Star Wars reputation

[Phil Moors]

Hello,

First I have to admit to not being a big fan of Star Wars. I don’t dislike it, I just cannot see why it became so iconic and why it’s reputation has gone on and on. It’s reputation is grossly overblown. There are so many other sci fi films that are as good if not better, Silent Running, Planet of the Apes 1968 etc. but these are seen as good only not iconic.

I also dislike the modern way that film magazines, dvd covers use this reference again and again. For instance if you buy a dvd of Alec Guiness, it might be ‘Bridge on the River Kwai’ starring Alec Guiness (Star Wars) despite his long and accomplished career he is defined by this performance only.

What do you think?

To all who love this film happy screenings

[Brian Fretwell]

I thihnk Star Wars did more to revive the film special effects units than any other. I believe 4 heard step optical printers were brought out of storage and restored/upgraded for it and this kick stared later improvements in film effects.

Mind you that has nothing to do with the content of the film, though I think (the original at least) had one of the best mixes of action, romance and comedy of the sci-fi films of the time.

[Steve Klare]

I've never been really big on Star Wars because I grew up with Kirk and Spock! Is Star Trek objectively better than Star Wars? Of COURSE it's not! -it's just that Gene Roddenberry got there first when I was still a little kid.

I've always found the sequence the Star Wars stories were released in is confusing, but then again when my son was about 10 I had to explain how the various installments of Star Trek fit together: I think I may have had a minor stroke during that process.

It is very possible to get too wrapped up in all this. I was dumped by an old girlfriend about 35 years ago: it's possible that my liking The Next Generation may have been a contributing factor. (If so, she did me a favor: this is not someone I should be buying houses and raising babies with!)

All that being said, Star Wars made a major contribution to Science Fiction just by being such a block buster. It livened up the market for these movies and it's been said that without it, there may never have been a revival of the Star Trek franchise, among many other things.

[Ed Gordon]

Who knew Star Wars would be a hit?

Most written accounts suggest that Fox was bracing itself for a $10 million flop.

George Lucas was clearly under a lot of strain. He had taken personal charge of Industrial Light and Magic in an effort to get the film finished on time. The movie missed its original release date of Christmas 1976 and there was tremendous pressure to make the revised date of May 1977. At one point, Lucas went to a hospital in Marin County, California, convinced he was having a heart attack. He could hardly have been an objective judge of how the film was coming together.

At least one person seems to have still believed in the film. When Fox was asked to release $20,000 for second unit work on the Tatooine scenes to be done in Death Valley, studio boss Alan Ladd Jr was hauled before the Twentieth Century-Fox board and asked why the film had over-run. According to Dale Pollock's book Skywalking, Ladd told them: “Because it’s possibly the greatest picture ever made.”

In January 1977, Lucas famously screened the film –without music or completed special effects – for a group of friends including the screenwriters Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz, directors John Milius, Matthew Robbins, Hal Barwood, Brian De Palma and Steven Spielberg and Time critic Jay Cocks. Only Spielberg and Cocks liked it. Almost everyone else seems to have thought it was a disaster. According to Peter Biskind's book Easy Riders, Raging Bulls, Lucas’s wife Marcia – who was one of the three editors working flat out to get the film finished – likened it to Peter Bogdanovich’s notorious flop musical of 1975, . “It’s the At Long Last Love of science fiction. It’s awful,” she said, and started to cry.

Brian De Palma, it is said, mocked the film mercilessly. In a BBC Omnibus special in 1997, Gloria Katz remembered De Palma saying “You call that a shot when you introduce Darth Vader? I mean, that’s your villain and that’s the best you can do?”

Did Spielberg and Cocks see something that eluded everyone else? Were they just better at imagining how the finished film would look? Certainly Spielberg would have been aware how of much difference a John Williams score could make to the finished product, but could no one see they had a hit on their hands?

Fox executives apparently reacted very differently when they saw a rough assembly of the film, still without music or completed effects. They were won over – and some made a lot of money by exercising share options. So maybe the idea that everyone thought Star Wars would flop is a myth, which has grown out of Lucas's understandable gloom and the failure of his screening to friends.

Certainly, the film’s sneak preview – on April 30 at the Northpoint Theatre, Los Angeles, where American Graffiti had gone down well – seems to have been a big success. Co-editor Paul Hirsch recalled in Star Wars: The Annotated Screenplays that “the film started, the ship came over at the top of the screen, and the audience went wild … After the screening, I said to George, ‘Anything you want to change?’ and he said, ‘I think we’ll leave it alone’."

Source: https://episodenothing.blogspot.com/...-hit-most.html

[Osi Osgood]

This is such a MAJOR subject to me, that I will have to wait until I have sufficient time to respond efficiently!

[Lee Mannering]

Think it spoke to us at the time particularly being at a London Drama school at the time also interested in film making.
A group of fellow students we rushed out of school to get on the tube ASAP to see the first screening. By the time we got to the cinema it was packed but as the staff spotted our Drama school school uniform were allowed to stand at the back for 2 hours.
For me the success of SWs will always be the memories.

[Mitchell Dvoskin]

And most Star Wars 35mm prints were Dolby Stereo, which brought stereo theatre sound back to the masses. Yes, I know that mag stereo in both 35mm and 70mm goes back to the 1950’s, but outside of a few venues in major markets, it was extinct by 1977.

Also, while the setting for Star Wars was science fiction, in reality it was one of the first “comic book” style action adventure films that now rule the boxoffice.

[Nantawat Kittiwarakul]

In terms of storytelling - it's pretty average. No doubt about that.

