Star Wars Blue Ray
Toshi and Allen Watch Star Wars for the first time.. Chapter 1: We kick off a special series with a first viewing of 'Star Wars' on Blu-ray
What happens when 21st century kids finally watch the biggest myth of the '70s?
Thursday, Sep 22, 2011 This day has been a long time coming. We all have landmarks by which we measure our lives and our accomplishments, goals you've set for yourself that you've either accomplished or not, and I'm certainly someone who holds film experiences very dear. The moment I knew I'd spend the rest of my life somehow involved in movies took place in a dark movie theater when I was seven years old, and it was one of those lightning bolt occasions. I felt pinned to the back of my chair as I watched a tiny blockade runner fleeing from a seemingly endless Star Destroyer that just kept coming out and over, more real than anything I had ever seen, and I've never wavered in my determination to be involved in storytelling somewhere, somehow. Because of the relevance of "Star Wars" in my development as a fan of storytelling in general, reaching the moment of sharing these films with my kids has been one of my primary goals since I've been writing about the entire experience of sharing narrative with my children. I know people who start screening the films for their kids as soon as they are old enough to open their eyes, and I respect that. Of course I know other people who don't think it's of any particular importance, and I respect that as well. For me, "Star Wars" is special, and I wanted to wait until they were old enough to process them as stories, so they're not just wallpaper, images without context. Up till now, I've only shown them episodes of "The Clone Wars" computer animated series. They know the characters from that show, like Captain Rex and some of the other clones, and they know Anakin and Obi-Wan and Yoda as they are in the series, heroes running around fighting bad guys. They know very little about Luke or Han or Princess Leia aside from a few photos they've seen in books in the house and they know Darth Vader simply as an image that they find really interesting and exciting. That's more than I knew in 1977 when I walked into that theater, but it's not so much that I feel like anything was ruined for them ahead of time. With the release of "Star Wars: The Complete Saga" on Blu-ray, I felt like this was the moment. They're both in school now. They're media savvy in a way I wasn't at their age, and I think they're ready in terms of emotional ability to handle material. I've seen them react to films in very visceral ways, and I know that they adapt what they watch into their inner fantasy lives. I was chipping away at "Mass Effect 2" one weekend recently, and the boys know they aren't allowed to participate in or watch any of dad's video games yet. It's a particular kind of media choice we've made, and it's made for an easy conversation when it comes up. It's just part of their world at this point. That doesn't mean they aren't interested, though, and they spent their day trying to get in to see what I was doing, coming up with excuses to walk past my door or to come in for a moment. And when that didn't work, they asked me if they could see the cover for what I was playing, and based exclusively on that cover, they then ran around the house and "played" their own version of "Mass Effect 2" that was hilarious and charming and completely little-kid insane. They love to fold in new things to that shared imaginary world they build together as they run around the house, swords or action figures or squirt guns in hand, and I remember from my own childhood exposure just how big a piece of real estate in my own imagination was taken up by "Star Wars." Any time I've brought the subject up around adult fans of the series, I get stern lectures about how I need to brace myself for the idea that my kids might actually like the Prequels. I don't need to be told that, though, because I'm fairly sure they will like them. They're big and colorful and they're filled with aliens and other planets and action and stormtroopers and all sorts of things they'll dig. And they already have a fondness for the "Clone Wars" animated show, as I mentioned. I suspect that the Prequels will play just fine with them. And I view the Prequels as having a particular place in the line-up of the films, and I'm curious to watch them again after all this time with that in mind. In the six years since "Revenge Of The Sith" came out, I haven't seen it once. I haven't rewatched "Attack Of The Clones" since 2003, and I haven't seen "The Phantom Menace" since about the same time. I did not even own copies of the films until the box set of the Blu-rays showed up at my house last week. I have many different versions of the original trilogy in my collection, including DVD burns of the laserdiscs I bought of the pre-Special Edition versions. And I love all of those editions. Even so, and even with my own complicated feelings about what Lucas has done to his own work over the years, I feel like starting with the new transfers is the best way to kick things off for the boys. The sound alone on the Blu-rays is so incredible that I feel like it's going to help turn this into the overwhelming sensory experience for them that it was for me. I had a feeling this was going to be a special screening when I was still at the Toronto Film Festival and I got a call from Toshi. The "Star Wars" box set had arrived at the house and was sitting on my desk, still wrapped and sealed, and Toshi, who takes great delight in his newly honed ability to read, had figured out what it was. "If we open it, we can watch one of them now. Just a little bit." "No, honey. You need to wait for me to get home." "How about you can listen on the phone and we can watch one. Just a little bit." "I don't think so." "But, daaaaaaaaad, you're not coming home until forever. You have to have your festival, and we want to see 'Star Wars' now." "I don't think so, Toshi. I need to be there with you when we watch them." "Can I just see Darth Vader?" "When we watch the movie." "CAN I JUST SEE SOME LIGHTSABERS?!?!" So it's obvious the hooks are in. The only thing I was curious about is whether they would respond to and understand the actual story. We ended up breaking the viewing into two halves. When you're trying to find time to sit down and watch a movie without outside distractions, it can be tough, even in my household. Our first attempt to watch the film was derailed when the boys got into an argument over some toy, and someone smacked someone else and things escalated and names were called and tears were spilled and that was pretty much the end of watching a movie that particular evening. The next day, Sunday, was filled with T-ball and other activities, but we managed to stake out an hour and a half where we'd be able to relax, and so I gathered the boys and we sat down to "Star Wars" in my office, volume cranked. The greatest thing about watching it with them was seeing how intent they were on decoding what they were watching. The film's characters and dense vocabulary and barrage of vehicles and planets and aliens is a ton of information to process, and right away, it was obvious that they were determined to understand it all. Seeing Darth Vader in context, he went from being awesome to being genuinely scary to them. And seeing Chewbacca in context, he went from being scary to being genuinely awesome to them. They fell in love with R2-D2 and C-3PO as a team, and they each found their own things to latch onto as they were watching. Toshi was fascinated by all of the hardware, by the X-wings and the Y-wings and the TIE fighters and the Death Star and landspeeders and sandcrawlers. Allen, on the other hand, became intrigued by the aliens, the Jawas and the Tusken Raiders and the Dewbacks and the Wookie. On that first viewing, we watched up to the point where Luke and Obi-Wan meet Han Solo in the cantina, and we turned it off. The next day, as soon as we could after school ended, we started with Han Solo and watched to the end of the movie. Seeing it in two chunks allowed them to ask all the questions they had built up from the first half before we began the second half, and I think it actually helped them enjoy it because they weren't worried about things they didn't understand.
