Let Me Explain Why I’m So Excited About Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Not everyone understands why I like Star Wars so much and am so excited that I now get to see a brand new movie in the franchise. I get it. It's just a movie right? It is just a movie, but it's a movie that encompasses a decade worth of my childhood.

Star Wars was released in 1977 when I was six years old. I knew nothing about it, except that it was going to be the movie after Disney's Pete's Dragon shown at the Bridgton Drive-In. I sat in the back seat with my younger brother, with a giant Shop 'n Save paper bag full of popcorn from home as my parents and I watched the Rebels battle the Empire and ultimately destroy their moon-sized battle station. Lightsaber battles, an evil villain dressed all in black, and a young boy who is destined for greatness. It was everything a kid growing up in the 70's and 80's could ask for in a movie.

Then came the toys, and there were so many! We had the Death Star play-set, Luke's X-Wing fighter, a Tie-Fighter, countless action figures and the mother of all Star Wars toys, the Millennium Falcon. Wiffle ball bats were used as light sabers to battle against the neighborhood kids as we each played our favorite characters. I was always Darth Vader. This is how our days were spent as we eagerly awaited three years for the next movie.

The Empire Strikes Back came out in 1980 and was even better than the first movie. I didn't believe him! Darth Vader couldn't be Luke's father. He was lying! He's evil! He killed Luke's father! Obi-Wan said so. The biggest cliffhanger of all time in film had been dropped on me. There were no home videos, internet, or magazines that could spoil this for us. It came out of nowhere, and we had to wait three years to find out the truth because we couldn't just pop the next movie in and keep going.

In 1983 I was 12, and Return of the Jedi was released. I remember watching it at the Opera House in Norway for the short time that the old theater there showed first run movies. It was true! Darth Vader WAS Luke's father. In the end father and son don't join forces in evil. Father saves son from evil and dies in the process, redeemed from his life of evil by the love for his son. This is modern day myhtology that I ate up like a bowl of C-3PO's for breakfast.

It was 16 years before I saw another Star Wars movie. I was 28 and had been working at Q97.9 for three years when The Phantom Menace was released. So much excitement was built up to see a new movie in the series that was the cornerstone of my childhood. This was nothing like my childhood though. Everything was lost in politics, something I don't even enjoy as an adult. And The Force is a product of parasites in your blood? What a let down. I've tried to pretend these new movies don't exist.

Today, there is a new Star Wars movie in theaters. I'm 44. It's been 37 years since I got my first glimpse of that galaxy far, far away and this time it feels right. The reviews are good, the original cast is back, the trailer looks and feels like my Star Wars.

My son is 9, the same age I was when I saw The Empire Strikes Back. Now I have someone to share the grand mythology with. Someone who I can look to and see myself as a child amazed at the wonder on the screen. Father and son, watching together, a brand new Star Wars movie that neither of us has seen. The circle is now complete, and that is why I am so excited for today.

May The Force Be With You.