Well just three decades really. And not so much in a galaxy far, far away but in just 32 theatres in the US on May 25, Star Wars made its cinematic debut. At that stage no-one had any idea what was to come.
Taking bits from Joseph Campbell, Akira Kurosawa and the stylings of World War II dog fights, created a cultural phenomenon that shows no signs of slowing down - even after the atrocious to middling “prequels.” It is hard to believe that the same person how gifted us Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back and half of Return of the Jedi also tormented us with half of Return of the Jedi, The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith. Oh, and the Star Wars Holiday Special. Forgotten that one, hadn’t you?
While there have been better science fiction movies, none have ever approached the giddy, wondrous sense of adventure that characterised Star Wars. It is a movie that has transcended cultures and generations.
But instead of heavy going critical analysis (you can do that in the comments if you like) I’ll simply relate a tale of seeing Stars War just a decade ago.
The beginning of 1997 found me living just a few blocks away from the famous Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. It was just before returning back to Australia after a 2 year stint in LA (another tale). January 1997 also marked the twentieth anniversary of the release of Star Wars. In celebration, the original trilogy was to be re-released with digitally altered footage. This was all met with great excitement. Indeed, during 2006 the preview for the re-release garnered bigger cheers than the main attraction. Hell, people just went to the movies to watch the previews. Bugger the main attraction.
But eventually the great weekend came. And while we couldn’t get tickets to the first day of release, a few mates and I managed to grab some for a Sunday session. Of course the queue snaked around the block but it was for Star Wars, a minor inconvenience in the grand scheme of things. We paid our dues patiently and were eventually ushered into one of the cinemas in Manns. Obviously there was great atmosphere of anticipation and excitement. Lightsabers were being waved around with abandon and various people in Star War costumes realised the costumes weren’t built for comfort.
The lights dimmed, the crowd stilled. There was a slight cheer when the familiar Lucasfilm logo appeared and a greater one when the now famous narrative background started to scroll up the screen. We were underway but given a packed cinema the crowd was slightly subdued. Everyone was having a good time, cheering the appearance of certain characters, quoting lines, but there was this underlying feeling of anticipation that hadn’t been quite met just yet.
It all changed during this scene:
INT. DEATH STAR - CELL ROW
Luke stops in front of one of the cells and blasts the door
away with a laser pistol. When the smoke clears, Luke sees
the dazzling young princess-senator. She had been sleeping
and is now looking at him with an uncomprehending look on
her face. Luke is stunned by her incredible beauty and stands
staring at her with his mouth hanging open.LEIA
(finally)
Aren’t you a little short to be a
stormtrooper?Luke takes off his helmet, coming out of it.
LUKE
What? Oh… the uniform. I’m Luke
Skywalker. I’m here to rescue you.
At this very point the audience collectively erupted into wild applause and cheering. Never before and never since have I experienced such an ecstatic communal response to a movie. We, the audience, then cheered, hooted and hollered our happy way to the end.
The memory still send shivers down my spine ten years on. A wonderful manifestation of the cultural impact of Star Wars. The experience more than makes up for Lucas’ squandering of the Star Wars legacy.
Apparently, somebody is remaking The Dam Busters.
I’m just waiting for all the blog posts about how they ripped off the bombing run from Star Wars
I’m sure this guy would have something to say about that, Robert.
On a related Star Wars dialogue note: the scene in The Empire Strikes Back where Han Solo is about to get frozen in carbonite originally had Leia shouting out “I love you!” and Solo replying “I love you too” — apparently when Harrison Ford saw this line he told Lucas: “George you can write this shit down, but I can’t say it” and managed to get the line changed to the much cooler (and therefore Solo-esque) “I know”.
From the ages of around 4-7 I spend weeks in every summer at my grandmother’s house. She had a Betamax VCR with around 3 movies, one of which was Star Wars. I estimate that I have seen that movie 100 times, and I still get a little chill when the Millenium Falcon comes streaming out of the sun to save Luke in the final battle.
Ahhhh…good times.
Sure, the prequels are not perfect, but watching the documentary on the Star Wars DVD makes you realise how Lucas was basically making it up as he went along, and how it took all the planets aligning at once to allow this movie to be made.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Worst. Sequels. Ever.
I’ve heard that too, Robert, apparently a remake has been in the works for years, but every production runs afoul of the unchangeable name of Guy Gibson’s dog. If you’ve seen the 1955 movie, you know.
Oh, the humanity!
I suppose they could call it ‘N-word’, but they’d really have to change Guy Gibson to Person Giboffspring as well.
FFS, just make it a Labrador retriever and call the damn dog Blondie.
ObStarWars: does anybody think that a much more interesting storyline for the prequels would have been the idea that Anakin deliberately embeds himself in the Dark Side (to become Darth Vader) with the knowledge that he will ultimately redeem himself?
