![](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/715\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-bHBIt4V9-VE\/UZAF3nWVwVI\/AAAAAAAAFFA\/-81ibc4Zgzc\/s1600\/Star+Wars.png\")
<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\ncaptured my imagination back in the day<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
We watched Star Wars<\/i> last night. \u00a0Not the \u2018New Hope\u2019 garbage. \u00a0The real thing, the version that came out in theaters back in the height of the Disco era. \u00a0Not the one with the deplorable CGI, or where Han waits to ignore a small explosion next to his head before he shoots. \u00a0The version that actually knocked our socks off some 35 years ago. \u00a0Yes, because of Lucas\u2019s strange arrogance and blindness to his own diminished talents, it was not the top of the line release. \u00a0When he released the originals on DVD, he made it clear to his fans that out of punishment for not celebrating his eternal creative perfection, the original releases would be without tweaks to make the quality images better, no HD, no Dolby, no nothing. \u00a0Basic VHS quality on DVD.<\/p>\n
And yet it was a million times better than the re-released New Hope versions, and numbers don\u2019t exist to illustrate how many times better it was than the Prequels. \u00a0Even with my boys gibbering through the thing, asking questions and giving commentary, it was a flight back to the olden days. \u00a0 Nostalgia can be fun. \u00a0I could almost remember what each scene was like. \u00a0Back in the day, when I worked an entire summer to afford every screening I could get, each scene was like a movie unto itself: the opening battle, the introduction of Vader, the introduction of Luke, the Cantina, the Death Star, the duel, the dogfight, the ceremony. \u00a0Each one was as monumental for my young mind as the scenes of Citizen Kane<\/i> to a film student.<\/p>\n
But something hit me. \u00a0We were watching some recent CGI laden blockbuster later, after the kids went to bed. \u00a0Too tired and worn out to do much else. \u00a0I don\u2019t know what it was. \u00a0It had sword fights, and CGI effects, and strange monsters (mostly CGI), and it was pretty stupid. I only watched a little before deciding my dreams would suffice for better entertainment. \u00a0Then it dawned on me. \u00a0Star Wars<\/i> was not a \u201cKid\u2019s Movie\u201d. \u00a0In fact, in those days, there were not kids movies, except that Disney studios produced (like The Apple Dumpling Gang, Gus the Field Goal Kicking Mule, The Love Bug<\/i>, etc.). \u00a0Movies were for adults only (R rated fare such as The\u00a0Exorcist\u00a0 The Godfather, Dog Day Afternoon, Saturday Night Fever<\/i>), or they were for everyone (Rocky, Smokey and the Bandit<\/i> (eh), Jaws<\/i>, and Star Wars<\/i>). \u00a0If it was determined that kids shouldn\u2019t see something \u2013 like my Mom not letting me see Jaws <\/i>for fear I would use it as an excuse to dodge\u00a0bath time\u00a0\u2013 then kids didn\u2019t go. <\/p>\n
But movies weren\u2019t made for kids or even adolescents. \u00a0They were for adults or for everybody. \u00a0As was Star Wars<\/i>. \u00a0Fast forward to today. \u00a0Movies today, especially \u201cblockbuster fare\u201d like the one we watched last night, are made\u00a0specifically\u00a0for a young adult to even childish\u00a0audience\u00a0 \u00a0And it didn\u2019t become that way overnight. \u00a0Somewhere, after Star Wars<\/i> and before that CGI one we saw last night, filmmakers found out what music makers did in the wake of young Sinatra: that due to kids\u2019 impressionable\u00a0minds, there are boundless dollars to be had. \u00a0Rock and Roll lives and breaths on that premise.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n It took movies like\u00a0Star Wars<\/i>, and later E.T.<\/i>, to realize that there is a gold mine to be had in making movies not for adult\u00a0sensibilities, but aimed squarely at those who are still\u00a0struggling\u00a0with pubescent hormones. \u00a0This change must have already been in full swing by the time Return of the Jedi<\/i> arrived, because Lucas was certainly dumbing down the story and the gags and the general production to a more childish level. \u00a0<\/p>\n Of course with the advent of PG-13, there is a new category, that summer blockbuster\u00a0supposedly\u00a0too intense for younger kids, but just in line with that all important\u00a0adolescent\u00a0young teen male. \u00a0And the humor, the\u00a0story lines\u00a0 the basic production all speak to that. \u00a0The CGI movie we watched last night wouldn\u2019t have rated a TV movie of the week when I was growing up, if for no other reason than the childish and laughably immature stunts, gags and bathroom humor. \u00a0 Some might be PG-13 because they strive for better, more adult level intensity and complexity, like any one of a boatload of Christopher Nolan movies. \u00a0But on the whole, most are movies that could say \u2018nobody over 18 admitted, because Lord knows they shouldn\u2019t want to be.\u2019 <\/p>\n Books have gone the same way. \u00a0Starting with the Goosebumps <\/i>series, and finding perfection in\u00a0the\u00a0Harry Potter <\/i>phenomenon, publishers learned that with kids, the profits can be endless, no matter what the quality. \u00a0In fact, the strange thing is, as our movies and our blockbuster output focuses on appealing exclusively to the youngest, I can\u2019t help but notice that our adult\u00a0audiences\u00a0are\u00a0increasingly\u00a0settling\u00a0for childish things. \u00a0Not just enjoying a movie that\u2019s young at heart (like Star Wars<\/i>), but actually lowering our expectations to movies, music and books that are young in content.<\/p>\n I can\u2019t tell how many adults lifted Harry Potter up as some lost Gospel of Christ. \u00a0And Lord help you if you disagreed. \u00a0All over a book series written, marketed and published for kids. \u00a0Same with the Comic book movies, or action movies, or remake movies. \u00a0I fear that was a problem with Peter Jackson\u2019s Lord of the Rings<\/i> series, that he needed to appeal to the childish, the teen mindset with a book that was anything but a child\u2019s book or teenage schlock. <\/p>\n But it also seems that adults are going that direction as well. \u00a0Perhaps it\u2019s a combination. \u00a0Rush Limbaugh once said something I\u2019ve never forgotten, some years ago. \u00a0On his birthday, he pointed out that he didn\u2019t feel as old as he was. \u00a0Not just in the usual sense. \u00a0He looked around and noticed that most people his age didn\u2019t look or act his age. \u00a0Not as he remembered it. \u00a0In fact, he noticed that his generation (Boomers) were the first\u00a0generation\u00a0in history that didn\u2019t have to grow up. \u00a0For the first time, people could fight to stay kids, to enjoy kid things, to obsess with kid hobbies and games. \u00a0Basically, adults could continue on acting like kids. Today there are So maybe the \u201ckiddifying\u201d of movies today is the result of the audience. Maybe the audience has become that way as producers of our cultural relics have\u00a0decided\u00a0to market to younger minds for the quick buck. \u00a0Maybe, like most things, it\u2019s a combination.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/div>\n
\n adults who play with Legos. \u00a0There are adults who read kid books and go to the mattresses over what those books are, like kids used to in school over things like baseball cards or action heroes in\u00a0comics. \u00a0Today, it\u2019s the adults.<\/p>\n