I was reading an interview with a film critic some time ago who lamented the popularity of Star Wars (specifically episode 4), stating it was a rubbish film and didnt deserve the popularity. Interesting, I thought, considering its mass appeal including amongst nerds, who are usually a little more thoughtful regarding what they like than, say, your average Spice Girls fan.
Thinking in more detail about why Star Wars was popular, it was easy to come up with reasons (being a nerd myself), but here are my Top 5:
5 - Space Ships
The movie begins with a massive space ship chasing a little one. This meant that there was a giant space ship shop somewhere offering unique choice to the customer. Even Luke (the whiny kid playing with power converters) has one. Awesome.
4 - Robots with personality
OK, one was a camp English gent and the other seemed like a kid with Aspergus syndrome, but they were far more interesting than an Atari 2600.
3 - Princess Leia
In her day, Carrie Fisher was incredibly hot. On top of this, she rode around in space ships and sometimes just lay around in a bikini (Ive always wondered what Jabba would have done with her - and how?). She was also the closest thing to a woman most nerds would see other than their mother too.
2 - The force
The second scene in which we see Vadar involves him choking a man from across the room using only his mind. For any nerd that has been teased about being puny, any jock who is getting lazy or even any person that has had to sit through an infomercial will attest; this 'force' thing could be really cool.
1 - The hero is a nerd
As mentioned above, Luke is introduced as a nerd who watches sunsets and whines a lot. Methinks that the only reason he wasnt decked out EMO-style is that wearing black in the desert is too crazy, even for the future. By the end of the movie he is destroying space ships the size of planets and being hailed as a hero. This had to give the average audience member, who at this point was primairly concerned with destroying pop-corn, some cause for hope ni their own life.