One thing they did understand upset them both greatly, and seeing their reactions makes me appreciate the way the films are set up even more. As I said, they've been watching "The Clone Wars" cartoons on and off, so when Obi-Wan started telling the story of Anakin and Darth Vader, the boys were excited. Then they heard that Anakin was murdered by Darth Vader, and they went ballistic. Toshi hates Darth Vader now, and he wants to see Luke "get him good," as he put it. The next day, he was still talking about how much he was upset by what he saw and heard, and when Darth Vader flew off after the explosion of the Death Star, unpunished, Toshi yelled, "Luke Skywalker's gonna get you next time!" at the TV. Allen's favorite part of the movie was Obi-Wan's self-sacrifice during the lightsaber duel, and he recreated it for me five or six times the next day. It was the moment where Obi-Wan closes his eyes and simply stands still that affected him the most. Something about Obi-Wan's pose and the way he accepts what's happening really resonated for Allen, and he told me he that Obi-Wan is "the best fighter." The real test is how much the film sticks with them, and so far, every conversation they've had since seeing it has somehow incorporated the movie. Toshi knew I was leaving for another film festival, and just before I left for the airport, we had familiar conversation. "Dad, can we watch 'The Empire Strikes Back' while you're not here?" "Nope." "But, daaaaaaaaaaaad, Darth Vader got away." "I know." "And we need to see how they found him." "You just need to wait." "But, dad…" "It'll be worth the wait, big guy. Just hold on." "BUT, DAAAAAAAAAAD…" Now that they hate Vader for killing Anakin, I can't wait to see their reactions to "Empire." Right now, it feels like the grand experiment is off to a lovely start. Chapter 2: We finally reach The Moment with 'Empire Strikes Back' on Blu-ray
In which a long-anticipated moment is far more emotional than expected
Monday, Oct 3, 2011

Before I left for Fantastic Fest, I showed the 1977 "Star Wars" to my boys. I left the Blu-ray box set sitting on the shelf where I have all of my "to be played" discs, standing up so the boys could see the cover. I did that specifically to torture them. I wanted them to itch every single time they walked in the room while I was gone. And I know them well enough to know that they would manufacture reasons to be in my office to do things, because that's what they do every day all day. My shelves are a constant source of discovery for the kids, whether it's books or movies or games or music. They're always asking to sample something. And after I left for Fantastic Fest, I talked to the boys on the phone, and each phone call would begin with Toshi saying some variation on "Daddy, when you get back, it's going to be Friday, and on Friday, it's going to be too late, and on Saturday, we're going to watch 'Empire Strikes Back,' right?" "Yes." "How many days is that?" "Six days." "So it's one two three four and then five is Friday and then six is 'Star Wars'?" "Yes." "Okay." He needed to schedule it. He needed to know concretely when he was going to see the film. That's important, and it allowed him to plan and to budget just how impatient to be. Remember… I'm a first generation ground zero "Star Wars" kid. I was seven for the first film. Ten for "Empire." Thirteen for "Jedi." I had three years to wait between movies, and when "Star Wars" came out, there was no guarantee that there would ever be a sequel. In fact, "sequel" wasn't really in my vocabulary yet. For me, the news that "Empire" was coming was like a promise someone made that I didn't even realize I could wish for. It was this gift, this amazing present that came at the end of three long years of me going totally absolutely batshit wackadoo crazy for the merchandising empire that George Lucas was pioneering. It was his way of saying, "Oh, you liked that? Well, there's a whole lot more where that came from." But for my kids, they walk in knowing there are six films and all six of them are in the house right now. They could theoretically sit on my couch for fourteen or so hours and watch all of the movies in a row. That is possible. It's not going to happen, but they know that it COULD. That was not an option for me experiencing the films. I had three years, three years, sixteen years, three years, and three years. 28 years from the release of the first to the release of the last. That's the most sustained case of cinematic blue balls that anyone will ever pull off, I'm guessing. I can't imagine anyone else ever having quite the same hold over pop culture. Not for that long. And not with that big a break in the middle. So I told Toshi every single time we talked that, yes, we would see "The Empire Strikes Back" on Saturday. So of course, that didn't happen. Let me explain. I didn't mean to do it to him. And it was really only Toshi who was put out by this. Allen is pretty zen about when he sees something. He's down for it the moment I ask, but until then, he's got plenty of serious Matchbox car and pillow fort time to put in and he's in no hurry. But Toshi? He's got the bug. He's the one who is really having the religious experience here. I feel like Allen's taking some cues from big brother, and Toshi's got a lot on his mind as he's been thinking about "Star Wars." He had questions for me on Saturday morning on the way to flag football, where his team the Eagles had a pretty rousing game that was 0 to 0 until the last two minutes, when the other team finally scored. He didn't care. As soon as we were in the car, the loss of his game was forgotten, and he had more questions about both "Star Wars" and "Empire." "Daddy, is Yoda in this one?" "Yes." "Is Darth Maul in this one?" "No." "Is Darth Vader in this one?" "Yes." "Is Darth Vader and Darth Maul, are they both trained by the Emperor and good fighters like him?" "Yes." "Are they in a movie together?" "No." "Is Anakin Skywalker in this one?" "No." Now, that last question and answer became important later, as you might imagine. Because he remembered what I said. "Is Anakin Skywalker in this one?" "No." We had every intention of watching the film, and my goal was eat some lunch, put on the movie, enjoy it, have some after-movie time to go for a walk, and then leave for my screening of "The Thing." The new one. And instead, Toshi and his brother decided to get in the pool after lunch with my sister-in-law, and while I think that's awesome and they had a good time, when they finally came in and Toshi asked when we were starting the movie, it was not awesome to have to explain to him that I was going to have to leave in about thirty minutes to make it to my movie. Oh, the tears. Now I feel like I overdid it, baited the hook too well, because he was almost inconsolable when he realized he was going to have to wait an entire day to see the movie. Nothing we talked about seemed to cheer him up. I had to leave, and according to his mother, it took much of the evening before he finally relaxed about it, and even so, he insisted on having the Blu-ray box in his room where he could see it as he was going to sleep so that he would see it first thing when he woke up. On Sunday morning, we started the film at 10:30 AM, and both Toshi and Allen were ready to go. They tried dragging me out of bed a few hours earlier, but I told them they had to wait until I got up. When I put the disc in and they saw the images that played during the menu, they immediately started freaking out. Allen was instantly obsessed with the giant space worm popping out of the asteroid, and Toshi got hyper about the glimpse he got of Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker attacking each other with lightsabers. We started the film, and as I did with the 1977 film, I read them the opening crawl in my most dramatic voice. If you're still debating picking up these Blu-rays, let me tell you that the transfer for "Empire" is one of the most impressive transfers I've seen so far, a gorgeous version of the film. Rich and colorful and deep with detail, I was impressed that I could actually still see things I'd never seen before in the film, like the mud on the bottom of Yoda's feet as he's going through Luke's belongings when they first meet. The sound is also technically impressive, giving my sound system a real workout. I'm sure the kids didn't notice, though. They were too busy trying to process the expanded details of this world they're starting to get lost in, and from the moment it started, they were totally absorbed. I was impressed at their attention to detail, too. The first time Luke's face was shown, they both knew right away that something was different. They weren't hung up on it, but they definitely could tell that Hamill had changed in some way. I'm not even sure I noticed that when the film first came out, but they immediately picked up on it. The Wampa attack was very upsetting to both of them, and I love how they're still able to believe completely in the peril in a film. They don't know formula or genre convention, and they fully accept that the hero of a film could die at any moment. They were worried for Luke right away, and they were worried for Han when he went after him. There was also a lovely sense of seeing old friends again each time a character was re-introduced in "Empire," as both boys would react and comment and cheer. Allen is fascinated by "the monster," as he calls Chewbacca, and loves every single reaction shot of the Wookie. Toshi's intrigued by the notion that R2-D2 and C-3PO are the only characters who appear in all the films, and he thinks the near constant abuse of C-3PO is one of the funniest things ever. The film rumbles along at a preposterous clip, always throwing new ideas and locations at the audience, and it seemed like the boys were on overload trying to make sense of it all. We watched all the way up to Lando's betrayal on Cloud City, and then we had to pause the film for lunch and Toshi's T-ball game and my "Thing" interviews at Universal. During lunch, I got peppered with questions about Lando's behavior. The boys were confused by the idea that someone's friend might betray them, and I could see that it just didn't compute. There's