Iconic. Rousing. Pure fucking geek magic. Such are some of the choice adjectives we’d use to describe John Williams' immortal “Star Wars” theme, a piece of music that sends fanboys into a collective spasm of joyous exuberance upon its very first notes. With the internet positively abuzz from that scintillating first teaser for J.J. Abrams' upcoming 'The Force Awakens'—which George Lucas still claims not to have seen—many have chosen to look back at the original “Star Wars” films and their enduring influence on today’s pop culture (indeed, something like “Guardians of the Galaxy” would be impossible to imagine without the original trilogy). Love them or hate them—and unlike the newer, decidedly digital episodes that Lucas directed from the late '90’s to the early 2000’s, which were more or less unanimously derided, there is a bit of a divide here—the “Star Wars” films are important pop cultural artifacts, with an entire generation engorged on their dizzying, imaginative mythology,...
