Today I bought the new release of the old Star Wars trilogy.
I’d been joking for a while that I was looking forwards to the class action suit of geeks around the world.
I went to see Star Wars on opening weekend. I was 9 years old. Yes, kids.. I am that old.
I saw it on Twentieth Century Fox’s (few at the time remaining) silver screens in Los Angeles. (The family had taken a vacation there from where we were living in suburban eastern PA)
I remember the movie as if it were 29 days ago let alone 29 years. There was one thing I remember above all else. And it isn’t ingrained because of that watching but because of Empire three years later.
I remember going to see empire and seeing, “Part V, The Empire Strikes Back.” My friends and I sat there thinking, “5? What happened to 2, 3, and 4” We got a copy of the Betamax tape (Yes, kids…I am that old) of Star Wars and watched it. “Chapter IV… A New Hope.” New Hope? What the hell was New Hope? My friends and I knew damned well, that it wasn’t called New Hope when we first saw it. Hell, we lived in a town in Pennsylvania called “Yardley” which was the next town south of “New Hope”… We would’ve noticed.
But 25 years later… I’ve been told be mannnnny people… that it’s always said “Chapter IV”
Well, I’m here to tell you.. if you want to see the REAL “Star Wars”… The original… Without Chapter IV… Without Jabba… and there is no question of “Who Shot First”… Because only one person shot… And that Scoundrel was Han…
The trilogy is worth it. The original is unedited as I remember it. (Well, the scenes I watched)… There is one whole in my memory which I still debate… but since the film is “Star Wars” I’m going to have guess my memory on the other issue… may have been wrong.
Star Wars is in the original Dolby 2.0 (No… they didn’t have 5.x back then)
But it’s the movie from my youth and makes me happy.
The commentary on the main disc even starts with Lucas explaining about why IV was added.
So… to me… the new trilogy are the Star Wars discs I’ve wanted. Lucas’ new flashy versions complete with my treasured memories.
Wooot!
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do you remember it saying “A long, long time ago…” ?
Yes.
The only think I am remembering differently is that I have a memory of Luke throwing his line and missing. he then reels it back up. Leah kisses him and says, “For luck”… he throws it again and it catches.
For some reason I see it fairly clearly.. but that was not on the disc
Betamax!
Han Shot First
Amen, Hallelujiah, So Mote it Be.
Those are the memories. Hells bells, I was 6 and I remember it like yesterday, myself.
And for your entertainment:
http://www.sorethumbsonline.com/d/20060217.html
You don’t have to read the comic, just read the t-shirt.
Speaking of Star Wars, I found this video clip right before I came here…
How Star Wars *should* have ended I always wondered why they didn’t do that… π
I could have lived with the added crap like the Jabba scene…
I could have lived with the new tacky explosion of the death star…
I could have even lived with the extra characters added in the back ground…
But I could just not live Han not shooting first. THAT was what did it for me.
Damn right. Don’t be messing with the scoundrel.
Please, tell me true… did he reinstate the scene with Biggs on Tatooine? It’s in my copy of the published script I bought a zillion years ago (that is probably lost to the abyss).
Rose
you can find surviving footage in something called “Deleted Magic” ..google for the bittorrent..it’s out there..far from pristine but it exists..
Infant
I was 21 when I saw it on its opening run.
I was at least a year or two out of grad school when we went to see the first film’s opening. Had to be, since it was with my SCA crowd, and I didn’t join the SCA until I’d been out for around a year. Hell, we stole light sabers (luxblades) sight unseen for the first RPG we wrote (Space Quest), going by the description in Lucas’ novelization, which he sold during production to raise money ro finish the film.
I’d like to trump you by claiming I first got the home video on kinnies, but mine was Beta too (g).
I am delighted the original theatrical prints are back on the market, and intend to get them all.
I was excited as well to learn that all three NPR radio versions were available in a CD box set. That one’s going on my Xmas list.
Glad you’re enjoying them; May The Force Be With You…
Heh
I first saw Star Wars when I was 17. 12 years after it came out, on a 15″ Amiga monitor someone had hooked up to their VCR. I didn’t get it ;).
I’d seen Empire and Return in the theater (I was the demographic the Ewoks were targeting), but I didn’t see Star Wars there until the re-release in ’96. *Then*, on the big screen, I got it.
[Entertaining point, the theater I went to see the re-release at was across the parking lot from several hi-tech companies. There were a *LOT* of geeks in the audience. And they had this great MST3K thing going on, where every time Mark Hamill opened his mouth, the audience covered his line with “WHAAAAAAHHHH!”]
I don’t think my heart …
could take it these days, but … I saw it at Century City in Los Angeles at an 11 am showing with – maybe – 50 other people in the audience. The theater was huge, the seats were the best I’d ever sat in, and the movie was FUCKING AWESOME!!
But what I remember most was getting out of the theater, going down into the bowels of the parking structure, getting into my ’66 GTO – tri-power, 4-spd – heh heh – and blasting out onto Pico Blvd into the after-lunch crowd. Poor suckas never knew what hit ’em. One mad man with waaay too much under the hood and completely pumped.
Oh, and I was probably, what, 31 years old?
That was it…
I couldn’t for the life of me remember the name of the theatre.
That was the one!
Huge screen. Unbelievable sound. Killer seats… And a really big deep parking garage
It was the …
Plitt Cinema
I was 12, and I remember it vividly.
I wasn’t sure I was going to give in to George’s Evil Empire and buy them, but I may have to.
And then I’m going to send all my ‘special editions’ to Skywalker Ranch.
Ya know, somewhere in my parent’s house, there may still be the copy of Star Wars on 35mm that we would watch on occasion.
Darned if I know what might be different on that from the first screening, but it would be interesting to see. I have to find out if they still have it.
π
If it’s an original…
I’d be very curious to hear if it has the missing chasm scene.
Re: If it’s an original…
The belfrey is empty – which scene is this?
I really have to ask Mom tonight, now. Not that I can watch it for months, mind, but still….