nothing duplicitous about a six-year-old or a three-year-old, and when they encounter adult behavior that they don't understand, they will quiz me on it incessantly. They need to understand why people do these things, and even after I explained that Lando was trying to protect the people who depended on him to run Cloud City, that didn't work for them. They still thought he was wrong to betray Han Solo, and even when we got back to the film later in the afternoon, they weren't ready to forgive Lando. Didn't matter that he ended up helping everyone else. They couldn't get past the betrayal, and they both decided that they don't like Lando at all. That was nothing compared to their reaction to The Moment, though. Ever since I first started thinking about showing them "Star Wars," I've been aware that The Moment is one of the central pivots of the entire series, and I did everything I could to protect that twist for them. Because they've seen numerous episodes of "The Clone Wars," the introduction of Yoda didn't really work the same way for them that it did for me in the theater. They were ahead of the reveal, but they got to enjoy laughing at Luke as a result, enjoying the fact that they knew something Luke didn't. With The Moment, though, they were completely and utterly blindsided. The lightsaber duel was very tense for them. Allen jumped almost every time Vader got the upper hand in the duel, genuinely scared for Luke's safety. They were already emotionally upset by the fate of Han Solo, and by the time Luke found himself out on that catwalk, fighting for his life, both of them were standing up, closer to the TV than when we started the film. I originally thought of videotaping them when The Moment happened, so I could get something like this…. … but they're both much too aware of the camera, and to be honest, I didn't want to make it feel artificial or forced, so I just sat back and watched them closely as they watched the build-up to The Moment. I think they forgot how to blink during the fight, and when Darth Vader cut off Luke's hand, they both yelled, shocked and even more nervous about what might happen. Allen asked me, tense and nervous, if Luke was going to fall and die. I told him to listen closely and watch closely. And then Darth Vader stepped up, hand out, and laid some cold truth on Luke Skywalker, and as he did, I felt like time slowed down a little. I saw both of their faces as it sunk in about what Vader said. Their eyes went wide, their jaws dropped almost in synch, and they both turned to look at me, dawning outrage setting in. And in their eyes, I saw something I've never seen there before. And it hit me so hard that I suddenly felt like I was about to cry, because what I saw there was distrust. They suddenly realized that adults might not be telling them the truth, and that the world might not be what I told them it is. As soon as Luke let go and fell all the way down to the antenna on the bottom of Cloud City, I paused the film, and both of the boys started peppering me with questions. "How can Anakin be a bad guy, Daddy?" "That's a good question. We'll have to see the next three films to figure that out." "What happened to him to make his head all burned and gross?" "That's in the next three movies, too." "Why did you say Anakin isn't in this movie if Darth Vader is Anakin and he's in this movie." I didn't really have an answer for that one. Obviously, I fibbed to protect the twist, but that doesn't change the fact that I fibbed. And we've had long talks with Toshi about the importance of honesty, so he knows that we don't want him to tell lies for any reason. Now he had concrete proof that I had lied to him, and I was fully aware of the irony that it was over a moment in a film involving a lie. We watched the rest of the movie and they loved it, but the conversations afterward kept coming back to The Moment and what it meant. They really can't imagine the idea of a good guy who turns into a bad guy, and they kept trying to reconcile the hero from the "Clone Wars" shows with this ominous bad guy who attacked his own son and tried to kill him. It was Toshi who asked the question that stung the most as I was helping him put his shoes on a little later. "Daddy, you wouldn't ever be mad at us and kill us, would you?" How do you answer a question like that for a child? How do you try to explain to them that there are people in this world who hurt their kids, but that they should rest easy because you would never do that. The mere possibility is enough to create anxiety for them, and once they started to consider it, they didn't seem able to shake it. They've asked me about Han Solo's fate once or twice, but they are still really hung up on the idea of a father who fell so far that he was barely the same person, able to kill his own son if need be. On the way to a screening of "Real Steel" last night, with my wife and both of the boys, all they could talk about was "Empire," and Allen decided to assign each of us a part to play. "Daddy, you're the monster, and I'm Luke Skywalker and Toshi is CP3O and Mommy can be the girl!" And for a little while, I was happy to roar like Chewbacca every time Allen barked an order at me in his adorable three-year-old voice. "Chewbacca, go fast! We have to fight with the bad guy ships that are behind us! Toshi, you have to be silly. And they're shooting on our ship, and it's the Mellinum Falcon and it's super fast. Super fast, okay, Daddy?" And finally, after about twenty minutes of that (we live in the boonies, and it's often at least an hour to get to a screening from my house), my wife had to put a moratorium on "Star Wars" talk in front of her. She was so confused about the films, firmly convinced that Anakin Skywalker was the star of "Star Wars," and the first film showed him killing Darth Varder. She explained it to Allen gently. "Allen, that's a boy thing. Mommies like other movies, and we can watch those." She is not a film geek, which is one of the reasons I married her. I need to have someone close to me in my life who isn't wired to be interested in movies every single second of the day, and in this case, I like that she's willing to let me indulge my own "Star Wars" fandom with the boys without interference. We're not watching our next film, "The Phantom Menace," until this coming weekend, but they've already started asking questions, and I get the distinct feeling that until they see Anakin's rise and fall, they're not going to rest easy.

Chapter 3: We flashback to 'The Phantom Menace' as the 'Star Wars' series continues
Pod racing? Darth Maul? What's not to love for little boys?
Monday, Oct 10, 2011

Allen, you've seen three 'Star Wars' movies now."
Allen is three, keep in mind. "Yes." "Can you tell me what they are?" "I seen the one with Darth Vader, where they're on the spaceship, and they blow it up, and I seen the one where Darth Vader cuts off Lukeskywalker's arm, and I seen the one where he cut off Darth Maul's body." "What's your favorite one?" "'The Phantom Menace.'" Damn. I was afraid of this. We started this series between film festivals, when I came home, found the "Star Wars" Blu-ray set waiting, and we watched the 1977 film. Then, last weekend, after making the boys twist in the wind for ten full days, I came home and we sat down and watched "The Empire Strikes Back." Now we've got a full month of me at home ahead, and we're going to do the next four films in the series in one week increments. This weekend, we set aside Saturday for "The Phantom Menace," and all week long, the boys had their questions, constantly trying to set their expectations for whatever was coming next. Toshi has had several conversations with me now about Anakin Skywalker and Darth Vader, and I'm careful not to tell him what he should think. He's pretty sure Vader was telling the truth in the scene in "Empire," but the implications of that are very upsetting. He's fixated in particular on the damage that was visible to the back of Vader's head in that one glimpse in "Empire." He wants to know how the Anakin Skywalker of "The Clone Wars" gets messed up. He wants to understand, more than anything, how a good guy can be a bad guy. In general, "The Clone Wars" creates an interesting narrative dilemma in terms of the way I'm showing the films to the boys. We have not seen every episode of the first two seasons, but we're chipping away at them. They really love the details and the world and the clones and the Jedi. They have no idea how bad things are about to get. They don't really understand that Alec Guiness and the puppet in "Empire" are the last two living Jedi everywhere. They don't understand how close things are to being snuffed out in "Empire." Because they've seen the scale of "The Clone Wars," where Jedi are practically commonplace, and all powerful, they can't imagine a world where they lost, and they're hunted, and they're largely extinct. On Friday, I decided to show the boys the teaser trailer that we all saw in 1998 that was such a big cultural moment in its own right. And they asked to see it again immediately, so I let them play it a few times. Then I showed them the second trailer that came out before the film's release. And they watched that one a few times, and they were by this point freaking out about what they were going to see. Now, I wish I could say I showed them the trailers on the Blu-ray box set, because they were such a big part of the build-up to the film's release, but if they're on the dsics, they're hidden as easter eggs and I certainly haven't figured out how to find them. I used YouTube, and their responses were suitably outsized as they tried to process the images they were seeing from the film. More than anything, it just meant they had new questions for me, questions I wasn't going to answer out of context. Something occurred to me after the "Empire" screening, though, and it worried me. Just as I'm sharing these movies with my kids because of the recent Blu-ray release, there are other parents doing the same thing, and some of those kids who are seeing the films for the first time may be doing them in a different order, and they may have classes with my boys. Thankfully, I have a secret weapon in the war on