VIRGI’S VIEWS ON THIS ‘N THAT

STAR WARS

I saw “Star Wars: Episode 4—A New Hope” at the Park Drive-In in Stockton in 1977 and went home breathing like Darth Vader and trying to use the Force. I still do both to this day. Anyway, with “Star Wars: Episode 9—The Rise of Skywalker” now showing in theatres, I thought I would take a trip down Memory Lane about this epic cinematic space adventure.

The first movie had me the minute the words “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away….” came on the big screen! Plus, I loved the name Skywalker, and who didn’t love that scoundrel, Han Solo? Plus, the musical score is AMAZING!

My favorite Star Wars trilogy is the first trilogy and I have watched those three movies so many times, I couldn’t even begin to put a number to it. But, if I have to, I would say with confidence it is in the thousands! And every time one of them is playing on TV, I know the Force changes the channel and I am hooked for the duration of the remainder of the movie no matter when I am pulled in!

In Episode 4 some of my favorite lines are, “She may not look like much, but she’s got it where it counts, kid,” “Use the Force, Luke,” and “Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi. You’re my only hope.”

In Episode 5 my favorite lines are, “That is why you fail,” and “Do, or do not. There is no try.”

Episode 6 is without a doubt, “I am a Jedi, like my father before me!”

Now, in my Star Wars opinion, Episodes 1 and 2 (The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones) could have been combined and Jar Jar Binks written out of the script—but that’s just me! Plus, that race scene took FOREVER! But I guess you have to have the background information before watching Episode 3 (Revenge of the Sith) because it is all about the moment Anakan Sky-walker becomes Darth Vader! Out of this trilogy, I will say I have only watched the first two movies all the way through exactly one time each, while watching the last movie about forty or fifty times since it first arrived on the big screen and on TV.

Now, who doesn’t love BB8 in “Star Wars: Episode 7—The Force Awakens?” And I do love most of the new