Happy Birthday Star Wars
Brink Lindsey reminds me it is the anniversary of the release of the original Star Wars. I happened to be staying in Century Plaza in LA with my family on the day the movie was release, though I had never heard of it. It was actually a pretty low-budget movie, and was only released on a few screens. I got dumped off by my family, who was going shopping, in some theater near UCLA and Century City I can't even remember the name of. Anyway, I and about 20 other people were in the theater that first day, partly I guess because it was daytime and mid-week. It is the first and only movie I stayed and watched a second time. I know this makes me a geek, but it really was a transcendent experience for me, though sadly an experienced unmatched in any of the follow-on movies.
Being one of an extremely small cadre to have seen the first one on opening day (really by accident) I felt compelled to see all the others on opening day, a cycle I completed successfully.
I would argue that for its time, against expectations of its day, the opening 30 seconds after the words stop scrolling may be the most amazing and powerful opening of a film ever (starts at about 2:00 into the clip below). And don't miss that fine exhibition of Stormtrooper shooting at about 4:31. Enjoy it again:
And don't miss how Star Wars should have ended. Priceless:
And if you are not Star Wars'd out, try the Stormtrooper Training Video:
Mesa EconoGuy:
Easily the best and technically most important series of films ever, especially for fans of digital. Though little recognition is given to 2001:A Space Odyssey, which had nearly equally impressive visual effects and was released 9 years prior to Star Wars, it actually set the pace for science-fiction space-intensive films.
Star Wars has it all though, incorporating elements of the Knights Templar, Samurai warriors, immaculate conception, and hundreds of other common cultural references.
Excluding Jar Jar Binks.
May 26, 2007, 11:37 amKevin Baker:
Have you seen the Claymation clip from Nickelodeon where Darth Vader checks in with the Emperor after surviving the destruction of the first Death Star? Absolutely hilarious. "What the hell is an aluminum falcon?!?!"
May 27, 2007, 8:41 pm