Star Wars European reaction

Hi everyone!

I'm writing an essay for one of my college classes about the reception of & reaction to Star Wars in Europe and whether or not it was different from the reception of & reaction to Star Wars in the US. I'd like to include information about each of the movies both the classic trilogy and the prequels. However I've been having trouble finding information on this topic. Does anyone know of any articles that deal with the reaction to Star Wars in Europe in the late 70s/early 80s & the recent films? Does anyone have any personal recollections of the European reception of the classic trilogy that you would allow me to include in the essay? I hope you can help! If you have any information please email me at lin@anakin-skywalker.net . Thanks so much!!

lin_v

 

Hmmm... I'm from central Europe (Czech Republic) and as I remember ... I didn't heard anything about Star Wars before velvet revolution 1989 (we belonged to Warsaw pact, so we were under comunist and Moscow influence).

At first, I saw New Hope in TV (in 90s). Then came new premiere of epizodes 4,5,6 (with all that new special efects)into cinemas (with subtitles).
But now, we are in the same situation as US. Premiere of AOTC was in 16thJune and the film was already translated.

Recently, I some in one old book about astronautics (from 80s) something really funny. There was a picture of Death Star with comment that this is how imperialist ilustrators imagine future wars in a space

Good luck with your essay!!!

PS: What has still a big influence on reception of all foreign film here is quality of their translation which still could be better. I rather went on AOTC version with subtitles, because it has a horrible translation - like The Phantom

Menace.

 

Hi Vera! I've sent you a private message but just thought I'd post this here as well in case you check here sooner, and also, maybe someone else has some thoughts to add?

I just wanted to say thank you so much for your reply to my question! That was extremely helpful! I had not even thought about the Eastern European side of this yet; and that you did not get to see Star Wars over there until after the iron curtain came down. I can use this information for my essay very well! Also that is amazing there was a picture of the Death Star in that book - and very funny, indeed! Do you perhaps remember the title of the book? Just curious! Oh I have one more question I really hope you don't mind me asking but it's kind of central to my essay (which is for a class called 'The United States as a Cultural Presence in Europe'). I understand that Star Wars was not shown in the Czech Republic because it was American, is that right? Do you think of it as very American? Do you consider it a very American type of movie?

Thanks again, so much!
Lin