@@BigGator5 I think the series should be watched in release order because that was the order that contemporaneous fans saw them. The prequel trilogy and Rogue One were made knowing that fans were familiar with the original trilogy and new viewers should go into them with the same information that viewers at the time had. I agree that Rogue One is the only Disney Star Wars worth watching. I consider the rest of Disney Star Wars to be non-canon (anti-)fan fiction. The real Episode VII, VIII and IX are the Thrawn Trilogy of novels by Timothy Zahn.
Not speaking to the specific plot point you mentioned, but in general, as you watch the rest of the original trilogy, you'll pick up on a few things that were not completely thought out in advance when this first movie was made.
@@BigGator5 "Bully?" I gave my opinion than yours and provided my reasons. Just because you disagree doesn't make me a "bully," "close-minded" or "dumb." For example, I did not insult you in my comment as you did to me in the comment to which this is a reply.
@@BigGator5 I totally agree. A person that knows little of Star wars would have the most enjoyment watching them in this order. Watching them in numerical order gives spoilers for episodes 4 5 6. Watching them in release order is less fun because episode 6 is the finale of the series and watching it in the middle create a more anti-climactic watch order in my opinion. If I could erase my memory of all the Star Wars films I would watch them exactly in the order BigGator5 suggests. You are essentially watching 4 and 5 first so you don't have them spoiled. Then watch 1 2 3 R as a flashback because they occur in that order and end at right before 4. Then you get to watch the finale.
About the connection to Star Trek.... Star Trek came out in 1966 as a tv series and was cancelled because of poor ratings after 3 seasons in 1969. With the exception of a short lived cartoon series, Star Trek was dead in the water, only kept alive by a modest fan base hoping it would be revived again one day. Star Trek however was one of the inspirations for George Lucas while writing the screenplay for Star Wars (along with the sci-fi serials of the 1930s such as Flash Gordon). Star Wars was a MASSIVE success for 20th Century Fox studios. After the success of Star Wars, Paramount Pictures wanted to cash in on that high and turned to the franchise they owned the rights to. Two years after Star Wars, "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" was released in 1979 and was a success as well. Star Trek had been reborn, spawning 12 movie sequels and no less than 9 spin off tv series. So Star Wars owes a bit of thanks to the original Star Trek, and Trek owes a great deal of thanks to Star Wars. : )
Also our should be worth noting that both star wars and star trek are both in their most active time ever. With songs of their best content being made now.
@@Caseytify …Exactly. Thank you!!! Star Trek was in preproduction for a return, with or without Star Wars. And THEN the SW box office had them change it (back) into a theatrical feature. If anything Star Wars owes most of its pedigree to Flash Gordon, James Bond, and Space: 1999.
I was 10 when this came out in '77. My Dad wasn't sure if it would be appropriate for his kids, so he and his buddy went and waited in line to see it first. He came home so excited and said he'd never seen anything like it! He took us all to see it the next night. The line up, the packed theatre. It's a moment I'll never forget! ⭐
1977, spent all summer trying to see this. I lived on Long Island NY and they're was just one theater (with one screen) showing it on a county of 2.5 million people. It was a theater at a mall and the line would reach all the way around the mall. We'd go and wait a few hours and give up. Finally we got in and it was worth it! The effects did blow our socks off! It was like nothing we'd ever seen before. When the Millennium Falcon first made the jump to light speed, the whole theater erupted in cheers! I've never heard anything like that before or since!
"I'll bet people in the 70's lost their s*it.... (when this came out). Oh you have no idea. People stood in line for days for first, second and third viewings. Action figures arrived about a year after and kids totally lost their s*it. It's all any boy and even girl wanted for Christmas was a 'large size 14" action figure.' The one I wanted was Darth Vader. I hinted my mom every day for that year. Come Christmas and I didn't get it. It wasn't under the tree. But when I walked in the kitchen it sat in the middle of the table with a sign, "to Mel, Special Delivery". Best time of my life.
I remember seeing this for the first time on a very large movie screen (when we still had 1-screen movie "palaces") as a young teen. There wasn't one seat left in the theatre and the lines were around the block and then some. It was an amazing experience - everyone laughing, gasping, booing and cheering together. It felt like something entirely new, even though it sort of evoked the energy of a classic (read, "old") movie swashbuckler or epic western. And it never felt cheesy. I wish everyone could experience the SW movies the same way. I don't care how big our family room tv screens are - they'll never equal the impact. I'm actually kind of sad that most reactors are watching this on computer screens.
Did you know that the line in the script (and the Alan Dean Foster penned novel) was, 'You've taken your first step into a larger universe'? It was likely Sir Alec Guinness who changed the line. Probably didn't feel comfortable saying, 'a larger universe.' Saying someone had stepped into a 'larger world' was - and is - quite a common turn of phrase, changing that to 'universe' may have felt very jarring to the actor saying it. Of course that's just a theory, I have no way to know for sure who changed the line. It's just based on who could have. I don't think Lucas would have changed the line so that leaves the actor saying it.
Bahahaha! “Is 3PO a little bit dramatic?” 😃 Just a smidge. He’s our irritating albeit beloved, little drama queen made of gold. And we love him despite him being a know-it-all, shiny pain in the butt. 😉
Watching the opening scene with the first scene showing a Star Destroyer, and it is just so HUGE... "People in 1977 must have lost their shit." As a person who saw it in the theater when it first came out, I can tell you that is entirely accurate. Pretty much jaw dropping.
I saw it in 1990 I was 6. I saw it in a theater as a special run. I cannot even describe how massive the movie itself was to me, a kid who's never seen ANYTHING like that before. Pure classics!
Let me add also that the 70's was mostly doom and gloom, specially in sci-fi. Lots of disaster-movies & cynicism. George Lucas himself has called it a fairy tale. Star Wars, at least the original trilogy, is fundamentally a heroic fantasy story about a lost prince fighting an evil king, told with the means of science fiction instead of fantasy. It's imaginative, happy and thrilling. The original film title was ONLY Star Wars, it was retroactively subtitled Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope after the huge success. A month after its release, Star Wars played at almost every theater in the US and hundreds worldwide.
