Geek Out
Confession time. After thirty years, I still geek out every time Han Solo flies up at the end of Star Wars and saves Luke's bacon.
I'm not a sci-fi geek. I could barely watch the last three movies and didn't watch the Star Trek or Battlestar Galactica TV shows, but I caught the end of Star Wars on HBO, and I have to admit, I marked out like a seven year-old again. That moment to me defined cinematic excitement for me as a kid, and it still gets me.
That was the problem with the (chronologically) first three Star Wars movies to me, no Han Solo. Those three movies were about Anakin growing up and putting on the Darth Vader mask, and everything led up to that. The characters didn't change or evolve except for Anakin, and that was not only obvious, but horribly acted.
Star Wars/Empire/Jedi had Luke and his destiny as the big story, but the evolution of Han from cold-blooded mercenary into freedom fighter and family man was what sold the first trilogy. Han was a smuggler, gambler, and murderer. He had his chance to leave with his money, but rejected his selfish nature for an act of heroism that turned him from a common criminal into a traitor. He made the choice that defined his character, and made him exciting and three-dimensional. Without a character to develop like that in the first three movies, it was pretty boring.
Okay, maybe I am still a bit of a Star Wars geek.
Just for future reference, I also get a bit misty when Willie Mays Hays comes in from second to score the winning run at the end of "Major League", and will not permit anyone else in the house to speak while Swayze is giving his "be nice" speech in Roadhouse.
Any moments for you guys that you always geek out for?
2 Comments:
I still really like that scene in Fast Times at Ridgemont High when Phoebe Cates dives in the pool.
And when Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder do their We Bad walk into jail.
I don't know that this counts as "geeking out," but I'm kind of dangerously addicted to older British television and it's nearly impossible for someone to watch an episode with me and not hear one or more useless facts about the show, or the actors, or the actors' other shows, or an actor's child's dog, or something. I've been told it's kind of annoying.
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