QUOTE (Vwing @ Dec 16 2003, 08:27 PM)
Hell, what was that thing a month or two back when a million Europeans put Jedi as their religion?
Comedian Rick Mercer got more than a million people in Canada to "sign" an online petition to have politician Stockwell Day legally change his name to Doris Day.
The thing you're citing is based on an urban legend that if enough people put a certain word in the box for "religion" on their census form, then the word they put down would suddenly be legally recognized as a religion, whether the "religion" actually had any followers or tenets of faith. Along with the legend was a plea to all readers to put down the word "Jedi." So it was a solicited move, if it happened at all. I received one of those e-mails myself. I doubt a million people ever wrote the word "Jedi" in any box, since you say Europe and when I heard the story it was Canada, but even if they had it would be a testament to their willingness to belief silly internet gossip, not to the existence of any actual religion.
People will do dumb things if asked to; and you shouldn't believe everyhting you read.
But your general point, that the OT was good, is right on. That is, Lucas made two very good movies and one that was okay. These would still be remembered fondly, but we all dislike Lucas since he wants us all to believe that those movies never existed. He would rather put out revamped "special editions" to correct the many "mistakes" that nobody complained about when the films were new. And then he's gone on to make this prequel trilogy, which is some of the worst filmmaking I've ever heard of. Worse than WING COMMANDER. Worse than BATTLEFIELD EARTH. Worse than JUDGE DREDD. Worse than DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS. Etc.
I just saw RETURN OF THE KING. Peter Jackson made three good movies.
"I had a lot of different ideas. At one point, Luke, Leia and Ben were all going to be little people, and we did screen tests to see if we could do that." -George Lucas, in STAR WARS: the Annotated Screenplays (p197).