This movie blew my mind so much as a kid in 1977 that I saw it 14 times! I'd ride my bike to the theater to see it over and over and over. A ticket was, like, $1.50. The theater is long gone, the kid is long gone but I remember it like it was yesterday. Amazing movie experience.
I remember the excitement that seemed to be sweeping the nation the weeks after it hit the theaters. I remember asking my parents to take us to see it. I remember riding 50 miles in the family car, a 1976 Dodge Aspen station wagon, to the nearest movie theater that was showing it, to wait in a line to get tickets. I remember feeling awed by the silence of ....'a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...' followed by the loud symphonic tones of John Williams' score as the preliminary story scrolled out before us. I remember the opening scene where Princess Leia's little ship was followed by the Imperial ship that seemed to fill the screen and go on forever. I remember the moment the theater ERUPTED when the Death Star blew up!! Such a landmark in my memory.
The terrets on the Millenium Falcon are reminiscent of the ball turret of the WWll B-17. The whole thing moves to help track fast moving targets. In 77, when this movie released it was the most amazing thing we had ever seen. It was just Star Wars then. They didn't add chapter numbers until They started the next trilogy. We had heard that the whole story was a trilogy of trilogies but never expected at first to see them all. The original Star Trek ran from 66 to 69. The first Star Treek Movie was in 79. Babylon 5(a very good series) started in 94.
I saw this in the theater in 1977 just after it was released. The lines to get tickets were insane. It was one of the greatest theater experiences I have had. From the moment that main title music started blasting to the final destruction of the death star the entire audience was completely transported. Cheering, crying, rooting for the good guys - it was fantastic. We had never seen special effects like this before. The fx in 2001 A Space Odyssey were amazing but these space battles were fantastic on the big curved screen. What a time.
@@AneudiD78 A regular movie ticket around that time was I think $2 to $2.50. I recall Star Wars was bumped up to around $3 to $3.50. Seems like it was initially only shown in the biggest theaters with the best sound systems. Maybe that's why the price was higher ? I could be wrong.
You can't imagine how powerful this movie was to a teen boy. This came out the year I graduated HS and it was so different from anything before. It's like a delineation of before sw and after sw. Btw I had the little collectable figures and the jawa and later yoda, were very valuable but I lost all that moving around. It's after Star Trek series but not movies I think
I can confirm that: my sci-fi club went to see it in the first few days it came out when we were in high school. We ended up going to see it endless times, dragging families and friends to see it.
Yeah it's almost criminal hearing people criticize it sometimes. You can tell when people do that EVEN if they work in the Special Effects Industry, they don't really KNOW the history. Since Star Wars reset the standards and drove innovations for decades haha.
I know it's late, but this was largely an independent film. Lucas shopped it to every studio twice, got a microscopic budget, a tiny test release, and they all largely forgot about it. After results of the test release came back they gave it a nationwide release. Harrison Ford was in a record store shopping, fans recognized him, mobbed him, and tore his clothes off. People would see the movie, leave the theater, and get right back in line again. That does not happen. Probably won't ever again
Episode 4,5,6 were done first because Lucas knew the technology didn't exist to be able to do the other episode justice, and a new hope worked as a standalone film if he didn't get to do any more. But after the success he had no problems doing the others .
I am a witness, I was starting high school when this came out. Everyone absolutely lost their shit. Every male child I knew was absolutely addicted, people that were not into Science Fiction movies totally got into it. My stepmother, who was into James Bond movies and clever movies like The Sting; almost became like a cult member for this film and all things surrounding it. It was very interesting, because her career was in high end real estate sales. My stepmother was half Margaret Hamilton from The Wizard of Oz and half Posh Spice from The Spice Girls. The Star Wars phenomenon was almost like a mass heroin epidemic with millions of new users. Instead of shooting up, there were talking about Star Wars, having normal conversations with way too many Star Wars references, or going back to the theater to watch Star Wars for the eighth, ninth, and tenth time. Back then they did release movies to video tapes or streaming services, because this was in the Dark Ages of Media Entertainment. If you wanted to watch it, you would have to go back to a theater to watch it. Another thing that went on back then, when you had the premiere of a major film like Star Wars, or Platoon, or The Last Emperor it would always go to one theater that was the theater stuff like that premiered in. Big theaters, probably always 500 seats, but just one theater in large cities. It was not uncommon to wait in line for more than three hours to watch a movie like Star Wars, at least until the buzz died down, usually after five months. Sometimes the theater would carry a movie like Star Wars for longer than a year. They eventually cleaned that up, I think by the time Return of the Jedi came out, you could see it in nine different theaters in our urban area. Things almost always evolve for the better, sometimes the change is galactic, usually faster. Nobody misses standing in line for three hours, even for an epic movie like Star Wars, cheers!
Originally, this movie was just titled Star Wars. When it became a hit, Lucas realized he could tell the full story. He started in the middle because, at the time, it was the most exciting. When they started making The Empire Strikes Back, they retitled the movie, Star Wars: Episode IV, A New Hope. Episode VI: The Return of the Jedi was originally named The Revenge of the Jedi and was even marketed with that name but they changed it at the last minute.
It is also the only episode that doesn't have a "to be continued" ending other than VI which has far too much back story to be a stand alone movie. So basically he used Episode IV because it was the only one he could sell to a studio as a "stand alone" movie.
Of all the Star Wars movies, this one is and always will be my favorite. I was 12 years old when it came out back in 1977 and it was a global phenomenon for good reason. A lot of hardcore fans will say the sequel is superior, but I still love "A New Hope" more than anything that came out later.
