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Topic:
Seeing Star Wars in 1977
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zombie
Registered:
Aug '99
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Date Posted:
5/7 10:17pm
Subject:
Seeing Star Wars in 1977
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This is something for any of the older Star Wars fans here.
It seems most fans today, on the net in any way, did not in fact see the films in their original release. There is an enormously different perspective of fans entering the franchise today, and there is an equal difference in the world back then, to come from a time before the internet, before video games, before multiplexes, and see this new movie that people were talking about called "Star Wars." Every year it seems like more and more of these people are leaving the online community as they get older and get on with their lives--in fact, I don't immediately recall ever really coming across someone online who was an adult in the film's original release, and thats an enormous perspective now gone from our community. Instead, our "old timers" were children and teenagers in 1977 and are now in their 30's and 40's. I remember when I started posting here almost a decade ago (wow), this "first generation" of viewers was plentiful--but time, dissapointment with sequels and an increasing marginalisation in an ever-changing franchise has thinned the ranks of these people compared to the days before Episode I came out.
For all those that were around to grow up in the 70's, see this film come out in 1977, and still manage to hang around for the ride, I would ask for you to post your memories, your recollections--how you saw it, what you remember, how it changed you, what others thought of the film, what it was like back then, how you percieved the sequels, etc. I know theres at least a handful of you regularly hanging around here!
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I'll swallow your soul! --------------------------------- If you're gonna die, die with your boots on! -------------------------------- author of The Secret History of Star Wars http://secrethistoryofstarwars.com
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Malikail
Registered:
Jun '04
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Date Posted:
5/7 11:06pm
Subject:
RE: Seeing Star Wars in 1977
- Date Edited:
5/7 11:08pm (1 edits total)
Edited By:
Malikail
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well in the spirit of your post i have a memory to share with those a bit younger than me.
When i saw Star Wars and ESB I got to see it on one of the really huge old screens, i don't remember the size, but i do remember they turned each theater into 4 theaters by dividing the screen into quarters width wise.
I don't care how much better the sound and effects are in these modern micro-theaters, that was a totally different experience and a far superior one to seeing anything since.
When i went to see RotS i actually thought about this. I wished it was on the larger format screen, to watch it in one of the mini theaters i might as well be in my living room watching it.
Considering this is my first impression of Star Wars, an epic tale shown on a humongous scale, i feel particularly sorry for the generation that grew up watching it on TV before the SE re-release.
Sadly for younger viewers they were still cheated with the re-releases, i went to see them and they do absolutely no justice at all to the films. The screens and to a degree the experience is just too puny to compare.
P.S. i also very clearly remember seeing Raiders and GhostBusters in that theater before it remodeled, my impression of all 4 movies is the same, nothing in a small theater will measure up, ever.
Edit for clairity.
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how much greater than the death of flesh is the death of hope? - G'Kar
We wander but in the end there is always a certain peace in being what one is, in being that completely. The condemned man has that joy
Lucas and SuperShadow deserve each other
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BaronLandoCalrissian
Registered:
Jun '06
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Date Posted:
5/7 11:31pm
Subject:
RE: Seeing Star Wars in 1977
- Date Edited:
5/7 11:33pm (1 edits total)
Edited By:
BaronLandoCalrissian
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It was the first movie I have clear memories of going to. The Chinese theater in Hollywood is really really big, and they showed it in 70mm, the screen opened up to be even taller and wider than it currently is. It was a rainy weekday and it had been out for a long time, (I believe it played in LA for the better part of 2 years with the re-release etc.) From what I remember, there was almost nobody in the theater but Dad and me. The screen was SO big, and the 6 track Dolby so loud, it was the closest thing to virtual reality I can think of. Strangely I don't remember the action scenes, just the quiet stuff like the dinner with Uncle Owen, or training on the Falcon. It was like being an observer just off to one side of that world.
(and yeah, I probably would have bailed on forums like this by now if it weren't for lots of down time at work and my desire for the movie to be restored.)
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Nordom
Registered:
Jun '04
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Date Posted:
5/8 3:56am
Subject:
RE: Seeing Star Wars in 1977
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Well as one of these old-timers, I saw SW in 1978 and I was eight at the time.
The reason I had to wait was that in Sweden the censors thought th film to scary so they put and 11 year old age limit on the film so my parents had to pretty much sneak me into the theater.
This film along with some others are films that I still remeber where I saw, what it was like and how I felt before and after. What did I feel? Giddy and excited and was probably annyoing to be around weeks after because I would not stop going on about the film.