spoilers, so I went to Toshi's school to talk to his teacher, Miss Karen. She's that grade school teacher we all remember fondly, adorable and younger than any of the other teachers and always in a good mood no matter what. She also happens to be the biggest "Star Wars" nerd imaginable. How big of a "Star Wars" nerd is she? Her one year old's name is Anakin. Seriously. So when I was at the school last week, I had a chat with Miss Karen about keeping the boys spoiler free for the next four weeks as we work our way through the series. She's already onboard with the order I'm showing them in, and she was delighted to be enlisted in the fight to keep the experience pure for the kids. She made sure to keep the hype going all week, though, so even at school, they were being teased about the impending viewing, making it even harder for them to wait. It was effective, because when Saturday morning rolled around, they were ready to go. How ready? Well, the first time they tried to wake me up, it was 6:15 AM. Both of them were up and dressed and excited. I told them to let me sleep a little longer, and they agreed to do so. They promised the same thing when they woke me up at 6:45, 7:20, 8:00, and 8:30. By the time I was actually up, showered, breakfasted, and ready to watch the movie, it was around 10:00, and they were almost rabid to get started. From the moment the film began, each time someone was introduced, the boys both asked, "Is that Anakin?" The anticipation was crazy. Once Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan were introduced, though, they started to settle into the new world. One thing that struck me this time around is how much more aggressively paced "The Phantom Menace" is than the two films the boys have already seen in the series. There is so much more information to absorb, and the story is much busier in general, so there were more questions they needed to ask. They quickly adapted to the idea of Qui-Gon and Anakin as master and student, and they loved watching the Jedi in action. And what did they make of Jar Jar Binks? The most notorious character in the entire saga was accepted pretty much wholesale by the boys. "Daddy, the lizard-fish talks like he's crazy!" was Allen's observation after his first scene. But while fandom seemed to hit a brick wall with Jar Jar that they've never recovered from, he was just one more thing in a parade of things the boys were trying to absorb and understand, and they didn't mind him at all. I have written before about the disconnect I feel from fandom because I don't get rabidly angry over the prequels and because I don't feel the burning desire to rant about George Lucas at the drop of a hat, and every time I talk about this, I get the same strident angry e-mails from people who demand that I have to feel the same way they do. It's almost scary how much venom some people are still able to muster about these films at any mention of them, especially when you watch them with an audience like the boys, where there's no sense of hype or the larger state of fandom. They love the world of "Star Wars" so much that they are happy just to spend time watching people fly around in spaceships and encounter weird aliens and fight with lightsabers. In just two movies, they've already fallen in love enough that they're happy simply to know they get to spend more time around "Star Wars." I haven't seen the prequels in six years, so watching them now, with some distance, I think the overreaction to "Phantom Menace" has to be one of the low points of modern fandom. It is an imperfect film, certainly, but it remains one of the most preposterously scaled works of imagination I can name, a movie that casually introduces whole worlds and races of creatures, throwing out new ideas and images at a gallop. And the flaws that have been beaten to death by Mr. Plunkett and his devotees are far less outsized than they insist. When someone says "The film doesn't make any sense," that's simply not true. You may not like the movie, but the film makes both narrative and thematic sense, and there are some nice things Lucas does that he gets no credit for. I like the way the storyline about the Queen and her decoys serves as a mirror for the notion that Darth Sidious might be hiding in plain view, and I like the lesson the film sets up about the relationship between the Naboo and the Gungans. There is one thing wrong with the film that I can't imagine anyone would argue with, and that's the performance by Jake Lloyd, something I have trouble holding against him. It's a casting mistake, and it should have been clear to Lucas as soon as they started shooting that whatever he liked about the kid wasn't coming through clearly in his work onscreen. Even Allen made fun of the "Yippee!" that Lloyd lets loose in a few scenes. They both were quite involved with the idea of a boy that age having to make a decision about leaving his mother and starting a new life on his own, and they were intrigued by the way the Jedi Council dealt with him. When they refused to train him, it was a big deal to the boys, and not at all what they expected. We talked about how that made Anakin feel and how scary it must have been for him, and I saw that they were identifying with him and with the choices they were making. I'm still not sure I like the notion of starting with Anakin as a little boy, but it was obvious that the choice was one that pulled the kids in, and it made the film that much more immediate for them, emotionally-speaking. The biggest hit in the movie for them? Darth Maul. Duh. A crazy-looking guy with a double-edge lightsaber that can fight two Jedi at once? Awesome. And they loved the way the film introduced some familiar faces along the way, like the unfinished C-3PO and Jabba The Hutt. R2-D2 continues to be the star of the films as far as they're concerned, and they cheered his first appearance in the film. They also flipped out for the pod racing, and I was surprised how invested they were in the outcome of the race. Again, when you've seen a bazillion movies, you're used to narrative convention and formula, but when you're a kid, you don't know that there are ways films "always" turn out, and so each race is genuinely up for grabs. Each victory is a genuine surprise. And when Qui-Gon died, it shook them. They didn't think Jedi could lose a fight like that, so even when Darth Maul was cut in half (something Allen can't stop talking about because he loved it so much), they were left wondering what's ahead for Anakin and Obi-Wan. Their questions about the next movie have already begun, and it's fun lording my knowledge over them. I won't show them the trailers for "Attack Of The Clones" until Thursday, which should be just enough to whet their appetite. What I find most interesting is how Toshi is already starting to be sad about the fact that there are only three movies left. "Daddy, why can't they make more 'Star Wars' movies?" "They could if they wanted to. It's up to George Lucas." "Can you tell him to make them so we can watch them? I want to see them." "I don't think he'd listen to me, Tosh." "But can you try? Because that would be cool." For the record, Toshi still likes the first film the best, but he certainly dug "The Phantom Menace" for the wonders it had to offer, and he's told me several times now that "Attack Of The Clones" is the best one because it has all the clones, logic I find hard to argue with. We'll have more next Monday. In the meantime, I have to try to keep Allen from cutting his big brother in half with a plastic lightsaber. This may be a losing battle. Chapter 4: Yoda seals the deal for 'Attack Of The Clones' on Blu-ray
The boys fall further in love with the saga as the end is finally in sight
Tuesday, Oct 18, 2011 Truly wonderful, the mind of a child is." - Yoda It's hard to believe there are only two more "Star Wars" movies left to watch with the boys. When that Blu-ray box arrived at the house, setting off the Occupy Dad's Office movement, it seemed like it would take forever to make it through all of the films. Now we're coming down to the biggest moments in the series, and the boys are already getting ready to start over. "Dad, in the 'Revenge On The Sith' and the 'Return On The Jedi' movies, we're gonna learn about the truth about Darth Vader, right?" "Yep." "So we're going to know if Old Obi-Wan or Darth Vader was telling the truth, right?" "Yep." "Okay. Good." That conversation is just one of the dozens we've had in the last few days here at the house, and it shows me that Toshi is really thinking about the movies between viewings. Every day, something else seems to be his lead concern, and every day, he wants to ask me more questions. Meanwhile, Allen remains incredibly consistent in the things that impress him. After we sat down Saturday morning to watch "Attack Of The Clones," he had one moment in particular that he wanted to talk about and re-enact repeatedly. "I like when Jango Fett got his head cut by Mace Windu." You put that statement together with the cutest little smile you've ever seen, and it's obvious that my younger son is to be feared and watched closely. He's been a holy terror with a plastic lightsaber since we started watching the movies, and Toshi spends much of this time evading a beheading of his own. Thanks to the time they've spent watching random episodes of "The Clone Wars," they already had a basic understanding of the nature of the Clonetroopers. They love Captain Rex and the other clones, and they've asked many questions about their origins. Like kids in the '80s when Boba Fett was originally introduced, they're also nuts for the design of the character and his armor, so when they connected the dots in this film and realized that Boba Fett's father is Jango Fett, and Jango Fett is the source of all the clones, meaning Captain Rex is basically a Fett, it was like someone had just cured cancer here in the house. They were amazed and delighted by this realization, and they were equally delighted by the fight between young Obi-Wan and Jango on the landing platform at Kamino. In general, anything that involved Obi-Wan and the mystery he was trying to solve played like gangbusters for them. The love story? Not so much. It cracks me