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Thirty years ago today

post #1 of 59
5/25/07 at 12:22pm
Thread Starter 


There was no "New Hope".

There were no midichlorians.

Han shot first.

And nothing was ever going to be the same.

No matter what Lucas may have done with the legacy, I'll still never forget the first time I saw it.

Happy birthday to Star Wars.
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post #2 of 59
5/25/07 at 12:26pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Richard Dickson

And nothing was ever going to be the same.
I'll never forget the huge impact this movie had on the structure of subatomic particles.
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post #3 of 59
5/25/07 at 12:33pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by devincf
I'll never forget the huge impact this movie had on the structure of subatomic particles.
That was Star Trek.
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post #4 of 59
5/25/07 at 12:35pm
You're right. I'll always remember how the cars we drove in 1978 were nothing like the cars we drove in 1976.... thanks to this movie.
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post #5 of 59
5/25/07 at 12:45pm
Thread Starter 
Because when I'm posting in the Franchises forum on a movie website message board and say "nothing was ever going to be the same," of course I'm talking about socio-economics and string theory.
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post #6 of 59
5/25/07 at 12:49pm
Oh come on. This day was hugely influential to generations of filmmakers and filmgoers. It deserves some sort of recognition.

BUT

as the saying goes, "How can I miss you if you won't go away?" STAR WARS hasn't gone away since 1997. So while I understand the significance, I'm just not feeling the love right now. With the films running nonstop on cable, all the talk about the damn movies on every single messageboard from ILoveToMacrame!.com to ILoveToSailAndMacrameAtTheSameTime!.com, and all the press coverage since 1997, I just, frankly, don't care anymore.
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post #7 of 59
5/25/07 at 12:51pm
Wasn't that 5-25-77 movie supposed to come out by now?
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post #8 of 59
5/25/07 at 12:56pm
Yeah good question.

But let's not forget the shit going down in that year in NYC.

(Plays montage of NYC stock footage to "Pyscho Killer"-Talking Heads)
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post #9 of 59
5/25/07 at 1:10pm
I didn't know Dickson wrote for CNN:
"The movie that changed everything"
http://www.cnn.com/SHOWBIZ/
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post #10 of 59
5/25/07 at 1:15pm
Tomorrow marks 12 years since JOHNNY MNEMONIC opened in theaters. I look forward to seeing all of you at "Mnemonic-Con" at the Civic Center in El Paso, TX. Special guest speaker Dina Meyer (unconfirmed).
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post #11 of 59
5/25/07 at 1:23pm
Nothing would make me happier than for "Star Wars" to vanish from the Earth as if it never existed. Just think- maybe things would be better off had Francis Ford Coppola gone off the deep end and asked Lucas to do "Apocalypse Now" instead. Put the freaks up front, you bastard!
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post #12 of 59
5/25/07 at 1:31pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by KABONG
Nothing would make me happier than for "Star Wars" to vanish from the Earth as if it never existed. Just think- maybe things would be better off had Francis Ford Coppola gone off the deep end and asked Lucas to do "Apocalypse Now" instead. Put the freaks up front, you bastard!
You do realize that a lot of the films you probably enjoy very likely owe at least some of their existence to the success of Star Wars and/or the technology created to make it? I'm as frustrated with anyone with the direction Lucas took the franchise post-Jedi, but wishing it had never existed? That's just hyperbole.
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post #13 of 59
5/25/07 at 1:35pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Richard Dickson
That's just hyperbole.
As is "nothing would ever be the same." Ya know, since we're pointing it out and all. And I've never seen any original incarnation of it, so I'm curious if the text scroll at the beginning always had "A NEW HOPE:" at the top of it, or if that was only added to the "new" version once the prequels were announced.
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post #14 of 59
5/25/07 at 1:35pm
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post #15 of 59
5/25/07 at 1:36pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Richard Dickson
That's just hyperbole.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Richard Dickson
And nothing was ever going to be the same.
...
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post #16 of 59
5/25/07 at 1:37pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Richard Dickson
You do realize that a lot of the films you probably enjoy very likely owe at least some of their existence to the success of Star Wars and/or the technology created to make it? I'm as frustrated with anyone with the direction Lucas took the franchise post-Jedi, but wishing it had never existed? That's just hyperbole.
A lot of the things I DESPISE about movies owe their existence to STAR WARS. I can't think of a lot of my favorite movies that are patently STAR WARS influenced.
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post #17 of 59
5/25/07 at 1:42pm
I'm not sure I'm following Kabong's logic. He would rather see Lucas ditch Star Wars and direct Apocalypse Now instead? Basically he wants to erase two of the greatest movies from existence.
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post #18 of 59
5/25/07 at 1:44pm
Richard, don't you know nostalgia is Officially Bad now?