Originally this movie was titled .. Star Wars , not Star Wars Episode 4 A New Hope. That title was added after the 2nd movie The Empire Strikes Back was released. George Lucas had the concept of a large screen play, but realized it was too big for a single movie, so he took a segment (middle section) and made it into this movie. Since this was actually a relatively low budget movie after Hollywood rejected it, there were little expectations it would do well. Some people even thought it would flop. After it came out, it was a huge box office hit in 1977, which allowed Lucas to make the second one, which also turned out to be a massive hit. After the original trilogy was made Lucas said he would only consider making the pre-trilogy once technology advanced enough that he could tell it as he had envisioned it.
The version you just saw was actually the version that was Re-released in 1997, twenty years after the 1977 release. The 1997 version contains additional content and effects. The lizard mounted storm trooper and the scene with Jaba were added in 1997. The burned corpses of his aunt and uncle are original to the 1977 version as well as all ship and planet explosions. There were a few updates to the Alderaan and Death Star explosions. Regarding Star Trek: The first original series with William shatter came out in 1967 and ended In 1969. They did a few movies and the next Star Trek content to come after that was The Next Generation with Patrick Stewart in 1987-1994
@@davidolden971 Correct. It was 10 years after the TV show was cancelled before the movie came out, and the movie only happened because the success of Star Wars made them realize it could make money.
The Library of Congress video section has a copy of the 1977 version. Lucas contacted the library and wanted to replace their 1977 version with the 1997 version. The library said NO. They weren't going to change history.
I saw Star Wars in the theater in 1977 and I can confirm that, yes, the special effects did make me lose my shit. My parents also lost their collective shit. And, in sentence I never thought I’d say, my grandmother totally lost her shit. Welcome to Star Wars! It’s always fun to see someone experience it for the first time :)
Also Akira Kurosawa’s The hidden fortress had a massive influence on Star Wars but I think that George Lucas preferred the Seven Samurai even though The Hidden Fortress was a more obviously influence on Star Wars.
Just a point, some CGI has been added (several times) over the years. You can only see the original on the early VHS, the last version of VHS had added CGI. It looks good b/c Lucas actually used every technique used in films and expanded upon them. By the time computers were being used, he created ILM (Industrial Light and Magic) to do the CGI in his films (and later expanded to do films for others). Darth Vader was 2 people, the actor in the suit, and the voice of James Earl Jones. The droids both had actors in them. A little person in R2D2, and a thin man in C3P0. Star Wars came out about a decade after the original Star Trek series, and over a decade before Star Trek the Next Generation. It was the impetus for the Star Trek Movies to be made based off the original show and cast. The reason that this was the best... well, George Lucas actually explained why. Also why it was #4, not before that (technology hadn't got there yet). th-cam.com/video/zAjMoAIObRw/w-d-xo.html
As an 8 year old in 1977, I saw this every chance I had. Sometimes first showing to last. Then Star Trek, Dragonslayer, Time Bandits, Indiana Jones, Tron... And before that Jaws and Rocky. What a great time to be a kid!
my mom was 11 in '77, she saw this in theaters with her dad. to this day she vividly remembers watching the imperial destroyer fly overhead for the first time, she says it was the coolest thing she'd seen in a movie (up to that point)
Those wipe and iris transitions are actually a callback to the 1930s, and the "optical printer", perfected by Linwood Dunn. It was the "Swiss Army Knife" of film compositing up until the dawn of the digital age, and very much in use in all three of the original Star Wars trilogy. Essentially, two projectors work at the same time, projecting two separate films, frame by frame, into a single motion picture camera, with the ability to manipulate both images in all sorts of ways to produce the final composition. So the technology was still in use in the 1970s, but the *way* it's used to do the scene transitions in Star Wars is a call back to the way it was used 40 years before Star Wars was made: it was supposed to look "retro", even in 1977.
@@Lethgar_Smith It just amazes me what skilled work could be done with the optical printer. There's all sorts of movies like Citizen Kane and The Day the Earth Stood Still where it's so seamless you don't even realize you're looking at an effects shot.
You mentioned the turning guns when the TIE fighters were attacking the millennium falcon. There is actually something similar to that in reality. In world war II the B-17 bomber had a bubble turret on the bottom that a person could climb into from inside the plane, it was totally circular and could rotate and pivot in all directions covering the underside of the plane when it's airborne.
Hi Jen. I've been following your channel for a while now and really enjoy your very natural reactions to the films I love. Something has just struck me though - what have you been doing all your life? It seems like you have crammed in my entire movie life (59 years of it!) into a handful of years watching any number of great, classic films (science fiction is my main area of interest but anything with a good story is fine by me). I think you have covered around 50 years of films I have grown up with in around 2 years! Seriously, don't you have a local cinema, a TV, DVD player? I realise you are a lot younger than me but still . . . Glad that you are obviously enjoying the ride, I don't think I could cram as much into such a short time span and retain any of what's left of my dwindling sanity. You are highlighting some great films that I have almost forgotten about though, you are a good prompt for me to go back into my extensive DVD/Blu-ray archive, cheers.
This is the same universe as ours so there is Earth, but like they said at the beginning this is a galaxy far, far away so nobody from this galaxy knows of Earth or has ever been there.
Han Solo has one of the greatest arc in the history, going from "I only take orders from one person, me!" and only thinking about money to becoming a general in the Republic and saving the day during Luke's tunnel run.
I think the first movie Harrison Ford was in, had to be American Graffiti. He played a hot shot out of town drag racer that wore a reasonably cool cowboy hat. American Graffiti was the catalyst for long running TV Shows Happy Days and Laverne & Shirley. They just moved the location from Modesto, California to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. A few cosmetic changes like the town cool guy changing from the hot rodder that never lost a race, to a motorcycle guy that was not a member of a gang, but had everybody’s respect and his choice of the ladies. Ron Howard migrated to Happy Days as well, with some cosmetic changes. He went from the greatly respected student body president to a very well liked guy, but not nearly respected. Cindy Williams migrated as well. She went from head cheerleader dating the student body president to young adult working with her bestie at a Milwaukee brewery. The introduced Williams as double date for Howard along with Henry Winkler (Fonzie) and Penny Marshall (Laverne). It was a very short time later that there was a new spinoff show--Laverne & Shirley.
