[Guinness]

So..over the last week or so the phenomena that is Star Wars has been dissected to death…

Poncey, southern nancy, film critics spouting gobbledegook platitudes, newspapers running silly season fillers and pullouts..

Tell you what, way back in 1977 when I watched it wide eyed..

I was used to watching science fiction, usually ‘b’ movies (the thing, quatermass, the invaders etc..) that were more comedy than sci-fi. Wobbly sets, poor dialogue laced with nonsensical scientific terms, actors in silly uniforms, obvious rubber costumed bad guys that you rarely saw until the last 10 minutes of the film.

Along comes Star Wars….basically cowboys and indians in space.

Instead of the bad guy in a black hat and mask…erm…a bad guy in a black hat and mask combination.

Instead of a covered wagon crossing the space of monument valley…a spaceship crossing…erm…the monumental vastness of space.

Instead of the guy in a white hat rescuing the settlers from the baddies…erm..a guy in a white twinset rescuing a princess from the baddies.

What set this film apart for me…were the special effects, (these were the days when people were blown away by pong and tank commander consoles in pubs), the fact that you saw the bad guys from the outset, and, most importantly for me, how George Lucas managed to get me to suspend belief for 2 hours and accept that despite the fact there was a galactic empire with hundreds of massive spaceships and lasers, a guy with a sword who spoke to a ghost kicked the crud out of them.