Edit: I'll agree with Nordling that that past 10 years have made it increasingly difficult to give a fuck about Star Wars any more.
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post #19 of 59
5/25/07 at 1:45pm
30 years and two weeks ago today I chose my first Star Wars figures in a toy store for my 6th birthday. They were Darth Vader, Obi Wan Kenobi, C3PO and R2-D2. I had yet to actually see the movie, but the figures looked so enticing there on the wire rack. I didn't know it at the time, but I had taken my first step toward the dark side of mindless commercialism.
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post #20 of 59
5/25/07 at 1:46pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by BobClark
30 years and two weeks ago today I chose my first Star Wars figures in a toy store for my 6th birthday. They were Darth Vader, Obi Wan Kenobi, C3PO and R2-D2. I had yet to actually see the movie, but the figures looked so enticing there on the wire rack. I didn't know it at the time, but I had taken my first step toward the dark side of mindless commercialism.
As I read that the voice of Daniel Stern played in my head.
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post #21 of 59
5/25/07 at 1:47pm
To everything turn, turn, turn...
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post #22 of 59
5/25/07 at 1:50pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by devincf
A lot of the things I DESPISE about movies owe their existence to STAR WARS. I can't think of a lot of my favorite movies that are patently STAR WARS influenced.
Star Wars didn't cause the blockbuster mentality, it was the studios' reactions to it that did. But it did awaken studios to the possibility that science fiction films could be profitable, that the special effects didn't have to be cheesy, that the scores didn't have to be nothing but synthesizer music. We very likely wouldn't have gotten the Blade Runner we did had Star Wars come out and tanked. In fact, the whole fantasy/sci-fi boom in the 80s owes its existence to the success and inspiration of Star Wars, and that generation is now inspiring filmmakers today.

And you can't deny the technological advances that ILM was responsible for, both with what they did for Star Wars and what they later developed once the film became successful.

Now I'll give you Lucas creating the merchandising phenomenon -- although I think it exploded in a way he never thought it would, it seems like he's never said no to anything.
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post #23 of 59
5/25/07 at 1:53pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by JGButler
As is "nothing would ever be the same." Ya know, since we're pointing it out and all.
Okay, you got me there. I was just trying to wax fondly on a part of my childhood I remember very well and didn't expect (but probably should have) the arrival of the Cynicism Police.
Quote:
And I've never seen any original incarnation of it, so I'm curious if the text scroll at the beginning always had "A NEW HOPE:" at the top of it, or if that was only added to the "new" version once the prequels were announced.
The "Episode IV: A New Hope" was added after Empire came out. Empire came out and the crawl said "Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back." When Star Wars was re-released in 1981, the subtitle was added.
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post #24 of 59
5/25/07 at 1:54pm
No Star Wars just means Close Encounters wins best visual effects. And no Indiana Jones, which would be sad. Other than that...
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post #25 of 59
5/25/07 at 2:01pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Alan "Nordling" Cerny
"How can I miss you if you won't go away?"
Which is why my Star Trek nostalgia is peaking.

Sure, if Rick Berman decided to trot out another useless TNG move, that nostalgia would vanish immediately, which is why it might even be better if no Trek movies were ever made again.
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post #26 of 59
5/25/07 at 2:08pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Richard Dickson
Star Wars didn't cause the blockbuster mentality, it was the studios' reactions to it that did. .
You're thinking of Jaws.

I don't get why people want to get rid of Star Wars. It and Empire were great films, no matter what you think they spawned. Some all y'all are retarded.
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post #27 of 59
5/25/07 at 2:09pm
Complaining about the use of hyperbole is the new complaining about the misuse of irony.
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post #28 of 59
5/25/07 at 2:13pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Richard Dickson
But it did awaken studios to the possibility that science fiction films could be profitable, that the special effects didn't have to be cheesy, that the scores didn't have to be nothing but synthesizer music. We very likely wouldn't have gotten the Blade Runner we did had Star Wars come out and tanked.
2001 was profitable, had excellent SFX, and a beautiful score.

