A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away …

(By Erik, of course)

I would be remiss in my blogging if I didn’t mention that today is the 30th anniversary of the release of the original Star Wars.

George Lucas’ masterwork has inspired generations of science-fiction geeks, including myself. My family has dropped untold hundreds of dollars on Star Wars products over the years. I actually started collecting the action figures before I saw the film.

I wasn’t even 4 when Star Wars debuted on May 25, 1977 — a bit too young for an intense movie adventure. (My first film was the Disney flick Pete’s Dragon, and even that was too much for me at the time — there was a toothless woman in that picture who was much scarier than Darth Vader.)

I didn’t see the film for the first time until its re-release in 1979. By then, Lucas had added the words Episode IV: A New Hope to the opening scroll. The film also featured a preview for the upcoming Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back. (All I remember is a shot of Darth Vader rising from a dinner table and Han Solo shooting at him. It seemed really weird and out of place at the time.)

Star Wars seemed to define my existence in the early 1980s. I had the names of all the characters memorized. The best time of year was when the toy company Kenner released a new line of Star Wars action figures. Finding them became an obsession for my whole family. I remember dad combing through row after row of figures to find the elusive IG-88 (a bounty hunter droid) and FX-7 (a medical droid). Combined, these two characters spent about five minutes on the screen in Empire.

But tons of people have written about how Star Wars impacted their lives. And tons of ministers have written about the connections between the movies and faith. What’s impressed me recently is the faith that it took Lucas (and many others) to make Star Wars in the first place — and how close the film came to not existing at all.

Around the time I was born, a film Lucas directed called American Graffiti was in theaters. The film, starring Ron Howard and Cindy Williams, was about a group of teenagers in small-town California in 1962. It also featured a young Harrison Ford portraying a character named Bob Falfa (which, to me, sounds suspiciously like Boba Fett). Some folks say the movie’s success inspired ABC to green-light the television series Happy Days which, of course, starred Ron Howard. (And Laverne and Shirley, a spin-off of Happy Days, starred Cindy Williams. And I haven’t even mentioned Kevin Bacon yet.)

The success of American Graffiti helped Lucas get the support of 20th Century Fox to produce the space fantasy film he’d envisioned for years. At the time, science-fiction pictures didn’t do tremendous business, so most of the executives weren’t overly excited about the picture. Lucas agreed to write and direct the film and act as executive producer. But instead of asking for extra money, he asked for the rights to produce sequels. At the time, he assumed that the film would be a disaster financially, but he wanted the other two parts of his story to be told. He also asked for a healthy chunk of the merchandising for the film. The studio agreed. (After all, who would want to buy T-shirts and toys based on a movie?)

Not too many of Fox’s executives believed in Lucas’ vision, and many times during the production of the film they tried to pull the plug. The film was over budget, shooting ran too long, and nobody really got the point. The head of the studio, Alan Ladd Jr., didn’t really understand everything Lucas was doing, either. But he believed in the young filmmaker and stood by him, even when things weren’t going well for the production. Whenever other executives criticized the film, Ladd would say something like, “I think this is going to be the best film ever made,” and that would end the discussion.

And, right up to the release date, every indication was that Ladd, and Lucas, were wrong. Lucas’ closest friends and fellow filmmakers didn’t like the first screening (Steven Spielberg claims he loved it.) Almost everything Lucas wanted to do had never been done before. Most of the actors didn’t take the film seriously, and the special effects department was behind schedule until Lucas himself intervened. The release date had to be pushed to mid-1997 (it was supposed to be released at Christmas 1976.)

At one point Lucas thought he was having a heart attack and went to the hospital, where he was diagnosed with hypertension and fatigue. The stress was almost unbearable.

Star Wars debuted in a humble 37 theaters in May 1977. The studio also released a highly anticipated adaptation of the book The Other Side of Midnight the same weekend and told theaters that, in order to screen it, they also had to show Star Wars.

You know what happened next. Lucas’ weird little film went on to make millions and millions of dollars. I wonder if it would have happened without Alan Ladd Jr.

I could go on and on about this, but it seems I already have. My introductory material ran a bit too long. I’m going to revise and refine all of this into a sermon someday. Until then, may the Force … well, you know.