Harrison Ford had played in some movies before but i think it was in American Graffiti 1973 he got real known, and then the Star Wars triologi made him a real star. And later from the Indiana Jones movies.
17:11 About Earth being in this part of the area? Well.. the opening line sais " A long time ago in a galaxy far far away...." so no. But who knows how distant their galaxy is to our Milky Way? :)
When we saw this in cinemas in 1977 we were all knocked out by the filmmaking. The impact of these incredible practical effects (models, costumes and props, matte paintings, etc), swift editing, and world-building with a lived-in look was incredible! This was a game changer for all of us, even if I was only a teen at the time. And I had been reading Frank Herbert's Dune books, Asimov's Foundation series, and Tolkien's LotR before seeing Star Wars. Before this, could never imagine any such stories being possible on screen. If you want some understanding of the roots of these movies (including "cheesy" shot choices like the wipes and a number of other shots, and even characters), in interviews George Lucas has said they are based on serials that were played in cinemas in the 1930s and 1940s, as well as being influenced by Westerns, a few war movies, and by the "Easterns" of Akira Kurosawa (The Hidden Fortress, Seven Samurai, etc - 'jidaigeki' movies, that show the samurai warriors' way). Oh, and guess which four-letter word Lucas coined for the Star Wars universe, based on "jidaigeki"? Harrison Ford had broken through as a film actor in Lucas' previous film - very different in style: American Graffiti. Also, since you asked, I saw Star Trek, TOS, when first being broadcast in the latter half of the 1960s, when I was a kid. But the first Star Trek movie appeared after this first Star Wars movie - and was disappointing by comparison. Btw, you may enjoy a fan-made remake of the Darth Vader duel with Obiwan Kenobi in scene 38 - no spoilers now that you've seen The Empire Strikes Back. th-cam.com/video/to2SMng4u1k/w-d-xo.html
George Lucas envisioned Star Wars as a 9 part story divided into 3 trilogies. He was working on ideas for all 9 at once, but he was having more success with Epudode 4 so he decided to concentrate on that first and see if anyone liked it. The test screenings, done without the music were a flop, and even his friends Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese found it co fusing, caustics go ready it. When it opened, he was so afraid it would get bad reviews that he went to Hawaii with Spielberg so he wine in town when the reviews came out. That was when they came with the character of Indiana Jones. This was Harrison Ford’s second movie . He had a small role Lucas’’ first film, American Graffiti
In an interview with Mark Hamill, when he climbed out of his ship and Leia hugged him and laughed, he said that he accidentally said "Carrie!" instead of "Leia!". You can barely hear it over the din.
I picked that up that ‘Carrie’ line when we got Star Wars free with the purchase of a Laser Disc player. I watched it most every day during summer vacation. I’d usually put in side 2, which starts right when they’re getting pulled into the Death Star. That’s also when I noticed the stormtrooper knock his head on the door when they walk through. I laughed myself silly at that the first time I saw it. Couldn’t wait to show all my friends!
I was 17 in 1977. My date and I stood in a line that was 200 yards long. All 4 screens at the theater were playing only this movie. It was a blast. Iconic quotes- Never underestimate a droid. I have a bad feeling about this. I find your lack of faith disturbing. (one of my favorite scenes) That's no moon. If you strike me down I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine. Great kid, don't get cocky. The force is strong with this one. Since no one at the studio thought this movie would do anything, George Lucas was able to secure all merchandisng rights as part of his pay check. For all the SW movies/animation made, these rights alone are worth 12 Billion dollars. Star Trek-1966-69 (Lucielle Ball's studio, Desi-Lu produced Star Trek)
When this movie was released it wasn't called Star Wars Episode 4, it was called Star Wars and was meant to be just that, a one story movie. The response was earth shaking so Lucas started piecing together other ideas which became two other movies and years later the prequel trilogy. It was renamed Star Wars Episode 4 when it was rereleased later because it fit in the middle of the other stories.
Being 13 in 1977 and seeing the originals, the one thing that annoyed me was how Lucas seemed to have to go back and tweak something. Like whenever the films were released in a new format. and especially when the prequel film were set to be released. You have yet to see the most egregious change, to me, in Return of the Jedi to tie it in to the prequels.
@Kristopher Chavez It's really not out of the ordinary for an artist to go back and tweak his own work. Funny thing is, Lucas also made changes to the prequels. I still remember being pretty surprised to learn that puppet Yoda in TPM had been replaced with digital Yoda for the Blu-ray version. Besides, the films did need a drastic update due to the deterioration of the original print. It helped to fix issues such as the lightsabers changing colour or the matte lines showing up ;)
Harrison Ford first movie was ' American graffiti ' in 1973. He (rumor has it) flies his plane to here (TN) to visit her relatives -- or so I've been told
Saw this 11 times in the theater. Yes everyone lost their minds because there was nothing to compare it with. Jump forward years later I was working as a professional model builder and got the chance to work with 2 companies. Ertl was a company making models of the ships and some of the characters. I did a lot of the box art and catalog art for the Star Wars series, actual models not something done on a computer. The other was Hasbro and I did the color masters for the Mos Isley band members and their instruments. These were 12" tall limited release figures and the cool part is Hadbro sent me 8x10 photographs taken on set of the movie to use for reference.
@@jenmurrayxo it was. Over the years I got to play with very cool toys lol. I even have models in the Pentagon, Special Forces Command, Congressional offices, private collections and a bunch of museums. Thanks for the reply.
Cool? Kids immediately wanted toys of half the stuff they saw! The trouble was no toy company had ever heard of making toys about a movie. And by the time Kenner came around, there was no way they could make toys by December. So they sold empty boxes, basically as IOUs that the toys would arrive in, say, March. 😄😉
Lol sometimes dumb stuff pops out of my mouth. I usually cringe in editing when I realize & debate taking it out to avoid being called dumb by everyone, but it is what it is!
