Category: Movies

As I write this post, I am wrapping up watching all of the Star Wars movies. I watched the movies in episode order because it was part of a study and the book we were following guided you through the films this way. As we were beginning this study, I saw some articles that claimed to have the ideal order for watching these movies and I did a little research comparing arguments for different orders of watching these films. I am by no means a hardcore Star Wars fan. But I consider myself a movie buff and I have decided what I think is the best order for watching the films. I will briefly discuss the various orders and why I think my suggestion is the best.

On Friday July 27, 1984, my girlfriend (now wife) and I made our way to the Malco Theater in downtown Jackson, Tennessee to see the first Prince film, Purple Rain. This was the opening weekend for the movie.  While I liked Prince, I wasn’t a huge fan. I didn’t have any of his albums in my music collection. I really liked the music videos for his songs from the album 1999. I think our main reason for going to see it on the opening weekend was that it would be fun to see with a group of hardcore, Prince fans. Our best opportunity to do that would be on opening night. 

When I returned to high school in the fall of 1977, one of the kids in my class was wearing a shirt with a phrase on it that said “May The Force Be With You”.  I found out quickly that this was related to the film Star Wars which had come out earlier that year. Obviously, I had not seen it yet. Even though Star Wars had come out in May of that year, it was not the full on cultural phenomenon that it would become. I will also admit that I might not have been the most in tune person to the latest in movies.  While I enjoy sci-fi movies, I didn’t feel compelled to rush out to see the latest one every time a new one came out.  I was 15 and a little too old to be fascinated with a movie that sold toys for kids and a little too young to be able to make it to the movies without an older friend or my parents.  By the time I finally did go to see it, the Meco recording of the Star Wars theme had become a hit and the world had gone through its first Christmas with a rush on Star Wars toys that the manufacturers weren’t ready for.  Star Wars ran for what seemed like a year before it left theaters. My mother took me and my friend Timmy to see it the very last week of that original run. I enjoyed it and immediately understood why so many people went to see it so many times.