Neat article about Star Wars and person who wanted to be like Han Solo

[Democrats_win]

This short article will be a pleasant surprise for LGBT Star Wars fans.

http://www.time.com/time/covers/1101050509/amcloud.html
How Star Wars Saved My Life by John Cloud
--snip
I was 6 years old when Star Wars was released in May 1977. I don't remember the first time I saw it, but I do remember that I forced my mom to take me so many times that she eventually began to sleep through it. Sometimes I would poke her before one of the more exhilarating moments—Han Solo killing the bounty hunter Greedo; Han making the jump to light speed in his jalopy, the Millennium Falcon; Han doing just about anything—and her eyes would momentarily flutter. I was so astonished she could sleep through the movie that I was worried something might be seriously wrong with her. But it also felt vertiginous, even perilous, to have this world to myself.

For the filmically snobby—those, say, who remember 1977 for Annie Hall—the release of George Lucas' space opera marks the point at which American film shook off any aesthetic aspirations and embraced explosions. Depending on what kind of movies you like—the Bonnie and Clyde-Midnight Cowboy artiness that preceded Lucas' blockbuster-to-change-all-blockbusters or the Top Gun-Matrix bombast that followed—Star Wars was either the end or the beginning.

For me, it was almost literally the beginning. I don't recall if I saw any films before Star Wars, and afterward I evaluated every film against it. I liked seeing 20th Century Fox movies just so I could catch the studio's martial drumbeat theme, which precedes the words "A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away ..." Upon hearing the Fox drums, I always hoped the projectionist would roll Star Wars and not, say, Chariots of Fire, which my parents cruelly sold to me and my brother as "a movie about racing." My first non-kid's movie was Corvette Summer, the 1978 embarrassment I wanted to see solely because it starred Mark Hamill. "He won't be anything like Luke Skywalker in this one," Mom said. I wouldn't budge.

We lived in suburban Kansas City, Mo., that summer of Star Wars. I was an incipiently tortured child who had crushes on most of the boys in the neighborhood. That was confusing—to me as well as most of the boys in the neighborhood—but my mounting uncertainty found a clarifying counterpoint in Han Solo....

--more at the link

[Ian David]

1. Han Solo = James Dean with a Spaceship

Rebel without The Force.

[Democrats_win]

2. LOL, Cool!

[Ian David]

3. Rebel Without a Cause and Star Wars both share some archtypes...

common themes, and mythos.

[dsc]

4. Star Wars was the first movie I saw more than once

It came out just when I was the age for that kind of film. I had the hugest crush on Mark Hamil. Something about those blond, corn fed looks and baby face. I love what science fiction does when it is at its best which is take us to places we never could otherwise go and tackling issues that we aren't ready to tackle.

[davidinalameda]

5. what about the robots??

we all know that C3PO and R2 had something going on

[Democrats_win]

6. Probably the world's greatest love story.

[Chovexani]

7. Cool article

FYI, in the Knights of the Old Republic computer game (which, btw, is better than the prequels), there's a possibility for female player characters to have a lesbian romance with one of the other characters. I thought that was nifty. :)

[Democrats_win]

8. I didn't know that.