The original trilogy has a special heart. I watched them on VHS as a kid. My favorite out of these 3 is the 2nd film but I love all of them, as they are needed to build the Star Wars universe. My first Star Wars movie in theatres was Episode 1 and it has a very special place in my heart, it has some of the best fighting and music in the entire series. Older people (hardcore "fans" of the OG trilogy) usually shit on it (which hurts me) because it has a lot more humorous moments for younger Star Wars fans but for me (a 10yr old) it was just a great first Star Wars big screen experience.
It was originally a three movie trilogy, but it was so successful that years later they decided to do a prequal trilogy and that when they added numbers. The original trilogy was only known by the movie name until then.
This was originally screened as Star Wars back in 1977. The success of this one led to the idea of a trilogy of trilogies. The first three shown would be the middle three, the next three would be the Clone War era, and the end would be the New Republic. The only characters in all nine would be R2-D2 and C3P0.
Fun fact, Carrie Fisher (Leia) and Harrison Ford (Han Solo) were dating during the filming of this movie.....despite Harrison Ford being a married man at the time.
George Lucas wrote the whole Star Wars saga at one time. When he finally secured the means to make a movie, he was concerned that the audience might not be as receptive to the story if he started from the beginning. The first three chapters were more about character development and weaving together the incidents and actions that created the stage for the start of the story line. So, he chose to start the movie with the fourth chapter of the saga which Lucas thought was more engaging than the beginning.
The movie is Episode 4, cause George Lucas was a great fan of the old adventure TV serials; where you could literally pick up at any moment; you would get a quick recap at the begning of th eepisode of what had happen previouslly an still enjoy it, sometime even filling the gaps in your mind. That's part of the success of this movie. The movie is constantlly refering to 'Clone Wars', the Jedi Knigths, the Galactic Republic, the Emperor... LOTS of concepts that the characters in the movie know very well off; but that we as the audience do not comprehend... but it doesn't bother us! It simply make us feel that the universe is extremelly 'lived in'. At the moment, Lucas had some ideas of the things that had happened before, but just some wide strokes... Ben been a general in the Clone Wars, alongside Anakin Skywalker (Luke's father); that the Republic fell down after that and the Empire arose... but only after he ended up Episode VI he did decide to come back and tell the very first 3 episodes. His idea was that this story worked alone pretty well. Is a standalone story, but he is placing it somwhow in a fake grand story... and this was felt by the audience that was eager to know MORE about this world... and thus the Greatest CInematic Saga ever was born.
It’s easy to see Han as selfish, but you have to understand that he comes from a world where anyone would backstab you for a few credits and he owes a huge debt to one of the galaxy’s most ruthless gangster. He just can’t afford to stick around when Jabba is waiting for his money
I was 5 when this came out and I had my mom (or dad) take me to see it 7 times in the theater. That's how groundbreaking it was. The effects were SO good, we did actually lose our shit. Lol
Speaking of Earth, the only things we really know are that this takes place in another galaxy, not our Milky Way, and it takes place in the distant past. The presence of humans in that distant galaxy wasn't ever explained, although there was a story that was going to explain it, but it never got finished and published. It involved time travel and travel over vast distances, to another galaxy, of a small group of humans from future Earth, which over thousands of years became the most populous species of the galaxy in which Star Wars takes place, still in our distant, ancient past. I kind of wish that story got published.
It's hard to explain just how ground-breaking this movie was, in so many ways. I will never forget the first time I saw the opening scene with the massive Imperial ship flying overhead. That single shot told you it was going to be a really fun ride! Oh, and if you want an even younger Harrison Ford, watch American Graffiti .
It's the perfect opening. Within 10 seconds, you know that the rebels are hopelessly outclassed and outpowered by the Empire. It tells you everything you need to know.
TOS (the original Star Trek series) was in the mid sixties, long before this movie came out. Although the franchises have been long rivals (an even moreso with their diehard fanbases), in hindsight I would say each only managed to make the other better during those competitive years rather than take anything away.
I love both franchises, if not so much the movies since the 2000s onward. Star Wars is better at the epic sweep adventure story telling, more along the lines of mythology; whereas Star Trek is better at morality plays and allegories about the human condition, and striving for a bright, better future.
Star Wars was the "first" Star Wars film made. George Lucas planned Episodes I, II and III as a story about Darth Vader. The working title was The Adventures of Luke Starkiller from the Journal of the Whills Saga I The Star Wars.
Lucas said in a interview back in the 80’s he had scripts for 9 films after the success of American Graffiti the studio approved 1 film so he started with the strongest one in hopes it would allow him to get the rest made, I read another interview later where he denied he had other scripts written, Ford is also in Graffiti, to make ends meet between roles he worked as a carpenter, Lucas used him to read against other actors for roles and finally decided to use him in the film.
Lucas has retconned his own personal history with the development of the Star Wars saga over the decades. In the lead up to the release of the prequels, the magazine SCI-FI UNIVERSE did an extensive timeline of the contradictory claims Lucas had made (taken from various interviews) about the development of the sequels and prequels.
36:52 "Why did Lucas start with EP4?" Lucas went to the studio and said "I want to make a trilogy of trilogies, and here are the 9 synopses". The studio said "Sci Fi isn't a real genre [it was seen as a kid's thing at the time, like cartoons and comics] and none of these will work as a movie except maybe this 4th one". After EP4-6 he made EP1-3, so 1-6 match his original vision. When he sold Star Wars to Disney they received his plans for EP7-9 but decided that instead of using those they were going to go in a totally different direction with EP7-9.
great reaction really enjoyed it. you asked about release order and george has said he did this one on a really small budget and to pitch it to the studio he had the whole basic series in his head and picked the one he thought would be best shot to get funding, and in case it was not enough of a hit to get funding for any more the one he most wanted to see made. when the first three were released they had no chapter numbers just the movie title all that has been added in the 2000s during redos of some of the effects shots. on a side note george created ILM to do the effects as there were no effects depts left in the studios. oh and the original star trek series was on tv about 10 years before this in the late 60s.