If SW had never happened, films like Them!, The Incredible Shrinking Man, The Creature from the Black Lagoon, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Things to Come, 2001 itself, and many other classic films may have influenced 80s and 90 sci-fi to a much greater degree. Which would not necessarily have been a bad thing.
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post #29 of 59
5/25/07 at 2:13pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by BobClark
You're thinking of Jaws.
True, but Star Wars really raised the stakes.
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post #30 of 59
5/25/07 at 2:26pm
I like the first trilogy a lot (even Jedi) but I think it's importance has been way overstated. Girls didn't even like it, and I heard they're like, half the world.
Although I had a shirt that said "BAR WARS-TIJUANA" and had a drawing of the characters drunk and fighting in the cantina while holding jugs wiith 3X's on them.
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post #31 of 59
5/25/07 at 2:26pm
If not for the STAR WARS films the guy who was in the Boba Fett suit may not have appeared at the California State Fair a few years ago. Then I wouldn't be able to impress folks when I tell them "Ya know that guy who was in the Boba Fett suit? I saw him at the California State Fair a few years ago. Then I ate some funnel cake."
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post #32 of 59
5/25/07 at 2:29pm
This makes me wonder why there wasn't another edition of the double trilogy released this week on DVD...
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post #33 of 59
5/25/07 at 2:50pm
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post #34 of 59
5/25/07 at 2:55pm
There better be a similar thread when the 30th anniversary of Smokey & The Bandit rolls around.
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post #35 of 59
5/25/07 at 2:59pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Moltisanti
Then I ate some funnel cake.
And that's the real legacy of the Star Wars phenomenon.
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post #36 of 59
5/25/07 at 3:05pm
Without Smokey and The Bandit there would be no Cannonball Run.
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post #37 of 59
5/25/07 at 4:18pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ratty
There better be a similar thread when the 30th anniversary of Smokey & The Bandit rolls around.
I'd say, in all honesty, the odds are pretty good.
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post #38 of 59
5/25/07 at 7:52pm
So, when did YOU see Star Wars for the first time?

Me - May 28th, 1977
Plitt Theater, Orange County, CA.

I was 10 years old.
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post #39 of 59
5/25/07 at 7:57pm
When they re-released the OT in theatres back in the late 90s - with all the enhancements. Saw the first one and didn't make it to to any of the others.
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post #40 of 59
5/25/07 at 8:00pm
Thread Starter 
Don't remember the exact date, but it was about a week or so after it came out, at the University Drive-In in east Orlando. I was 8.
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post #41 of 59
5/25/07 at 8:13pm
On video. I was 7. I regretted even then not seeing/remembering these as big screen experiences.

It's for that reason that, 7 years later, regardless of the changes, the three weeks the SEs were released were like going to church every Friday night.
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post #42 of 59
5/25/07 at 8:31pm
Does anyone realize that the 30th anniversary of Smokey and the Bandit is actually this Sunday?
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post #43 of 59
5/25/07 at 8:51pm
I saw Star Wars on some sort of creaky bootleg VHS at home when I was about three years old. It is one of my earliest coherent memories.

The only OT film I saw in the theatre during its initial run was Return of the Jedi. I didn't watch ESB until years later, so for me the big "Darth is my father" line came as a throw-away in the middle of Return of the Jedi (amazingly, none of my friends mentioned this, or I didn't remember that they had by the time I saw RoTJ).

Star Wars has given me many good memories that miraculously haven't been tarnished by the disappointment that followed. Although, at least we did get the Zahn trilogy out of the gigantic industry Star Wars has become....
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post #44 of 59
5/25/07 at 9:57pm
To me Star Wars ushered in a revolution in special effects, putting realistic depictions of the fantastic within reach. The era of laughable eyesores like Logan's Run was drawing to a close (not that B movies wouldn't continue to provide that sort of thing).
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post #45 of 59
5/26/07 at 4:29pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Andrew Ellis
Complaining about the use of hyperbole is the new complaining about the misuse of irony.
Exactly.
This hyperbole finger-pointing is almost as irritating as the word hyperbole.
Thanks, Dev

I do agree that everyone should tone down their hyperbole, but can we talk about it less?
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post #46 of 59
5/26/07 at 4:43pm
I don't remember the exact date either, but I saw it shortly after the release in '77. I was 11.

I knew kids my age whose parents did not let them see Star Wars because they thought it was too violent. hehe
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post #47 of 59
5/29/07 at 7:42pm
Saw it at the crappiest drive-in in town. Awful sound, dark, grainy picture and it still knocked me out.

It's great to have six films to enjoy.
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post #48 of 59
6/10/07 at 10:00pm
"The Empire Dykes Back":

http://www.rebelscum.com/c4/C4_costumes/image31.asp

The first time I saw "Star Wars", I was 5 years old. My Mom took me and we were pretty late. We didn't arrive until R2 and 3PO had already crashed, and R2 was about to set out on his own. I wouldn't see the Star Destroyer loom across the big screen until the Special Editions twenty years later.
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post #49 of 59
6/19/07 at 4:29am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chris Wood
To me Star Wars ushered in a revolution in special effects, putting realistic depictions of the fantastic within reach. The era of laughable eyesores like Logan's Run was drawing to a close (not that B movies wouldn't continue to provide that sort of thing).
I thought Logan's run pioneered the use of bigatures / motion control cameras.

The problem is, the city blew up for no reason at the end, which kind of takes you out of the movie.

Without Logan's Run, we would never have had... The Island.

Whatever happened to suspension of disbelief?
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post #50 of 59
6/19/07 at 8:08am
So I rewatched the orignal trilogy and...yeah, not so great. Empire was pretty fun, but these are nowhere near the top of any list for me.
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