Star Wars Turns the Big 4-0, and It's as Influential as Ever<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A long, long time ago, in a galaxy far, far\u2014no, wait, in our galaxy\u2014there was a little boy who saw Star Wars. And then he saw it again. And again. And\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/watchinggod\/2017\/05\/star-wars-turns-big-4-0-influential-ever\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Star Wars Turns the Big 4-0, and It's as Influential as Ever\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A long, long time ago, in a galaxy far, far\u2014no, wait, in our galaxy\u2014there was a little boy who saw Star Wars. And then he saw it again. And again. 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{"id":1659,"date":"2017-05-25T11:23:24","date_gmt":"2017-05-25T17:23:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sixseeds.patheos.com\/watchinggod\/?p=1659"},"modified":"2017-05-25T11:23:24","modified_gmt":"2017-05-25T17:23:24","slug":"star-wars-turns-big-4-0-influential-ever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/watchinggod\/2017\/05\/star-wars-turns-big-4-0-influential-ever\/","title":{"rendered":"Star Wars Turns the Big 4-0, and It’s as Influential as Ever"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

A long, long time ago, in a galaxy far, far\u2014no, wait, in our<\/em> galaxy\u2014there was a little boy who saw Star Wars. And then he saw it again. And again. And again.<\/p>\n

He couldn\u2019t afford any Kenner Star Wars<\/em> playsets, so he made his own action figures and built a Millennium Falcon out of corrugated cardboard. When the family station wagon squeaked, he\u2019d pretend it was R2-D2. He was given a plastic lightsaber for Christmas; it ran out of batteries in a week.<\/p>\n

Star Wars<\/em> turns 40 today, in case you haven\u2019t heard. And I\u2019m sure for a lot of folks, it\u2019s just another anniversary. But for some of us of a certain age, Star Wars was really one of the seminal moments of our lives. One of my movie reviewing comrades divides the cinematic world between \u201cBSW\u201d and \u201cASW:\u201d Before Star Wars<\/em> and After Star Wars<\/em>.<\/p>\n

And even that may be selling it short. I can\u2019t think of another movie property that has so thoroughly inculcated itself into our culture. Quick: how many characters can you name from Avatar? Jurassic World? Titanic? How \u2019bout any character? Now, how many characters can you name from the original Star Wars? Honestly, I wouldn\u2019t be surprised if more people know who Darth Vader is than Donald Trump. Its influence is that broad.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve already geeked out about Star Wars<\/em> plenty elsewhere. Jake Roberson, Adam Holz and I chat about Star Wars<\/em> on Jake\u2019s and my Fanboy and Know-it-All Podcast<\/a>. I talk more about the movie\u2019s cultural influence over at Plugged In<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n

But here, I thought I\u2019d just re-introduce you the original Star Wars trailer \u2026 and maybe marvel that, after this came out, anyone wanted to see the movie at all.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=vP_1T4ilm8M<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"