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Happy Birthday to Mark Hamill; Remembering The Late Christopher Reeve On His Birthday
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Luke Skywalker

Two archetypes of the Sci-Fi/Fantasy world were born today, September 25: Mark Hamill, best known to the masses as Luke Skywalker, who goes from a humble, naïve, wide-eyed teenager to an anointed full blown Jedi in the original Star Wars trilogy, and the late Christopher Reeve, who will always be immortalized as the spit-curled, donned in tights and red boots Man of Steel in the most popular incarnation of the Superman film franchise. Hamill is 61 today; Reeve, who died in 2004, from cardiac arrest due to complications after a riding accident left him paralyzed from the neck down, would have been 60.

Both men are etched in cinema history in their respective roles. In the case of Mark Hamill, mainly a character actor before he hit paydirt as the protagonist of George Lucas’ storied space opera of a film in Star Wars, his Luke Skywalker remains one of the 20th century’s most well known and liked characters in any form of entertainment. The underdog Skywalker, receiving his tutelage of the Force by way of seasoned veteran Jedi Obi-Wan Kenobi in the first film, and later fine tuned by Jedi Master Yoda in The Empire Strikes Back, sets him up perfectly for Return of the Jedi, in which the climactic showdown between himself and his father Anakin Skywalker, who has manifested himself into the dark, cold blooded, sadistically evil man in black, Darth Vader, has become a direct source of Sci-Fi symbolism to millions of fans to this very day, and as a hero to the common man globally.

Luke and Leia

Since the first film premiered in theaters 35 years ago this year, Luke Skywalker has been a character for the ages, and Hamill’s perfect portrayal of him, with turns and dialogue right out of an old Sci-Fi B-movie time capsule in many respects, was perfect tonic for the Me Generation of the 1970s, weaned on heaviness, intensity, realism, downerism, and cynicism in many of the films of that decade that preceded Star Wars‘ arrival to theaters in May of 1977. Skywalker and many other characters in the film provided a perfect form of escapist antidote that rejuvenated audiences and spawned a genesis of sorts for a thirst for these kind of ultra fun popcorn films. It spawned a sub genre of a type of blockbuster motion picture which is stronger than ever these days in the cinema. It set the stage for countless films of its kind to follow, a live-action adaptation of the Son of Krypton, Superman, among many others.

That film, as Star Wars had done for Mark Hamill, launched the career of Christopher Reeve. Released in late 1978, and employing arguably the same sense of wonderment and awe blueprinted in a sense by Star Wars, and also on the same par with that film in terms of its budget and (for its time) spare no expense Oscar-winning Special Effects, Superman was another smash success for the genre, and the portrayal of Superman by Reeve was as much of a sheer delight as the film itself.

Superman

Reeve’s take on the character – modest, shy, confident, benevolent, caring, but yet cunning and always had his eyes firmly affixed on the Truth, Justice, and the American Way prize – made the character of Superman, to new generations first discovering him and old generations who had remembered him from the old Action Comics series decades earlier, made the character alive and vivid to millions of movie goers. The franchise spawned three more films after the first one, the second one remaining a classic, but the third and fourth started to show rust and wear and tear in the narratives and the tone of the series, but regardless and throughout, Reeve’s portrayal of the title character remained earnest. He fought through bad dialogue and improbable logic in the third and especially the fourth installment of the series, but still never wavered in his portrayal and always remained true to the character, as if he knew he had a personal responsibility to it and to the audience, even if the screenwriters hadn’t.

Both men parlayed their respective characters into folk heroes which now and until the end of time will be fondly remembered. Hamill had a rather shaky career after the Star Wars franchise ended its first original wave of its trilogy, but found some new life by doing voiceovers for many cartoons – his take of the sinister Joker in the Batman Animated Series was a standout. For Reeve, he too had mediocre success with his post-Superman career, and then his accident put things to a virtual standstill, although he still continued to act, his appearances in Smallville was his highlight, and he had still been a figure in the public eye and raised awareness for the paralyzed also in many charitable functions that he was a part of, either directly or for him. A chapter in comic book film history closed with his death in 2004.

Mark Hamill

So a toast to two larger than life figures in Tinseltown, who dazzled and continue to dazzle filmgoers across decades and generations, Mark Hamill and the late Christopher Reeve, who, as Luke Skywalker and Superman respectively, were men of steel who had the force with them, always.

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