Author Topic: 30 years post Alderaan.  (Read 6932 times)

Heradel

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on: May 25, 2007, 06:19:57 PM
So Star Wars is 30. Wired has a thing here with more articles than can be summarized.

I still remember when I first saw the VHS 3-set of the original films in a Blockbuster with my dad circa... '94? (I was ~6 at the time). I'm still surprised how well those old tapes work, considering how often they've been through the VCR. I seem to remember thinking that they were related to Star Trek, since I'd watched a few of the TOS episodes flipping through channels.

 

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ClintMemo

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Reply #1 on: May 25, 2007, 06:39:19 PM
I first saw Star Wars in 1977 when I was in the 7th grade at the first multiplex I theater I had ever been in. It had six screens.  Star Wars played for over 60 weeks in that theater. No, that's not a typo. It played in our first run multiplex for over 14 months.  Then it went to second run theaters and ran for several more months.  The multiplex made so much money from Star Wars that it doubled it size to twelve screens over the next couple of years.

A couple of years ago, that theater was bulldozed.  They are building a super-walmart in it's place.

I remember being totally awe-stricken with the special effects.  None of us had ever seen anything evenly remotely like it before.

The movie was so successful that it ruined almost every other SF and fantasy movie for the next few years. Not because they weren't as good as Star Wars, but because studios tried to make them more like Star Wars by ripping off Star Wars elements and inserting them. Everything had to have it's own cute little non speaking robot.  Best Example: Clash of the Titans. 

Life is a multiple choice test. Unfortunately, the answers are not provided.  You have to go and find them before picking the best one.


DKT

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Reply #2 on: May 25, 2007, 08:27:45 PM
I got up this morning and put on my Star Wars t-shirt just because.   On the way to work, Emma called me and said she'd been listening to NPR and they'd said it was the 30th anniversary of Star Wars.  Now I ask: coincidence?  Or the force?

I was born in the year of Star Wars.  There's something really cool I love about that (I also got married the year of the Phantom Menace and my daughter was born several weeks after Revenge of the Sith -- kind of ominious if you ask me ;)).  It's hard to say where I'd be if it wasn't for George Lucas and his post-car crash dreams and it was a huge influence in my life.  I don't know if I'd even be writing SF/F or horror.  I know for certain I wouldn't be writing the novel I'm working on.  So if I happened to run into George Lucas today, I'd buy him a beer and tell him thanks.   


jahnke

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Reply #3 on: May 25, 2007, 10:23:55 PM
I saw it in '77 as well, between 6th and 7th grade. I didn't see any of the TV ads for it though. Summer times were spent doing stuff outside. So when a buddy of mine told me I had to go see it he went with me to the "Old Vic", there was no "New Vic" that I knew of. And as soon as the Imperial Cruiser came across that huge screen I was astounded. And the thing was it just kept getting better and better. Before that time I had not been in a theater where I didn't have to get up and leave by about the halfway point. Not only that I went to see it 3 more times that summer, it is all I talked about for months. By the time Empire came out the "Old Vic" had been split up into 3 screens. I kept searching for a movie that gave me that kind of a high and to be honest it hasn't happened yet.



FNH

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Reply #4 on: May 28, 2007, 02:40:31 PM
Here's an idea that blew my socks off when  it was done to me.

Invite your friends over to watch Episode 4.  Sit them, on the sofa in front of the screen.  Lights down low.  Dont tell them that you've moved the Sub Woofer, and slip it right behind the sofa.  Leave it turned very low until the ships first come on screen, and then ramp it UP.

Blew my socks off and wobbled my butt cheeks!


wakela

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Reply #5 on: May 30, 2007, 02:38:25 AM
From now on kids in the future will watch the series in numerical order rather than the order they were released in.  I'd love to talk to someone who saw them for the first time this way. 

My sister is showing her six-year-old boy the movies like this.  He's through Episode 2 and of course loves Anakin.   He dressed as Anakin for Halloween.   He's seen pictures and dolls and heard talk of Darth Vader, so he knows he's coming and is evil, but everyone was keeping the big secret from him.  Some brat on the playground squealed to him that Anakin was going to become Darth Vader and it was like he just found out Santa Claus didn't exist.   He came home in tears needing his parents to make it better, and tell him that the little brat was a liar.  So they did!  Haha.  Episode 3 is a little intense for a 6-year-old, so it'll be a while before he finds out the truth. 



ClintMemo

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Reply #6 on: May 30, 2007, 02:43:19 AM
I remember reading last year that tens of thousands of people in Australia (?) tried to have themselves counted in the census with "Jedi" as their religion.  It makes me wonder if 100 years from now, Jedi will become an actual religion.

Life is a multiple choice test. Unfortunately, the answers are not provided.  You have to go and find them before picking the best one.


Talia

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Reply #7 on: May 30, 2007, 03:34:41 AM
From now on kids in the future will watch the series in numerical order rather than the order they were released in.  I'd love to talk to someone who saw them for the first time this way. 

My sister is showing her six-year-old boy the movies like this.  He's through Episode 2 and of course loves Anakin.   He dressed as Anakin for Halloween.   He's seen pictures and dolls and heard talk of Darth Vader, so he knows he's coming and is evil, but everyone was keeping the big secret from him.  Some brat on the playground squealed to him that Anakin was going to become Darth Vader and it was like he just found out Santa Claus didn't exist.   He came home in tears needing his parents to make it better, and tell him that the little brat was a liar.  So they did!  Haha.  Episode 3 is a little intense for a 6-year-old, so it'll be a while before he finds out the truth. 

For some reason this really disturbs me and seems wrong somehow. :P I cant imagine a child's first indocternation into the Star Wars universe being episode one. Its just so inferior to 4! Unless thats just my sentimental side speaking, hard to say :P



ClintMemo

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Reply #8 on: May 30, 2007, 11:31:06 AM
I think the story works better if you watch it in the order they were created instead of numerical order, though it's hard to say since I've already seen them.  Watching them in numerical order would ruin some of the moments ("Luke, I am your father").

Also, this may be star wars blasphemy, but I don't think that 4 is that much better than 1.  They both have some terrible acting and cruddy dialog. 

Life is a multiple choice test. Unfortunately, the answers are not provided.  You have to go and find them before picking the best one.