Is This the Most Important Moment in Mainstream Movie History?

Read on. I just may be serious.

In 1977, we were taken on the ride of our lives … and it ended with a reward. Well, two, actually.

Beautiful.

I was done by then. As soon as the end credits rolled and my family stood up and walked into the lobby, I could not. My legs were totally numb and I could not stand, a fact that I seem to incorporate in every article I write about “Star Wars,” the first film or the franchise in general.

Lightning struck and I was damaged — or rewarded, as the case may be — for life. I knew from there what I wanted to do — no, scratch that, needed to do — for a living.

So I became a writer-producer for film and television.

Hell, some 42 years later during “The Rise of Skywalker” I cried when Chewie received his long-overdue medal. I’m mush when it comes to these films, a 56-year-old sucker deaf to toxic fandom who will buy anything this franchise will sell me.

Discerning? Sure. I didn’t care for “The Phantom Menace,” “Attack of the Clones,” or the “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” theatrical pilot. I could take or leave the two Ewok TV movies and “The Star Wars Holiday Special” is blasphemy on a hotplate.

But who cares, really? Life gets messy and imperfect too. Despite my less than enthusiastic reaction to the aforementioned franchise entries … I admit I’ve watched them all dozens of times.

I told you. I was scarred for life in ’77.

That said, I made a big comment in the title of this piece and I meant it. I believe the medal scene in 1977’s “Star Wars” just may be the single most important moment in the history of mainstream cinema.

Read on.