But in terms of production/visual effects - it was REVOLUTIONARY, PERIOD.

This also set standard for marketing/merchandise from a big budget feature film as well. Fox really figured out how to get every single cents out of this film. Then everyone else follow suit.

All in all, this really depends to individuals. Try changing the subject to Superman/Star Trek/Bond franchise/whatever - the result remains the same.

[Alan Rik]

I saw this in the theatre 27 times when it came out. My father told me he wouldn't take me to the theatre if I was going to see that "Star thing" again. At this point I had already seen Silent Running, Planet of the Apes, and numerous other science fiction/fantasy films but nothing was even close to what George Lucas had created from a Special Effects viewpoint as has been stated before. From the aerial dogfights, to the weathered-used look of all the starships, the sound effects, this was on a totally different level. Yes the story is a little trite and had been done before but almost everything else had not. It is my most run Super 8 film and was a game changer in many, many ways for the film industry. I believe it belongs up there with all the accolades it has received. Its hard to say if I would have gotten into Super 8 if not for this film. Before I had any films I had the Kenner Super 8 Star Wars viewer.. anyone else have this?

[Graham Ritchie]

It might seem old hat these days but going to a full cinema when it first came out was quite an experience. Back in 1977 unlike today multi-plex cinemas, out here at least were still large single screens. Sitting there with a million others as the the opening credits did there thing to John Williams music was really something. "Star Wars" was really a game changer in 1977, also the release onto Super 8 around the same time, first as a 200 footer then soon after the Ken films 400 footer da da.

[Brian Fretwell]

Also, according to Dolby, Star Wars in 70mm was the first 4.1 sound film giving more bass from the centre speakers of the old 70mm sound system. A rival to the then Sensuround system, but with stereo as well.

[Mark Silvester]

Hi all,

I was 17 at the time of "Star Wars" release in the U.K.

My long term girlfriends father was the manager of both the large Cinemas locally and we used to go all the time to see mearly everything - FOC. I actually never bothered going to see Star Wars when it was released. Sci Fi never interested me much - although I did enjoy character driven shows of the time TV wise - "Lost in Space" being my favourite.

I caught up with Star Wars later and its subsequent sequels/prequels. None of the Star Wars stuff has grabbed me at all not in the slightest. I can see and understand why people like it - my son loves the Star Wars stuff. It never "rocked" my world I'm afraid.

Its a great thing the world of the "movies"...divides opinion ans creates debate and interest.

Cheers -

[Mike Newell]

It is a film that divides viewers. I saw it at 14 and was impressed but did feel it was over long. It’s not as epic as portrayed by the fans or as bad as its critics pan it to be.

It was a film of its time and it did bring science fiction movies back from the dead.

The first two movies in the series are the best after that it is Lucas gobblygook see Howard the Duck or Willow for reference. The only other successful film series George Lucas made apart from Star Wars was the Indiana series.

The special effects ,music and the robots were what lifted the movie.

I think casting helped it a lot. Harrison Ford as Han Solo was critical. Alec Guinness and even Peter Cushing raised its lot. Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher I’m afraid we’re just fluff.

Apparently, up for the Hans role before Harrison Ford were Nick Nolte, Al Pacino , Jack Nicholson , Steve Martin, Bill Murray, Sylvester Stallone, Chevy Chase , Christopher Walken Robert De Niro, James Caan and Kurt Russell. Realistically only Kurt Russell might have pulled it off. All the others close your eyes and you are into Spaceballs territory. Speaking of which if ever a film parodied a film so close it was this one.

We also have to be grateful George Lucas gave the voice over role of Darth Vader to James Earl Jones. Imagine if Dave Prowse had voiced his character. It would have been a comedy film. Mind you I still can’t listen to Yoda without a mental image of Fozzie Bear being formed.

Star Wars also has great Super 8 memoriy. Watching the 200ft cutdown before I saw the film in the cinema was epic. It cost $11 million dollars to make and raked it over $800 million some return and no wonder everyone else wanted to make a similar box office movies.

[Osi Osgood]

In short form, where nearly every other film from that time has tended to age badly, Star Wars still shines. Compare Logan's Run from the year before. It's like night and day. Though I liked Planet of the Apes, and that classic out of nowhere ending, I can only watch once in a long while. Same is true of Silent Running, 2001 and any other fantasy films from back then that just look dated. There's no way to really Express fully what this Star Wars film meant to me. Message films? They fall by the way side. Dramas? Give me a break! "Important Films"? Eaaasy stomach, don't turn over now! The big Oscar winners? I'm almost never seen an Best Oscar winner worth watching twice. Give me fantasy, horror or science fiction. Give me an animated film. I go to the theater to escape reality. Star Wars was and is the very definition of that and, for the first time, I saw one of these kind of films in which I couldn't see the flaws in special effects which, therefore, made it a truly wonderful and memorable experience, and it is to this day. We are so oversaturated with great special effects these days, we take them for granted. It was quite a different thing back then. That is all I can say right now.

[Mark Silvester]

Hi Mike,

and all...good comments and interesting.

As a slight aside I have to say Harrison Ford was in my favourite sci/fi movie - that being "Blade Runner"...mind you Rutger Haur really made that classic and that does have excellent "repeatability".

Also, Mike, I find it so interesting when we find out other actors that may have been considered for these roles. Perhaps one I could never ...ever imagine in a "Larger than life" role was the fact that apparently screen legend, Steve McQueen was actually a serious consideration for the role of "Superman". Could you have imagined that???Lol

Take care all - stay safe and dont forget your booster.

Mark