1. Sir Alec Guinness/Obi-Wan didn't want the part. Being a Shakespearian actor he thought the entire idea was silly and was beneath him but his wife talked him into taking the part. 2. IRL Kenny Baker/R2D2 and Anthony Davis.C3PO didn't get along. 3. These movies were put out in a certain order because there was limited technology and Lucas used and pushed forward the images needed to make a quality produce. The best way to watch the is in the order they came out. We had to wait years for the next one. There was no internet where we had access to them whenever we wanted. 4. The peddlers were Jawas. Ewoks are in Episode VI. 5. No need to go into anything after VI. Disney took over and the quality dropped. 6. The only CGI in this film are the critters the stormtroopers were riding at the beginning of the search for the robots, a couple of the huge critters outside the pub and the scene with Jabba the Hutt. Those were put in later after CGI was available. Otherwise, everything is what we had in 1977. 7. Obi-Wan sacrificed himself after he told Vader he would be stronger than ever. He went back into the force. He knows it's Luke's job to take over. 8. The awkwardness in the detention space is because Ford forgot his lines. It was kept in the movie anyway because it worked. 9. The next two are the best of the series. Enjoy! 10. Two movies where Harrison Ford is not Han Solo or Indiana Jones that get little notice but would be great first time/shares are "Witness" and "Force 10 From Naverone".
I've gone through phases of loving each film, and now it's hard to see them separately. The narrative works so well as a cohesive whole, each building on the last. Episode 5 is one of the best sequels of all time, and episode 6 uses all that momentum for an incredible conclusion. I can guarantee the only disappointment you'll have is the fact that the experience won't go on forever :)
@ 15:50 The scene there with Jabba was added in this update version. It was originally shot with a human character but left on the cutting room floor, so to speak. Jabba the Hutt was not revealed until Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, although after The Empire Strikes Back we speculated Jabba would likely show up in VI because he was mentioned more often than in IV. When he showed up in VI we were not disappointed! LOL! I wish this added Jabba scene wasn't included here because Jabba was a mystery worth waiting for after watching V, and the scene serves no useful purpose to the story. Likely a reason why it wasn't included in the original. There were other small cuts and additions. Anything that looks CGIed in was not in the original. Like the expanding fire rings blasting out from Alderaan and the Death Star exploding were added in later. If you really get into the Star Wars world, perhaps someday you can watch the originals of the first three. One thing about Lucas calling this one Episode IV, around the time Empire Strikes Back was released, is it gave us fans a message that three prequels would come about someday. And they did, and you're going to enjoy those later! ✌️😎
When I first saw this as a kid in '77 it was simply called Star wars. It wasn't until the film's theatrical re-elease in 1981 that it received the episode IV a New Hope. A 6'6 guy named David Prowse played Darth Vader but James Earl Jones was the voice.
I vividly recall my first time watching this in 1977. I was sitting in the second row, and that Imperial ship came in right over my head...lost my sh*t for sure. That film raised the bar for special effects much higher than it had been before, and this was well before CGI.
James earl jones is only the voice. The actor in the Costume is David Prowse, a british actor/bodybuilder who also had roles in A Clockwork Orange and several Hammer Horror films(as Frankenstein's monster)
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@ 31:42 I am just wondering out loud... no spoilers please!! :)
@@BigGator5 it is also my favourite order, but I understand why many people disagree
@@BigGator5 I think the series should be watched in release order because that was the order that contemporaneous fans saw them. The prequel trilogy and Rogue One were made knowing that fans were familiar with the original trilogy and new viewers should go into them with the same information that viewers at the time had.
I agree that Rogue One is the only Disney Star Wars worth watching. I consider the rest of Disney Star Wars to be non-canon (anti-)fan fiction. The real Episode VII, VIII and IX are the Thrawn Trilogy of novels by Timothy Zahn.
Not speaking to the specific plot point you mentioned, but in general, as you watch the rest of the original trilogy, you'll pick up on a few things that were not completely thought out in advance when this first movie was made.
@@BigGator5 "Bully?" I gave my opinion than yours and provided my reasons. Just because you disagree doesn't make me a "bully," "close-minded" or "dumb." For example, I did not insult you in my comment as you did to me in the comment to which this is a reply.
@@BigGator5 I totally agree. A person that knows little of Star wars would have the most enjoyment watching them in this order. Watching them in numerical order gives spoilers for episodes 4 5 6. Watching them in release order is less fun because episode 6 is the finale of the series and watching it in the middle create a more anti-climactic watch order in my opinion. If I could erase my memory of all the Star Wars films I would watch them exactly in the order BigGator5 suggests. You are essentially watching 4 and 5 first so you don't have them spoiled. Then watch 1 2 3 R as a flashback because they occur in that order and end at right before 4. Then you get to watch the finale.
Jen: I get the feeling C3-P0 is a little dramatic.
Us: You have no idea!
About the connection to Star Trek....
Star Trek came out in 1966 as a tv series and was cancelled because of poor ratings after 3 seasons in 1969. With the exception of a short lived cartoon series, Star Trek was dead in the water, only kept alive by a modest fan base hoping it would be revived again one day.
Star Trek however was one of the inspirations for George Lucas while writing the screenplay for Star Wars (along with the sci-fi serials of the 1930s such as Flash Gordon). Star Wars was a MASSIVE success for 20th Century Fox studios.
After the success of Star Wars, Paramount Pictures wanted to cash in on that high and turned to the franchise they owned the rights to. Two years after Star Wars, "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" was released in 1979 and was a success as well. Star Trek had been reborn, spawning 12 movie sequels and no less than 9 spin off tv series.
So Star Wars owes a bit of thanks to the original Star Trek, and Trek owes a great deal of thanks to Star Wars. : )
Also our should be worth noting that both star wars and star trek are both in their most active time ever. With songs of their best content being made now.