When I saw ESB I also had to wait untill I was 11 becasue the same censors though that movie very scary and put a 15 years old age limit on it so I was again sneaked into the theater. The censors later recut the film to make it acceptable to 11 year olds and the result was very bad and very silly.
Ex. the scene when the walker steps on Luke's snowspeeder was too scary so that was removed as was the scene where Luke got shot down. So in the film Luke is flying one moment and the next he is on the ground.
Both SW and ESB I saw first on quite small screens but later did get to see them on really big ones and that is how they should be seen.
Initially I liked SW best, then RotJ and ESB last but when I got older many of the good things in ESB, that I did not notice as a young boy, grew on me and many of the flaws in RotJ, that I did not see first time, also got more noticeable. So now SW and ESB are about equal to me but they have different strengths while RotJ is not as good.
As for the PT I certainly do not hate them or think that they are bad films, average to good but not great films.
Regards
Nordom
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"I think, therefore I am.. I think"
"Morte, how do you stay afloat?"
"Flatulence, you stupid polygon"
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Vortigern99
Title: Manager Emeritus
Registered:
Nov '00
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Date Posted:
5/8 10:18am
Subject:
RE: Seeing Star Wars in 1977
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I was 7 in '77, and I still remember the first time my grandmother took my sister and me to see the movie that summer. I recall that we all really liked it -- my grandmother laughed and told everyone how she "loved that dog!" (meaning Chewie). But amidst all my other loves (Sinbad movies, Batman TV show, Frankenstein and Dracula), Star Wars did not immediately have a life-changing impact on me. That phenomenon would occur the next summer, 1978, when my family and my best friends' family went together to the Westchase 5 in Houston, TX to see The Pink Panther Returns. Well, Star Wars was then in its first re-release, and my friend and I decided we wanted to see that one again rather than the dumb ol' Pink Panther! About halfway through the movie, during the shoot-out escape from the prison block, I remember my friend and I turning to look at each other with huge smiles emblazoned across our faces. We didn't have to say a word: Both of us recognized that this was it. The coolest movie ever. From then on, I was hooked. I saw the movie a total of seven times (which was alot in those days!) I got the Story of Star Wars book so I could re-live the movie when I couldn't see it (giving rise to false memories of Biggs and Luke chatting on Tatooine, and of Luke watching the space battle on his binoculars). My friend and I would play Han and Luke; we always argued who would play whom, because even though he was older than me, he had blonde hair and I had brown, so naturally I thought I should be Han! That Christmas my Mom got me a few of the Kenner action figures, and the following spring, 1979, I scoured the house for spare change so I could go the local Safeway supermarket and purchase every action figure I possibly could -- at $1.89 a piece! At some point during this time, I heard that Ben and Vader had duelled on a bridge over a pit of lava, and that Ben had knocked Vader into the pit, resulting in Vader's injuries. I had an orange sweatshirt that said "DARTH VADER LIVES!" on it, with a blue-ish pic of Vader himself. I knew that mechanical monster would be back!
The next summer, 1980, was the year of The Empire Strikes Back, which I saw 3 times at the Westchase 5 and twice more at the local dollar theater. I was incredibly moved by that film, and I still am. My action figure collection grew with my love for the movies. And so it continues to this very day.
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"I knew from the beginning I was not doing science fiction.
I was doing a space opera, a fantasy film, a mythological piece,
a fairy tale."--George Lucas
My "Vader's Origins" thread:
http://boards.theforce.net/Classic_Trilogy/b10002/8708417/p1
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VadersLaMent
Registered:
Apr '02
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Date Posted:
5/8 12:56pm
Subject:
RE: Seeing Star Wars in 1977
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I hardly recall it in great detail other than the desperate need to see it before, the excitement during, and feeling good about it after. It turned me into a SW freak. I was 6 at the time. Every Christmas has seen a SW gift given to me. There are many ho are older who recall all of this too, but I think I am lucky to be a part of that generation that was less than 10 years old when we saw Star Wars before it was called "Episode IV A New Hope".
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Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic--Arthur C. Clarke
Any sufficiently advanced extraterrestrial intelligence is indistinguishable from God--Michael Shermer
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DarthButt
Title: Manager
• Classic Trilogy
Registered:
Jun '03
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Date Posted:
5/8 1:54pm
Subject:
RE: Seeing Star Wars in 1977
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I was a year and a few months old, so I don't remember seeing it in 77. My mom took me, and she said I loved it. I'm sure she took me to the 78 release also, but again, I don't remember seeing it. I was well aware of the movie (and loved it), as I remember having a bunch of SW toys before ESB came out. I just don't remember the experience of seeing it. I believe there was a release of it right after ESB came out and that's the earliest that I can recall the memories of seeing it in the theater.
