Touching review of Empire Strikes Back

As part of a community building exercise, some of the Star Wars fan groups are sending a Luke Skywalker figurine from club to club around the world, taking pictures along the way. A document of his travels can be found here: Luke's Blog

Doing a Google search to find any discussion this project, I found this touching review of "Empire Strikes Back" by Infoquake author David Louis Edelman. He recounts seeing it for the first time in 1980 with his brothers and sisters and a mother's purse full of smuggled-in candy. He writes:

Harrison Ford [...] by cavalierly dodging the Empire through fancy maneuver after fancy maneuver, has clearly demonstrated that he is the coolest dude in the history of the universe, ever ever ever. The chase through the asteroid field makes the Imperial Walkers seem like old news, especially now that the candy's gone and the sugar high has kicked in [...]

I'm scared, I'm elated, I want to go home, I never want to leave.

It makes we wish I could un-learn what I know, and re-watch the Star Wars films with the fresh eyes of a child. Failing that, I gather with my friends periodically and talk about these 30 year old films with a youthful vigour. We ask each other the same questions that have been raised for years:

• "Do we have freewill or are we guided by fate/destiny?"
  
• "How much government is too much, how much it too little?"
  
• "Do the ends justify the means?"
  
• "It it our intentions or actions that make us good or villainous?"
  

The love of gadgets, droids and space travel definitely shaped my career decisions, as I know it did others. The belief in Jedi peace and justice, and the Buddhists teachings they are based on, have guided my behaviour on more than one occasion.

Not bad for a merely escapist popcorn serial.

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