Don’t forget Akira Kurosawa’s the hidden fortress And Frank Herbert’s Dune had a massive influence on George Lucas as well
@@robertpetre9378 As well as some of the French comic Valerian I'm sure
@@Caseytify …Exactly. Thank you!!! Star Trek was in preproduction for a return, with or without Star Wars. And THEN the SW box office had them change it (back) into a theatrical feature. If anything Star Wars owes most of its pedigree to Flash Gordon, James Bond, and Space: 1999.
@@malcomflibbleghast8140 Flash Gordon was first. ⚡️FLASH! AAAAAAHHHHHH!
I was 10 when this came out in '77.
My Dad wasn't sure if it would be appropriate for his kids, so he and his buddy went and waited in line to see it first. He came home so excited and said he'd never seen anything like it! He took us all to see it the next night. The line up, the packed theatre. It's a moment I'll never forget! ⭐
1977, spent all summer trying to see this. I lived on Long Island NY and they're was just one theater (with one screen) showing it on a county of 2.5 million people. It was a theater at a mall and the line would reach all the way around the mall. We'd go and wait a few hours and give up.
Finally we got in and it was worth it! The effects did blow our socks off! It was like nothing we'd ever seen before.
When the Millennium Falcon first made the jump to light speed, the whole theater erupted in cheers! I've never heard anything like that before or since!
"Is there a human inside C-3PO?"
Yes. His name is Anthony Daniels.
"I'll bet people in the 70's lost their s*it.... (when this came out).
Oh you have no idea. People stood in line for days for first, second and third viewings. Action figures arrived about a year after and kids totally lost their s*it. It's all any boy and even girl wanted for Christmas was a 'large size 14" action figure.' The one I wanted was Darth Vader. I hinted my mom every day for that year. Come Christmas and I didn't get it. It wasn't under the tree. But when I walked in the kitchen it sat in the middle of the table with a sign, "to Mel, Special Delivery". Best time of my life.
Oh my goodness I'm loving the nostalgia these movies invoke in everyone. Such wonderful memories attached to these films :)
I remember seeing this for the first time on a very large movie screen (when we still had 1-screen movie "palaces") as a young teen. There wasn't one seat left in the theatre and the lines were around the block and then some. It was an amazing experience - everyone laughing, gasping, booing and cheering together. It felt like something entirely new, even though it sort of evoked the energy of a classic (read, "old") movie swashbuckler or epic western. And it never felt cheesy. I wish everyone could experience the SW movies the same way. I don't care how big our family room tv screens are - they'll never equal the impact. I'm actually kind of sad that most reactors are watching this on computer screens.
People were losing their shit even in 90's when they saw SW for the first time. Like me, lol.
@@deiwi It really is timeless !
I was 8 years old and I did indeed lose my shit.
As Obi-Wan said, "You've taken your first step into a larger world ". Always fun to see someone see Star Wars for the first time.
Did you know that the line in the script (and the Alan Dean Foster penned novel) was, 'You've taken your first step into a larger universe'? It was likely Sir Alec Guinness who changed the line. Probably didn't feel comfortable saying, 'a larger universe.' Saying someone had stepped into a 'larger world' was - and is - quite a common turn of phrase, changing that to 'universe' may have felt very jarring to the actor saying it.
Of course that's just a theory, I have no way to know for sure who changed the line. It's just based on who could have. I don't think Lucas would have changed the line so that leaves the actor saying it.
Bahahaha! “Is 3PO a little bit dramatic?” 😃 Just a smidge. He’s our irritating albeit beloved, little drama queen made of gold. And we love him despite him being a know-it-all, shiny pain in the butt. 😉
Watching the opening scene with the first scene showing a Star Destroyer, and it is just so HUGE... "People in 1977 must have lost their shit." As a person who saw it in the theater when it first came out, I can tell you that is entirely accurate. Pretty much jaw dropping.
Yes, when we paid to see the movie they gave us a ticket, and a roll of toilet paper.
Yeah, I was there, going... "How much more spaceship is there?!"
I saw it in 1990 I was 6. I saw it in a theater as a special run. I cannot even describe how massive the movie itself was to me, a kid who's never seen ANYTHING like that before. Pure classics!
I was ten. It was reality shattering.
Let me add also that the 70's was mostly doom and gloom, specially in sci-fi. Lots of disaster-movies & cynicism. George Lucas himself has called it a fairy tale. Star Wars, at least the original trilogy, is fundamentally a heroic fantasy story about a lost prince fighting an evil king, told with the means of science fiction instead of fantasy. It's imaginative, happy and thrilling.
The original film title was ONLY Star Wars, it was retroactively subtitled Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope after the huge success. A month after its release, Star Wars played at almost every theater in the US and hundreds worldwide.
This movie blew my mind so much as a kid in 1977 that I saw it 14 times! I'd ride my bike to the theater to see it over and over and over. A ticket was, like, $1.50. The theater is long gone, the kid is long gone but I remember it like it was yesterday. Amazing movie experience.
I remember the excitement that seemed to be sweeping the nation the weeks after it hit the theaters.
I remember asking my parents to take us to see it.
I remember riding 50 miles in the family car, a 1976 Dodge Aspen station wagon, to the nearest movie theater that was showing it, to wait in a line to get tickets.
I remember feeling awed by the silence of ....'a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...' followed by the loud symphonic tones of John Williams' score as the preliminary story scrolled out before us.
I remember the opening scene where Princess Leia's little ship was followed by the Imperial ship that seemed to fill the screen and go on forever.
I remember the moment the theater ERUPTED when the Death Star blew up!!
Such a landmark in my memory.
Originally this was just titled Star Wars. It was retitled and given the episode number in the lead up to the prequel trilogy release.
