40th Anniversary of the Original 'Star Wars' Film Debut

40 years ago in a galaxy called the Milky Way on a planet named Earth, a film debuted on this date that has become a iconic classic, sparked a revival in the science fiction genre and spawned a media empire that is now owned by Disney.

On May 25, 1977, Star Wars debuted to the delight of science fiction nerds like myself.  We flocked to our local multiplex theaters in droves to see the space saga and fictional galaxy in which good as repped by the Rebellion and a Luke Skywalker trained in The Force triumphed in this movie over the evil Galactic Empire run by Emperor Palpatine and his Sith apprentice and enforcer Darth Vader.

It is a saga that has now spawned seven films with the eighth in the series, The Last Jedi to debut in December 2017

As the original film became a trilogy and spawned a 1980 sequel The Empire Strikes Back, it was renamed in 1981 Star Wars Episode IV- A New Hope

>The inaugural Star Wars movie raked in over $450 million in the US alone and another $775 million worldwide and has significantly impacted pop culture and even politics as Reagan's embrace of the term 'evil empire' to describe the then Soviet Union aptly is an example of.

In 1989, Star Wars was selected along with The Empire Strikes Back in 2010 by the Library of Congress to be preserved in the US National Film Registry for culturally dded to its

Star Wars also borrows from politics and history.  The Galactic Empire's stormtroopers share the name from the Nazi stormtroopers.   The Empire's black political officer, commander and guards uniforms are modeled on the Waffen SS, and the Imperial fleet uniforms borrow elements from the World War II era German Wehrmacht.

Palpatine's rise to power is is similar to how Hitler came to power in 1930's Germany.   Palapine was first elected chancellor of the Galactic Republic before seizing power to become dictator and declaring himself emperor. then subsequently having the Jedi Order exterminated. .

May the Force be with you on this 40th anniversary date of the debut of a movie that became part of our lives   May be time for me to check out my DVD copy of it again in honor of today's anniversary

May The Force Be With You Always, Carrie!

Like many of you TransGriot readers, I was shocked to hear that Carrie Fisher had suffered a heart attack while in the final phases of a flight to LAX.a few days ago and died today at age 60.

I am a huge Star Wars fan, and loved her as Princess and now General Leia Organa, but also enjoyed the other roles she was in during her career.

She was not just an actor.  Fisher was multitalented as an author, screenwriter, and producer who was also brutally honest and candida about her own life and other issues of importance.

One of my faves is from the Blues Brothers movie, when she played the M16 toting left at the altar fiancee of Jake Blues and ambushes him and Elwood as they are trying to stealthily escape through a utility tunnel at the Palace Hotel Ballroom packed with blues fans, police, and the Good Ol Boys Band.



Episode VIII is coming out sometime in 2017,  and it's going to be sad to see her in it knowing she is no longer in the same plane of existence with us.

May The Force Be With You Always, Carrie!   You'll definitely be missed by you family and your legions of fans around the world.

TransGriot Update:   Sadly, to make this story even more tragic, a little over 24 hours later, Carrie's mother Debbie Reynolds passed away due to a stroke at age 84..

May The 4th Be With You On Star Wars Day!

In addition to noting some of the famous peeps who share my birthday like the late Audrey Hepburn, sportscaster Erin Andrews and Kimora Lee Simmons, my May 4 birthday has also become synonymous with Star Wars Day.

I'm a huge Star Wars fan and have been since i got to watch the original movie debut in 1977.   Many of the Star Wars trilogy movies also have in common they were released in the month of May.

In fact, one of my activist nicknames is Darth Maul because of my love for the movies and my take no prisoners attitude towards our not so esteemed trans human rights opposition.  I also got the nickname because my activist mentor at the time was nicknamed Darth Vader.   The fact she likes to fence only cemented the nickname into our consciousness.

Personally I think it should have been Emperor Palpatine, but (cough, cough, hack wheeze...)

Oh yeah, where was I in this post?

The unofficial day to celebrate all things Star Wars became May 4 because the date easily could be used to create a pun filled version of the movie's catchphrase 'May The Force be with you."., and the first organized celebration of it took place in Toronto in 2011.

Social media and the purchase of the Star wars franchise by Disney helped drive this fandom based day into a quasi official day celebrating everything Star Wars related, and now my birthday  is associated in the mids of Star Wars fans with the movie.

Yoda Comments On The Dark Side Of The Political Force

“Fear is the path to the political dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to voting Republican and suffering.”

'If kidding you think am I, see you this person from Romney rally."