What were your reactions to "I am your father!" in 1980?

>>>R2, maybe I dont pay enough attention!<<<

I apologize, JB. I certainly didn't mean to imply anything of the sort. I think how "tricked" you can be by a film depends on how wrapped up you get in it. I was very wrapped up in Fight Club (which I knew nothing about going into the theatre and didn't expect to be so ornate) but was not too wrapped up by Sixth Sense and The Usual Suspects, which I liked well enough as films but could only enjoy from a more ironic, distanced position (due to, I think, their glaring genre debts to other films). Then there's the fact the FC I saw in the theatre, the other two on video.

With SW back in 1980, I can't imagine anybody not being swept away and thus utterly taken by surprise. However, I am dismayed that all these guys my age can remember their reactions at age 10/11. Part of my inability to remember might be, however, that (I've come to the conclusion) I think I have a bit of an ingrained "criticism" switch. If a movie in its opening twenty minutes or so (maybe less)can manage a fresh atmosphere all its own, and, more importantly, not step on any landmines, then I become truly like a child and simply accept everything in the most passive manner possible, easily surprised. If a landmine is tripped, I become one of the harshest, most unsentimental critics of them all, retreating back into my head to begin pruning the screenplay and judging the editing, so that I'm mentally working on the third act before it shows up.

I like that I still have the switch, though. I hope ROTS trips no landmines in May, 2005.

 

Having hung around this site intermittently for some time now, I can honestly say that were we between ANH and Empire now, a few eggs around here would've at least floated the father theory once or twice. Of course, like Nostradamus (or several hundred little Nostradami, to be precise), saying so much stuff means eventually calling something right.

>>>I didn't believe Vader. He's the bad guy, right?<<<

That was my Dad's response in Jedi--not to his being Luke's Dad, but to his reversal of hats--and, along with the Ewoks, the reason Dad began to grumble very lously in the theatre.

 

I was 10 years old and I did not believe it at the time. Since Vader was a "bad" guy, I thought he was trying to trick Luke into surrendering at the time.

 

Vader: "Luuke... I AM YOUR FATHER"...


Me : He's lying! Darth Vader's a robot, he couldn't be Luke's father! (guilible 3 year old brother concurred)

Needless to say, I only "got it" after ROTJ came out and I had the distinct pleasure of making sense of the films in reverse sequence.

Also, the scene where Vader's helmet emerges from the steam as Han is brought out of the carbonite maker and you hear the dum-de-DUM of the Imperial march... I had nightmares about that for weeks as it was the first time in my innocent little life that I'd witnessed pure EVIL.

C_B (still hopin' that the SW-holiday special does make it out on (bootleg) DVD during my lifetime)

 

I suspected Vader was telling the truth, but I hoped he wasn't.


I never thought I would say this..but...

I..
agree...
with...
Binary_Sunset...

 

My reaction didn't occur in 1980 (I wasn't born yet.)

But my reaction when I saw it in 1990 and was 5 years old was confusion that Luke was upset.

My 5 year old logic was Luke thought his dad was dead. He wasn't. I thought he should have been a little happy.

 

I was shocked at the thought of Darth Vader being Luke's father. I remember thinking, "Poor Luke".

 

Well, I was six at the time, so the memory is a
little fuzzy. I was sitting in the front row (My
Dad wanted no part of the front, so he sat about
10 rows back) with like 6 or 8 other kids, most
about 10-12. When Vader spoke the line there was
silence and then one kid said "Man, no way!"
I just sat there quietly, as I remember. Shocked
beyond words. Being 6, I think I took Vader at his
word (Probably not a good idea, but in this case, it
worked out)

When the movie was over, my Dad's first words to
me were "So, old Darth Vader is Luke's Dad, huh?"

I then remember going to Burger King to eat (Probably
got an ESB glass) and then to Gold Circle to spend
my allowance on ESB figures (Can't remember which).

Good times. Good times.

 

I was 10 and saw it in the theater. I believed Vader. This revelation absolutely shocked me and I thought about it for a long time afterwards. I loved ANH but that last reel of ESB (the revelation and Han being frozen) completely changed my life and turned me into a huge SW fan. It remains probably the single most shocking thing I've ever seen on film.

 

I poo my pants

 

"Luuke, I am your father."

Actually it's "No, I am your father."

 

I was six years old and I can remember seeing ESB very clearly.

I didn't believe Vader. He had just chopped off Luke's hand! I believed, and did for a long time - probably until ROTJ, that Vader just wanted to get Luke to come back onto the platform so he could finish "chopping him up".

I don't recall really paying attention to Luke responding with "Father..." when he was in the Millenium Falcon, the bit I remembered hearing was "Ben... why didn't you tell me?". I think at the time I was more annoyed that Ben wouldn't help him when Luke was clinging to the weather vain below Cloud City. I didn't think about what Ben could've actually done to help him but I was annoyed nonetheless.