Ampersand Duck too notes the anniversary - with an appropriate nod to the commercial…
What? No mention of how Lucas’s attempt to digitally “enhance” the original films also completely fucked them up?!
People go on and on about the ewoks in RotJ and how they ruin an otherwise excellent film, but nary a murmer of disapproval at the ridiculous attempt to layer a whole bunch of completely superfluous creatures and craft over the original images. Not only were the additions unnecessary, but the contrast in the look of the digitally applied effects and the original animation utterly destroys the coherence of the image. How anyone can watch the “enhanced” versions without playing “spot the dodgy FX” is beyond me.
Worse part is that, so far as I know, you just can’t get the original non-”enhanced” films anymore — except maybe on a VCR tape that’s been watched a thousand times or more.
Hey, time for chick with a gun!
And some pure silliness: McConaughey Strikes Back (not dial-up friendly)
Captain Oats, they snuck out the “unenhanced” versions of the original trilogy last year, on the back of the re-re-re-re-release DVD’s. Most people already had the 4 disk box, so buying them again just to get the originals (with 2 channel sound and laserdisc level mastering) just wasn’t worth it for $30 a pop. At $5, I might have. I notice my kids eschew the new trilogy in favour of the original trilogy when they want a bit of star wars - those new films are just too boring (lets face it, 20 minutes of Jedi Exposition on trade federations just isn’t as much fun as farm boy goes on adventure with wacky robots, mystery cloak dude and the gunslinger).
David Rubie, thanks for the pointer. I’ll have to keep my eyes open for copies going cheap somewhere.
Cheers
Captain, don’t forget to point out to everybody watching that “See, Han shoots first!”. I guarantee a cushion in the face.
“ObStarWars: does anybody think that a much more interesting storyline for the prequels would have been the idea that Anakin deliberately embeds himself in the Dark Side (to become Darth Vader) with the knowledge that he will ultimately redeem himself?”
David Brin says that idea almost makes the series make sense, particularly if Obi-wan and Anakin are in cahoots against the Emperor and Yoda.
http://www.davidbrin.com/starwarsarticle1.html and http://www.davidbrin.com/starwarsarticle2.html
“Go on, follow all the movies with this possibility in mind.”
No thanks, neighbor. See, I’ve already got a date… with some PABST FUCKING BLUE RIBBON!
This is one Well-Dressed Man, neighbor, coming to kick Luke’s ass: I’m in ur thread, messin up ur movie quotez.
Another “better story” just came back to me.
“A New Sith, or Revenge of the Hope
Reconsidering Star Wars IV in the light of I-III”
http://www.morningstar.nildram.co.uk/A_New_Sith.html
I know this is poor blog etiquette, but Star Wars was always a bigger thing than the plot points. A dash of Ed Said goes a long way…
“Everyone was having a good time, cheering the appearance of certain characters, quoting lines, but there was this underlying feeling of anticipation that hadn’t been quite met just yet.”
What, your cinema audience didn’t react in horror at Greedo suddenly shooting first?
Movie for wallies: characters plucked from Lord of the Rings thrown into a Sci-Fi blender. Fell asleep at the drive-in watching it at age 10. Worried when my (amateur) astronomer brother was given the soundtrack and started playing it. Relieved when , shortly thereafter, he came to his senses, declaring that the much lauded SFX were a pale imitation of those in 2001 a Space Odyssey.
Attn Red Leader: MH doesn’t like Han Solo! Repeat: doesn’t like Han Solo - permission to engage proton torpedos?
I still have my original Video of Star Wars and hated the enhanced version.
I think it was just one of those movies where every scene fitted in exactly the right way. I cannot picture anyone other than Alec Guinness as Obi-Wan, certainly not any American actor.
I rather liked what Ewan MacGregor did with his younger Obi-Wan - it was a lovely tribute to Guinness. Liam Neeson and Pernilla August were largely able to overcome the atrocious script as well to be interesting to watch.
I pity the younger actors who didn’t know how to stand up to Lucas and make a space for their own interpretations of the characters - they looked so stiff and emotionally stunted that it can’t be good for their careers (you see them in other films and they’re not like that at all).
I don’t know if I’m the only person who thinks this, but the movies were a piece of expensive crap. Take Episode IV - the first and original. Thanks to Lucas’ use of wipes across the screen, it feels as though Luke meets Obi-Wan, has his foster parents killed, escapes with Han, rescues Princess Leia and then destroys the Death Star all in an afternoon. The characters are so shallow they could drown in a dog bowl and dialogue is risable. The true mystery of Star Wars is that so many people bought into it and thus inflicted us with five additional movies, none of which get any better than the first. Still, I guess it all goes to show who the force was really with…
Cheers…