I’m 55 today. That means I’m now old enough to remember seeing movies in the cinema that are half a century old. Well, almost. I don’t really remember seeing any movies from when I was five. But I do remember this one from when I was six. And since everybody else will be providing their 50th anniversary opinions next year, I figured why not beat them to the punch? So here’s my Golden Anniversearly Analysis of Star Wars (aka Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope), released 49 years ago this week.
Star Wars is near as damn it to the perfect movie. Action, adventure, droid baths, miniature princesses, trash compactors, impenetrable mysticism, womp rats. Who can ask for anything more in a film?
So many awesome moments. But probably the scene that’s stuck with me the most over the decades takes place just prior to the Death Star™ battle, when the various X-Wing pilots check in:
“Red Ten standing by.” “Red Seven standing by.” “Red Three standing by.” “Red Six standing by.” “Red Nine standing by.” “Red Two standing by.” “Red Eleven standing by.” “Red Five standing by.”
As a six-year-old, this confused and intrigued me. Even more so as an adult when Andor pointedly failed to address it in either of its two seasons.
10, 7, 3, 6, 9, 2, 11, 5? Boy, these hotshots really didn’t want to stick to traditional ordinal counting, did they? None of that tedious Peano-based 1, 2, 3, etc nonsense for this lot.
No wonder they were considered Rebels.