I do remember vividly seeing ESB, though. We had to stand in line outside all the way around the theater (Gulfgate, Vort? Remember that one?  ) for what seemed like hours to see it. It was hotter than hell that day too.
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Malikail
Registered:
Jun '04
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Date Posted:
5/8 8:14pm
Subject:
RE: Seeing Star Wars in 1977
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VadersLaMent posted:
I hardly recall it in great detail other than the desperate need to see it before, the excitement during, and feeling good about it after. It turned me into a SW freak. I was 6 at the time. Every Christmas has seen a SW gift given to me. There are many ho are older who recall all of this too, but I think I am lucky to be a part of that generation that was less than 10 years old when we saw Star Wars before it was called "Episode IV A New Hope".
I was a few years older and remember it better but the rest of that is my child hood.
the ESB christmas was the best, had the AT-AT, slave I, a snow speeder & too many figures to mention between me and my little brother. That was the one special year i'll always remember.
I only resent the retcon titles and stuff in the sense that there is no acknowledgment that they changed it. It seems rude to say it's how it always should have been, especially when it wasn't filmed that way.
-----signature-----
how much greater than the death of flesh is the death of hope? - G'Kar
We wander but in the end there is always a certain peace in being what one is, in being that completely. The condemned man has that joy
Lucas and SuperShadow deserve each other
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Darth_Davi
Registered:
Jul '05
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Date Posted:
5/8 8:35pm
Subject:
RE: Seeing Star Wars in 1977
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I was only two when Star Wars was released, so I missed out on that one, but Empire was the first movie I ever saw as a kid.
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What the hell is an Aluminium Falcon?
Oh, I'm sorry, I thought my Dark Lord of the Sith could protect a thermal exhaust port thats only two meters wide!
It wasn't even fully paid off yet!
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Darth Gleng
Registered:
Jun '99
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Date Posted:
5/9 5:52pm
Subject:
RE: Seeing Star Wars in 1977
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I saw it at my birthday party on a big projector screen when I was 2. Thinking back, it must've been a pirate copy.
And to think I was upset when they turned the Tom & Jerry cartoons off for it!
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battlewars
Registered:
Mar '05
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Date Posted:
5/9 7:45pm
Subject:
RE: Seeing Star Wars in 1977
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Just want to gloat and tell you guys I saw the SW trilogy in 70mm a fews years before the SE came out, and was fully able to appreciate them since I was old enough to.
Those prints are probably destroyed by now 
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sith_rising
Registered:
Jan '04
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Date Posted:
5/9 7:47pm
Subject:
RE: Seeing Star Wars in 1977
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ANH is the first film I remember seeing on the big screen, but it's very vague. The only vivid memory I have is him buying me the stormtrooper rifle after we saw it. This was back in the pre-cable, pre-VHS days, when a smash hit would leave the theaters, then come back for a re-release about a year later. I remember getting a bootleg of ANH from a cousin shortly after we got our first VCR, and I watched it so much it was eventually useless.
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FirBholg
Registered:
May '02
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Date Posted:
5/10 7:15am
Subject:
RE: Seeing Star Wars in 1977
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I was eight years old in the summer of 1977 - too young to appreciate (or be aware of) the US release of the Sex Pistols' "Anarchy in the UK", but just the age to be swept up and mesmerized by Star Wars. But as I dodder on toward senescent decreptitude, I find that I really don't remember the actual cinematic viewing at all.
Okay - maybe I do a little. Cinemas with multiple auditoriums were still pretty new back then - at least in the Midwest. This may have been the first film I saw in one, rather than in the old 1920's era theater down the street.
I also remember the second release - and seeing it again. And wanting to see more Star Wars so badly that I actually watched the entire Star Wars Holiday Special, which was appalling even to a little kid. But the expectations for ESB were very high, the sequel was not a let-down, and, well... here I still am.
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skyysoblue
Registered:
Jul '05
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Date Posted:
5/10 7:29am
Subject:
RE: Seeing Star Wars in 1977
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I was 11, had no real idea about what I was going to see. In fact, my brother and I had an argument over which movie to see, he insisted on Star Wars, I lobbied for "White Buffalo" (a horrible movie which the cool kids in my class said was the best thing they had ever seen, i would not actually watch this movie until years later on cable).
Prior to Star Wars, it seemed that every movie started out with about 45 minutes of "getting to know everyone" before the action finally began. (see Poseiden Adventure, Earthquake etc)
My jaw dropped at the opening scene, amazed at the size of the star destroyer, especially since I thought that the hanger bay at the bottom of the ship was actually the end of the ship.
