OK, so maybe he was mixing his \u201cStar Wars\u201d and \u201cStar Trek\u201d references. But when President Barack Obama spoke of getting congressional leaders into a \u201cJedi mind meld\u201d back in 2013, eight years after the last \u201cStar Wars\u201d movie had come out, he was displaying in one small way just how firmly the franchise had rooted itself in our popular culture.<\/p>\n
Well, the new \u201cStar Wars\u201d is finally out. But since it might take you some time to get to the multiplex, here\u2019s something to chew on while you\u2019re waiting \u2014 a few reasons \u201cStar Wars\u201d has retained its exalted position in the pop culture firmament:<\/p>\n
\nIt made science fiction cool<\/strong><\/p>\n Just ask a science fiction nerd. \u201cI remember going with my wife and saying, \u2018Look at these audiences!\u2019\u201d says Paul Levinson, sci-fi author and communications professor at Fordham University. \u201cThis franchise really brought science fiction, which had a cult following, into the mainstream in a huge way.\u201d And in a way, too, that managed to resonate with little kids, grandparents and everyone in between.<\/p>\n It spawned a parallel universe<\/strong><\/p>\n And we don\u2019t mean up in space \u2014 we mean down here on Earth, in human shopping malls. The comics, the video games and, of course, the toys. \u201cThe films are the mother ship,\u201d says Henry Jenkins, professor of communications, journalism and cinematic arts at the USC Annenberg School. \u201cMeanwhile, all these other forms are generating content. These integrated systems have become the norm for successful Hollywood franchises.\u201d<\/p>\n Especially the toys<\/strong><\/p>\n How big has \u201cStar Wars\u201d been to the toy industry? \u201cThe biggest property the industry has even seen, bigger than any other by billions,\u201d says Jim Silver of TTPM, an online toy review site. \u201cTo put it in perspective, just imagine \u201cFrozen\u201d lasting for close to 40 years, but with a much larger demographic.\u201d<\/p>\n Humor<\/strong><\/p>\n One of the best things going for \u201cThe Force Awakens\u201d \u2014 and this is hardly a spoiler \u2014 is its liberal use of humor amidst the action, a quality it takes from the early films, particularly from Han Solo (more on him soon) and, of course, C-P30 and R2-D2. \u201cRobots had never been funny before,\u201d says Levinson.<\/p>\n Um, Harrison Ford, people!<\/strong><\/p>\n To many, the dashing young Ford\u2019s embodiment of swashbuckling space cowboy Solo was the best thing in the original film \u2014 he seemed to be having way more fun and way less stress than everyone else. Well, he\u2019s still dashing at 73. And he\u2019s prominent in the new film.<\/p>\n Characters to relate to<\/strong><\/p>\n Solo\u2019s one of the best, but the whole \u201cStar Wars\u201d universe presented characters people could relate to and remember. \u201cIn the end, characters and story are at the heart of the films, not the special effects,\u201d argues USC\u2019s Jenkins. \u201cThey have so many dimensions. Compare that to \u2018Close Encounters of the Third Kind\u2019 (which also came out in 1977). Most of us don\u2019t remember those characters.\u201d<\/p>\n Fathers and sons<\/strong><\/p>\n What \u201cStar Wars\u201d line is more iconic that \u201cI am your father?\u201d (And to satisfy purists out there, it\u2019s \u201cNo, I am your father,\u201d not the oft-quoted \u201cLuke, I am your father.\u201d) The father-son dynamic is \u201ca motif that goes back to the ancient Greeks,\u201d says Levinson. Fans will be happy to know the motif figures again in the new film.<\/p>\n The lure of the saber<\/strong><\/p>\n Quick, name a movie-related toy that\u2019s had more staying power than the lightsaber. \u201cI turned everything into a lightsaber as a kid \u2014 wrapping paper rolls, flashlights,\u201d says Gerry Canavan, a professor of English at Marquette who specializes in science fiction. Canavan was born after the first movie came out, but feels like he entered the world knowing the story \u2014 and the saber. \u201cThe noise, that hum \u2014 there\u2019s something awesome about it,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n AND THAT CRAZY HAIRSTYLE<\/p>\n Call it cinnamon buns, bagels, doughnuts \u2014 we\u2019re talking about that crazy original Princess Leia hairstyle. Where the heck did it come from? Lucas told Time magazine in 2002 that he was looking \u201cto create something different that wasn\u2019t fashion\u201d \u2014 he certainly got that right \u2014 and went with \u201ca kind of Southwestern Pancho Villa woman revolutionary look.\u201d Whatever. It\u2019s hard to forget.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" OK, so maybe he was mixing his \u201cStar Wars\u201d and \u201cStar Trek\u201d references. But when President Barack Obama spoke of getting congressional leaders into a \u201cJedi mind meld\u201d back in 2013, eight years after the last \u201cStar Wars\u201d movie had come out, he was displaying in one small way just how firmly the franchise had […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[65],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-22254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-nation-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22254"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22254\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22254"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=22254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}