CT The Empire Strikes Back 40th Anniversary

Sounds like mine was, in fact it had a load of money spent on it a few years ago to convert it back to a theatre again and now it gets all the touring shows and plays. The Regent theatre in Hanley, Stoke on Trent.

Funnily enough I said to the mrs the other night that we need to go to the pictures to see the new Bad Boys, her reply was “who calls them the pictures anymore, it’s the cinema now”.

 

That's awesome. I wonder if kids today have as magical an experience at the local multiplex?

I was always filled with this unbridled excitement at being taken there to see something.

 

Probably my fifth or sixth favorite SW film but that’s still “I love it” territory for me.

And time really flies. Doesn’t seem like all that long ago I was picking up the ESB 20th anniversary SW Insider issue.

 

My dad was telling me about all the old cinemas in the area that he used to go to as a kid, at least one screen cinema in every town showing the Saturday serials and westerns and the films of the day, now I realise that a lot of the Art Deco buildings around which are now pubs used to be cinemas. But overall it’s not an event anymore when you go to the cinema and the places have no atmosphere or character to them. The queues were ridiculous for big films back then too, the ones I remember my dad taking me to in the early 80’s. Empire, Flash Gordon and Superman 2 spring to mind as being blockbuster queues, in fact sometimes you couldn’t get in and had to come back the next night. No booking online then. It felt like an event and an experience going to see a film then.

 

I like advanced ticket purchases and reserved seating as much as the next guy, but I think a certain something "magical" does get lost in the process. There was a local theater I grew up near (in northern California) that showed all the big blockbusters - Indiana Jones, Batman, Ghostbusters, etc. I remember my parents dropping me off really early the day of the show so I could stand in line and get my tickets. It sounds corny, but you make a connection with the movie and with the theater. I ended up working at that theater one summer during college. Many years later, after I had moved to southern California, I heard that the theater was going to close down (to make way for more cookie cutter apartments and office space, sigh), and to celebrate 30 years, its last showing ever was going to be Raiders of the Lost Ark. I flew up from southern California that day, met up with some friends from high school, and we watched it together. Packed house. People dressed up as Indy, Toht, Belloq, etc. Everyone had a blast. And the next day the theater was closed forever.

 

@someoneinpassing

Yeah, it's really sad that a lot of these places have gone forever. At least you managed to attend its send-off showing, and what a movie to show on the last ever night!

 

It was great. My wife thought I was crazy. I actually almost missed my flight back that night because the movie started a bit late and I was cutting it really close to the flight departure time and I still had to return my rental car to the airport! But for whatever reason my flight back got delayed just enough for me to make it. I credit it to what Indy said: "Power of God, or something."

 

ESB holds a special place in my heart because it was the first movie I remember seeing at the cinema. I remember standing in the crowds of people waiting to get in with my Mom and my Aunt. I was 5 years old and I had never seen anything like it. I loved everything about it, I remember being very upset that Luke got hurt so badly, first on Hoth, then by Vader. Then I was convinced Vader was lying to Luke when he told him that he was his Father, because of course Luke was the good guy and Vader was the bad guy.
Speaking of movie theaters, I saw it at the Parkway Theaters in Las Vegas, several times. My Aunt was a huge SW fan, so it was easy to convince her to take me whenever she came to visit. (I also saw ROTJ several times there with her). I was very sad when the theater was turned into a Best Buy some years later, it felt like a part of my childhood died in a way.

 

I just got my first 2 SW Funko bobble heads last week. Han and Lando. It's their ROTJ gear, not what they wear in ESB, but whatever. Love 'em. They're in my office now

I will celebrate ESB's 40th like I always do - by rewatching ESB! I don't even mind the ESB Special Edition changes. It seems like Lucas was the most "respectful" (if that's the right word) in the Special Edition stuff he added to ESB. Nothing overboard like he did to a certain extent with ANH or ROTJ.

 

TESB is my 2nd favorite STAR WARS movie: loads of good memories about childhood and old friends. I hope there will be some kind of special edition, with extras and maybe a book.

I remember that "event" feeling too. I have now 2 kids and I've always tried to share that with them although times have changed quite a bit. Still, the premiere of THE FORCE AWAKENS and THE LAST JEDI had pretty much that feeling. And my children really enjoyed them. Great new memories for sure!

 

I watch the film once a year, so for a change on the anniversary, I plan to re-read Once Upon a Galaxy by Alan Arnold and afterwards listen to the four-hour radio dramatisation by Brian Daley, starring Mark Hamill.

 

https://angrystaffofficer.com/2017/07/10/warfighter-hoth/

 

That's entertaining reading and makes some good points, but also makes a lot of assumptions that are not supported by what we saw onscreen. For example, he blames the rebels for not having secondary defenses prepared after their front lines were breached, but dialog indicates they had just arrived on Hoth, (they hadn't even gotten the airspeeders operational until that day), so I doubt they had time to prepare one decent defensive line, let alone two. I totally agree with his analysis of Luke's tactics; a full frontal assault straight into the walkers' field of fire was not a good choice.

 

Could it be that rushing to meet the enemy head-on (instead of stepping back and planning a careful counter-offensive) is merely symbolic for what Luke does throughout the whole entire movie?

 

http://allthestarwars.com/the-empire-strikes-back-38-years-later/

 

Happy 40 ESB!!!

 

I posted that link the moment I was laughing my ass off. It's not for everyone.

I do not personally like the intimations that the Rebels "only just" got Echo Base up and running "exactly when" events start to unfold. It's annoying on a statistical level that non causally related events happen "inexplicably" in quick succession, but I recognize the story elements, whose ultimate cause d'etre is to elicit emotional response, are present. The quest for judicious drama subordinates a large number of other considerations. ESB stands out as having this uncanny ability to not alienate world builder quantitativists while pulling fast and loose narrative tricks. It's a real study how this got pulled off. ST defenders wish to assert that it's all about the character, dummy. Well, maybe not "all". Not 100%. There's a Platonic number out there, irrational, that gives the correct proportion of Kirshner character depth to Lucas world breadth. Who knows what that number is. It's like some kind of golden ratio for how to pull this off again, if ever.

 

That’s a great book. It must be over 30 years since I last read it. I need to dig it out.

I’ve got the radio dramas on cd and I listened to Empire last week. It’s a bit strange in places where they have to explain what’s going on for the listener, but still a very good listen even now.

 

I remember seeing Star Wars for the second time in re-release with my friend from two houses down the street. I don't know for certain that my memories of my first viewing are legitimate memories rather than constructions, and they are fewer, but I also have several of these. Since I was an early reader I remember struggling to keep up with the text in the opening crawl. I think when I was a kid my favorite line from Luke Skywalker was his response to Wedge at the rebel base:

WEDGE: That's impossible (...)
LUKE: That's not impossible. (...)

Going to see the Empire Strikes Back in the theater was a huge deal. I remember the trailer too, from seeing the Statr Wars re-release. Man that makes an impression, to realize that this was 40 years ago! When I remember it, I feel like I am that age all over again. It was all so very exciting, like nothing else ever since, nothing could compare to following the original trilogy as a kid.

 

Get off my lawn.

 

I'm going to celebrate by busting out my walker and adult diapers. Good Lord, 40 years. I feel old.

 

Well we're not as old as Master Yoda, thank the maker!

 

I remember seeing this movie in 1980 as a wide eyed youngster. Today ,I feel so old since then. The movie had everything that I have expected. The part where Han Solo encased in carbonite made me feel sad for Leia.​

 

Yeah it's always sad when a dad is overly controlling and gets in the way of his daughter starting a new relationship...