May the 4th Be With You

Undoubtedly Star Wars was the most influential cultural phenomenon for me growing up, and like many guys my age it was the first Father/Son outing of our young lives, I was seven.  My better half got a copy of IV-VI on blu ray for his birthday which, coincidentally happens to be May 4th.

Having watched the new print of A New Hope for the first time last night (it's actually been quite a while since I saw it at all)  I can say it really does stand the test of time.  While the dialogue now seems quite cheesy and with some rather wooden acting, it is impossible to deny the place that Star Wars: A New Hope occupies in the history of cinema.

Everything from the highly original design to the soundtrack is remarkable and I have to admit to loving the original poster art, it's iconic and so very of it's time.  It was also the first time I really took notice of merchandising.  I collected quite a few figures and spent many hours building Millennium Falcons and Death Stars out of polystyrene packaging in order to ship them around the universe that was my bedroom.

The image below is one of the most beautiful black and white stills of Luke Skywalker, my boyhood hero and inspiration for many imaginary games played with my childhood friends.

Happy Star Wars Day and a big happy birthday to the man in my life who makes me so very proud and happy.