Of all the parental dilemma’s my parents and grandparents had to face (when to talk about sex, what to do about drink etc…) there is a dilemma that faces me and any other young people (or older) that may be planning on starting a family soon, or may have recently started a family…
namely this…
which order do you let your children watch the Star Wars trilogys in…
do you make them watch it from Episode I to VI
or make them watch it how we have… Episode IV to VI then I to III…
the pro’s obviously - are that they get to see Anakin’s fall without pre-knowledge of Darth Vader… and are completely unaware of the Evil Empire - so that the plot to overthrow the Jedi will be a complete suprise…
but…
the impact of Vader’s relationships to Luke and Leia - will be gone - as by the end of Episode III they will presumably know that he has children…
I’ve just started watching them with my three year old son: we’ve seen Star Wars and Empire so far, and Jedi is up next. As far as the latter ones go, we’ll probably discuss them around the time we talk about the birds and the bees: “Son, sometimes grownups do very bad things - like the time you ate breakfast, went to the toilet, smelt your own poo, and then threw up all over the bathroom floor. Well, some of those grownups are called “Directors”…”
PS The above anecdote, although curiously apposite, is completely true.
My tactic is to have the kids watch the original trilogy in order of release, and simply refuse to acknowledge anything else that has taken place in the Star Wars universe. Works for me
My guess is that you have zero chance of treating your children to an unspoiled Star Wars viewing, unless you plan to homeschool them and isolate them from other children, or show them the films before they learn to speak. The Star Wars mythos is to be an integral part of children’s culture (at least in my part of the world, and I don’t expect UK to be that different). Long before my children had seen any SW film, they knew the basics – Luke, Leia and Han Solo, how Anakin used to be a good guy and was Luke and Leia’s dad, and then became a bad guy, and on and on and on. I remember listening to them playing with Lego, and the bad guys were named Darth Vader, Hitler and Lord Sinister. Trying to keep SW spoilers from them would be more difficult than keeping them from knowing that some people believe in gods, or what the name of the prime minister is.
Do not underestimate the power of the Star Wars lore
Lady Chance and I have been playing LEGO: Star Wars over the last week or so and going the ‘The Phantom Menace’. This entertains the (just today!) five-year-old immensely.
So I showed her Episode I. She enjoyed it a lot but thought Darth Maul was too scary for her.
Most StarWars fans are what, 30-35 these days. That means when the originals were released they were just kids so of course they thought they were good.
Were there any 30-35 year olds around 1980 who thought the original trilogy was all that? Find them for me. They’ll tell you that they were crappy kids movies.
“Phntom Menace” really is that bad. “Attack of the Clones” isn’t, although it has a lot of stuff that’s really dumb and, until right the end, it’s not the most important part of the storythat Lucas should be covering.
Well, my kid’s seen them all out of order, since she’s 8. I think that the first one she remembers seeing is “Attack of the Clones” She didn’t see the originals until the DVD’s came out. She’s very excited about the new movie all the same.
My husband is the den leader of a Tiger Cub Scout troop (boys in first grade) and they are making marionettes. All the boys are completely into Star Wars, so they are making Star Wars marionettes. My husband made Darth Maul (from “Phantom Menace”), but the boys all made characters from the original series…Luke Skywalker (there are several Lukes) Chewbacca, Yoda…OK, I think there was one young (beardless) Obi-Wan. My daughter (she attends most of the meetings since I work evenings) is making a stormtrooper.
I know that this is an unscientific study, but I think this shows that young boys, at least, still identify more with Luke than they do with Anakin. I think that you’d do all right to show the movies in the order made.
There is a strong tendency to start with the beginning of the story, chronologically, though. I’ve noticed that, in bookstores, they’ve reordered the Narnia series by C.S. Lewis so that you read the events in the order that they happened, rather than starting with “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe”, which was the first book written. I’m not so sure that that is always the best way to go…it’s kind of interesting to see parts of the story fall into place.
I was 25 and an Anthropology major when I saw *Star Wars * the week it came out. I got not only the mythic references, but the nods to the pulps, and I also knew most of the movies Lucas ripped off (Hidden Fortress, Dawn Patrol, etc.) The Empire Strikes Back is not a kid’s movie, crappy or otherwise.
Well, let’s see. I was 28 in 1980, and I was absolutely blown away by the first movie. From the opening shot where the battle cruiser comes across the screen, and keeps coming… and coming… and OHMIGOD IT’S HUUUUUGGGGGEEE to the bit at the end when Han Solo flies in to help Luke at the last minute, I found it immensely satisfying and fun to watch.
I thought The Empire Strikes Back was a more mature story. It wasn’t quite as whiz-bang as the first, and I thought (and still think) that the “I am your father” bit was a little far-fetched, but hey, I could live with it. Still a good movie.
By The Return of the Jedi, Lucas had obviously been seduced by the Dark Side of Marketing Tie-Ins. Cutesy furry things to appeal to kids, a plot that was basically the same as the one in the first movie – meh.
And as for episodes I and II, since I’m a thinking person who likes to watch interesting movies, it’s obvious to me that I’m not their target audience.
I saw them completely out of order when I was younger. The first one I saw was Empire. I saw it at the video store, liked the cover, and asked my dad if we could rent it (he was a big fan back in the day).
Can’t remember whether I saw New Hope or Jedi next.
When I have kids I figure they should see the OT first.
Oddly enough, my five-year-old is still totally clueless about Star Wars[sup]*[/sup]. The closest he’s ever gotten to the whole kit-n-kaboodle has been wanting a toy light saber from the store (because he wants to whack things with it, no doubt), and asking about Yoda when I was flipping through the newest issue of Time magazine.
I plan to show him IV-V-VI first, though, if I can help it.
[sup]*[/sup]On the other hand, he can spot Optimus Prime, Megatron, and Bob the Builder at fifty paces…
My 9yo daughter saw episodes I and II first. Not the way I would have liked it, but as I was working out of state and her mother has no sense of priority it couldn’t be helped.
I only recently found out that she had never seen the first three films, so weve been watching them in order on a local channel. We’ve seen IV and V, and VI is playing this weekend.
Lately whenever she and I disagree on something I wait for an appropriate moment and say, “Michelle, I am your father!” whereupon we intone together, “Search your feelings–you know it to be true!” and have a laugh.