up when we're watching a movie and there's kissing, because Toshi is at that age where kissing is the single grossest thing that can happen in a movie, and he makes a big deal out of covering his eyes every time. That means Allen covers his eyes as well, because he takes most of his cues from Toshi at this point. After one of the kissing scenes, Toshi asked me if all the kissing is what made Anakin turn into Darth Vader. I'll make sure to remind him of that in a few years once kissing starts to get interesting. Being the middle part in a trilogy can be difficult for a film because it's not really establishing or wrapping anything up. It's the busy work in the middle, the shoe leather, and there's a lot of running around in "Clones" without really solving anything. In some ways, though, it's nice because it also leaves room for digression and gives you room to play. The structure of the film is very strange, and the set pieces are given lots and lots of room to breathe when they happen. The chase scene across Corsuscant, the sequence in the asteroid belt above Geonosis, the tour of the cloning facility, the droid factory rampage… each of those scenes had the boys flipping out over various images and ideas. But amidst the fun, "Clones" introduces some darker notes regarding Anakin's fall, and I was surprised how much Toshi was invested in that particular story thread. Ever since The Moment in "Empire," he's been troubled by the idea of a good guy who becomes a bad guy, and he's watching Anakin closely. When Anakin found his mother just before she died and then went on his killing spree in the Tusken Raiders camp, Toshi actually stood up. He walked closer to the screen, upset, needing to see every detail of what was happening, and when the scene was over, he asked me to pause the movie. "Daddy, those people took Anakin's mommy, right?" "That's right." "And they hurted her, right?" "They did." "So then he wanted to kill them all so they can't hurt anybody else, right?" "Is that the right thing to do?" "No." The way he said it, though, it was more a question than a statement. "But they shouldn't have killed his mommy." He was still wrestling with it when Anakin confessed to Padme a few scenes later that he had killed all of the Tuskens, even the women and children. That made him ask me to pause again, and he was upset by what Anakin said. "Jedi are good guys, and they should do good things, and he killed little kids and mommies, and that's bad." We talked about the reasons why and he told me that he was sad for Anakin, but he was also mad at him. He's always thought of Anakin as a hero, and seeing him start his fall and giving in to anger and rage is upsetting him deeply. By far, though, the biggest reaction of the day came towards the end of the film when Anakin and Obi-Wan confronted Count Dooku in the hangar. They were already flipping out during the fight sequence before Yoda got involved, but once Yoda came walking in, they got positively manic. They love Yoda. It's that simple. Any appearance by him gets them excited, but to see him in action sent them into overdrive. "Daddy, Yoda is the best fighter!" Allen yelled that three different times during the fight. You add that kind of unfiltered joy to the excitement of seeing the Clonetroopers head into battle the first time, also led by Yoda, and the final half-hour of the film was almost too much for them to handle. I think part of the appeal is that Yoda is about the same size as Allen, and seeing that he's the most powerful Jedi of them all makes Allen feel powerful as well.
A big moment for them was when they realized that Mace Windu, who they both really like, is the same person as Nick Fury from the new "Avengers" trailer. They're now convinced that Samuel L. Jackson is the single greatest human being to ever walk the earth, and they love that he's got a purple lightsaber that's different than anyone else's. One of the questions that is driving them both crazy concerns the identity of Darth Sidious. They know he's the Emperor, but they are also sure that he's someone else in the movies, and they can't figure out who it might be. I'm amazed that the "secret" works for them, because when I look at Sidious in the final scene of the film, it's pretty clear to me that it's McDiarmid under the cowl. The boys haven't figured it out, though, and when we went through all the possible suspects after the film and I brought up Senator Palpatine, they didn't even blink. He's just that "nice old guy" who helps Anakin in this one, and they've got no clue he might be connected in some way. Our next film on Saturday is where many of the biggest answers will be revealed, and Toshi's really anxious about it. We've been looking at Drew Struzan's new book the last few nights before bed, and as we've looked at the poster art for the prequels, Toshi keeps coming back to the image of Obi-Wan and Anakin fighting, and it's giving him stress. "I always thought Obi-Wan and Anakin were friends," he said as we were looking at the poster last night. "They were." "But so why are they fighting?" "We'll have to find out in the next movie." "Is it because Anakin killed the mommies and the babies?" "We'll have to find out in the next movie." "But you know, right?" "I do." "You can tell me a little bit, and I won't tell Allen." "No way, man. You have to wait and see it in the movie." "I don't want Anakin to be a bad guy." "I know, Tosh." "I hope Darth Vader's a big liar." "I know." I have a feeling this coming Saturday is going to be an emotional one, and a bitter pill to swallow. For now, the films seem to have taken up a permanent slice of real estate in the heads of both of the boys. Allen walks around the house singing the Imperial Theme, Toshi draws pictures of TIE fighters in the borders of his homework, and they're both convinced that with a little work, they'll be able to use The Force to reach the remotes for the DVD player and the TV in the playroom. Truly wonderful, indeed. Chapter 5: 'Revenge Of The Sith' devastates the kids as Anakin falls from grace
In which a silly space opera brings my whole family to genuine tears..
Sunday, Oct 23, 2011 Bottom of Form
Late Saturday night, a few hours after we finished watching "Revenge Of The Sith," about an hour after both of the boys had fallen asleep, I was sitting in my office when the door opened and a sleepy-eyed Allen walked in. "Dad, I think it's sad that Anakin's a bad guy." "Did you just wake up to tell me that?" "Yeah. I hope he gets better." I picked him up, carried him back down the hallway to his bedroom, and he was asleep again by the time I tucked him in surrounded by his stuffed animals. That one thought was weighing on him enough that he needed to get up and come tell me. And as I sat back down, I realized what showing the films in this particular has done narratively that is underlined in a very different way now. More than ever, the notion of having to stand against one's father to punish him and, maybe, to redeem him is written in GIANT GLOWING LETTERS now. The last thing they saw was the birth of Luke and Leia. Which blew their minds, by the way. Like, off the charts, oh my god, running in circles. Blew. Their. Minds. And that wasn't the biggest moment of the night. Let me back up to the start. Oddly, there's been next to no "Star Wars" talk this week. We've all been busy, and when we've been together, there's been reading (we've started the Lemony Snicket series for Toshi at bedtime) and sports and running around and we saw "Puss In Boots" together and it's been nice. But very little of this week's energy was devoted to a warm-up for the next movie, except for once on Wednesday when Toshi was doing his homework and I was in the kitchen, and he said, alarmed, as if suddenly realizing something, "Dad, we're watching 'Star Wars' on Saturday, right? 'Rejenthe of the Sith,' right?" He can't say "Revenge" at all, even if he sounds it out first. It's like Allen, who insists on calling the film they saw on Friday "Puss In Cats." I assured Toshi that we were still set to see the next movie. "This is the one where Anakin has to fight Darth Vader, right?" "I don't know." "Yes, you do." "I'm not telling you." "But you know." He's made sure to tell Allen this, as well. He considers it almost unconscionable that I know everything about "Star Wars" but haven't answered the big questions for them. We had an early start Saturday with flag football for Toshi, and then we went home for lunch, and finally, as we sat there eating, Toshi couldn't take it anymore. "So after we eat… we can watch 'Star Wars' right now, right?" "No. You guys are going to a birthday party at Skateland." "Can we watch some of it?" "You don't want to watch part of the movie." "Yes I do." He got his brother to chime in as well, and they both said that they'd be willing to watch part of it now and part after the party. I thought about the structure of "Sith" and realized there was a fairly natural breaking point that I could stop at, and we could do that section of the film in the time they had before they had to get ready to leave. "Okay. Fine." There was much rejoicing and singing of my praises as lunch was inhaled at twice the normal speed by both of them, and then we adjourned to my office. By now, Toshi's claimed my office couch as his own and Allen insists on sitting on me for the whole film. He likes to lounge, too. Both of them together sing the 20th Century Fox fanfare when it plays each time. Then Toshi loudly reads "LUCASFILM LIMITED". And then they both say it together as the blue words appear. "A LONG TIME AGO IN A GALAXY FAR FAR AWAY…" I was startled by how participatory it was this time. They've internalized the way the movies start now. And then Toshi reads the opening crawl for his little brother. And Allen is poised on Toshi's very dramatic reading of the entire thing, intent, and as soon as Toshi finishes reading, he explains it to Allen again. "So Anakin and Obi Wan are going to fight with General Grievous from the cartoon and he kidnapped the nice old man who is Anakin's friend." That's who Palpatine is to them. One of the many questions that Toshi and Allen asked me right after we watched "Attack Of The Clones" last week was about the