I saw Star Wars (I will die calling it that while all the younger nerds run around tut-tutting and calling it "A New Hope") in the theater in July, 1977 at the ripe old age of 8. It was a magical moment.
I remember my mind being absolutely blown away at the spectacles and concepts the original film included. Holograms. Laser swords. Credible space ships that were made to kick ass, not just weaponized for self-defense (sorry, Enterprise). Bad guys that I actually feared. Good guys that I really liked. Aliens that weren't clearly people in blue make-up (sorry, Star Trek) and places that felt dirty and dangerous...that felt like they could be real.
In 1977, the state of the art in movie special effects wasn't very compelling at all, so a science-fiction blockbuster that was extraordinary in nearly every way had just that much more impact on young, impressionable minds like mine.
I was instantly obsessed. I conned my grandparents into taking me to see it a second time a few weeks later (seeing a movie twice in the theater was something you really almost never did in those days, at least if you weren't filthy rich). They didn't understand it, so I spent the evening after we went trying to explain it to them. (Aside: They seemed much older to me that day than they ever had before.)
While I'm certainly not the world's biggest uber-fan of Star Wars, I do sincerely look forward to every movie. Sometimes I'm thrilled beyond measure (The Empire Strikes Back) and sometimes I'm disappointed beyond words (The Phantom Menace). I've done my fair share of cursing George Lucas' directing while at the same time marvelling at the man's imagination and his insistence that the films' special effects break paradigms left and right.
I am sincerely glad for the "franchise" that is Star Wars. While I am delighted by one-off films that thrill and inspire and endure, I'm equally delighted by the series that give us both something to cherish and something to look forward to. I hope it continues to delight us for generations to come.
Originally shared by StarTalk
A long time ago… (40 years, to be exact!)
Happy Geek Pride Day!
May the Force be with you. Always.
Image: © 1977 Twentieth Century-Fox
I saw it twice too, which was a rarity then. I do remember that there was a theatre with special matinees (77 cents!), but I can't recall if that's where it was showing.
ReplyDeleteI was old enough to be getting my own paycheck so I saw it 5 times that first summer. (Sorry to brag but today's the day that it is!)
ReplyDeleteI saw it before opening night. I told everyone I knew they had to go see it. My housemates brought me back an opening night button. I did see it 4 more times that summer, usually driving an hour down to UA Westwood with family and friends, standing in line for hours to get tickets, and then again to get in. I can't remember ever going to see a movie more than once during a first run: it was kind of scandalous to spend that much money.
ReplyDeleteMy dad brought me to see it (I was seven!). I saw the movie poster and saw Darth Vader and freaked out! I eventually did see it (while it was still in theaters). My parents then got me Star Wars bed sheets and Darth Vader was on the pillow, so I would try and cover him up.
ReplyDeleteI went to see it with my Dad opening week at the Sack Charles theatre in Boston (I was 14), because they had the best sound system. I was blown away from the first chord of the opening titles. We bought the sound track album as soon as it came out and I listened to that on the stereo over and over. I probably still have that vinyl somewhere.
ReplyDeleteSack Charles is where the sneak preview was, too, at least the Boston one.
ReplyDeleteI don't really recall seeing it in the cinema. I did, but I'm a smidge younger so I was just six. I certainly remember the music, though, and have remained a lifelong John Williams fan.
ReplyDeleteAlmost everything in your OP I agree with fully. Lucas is indeed an exceptional visionary who couldn't direct an actor out of a paper bag!!
I would only pick up on your comment about dirtiness. Looking back, it wasn't really until TFA that I'd really say their was true grittiness. The world of the original trilogy, and even more so the prequels, seemed clinical, war far too clean. That blood on Finn's helmet was, I believe, the first blood we've seen in a Star Wars movie. Even TFA didn't humanise the "bad guys", not really. I think Rogue One was the first time I saw genuine pain and exhaustion in a Stormtrooper.
The films have been a huge part of my life. My own son was the same age I was when TFA came out. It was a joy to watch him watch it and imagine that I was probably very much the same 40 years earlier.
Peter Billing I'm talking about places like the sandiness of Tatooine, the scum (and villainy!) of Mos Eisley, and the swampiness of Dagobah. Until then, sci-fi movie sets were really quite obviously sets. Now for sure the scenes on the Death Star are indeed clinically clean (except the trash compactor), but that was (I think) purposeful to contrast the order and discipline of the Empire with the grittiness and pseudo-chaos of the rebellion. But I may be reading too much into it.
ReplyDeleteThe clean Empire vs. the scruffy rebellion was deliberate.
ReplyDeleteCraig Froehle There are two ways to take Star Wars: homage to the old serials, or read too much into it. Over time, we have chosen the latter! :-)
ReplyDeleteCraig Froehle yeh, I'd agree with that. And the dehumanisation of the imperial personnel, too, which I'm certain was also deliberate. Those examples I mentioned earlier are, I feel, the first indication in any of the films that the stormtroopers are in any way human. There is a moment in Rogue One, on Scarif I think, where Jyn and maybe Chirrut are ostensibly prisoners of a stormtrooper. The trooper is slumped, exhausted and dirty, at the other end of the vessel. It was a revelation to actually see such human qualities in the "baddies"
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