I am not sure if my eyes ever blinked during the entire movie.
I don't recall any of the pre movie hype, nor do I recall ever having to wait in line for the movie until it was out for about a month.
I saw it about 10 times in the theater, including seeing it in a drive in theater.
I also saw the star wars rip off movies......was anyone else suckered into watching "Message from Space"
I resented Han Solo for trying to take Leia from Luke. I had a major crush on Princess Leia (which was pretty remarkable considering that she was in competition with Farrah Fawcet Majors)
I bought the x wing fighter and tie fighters. (I did not realize for years that they never actually use the word "tie fighter" in the movie) Did not get the light sabers as I thought they were lame. I do not actually recall any action figures being made until just before ESB came out.
Dressed as Jawas for halloween because that was the easiest costume for my mom to make(there were no good star wars costumes available in this era)
watched star wars sweep the sci fi film awards (probably the only year this film awards show was televised), during the show they stated that no science fiction/fantasy film had ever won the best picture award. I thought Star Wars would end that (and I still think it should have, I still can't get through the first half hour of Annie Hall before getting bored and changing the channel) for years rooted against sci fi films nominated for best picture (like ET) on the basis that if Star Wars didn't win, nothing should. I didn't relent in this attitude until LOTR came out.
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Juan-King
Registered:
Jul '04
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Date Posted:
5/10 9:37am
Subject:
RE: Seeing Star Wars in 1977
- Date Edited:
5/10 9:39am (1 edits total)
Edited By:
Juan-King
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SW didn't open here until Jan. 1978 .
however , a few months previous I'd been hearing about this incredible movie which was a phenomenon , I'd seen some stills and thought it looked good .
Then I read the novel , I just bought it , and read it in a couple of days , which was incredible , up until that point a novel would take me weeks , but I found the story absolutely compelling , it was immediate , it was like someone said : let's tell the best adventure story ever , with no restrictions , young bored kid (easy to relate to) goes on fantastic journey and ends up saving the galaxy , but all told in a credible way , with likeable characters .
Up til this point adventure/action movies or stories always left me thinking : well that was good , but I wish this/that had been better , it might have good action scenes but be lacking in good characters or vice-versa, but SW was the first time where I thought : Wow , I can't improve on that, in fact it's waay better than anything else , I figured if the movie was anywhere near as good as the story it'd be great.
Then I saw some clips , TIE/falcon battle and it was like a revelation , the dynamism in the shots , it was so exciting . Previously space ship scenes just featured ships gliding left to right , this was POV thrilling stuff .
I went out and told my friend : Star Wars is the best movie ever made . he told me I had to see it first , which is right , but I was sure , it was like an earthquake , you can't deny it.
Finally I got to see it , I booked tickets in advancee to see it twice on the first day (I wanted good seats)`
It was fantastic , it was so frikkin BIG , and it just looked like they'd gone on location to film it , this is something that CGI has failed to do somehow , SW looked real , the hardware , the scale , the texture, the photography etc.
And God did I love those characters ! Han , Luke , Chewie , Vader , Leia , R2 and Threepio.
I'd already seen it twice but I figured : Hell, why not ? and saw it a third time that day .
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Everybody loves Juan King
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ardavenport
Registered:
Dec '04
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Date Posted:
5/10 7:29pm
Subject:
RE: Seeing Star Wars in 1977
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I saw it in July 1977 at 17, just out of high school going to college.
I first heard about it around April 1977 from a kid I was babysitting for. He was really hyped up for it. I didn't say much about it, since I knew that all SF movies were bad. This did not stop me from watching them all, but that was just on TV where they were free.
But I saw the July Today Show interview with Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill, including that terrific clip of the escape from the Death Star. I wanted to see it. But Star Wars playing at a big screen theater across town and I needed a ride from my mother.
Fortunately for me, Star Wars had the essential ingredient that would get my mother to go see a space movie, Alec Guiness. I didn't even have to ask twice. We also had our father's cousin Peter visiting at the time, an aging hippy who had never recovered from the 60's, and we didn't know what to do with him, so we took him, too.
Wow, I just can't recreate the feeling of seeing that huge star destroyer crossing the screen the first time, but there is no better satisfaction than knowing from the very first frame that a film is going to be terrific. And then have it pay off.
When Obi-Wan Kenobi rescued Luke from the sand people, my mother nudged me and said 'that's Alec Guisness' just to make sure I knew. The audience cheered loudest when Han Solo saved Luke at the end. That just didn't happen at movies back them.
Yep, good times. 
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