identity of Darth Sidious. I told them that he was in the movies without his face covered up, but they didn't know who it was. And they were shocked at the mere suggestion. Toshi hasn't puzzled it out, and as much as I can't imagine not knowing, they don't know. They have no idea what's coming in this movie we're about to watch, and I realize that it's going to be a genuine jolt when it happens. They also wanted to know why Ashoka from the "Clone Wars" isn't in the movie, and I didn't have an answer for them. I can only assume some awful moment lies in her future on the animated series, and that it will be yet another bitter pill for them to swallow since they like her a lot. So we watched the entire opening sequence of the movie, up to the moment where Anakin and Padme are finally reunited, which led to a "ewwwww, they're kissing again" moment from both the boys. Perfect place to stop. That opening is absolutely monstrous in scale. It's bigger than most movies at any point, beginning, middle or ending. It's outrageous. They love R2-D2 as much as always, and each new power he demonstrates in the films is greeted by cheers from the boys. Allen loved watching R2 burn up some other robots, an almost Beavis-level of glee erupting from him. And Grievous was a big hit. They like him on the cartoon, but Toshi was excited to see "the real him." When Anakin executed Count Dooku, that was shock number one for the boys. And I will stand by my initial statement in 2005 when I said that Ian McDiarmid in that scene ("Kill him") in particular and the movie as a whole is absolutely fantastic. It's one of my favorite performances in any "Star Wars" film including the original trilogy. He's a reptile. He's lip-smackingly awful. I love him. The execution upset both of them. Toshi said, "He's just fooling, right?" I had to point out where Dooku's head was and how unfortunately not-attached-to-his-body it had become, much to Toshi's dismay. "Anakin sure likes to cut off heads," he told me after we watched the whole sequence. I think the excitement of the crash landing and the escape that follows distracted him some from his reaction, but in the moment, he looked at me, and he was upset by it. He likes to hold onto my arm even though he's sitting on the couch, and when he's really wrapped up in something, he can squeeze hard enough to bruise. He and Allen both left the house for the rollerskating party playing lightsaber battle, and I could see my wife steeling herself for a full day of it. When they came back, they'd already eaten dinner, so they were ready to dive right back into the film. I happily agreed, and we sat down, starting with Anakin wrestling with his fear of Padme's death and the beginnings of Palpatine's big move. That's what the whole movie is about. He's making a move, paying off everything he's ever put into motion, and the endgame is that he's in power, it's an Empire instead of a Republic, and Anakin is his new Sith apprentice. That's the big plan, and it comes together… well, perfectly. This is a movie in which the bad guy, who has been hiding in plain sight, steps forward, unmasks himself, does exactly what he wants, and gets everything he wants while the good guys either die or run and hide. Holy crap. I didn't think about that. It's never played that way for me as an adult before. But watching it with them, and watching them react to it, and talking to them in the hour or so between the end of the film and bedtime, I am blown away by the way the film's "secrets" played out for them. When Palpatine reveals himself to be a Sith Lord, Toshi called a time out. He proceeded to stand and march back and forth in front of me, laying out this CRAZY THEORY that he had that JUST MAYBE this nice old man might actually be DARTH FREAKIN' SIDIOUS. He was like Clarence Darrow. He was flipping out that this old guy who has always seemed so sweet and good-hearted is actually PRETTY MUCH THE BIGGEST BAD GUY IN THE HISTORY OF BAD GUYS. Allen didn't get it until Toshi explained it, but once he did, Allen yelled, outraged all of a sudden, "THAT NICE OLD MAN IS REALLY KIND OF BAD!" When Anakin started talking about cheating death, Toshi told me, almost as if confiding in me, "That's not a good idea." Allen shushed him. There's a lot of that. Each of them feels they have the right to speak because they have something relevant to say and the other one is being rude for no reason. Toshi was really scrutinizing Anakin's behavior tonight, and when Anakin started pouting about not being made a master and having his bad dreams about the death of Padme, Toshi told me, "I think Anakin's not making good choices, right, Daddy?" When Padme told Anakin about their baby, Toshi was glad to be ahead of the film for once. "That's Luke, right, Daddy?" I had to make sure not to tip the secret at all and just agreed with him. Both he and Allen were very invested in each step of the film, each new development, and I can honestly say I've never seen them more involved in every moment of a movie, more engrossed. And as a result, I don't think anything's ever upset them the same way this film did. It wasn't even a single moment, either. It was an entire chunk of the film, starting in the moment where Anakin makes his choice while facing Mace Windu and Palpatine. Allen was on his feet, yelling "KILL THE OLD MAN!" and Toshi was on the couch, legs up, in a ball, watching with unblinking eyes. When Anakin made his choice and attacked Mace, leaving room for Palpatine to attack as well, killing Mace Windu, the boys both yelled "NOOOO!" at the screen, upset, furious. And when they realized that Anakin was willingly making a choice to follow Palpatine and become a Sith, they yelled again. But when Anakin led the attack on the Jedi Temple while Order 66 was executed around the galaxy, cutting down one Jedi after another, they didn't yell. They didn't scream. They didn't clap. They just sat in silence, eyes wide, until it was all done. And when Toshi finally turned to look at me at the end of the sequence, eyes brimming with tears. "He killed the kids," he said, almost accusing me. "He did." "Anakin's bad now. He's really bad." "He is. He made that choice, and he did terrible things." Allen hugged me has hard as he could, not saying anything, and I asked them if they were okay to keep watching. "You can't turn it off now!" Toshi said, and so we continued. I could see how they were still struggling with what they had witnessed even as Obi-Wan and Anakin both converged on Mustafar. They loved the fight between Yoda and Darth Sidious, but every time it cut from that to the fight between Anakin and Obi-Wan, they got quiet. There was no joy for them in that fight. They weren't even sure who to cheer for. But when Anakin force-choked Padme, Toshi did bark out an angry "STOP IT!" at the TV, furious by Anakin's change. And when the lightsaber battle finally reached its crescendo and Obi-Wan struck Anakin down, leaving him struggling on the shore of the lava river, they both got up and got closer to the TV, determined to see exactly what happened. Anakin caught fire, and I saw Toshi cover his mouth with his hand, his tears finally spilling, not just welling up. And when Obi-Wan finally walked away, leaving his former student and friend laying there, burnt and suffering, mad from pain and sorrow, both the boys came to me, emotionally ruined by the sequence. Even after the movie was over, we kept talking about why Anakin made the choices he made. As much as the boys thought they wanted to see Anakin finally put on the black armor and become Darth Vader, once they finally got to that place, they seemed crushed by it. It's one thing to be told that someone is a bad guy, but it's another thing to watch a character that they had come to love and enjoy slowly crumble and turn to evil. For the first time, they understand that evil is not just something you call yourself, but a direct reflection of the choices you make. They watched Anakin Skywalker go from a happy child to a confused young man to a hero and a husband, and then they watched him throw it all away and kill everyone who trusted him, attacking his own pregnant wife, and finally ending up burnt and broken and locked forever inside a suit of metal, and it hurt them. And for the first time, seeing the way it played for them, it genuinely hurt me. The tears I shed as we wrapped up our night and I put them both to bed were because they realize tonight that the world is a place where good people can make bad choices and end up in an awful place. The world is a darker place tonight for them than it was on Saturday morning, and it hurts to see a little piece of their innocence shut down. You can complain about "Star Wars" and problems you have with the films all day long, but this silly space opera has led to some of the most intense conversations with my kids that I've ever had. More than ever, I'm glad I picked the order I did to show the films, because now they're ready for "Jedi" in a big way. They want to see the Emperor punished. They want to see Anakin redeemed. And I'm not really sure how i'm going to handle that last fight. This morning, as I was driving Toshi to his baseball game, he was still asking me questions, and his single question almost made me drive off the road. "Daddy… I just thought of something." "What's that, buddy?" "Luke Skywalker has to kill his daddy, doesn't he?" "Looks that way." "Daddy… can you promise me something?" I could hear the emotion in his voice, how close to tears he was, and I got worried. "Of course. What's that?" "Please don't be a bad guy." One day when he's old enough, I'll tell him how hard I've worked on that exact thing every single day since he's been born. And when I do, I'll also tell him just how much the mere idea tears me apart. One more movie and we're done. And it all comes down to this last movie. I hope you guys have enjoyed this ride so far, because it's been one of my favorite things since I started writing about movies online fifteen years ago. I don't want to delay this last piece, but I'm going to be on vacation starting Thursday, so I won't have the last article for you until November 3rd. Be patient. Bear with me. And I hope to make it worth your while.

