midnight when it opens and maybe a couple of more times that first weekend. "May the Force be with You."