The Force Is With Him
Last night, Linus watched Star Wars for the second time. On Monday, he watched it the first time. Yeah, yeah. I get the bad parent rating for having my almost-four year old watch a movie, and one with violence at that, on two consecutive nights. We can discuss my poor parenting techniques another time.
Before we go any farther, I want to establish that I'm not a Star Wars freak. I used to have some of the merchandise when I was a kid, but have none now, and I've certainly never been to a convention or anything like that. I couldn't even tell you the last time I saw the film. I'm not one of those people. But I like the movie well enough, and I think it's a decent enough movie for kids to watch, because they invariably react to it. It stays with them. So, we satdown and watched it with him, my wife and Linus on Monday night, and all three of us last night.
The movie works well for kids because of it's incredibly simplistic portrayals of good and evil. Linus was easily able to identify who was "good" and who was "bad", although the Stormtroopers were a bit confusing at first. I think the real reason the movie is such a hit with kids is all the really cool stuff that's in it. First, you've got spaceships. That's a slam dunk, right there. And you've got robots. I know they're really droids, but I can't tell you the difference. And there are just a lot of interesting people and places. And lightsabers.
Now, out of all that movie, all those characters, which ones do you think stay with Linus? I figured Chewbacca was going to rock his world, so I had really been talking up Chewy before we watched the movie. Chewbacca was just a big furry guy to him. Instead, Linus was infatuated with the Sandpeople (Those of you who didn't get out on dates much will know them as the Tusken Raiders.) All movie long, Linus is asking "Where are the Sandpeople?"
In the cantina: "Where are the Sandpeople?"
On the Death Star: "Where are the Sandpeople?"
At the rebel base: "Where are the Sandpeople?"
It might as well be called "Sandpeople Wars"
To him, much of the movie was about getting away from the Sandpeople. Didn't care about the Jawas, never gave Jabba the Hut a second thought, only wanted to know where the Sandpeople were.
And the other thing that stayed with him? Lightsabers, of course. Now, everything is a lightsaber. Lincoln Logs are a lightsaber. Our dog Maxine's tail is a lightsaber. Limp steamed green beans are...you guessed it. Predictably, this leads to some less than desireable behaviors, but I knew that was part of the bargain. I was tempted to waste a bunch of wrapping paper just so we could have the cardboard tubes inside.
"Eat your lightsabers!"
Last night, after Linus crawled into bed with Jane and I and our damned bedhog dog, I heard him having a dream. It was vivid, whatever it was. There is no doubt in my mind that he was dreaming about Star Wars. I felt bad that maybe I had subjected him to a nightmare about the Sandpeople, but there was a chance he was vanquishing them with his lightsaber, so maybe it all evens out.
And then I had a dream, that I had woken up in the middle of the night, and Linus was downstairs playing with his recorder. You know, one of those plastic clarinet-like instruments? And he was playing the song that the alien band is playing in the cantina on Tattooine. And playing it well.
Funny, the things that stay with you when you watch a movie like Star Wars.
11:21:07 AM 
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