Chapter 6: The hero's journey ends with 'Return Of The Jedi' on Blu-ray
Ewoks, explosions, the Emperor, and many many shared tears close out the series posted - Sunday, Nov 6, 2011 9:45 PM There was no event that took place during my vacation that equaled the impact of the screening I held for my sons Toshi and Allen of the final film in the "Star Wars" series, "Return of the Jedi." And really, how could there be? When we started this, I admit that I wasn't really thinking about it as a pivotal moment in their filmgoing lives. I had no idea what sort of impact the films would have on them, even though I knew what kind of impact the films had on me. One of the things I've tried to do as I've been sharing movies with my boys is be careful not to try to force them into liking the things I like. I've been very careful about the way the iconography of "Star Wars" was introduced into their lives, never placing it on a pedestal above everything else. There are certain little things around the house that have been there as long as they've been alive. A Yoda figure in one room. A Battle Droid on another shelf. An old toy lightsaber in their toy box. Toshi started asking me about seeing the "Star Wars" films about a year ago, and when the Blu-ray box set showed up, I finally decided to give it a try. Part of me thought I was doing it too soon, but I couldn't deny the interest was there, and that's been the big guiding light so far with this series. I make things available on an age-appropriate basis, and then they tell me what interests them. Now, on the far side of the full series, it's obvious that they've been deeply marked by the movies and by the experience itself. This year, Halloween was all about "Star Wars" for them. Have you ever seen Anakin Skywalker locked in mortal combat with Jedi Master Yoda? Well, now you have. A still picture doesn't really do justice to the idea of how ridiculously adorable it is to have a three year old walking around telling strangers at every door, "Do or do not… there is no try." The two of them were determined to wear their costumes for a few days before Halloween, and Allen still hasn't gone a full day without wearing his. Even this far into this series, I'm still getting people asking me about the order in which I decided to show the kids the movies. Up until now, it's been a hypothetical idea on my part, but this was my opportunity to put it to the test, and it wasn't until we were really neck-deep in it that I started to fret about whether or not I was doing it right. After all, they're only going to see these for the first time once, and if I screwed it up, then it would change the way they think about the movies. I am happy to report, then, that I can't imagine the films playing any better than they did to the boys. "Return Of The Jedi" has been a film I've had a rough relationship with ever since it was released in 1983. It's not a terrible movie, but it frustrated me enormously as a follow-up to "The Empire Strikes Back," and while I understand choices that Lucas made on a thematic level, they drove me crazy as dramatic choices. For Allen and Toshi, this was a return to the world of Luke, Leia and Han after a loooooong digression in which they got all the back-story they needed to fully understand the stakes of this final film, and I think they walked into it far more pumped up and invested than I was at 13. Expectation can be a funny thing, though. For Allen, there was only one thing he wanted to see from "Jedi," and he told me about it repeatedly in the days leading up to the screening. "Daddy, Yoda is the best, best, best, best, best fighter, and he's gonna kill Darth Sidious with his lightsaber, right?" I would just smile and tell him he'd have to wait and see, already cringing inwardly at the thought that his expectations were going to be crushed in several ways. When we actually started the film, there was a period of settling in and asking questions, but what amazed me is that I wasn't the one answering the questions: Toshi was. Allen needed to be reminded of who everyone was and what happened last, and Toshi not only read him the opening crawl, he took it upon himself to explain it all. "Okay, Allen, that's 3CPO and R2D2 and they work for Luke Skywalker and that place is the house of Jabba The Hutt, and he's that ugly worm guy who gave Boba Fett the money to get Han Solo frozen and steal him, and so he did in 'Empire Strikes Back,' you remember? And he was in that thing and he was all frozen? So the robots are gonna get Han Solo somehow." That was all the set-up needed for both of them to dive back into the world, and one of the things that really does make "Star Wars" such a potent fantasy world for young viewers is the density of detail. They want to know the names of every single weird and freaky thing they see onscreen, and they like saying the names, and they like testing each other on their ability to recall all the names. They can dig as deep as they want, and they keep coming up with little things to look at or talk about or add to the ongoing game of imagination that they're engaged in now. Every day, at least three or four times, one of them will say to the other, "You wanna play 'Star Wars'?" And then they're off and running, Jedi Knights battling enemies together or sometimes against one another, and they're constantly inventing rules and adding details. Allen really likes to not only use The Force in fights, but also to react to Toshi using it on him. Maybe he's going to be a stuntman, because he gets enormous pleasure out of throwing himself across the room and letting go of his lightsaber so he can then scramble to go get it. Toshi noticed right away that Luke Skywalker did not have his lightsaber with him in the opening scene when he shows up at Jabba's palace, and when he was fighting the Rancor, Toshi was practically apoplectic at the idea that Luke would show up without the weapon. "Daddy, why didn't he make his new lightsaber?" I had to play stupid, and when the entire plan dropped into place and R2 shot the lightsaber out to Luke on the skiff, Toshi roared. He was thrilled. That entire Jabba sequence, start to finish, played like gangbusters for the boys, and the way it gradually kept bringing characters in, one at a time, really did work to reintroduce them all after the long digression of the prequels. Almost like it was designed to do so. It's funny how much better this order works in terms of set-ups and pay-offs, with the prequels in mid-stream serving to make sure that all of the relationships have some weight behind them. Also, putting "Sith" in the mix before this film underlines the idea for both of the boys that anything can happen. Anyone can die. Good guys can become bad guys. If it happened to Anakin, it can happen to Luke. After all, Anakin was a real Jedi Knight. He was a hero in the wars for a long time. Luke's a shadow of his father, but like everything in the OT, muted compared to the prequels. I like that. There's something more human scale and real about Luke's story, about the world Luke lives in. Everything's worn down, including the people themselves. The Owen and Beru at the end of "Sith" seem like they're full of hope, but the old people in "A New Hope" feel worn down by years of reflection. Owen is bitter at any mention of the "heroes" of the Clone Wars, and I can imagine why now. And all of this is the stuff that Toshi seems to love about the films, the way the six films play off of one another. He's delighted by the idea that after he sees them in order, he can watch any one of them he wants, any time he wants, any scene he wants. And he's already told me he has a list of things he wants to see again. The deaths in "Jedi" serve to tie up story threads and put the series to bed. Even in 1983, I think Lucas already knew this was it, the curtain call for the characters. I think it's a bold move to kill Yoda when he'd only been in one film at that point, transitioning him to the Force and leaving the weight of everything on Luke's shoulders. He shows up in this movie just long enough to say, "Yeah, sorry, it's gonna suck, but you die or your dad does. Enjoy." And then he's gone. Allen was indignant, upset by Yoda not having one final showdown with Darth Sidious. "Daddy, who's gonna kill Darth Sidious now? Yoda is the best best best best fighter, and he was gonna kill him, but now he can't." I explained that Darth Vader and Darth Sidious were going to fight Luke together, and he was outraged anew at the suggestion. "But that's CHEATING!" The death of Boba Fett, though, was met with cheers and fart sounds, laughter at where he ended up. "He got EATED by the MONSTER!" Allen said this at least five times, and each time he said it, he laughed like a lunatic, so excited by the idea. "And the Princess, you remember? She killed the gross guy? You remember?" Allen will ask me if I remember something a good five minutes after it happens, as if there's a chance that maybe I didn't remember, and he needs to check his own memory to see if it was working properly. I'm always surprised by how straightforward "Jedi" is, and especially after the sometimes tortured plotting and pace of the prequels. More happens in the first half hour of "Sith" than in most movies of average length, and "Jedi" opens with a busy first act as well, but they serve very different purposes. "Jedi" is all about getting the band back together and telling them what they've got to do for the rest of the film. Once they do that, Luke, Han, and Leia set out on a common quest for the first time since escaping the Death Star in "A New Hope." It is unusual for all of them to be in one place at one time, and there's a lot of value in keeping them apart. Indeed, almost as soon as they're on the forest moon of Endor, they split up again. Speeder bikes? Big hit. Ewoks? Bigger hit. The boys thought they looked "weird" and "stinky," not cute. Allen said he thought they all looked mean. Their attempt to cook Han and Luke and Leia went over like gangbusters, and the boys both yelled at the TV. It led to the first of about 47,000 times that Allen said to me during the film, "Daddy, I don't want Luke to die." I warned him that it was possible. "Luke's very strong, but anything can happen." "But, daddy, I don't want Luke to die." "I know, buddy. Me, neither." The sequence where C3PO relates the story of the entire saga to the Ewoks was a particular highlight. Toshi narrated it, and Allen filled in details he liked, and they seemed to have a general sense of what parts C3PO was talking about. Again, that summing up feels appropriate if this is the last film in the series, and the sequence was also important to them because of the Luke and Leia conversation. They were particularly excited by the revelation that Leia could have the same powers of the Force that Luke has. That never occurred them, even after seeing that Luke and Leia were twins. "Daddy, is Princess Leia gonna get a lightsaber?" "She could." "But in this one? Like is she gonna fight Darth Vader, too?" Toshi seemed excited by the prospect that things would be fair after all, with two against two. I refused to answer, and a few scenes later, when Luke showed up and surrendered himself to Darth Vader, he looked at me like I had put the wrong movie in the player. And Allen said it again, hugging me tighter this time. "Daddy, I don't want Luke to die." The final section of the film, with the three different battle fronts, was a sustained emotional crescendo, and the boys spent much of it standing, participating. The attack on the Death Star, the Ewoks versus the Empire, and especially Luke standing face to face with the Emperor and Vader, all of them engrossing. It is quite clear now that there is no bad guy they've seen in any film that they hate more than they hate The Emperor. Allen gets angry every time he sees him onscreen, and the more the Emperor talked to Luke about converting to the Dark Side, the angrier Allen got. He was particularly offended by the idea that Luke might turn to the Dark Side. It's something that had never occurred to him, but once it was introduced as an idea, it seemed not just possible but inevitable. "Daddy, is Luke gonna get a Darth name, too, if he's the bad guy now?" "I guess so." "So is he gonna be with Darth Vader and Darth Sidious?" "No, there's only two bad guys, so if Luke becomes one, he'd have to kill whoever he replaced." "So if Luke kills the bad guys, he's a bad guy?" "Yes." "But if Luke doesn't kill the bad guys, they're gonna kill him?" "Looks that way." "DADDY, THIS MOVIE IS CHEATING!" I've always thought that perhaps the single most beautiful and haunting image in the entire "Star Wars" saga takes place in "Return Of The Jedi," a moment where the sound and the music and the camera move and the performances all crystallize perfectly, and seeing the moment here, after the emotion ride we'd been on with the six films, it hit me harder than ever. It's right after Vader realizes Leia is Luke's sister, and he says that he'll turn her if Luke won't do it. As Luke attacks him, furious, fighting harder than ever before, the Williams score swells with a vocal chorus and Luke drives Vader back, the camera tracking along on the far side of a staircase. By that point, Allen was holding around my neck, tight as he could, whispering it like a prayer, over and over. "I don't want Luke to die. I don't want Luke to die." When Luke drove Vader down, then hacked his hand off, Toshi stepped even closer to the TV, and I could see that he was on the verge of tears. "Don't do it, Luke! You can't!" And as if he heard him, Luke stepped back from that brink of destruction and refused to continue. He refused to kill his father. And Toshi turned to me, thrilled and overwhelmed. "Now they'll stop him, right, Daddy? They'll stop him together, right?" The Emperor pressed his attack, driving Luke back, then down, blasting him with one burst of energy after another, until it was too much for the boys, and they both started to cry. I reached out and paused the movie. "Guys, if this is too upsetting…" "YOU HAVE TO TURN THE MOVIE ON!" Toshi pointed at the TV as if he could make the movie start again with sheer force of will. "Allen? Are you okay?" He nodded, not even aware that he was crying, evidently. "I just don't want Luke to die." "I know. I know, honey." I hugged him and turned the movie back on, and they watched the Emperor push harder, Vader watching the scene, impossible to read behind his armor. When he finally stepped forward and picked up the Emperor, Toshi immediately got it. He started to yell. "YES! YES!" Allen didn't understand yet. It wasn't until Vader threw the Emperor into the react shaft that Allen really got what he was seeing. "Daddy, did he save Luke?" "He did." "Is the Emperor dead?" "He is." Toshi made the logical jump. "So did they win?" "They've still got to blow up the Death Star." "THAT'S EASY. NOW LUKE IS THE STRONGEST AND HE CAN DO ANYTHING BECAUSE HE'S SO STRONG!" Whatever they expected Luke to do, it wasn't the moment at the base of the landing ramp, finally removing Vader's mask and helmet. And while I'd held myself together emotionally up to that point, it wasn't something they said that finally set me off. Instead, it was when Vader's helmet came off and he and Luke were finally face to face. Allen reached up, looking at the movie, and touched my face, like he was reassuring himself that it was still me. That one gesture broke me. Once the Death Star was blown up, which almost felt like an anti-climax after the emotional crescendo of Vader's redemption, the film does that Special Edition thing where it cuts around the galaxy to show celebrations underway. It's something I've never really felt strongly about one way or another. But this time, when it showed the first celebration on Cloud City, Toshi called out, voice thick with emotion, "Look, Daddy! They're free!" And when it cut to Tatooine, Allen joined him. "They're free!" And when it cut to Naboo, they called out, even louder, overjoyed now, "They're free!" And on that last cut to Coruscant, Allen stood up to join Toshi, both of them jumping up and down now, as thrilled by the idea of hard-won freedom as any one on the Chicago streets in '68 or caught up in the Arab spring, both of them at the top of their lungs now. "THEY'RE FREE!" And then we're back on the Endor moon, back with our heroes, the final few images of the entire saga playing out now. And they kept celebrating, pure release, jumping and calling out and cheering. "THEY'RE FREE! THEY'RE FREE!" And when Luke looks over at the Force ghosts of Obi-Wan, Yoda, and the redeemed Anakin, they stopped. Toshi looked over at me, surprised and delighted. "Daddy, Anakin's a good guy again. He's Anakin again." "Yes, he is." "He saved Luke, and now he's a good guy again, right?" "Yes." "I like that. I like that, and that's my favorite part now." That celebratory high has continued without pause for a little over a week now. There have been epic lightsaber duels all through the house. They slip from one character to another as they play, sometimes fighting each other, sometimes fighting as a team. It has become a major part of their daily lives. They speak a language now that their mother doesn't understand, with words like "wookie" and "Jawa" and "padawan," and Allen sings the Imperial March as he does tasks like picking up the playroom or brushing his teeth. I think it is safe to say that the Force will be with them… always. And I like that. That's my favorite part now.