The terrets on the Millenium Falcon are reminiscent of the ball turret of the WWll B-17. The whole thing moves to help track fast moving targets. In 77, when this movie released it was the most amazing thing we had ever seen. It was just Star Wars then. They didn't add chapter numbers until They started the next trilogy. We had heard that the whole story was a trilogy of trilogies but never expected at first to see them all.
The original Star Trek ran from 66 to 69. The first Star Treek Movie was in 79. Babylon 5(a very good series) started in 94.
I saw this in the theater in 1977 just after it was released. The lines to get tickets were insane. It was one of the greatest theater experiences I have had. From the moment that main title music started blasting to the final destruction of the death star the entire audience was completely transported. Cheering, crying, rooting for the good guys - it was fantastic. We had never seen special effects like this before. The fx in 2001 A Space Odyssey were amazing but these space battles were fantastic on the big curved screen. What a time.
A good description. I'm still trying to put words to my experience when I walked out of that theater in 1977. My new favorite- stunned.
An amazing film I was in HS when I saw it even one of my HS teachers brought the soundtrack into class one day for us to listen to.
Do you remember how much you paid for a ticket?
@@AneudiD78 A regular movie ticket around that time was I think $2 to $2.50. I recall Star Wars was bumped up to around $3 to $3.50. Seems like it was initially only shown in the biggest theaters with the best sound systems. Maybe that's why the price was higher ? I could be wrong.
I remember it was the first time seeing a movie with an intermission right when they enter the trash compactor.
You can't imagine how powerful this movie was to a teen boy. This came out the year I graduated HS and it was so different from anything before. It's like a delineation of before sw and after sw. Btw I had the little collectable figures and the jawa and later yoda, were very valuable but I lost all that moving around. It's after Star Trek series but not movies I think
People in 1977 absolutely did lose their shit. No one had ever seen - or heard - anything like this ever.
Especially given that most '70s sci-fi was stuff like "Logan's Run" and "Soylent Green".
I can confirm that: my sci-fi club went to see it in the first few days it came out when we were in high school. We ended up going to see it endless times, dragging families and friends to see it.
Yeah it's almost criminal hearing people criticize it sometimes. You can tell when people do that EVEN if they work in the Special Effects Industry, they don't really KNOW the history. Since Star Wars reset the standards and drove innovations for decades haha.
10:20 Yes, inside C-3PO is Anthony Daniels, a skinny skinny man. A nice guy as well, from what I have seen.
I know it's late, but this was largely an independent film. Lucas shopped it to every studio twice, got a microscopic budget, a tiny test release, and they all largely forgot about it. After results of the test release came back they gave it a nationwide release. Harrison Ford was in a record store shopping, fans recognized him, mobbed him, and tore his clothes off. People would see the movie, leave the theater, and get right back in line again. That does not happen. Probably won't ever again
Episode 4,5,6 were done first because Lucas knew the technology didn't exist to be able to do the other episode justice, and a new hope worked as a standalone film if he didn't get to do any more.
But after the success he had no problems doing the others .
I am a witness, I was starting high school when this came out. Everyone absolutely lost their shit. Every male child I knew was absolutely addicted, people that were not into Science Fiction movies totally got into it. My stepmother, who was into James Bond movies and clever movies like The Sting; almost became like a cult member for this film and all things surrounding it. It was very interesting, because her career was in high end real estate sales. My stepmother was half Margaret Hamilton from The Wizard of Oz and half Posh Spice from The Spice Girls. The Star Wars phenomenon was almost like a mass heroin epidemic with millions of new users. Instead of shooting up, there were talking about Star Wars, having normal conversations with way too many Star Wars references, or going back to the theater to watch Star Wars for the eighth, ninth, and tenth time. Back then they did release movies to video tapes or streaming services, because this was in the Dark Ages of Media Entertainment. If you wanted to watch it, you would have to go back to a theater to watch it.
Another thing that went on back then, when you had the premiere of a major film like Star Wars, or Platoon, or The Last Emperor it would always go to one theater that was the theater stuff like that premiered in. Big theaters, probably always 500 seats, but just one theater in large cities. It was not uncommon to wait in line for more than three hours to watch a movie like Star Wars, at least until the buzz died down, usually after five months. Sometimes the theater would carry a movie like Star Wars for longer than a year. They eventually cleaned that up, I think by the time Return of the Jedi came out, you could see it in nine different theaters in our urban area. Things almost always evolve for the better, sometimes the change is galactic, usually faster. Nobody misses standing in line for three hours, even for an epic movie like Star Wars, cheers!
Originally, this movie was just titled Star Wars. When it became a hit, Lucas realized he could tell the full story. He started in the middle because, at the time, it was the most exciting. When they started making The Empire Strikes Back, they retitled the movie, Star Wars: Episode IV, A New Hope. Episode VI: The Return of the Jedi was originally named The Revenge of the Jedi and was even marketed with that name but they changed it at the last minute.
It is also the only episode that doesn't have a "to be continued" ending other than VI which has far too much back story to be a stand alone movie. So basically he used Episode IV because it was the only one he could sell to a studio as a "stand alone" movie.
Of all the Star Wars movies, this one is and always will be my favorite. I was 12 years old when it came out back in 1977 and it was a global phenomenon for good reason. A lot of hardcore fans will say the sequel is superior, but I still love "A New Hope" more than anything that came out later.
Agreed. Empire is amazing, but the Original is always The Classic that started it all!
"What is that huge vertebrae?"
The answer to that is addressed in "The Mandalorian" series.
Well, it was addressed way before that but The Mandalorian made it canon (or technically made it canon again?)
Originally this movie was titled .. Star Wars , not Star Wars Episode 4 A New Hope. That title was added after the 2nd movie The Empire Strikes Back was released. George Lucas had the concept of a large screen play, but realized it was too big for a single movie, so he took a segment (middle section) and made it into this movie. Since this was actually a relatively low budget movie after Hollywood rejected it, there were little expectations it would do well. Some people even thought it would flop. After it came out, it was a huge box office hit in 1977, which allowed Lucas to make the second one, which also turned out to be a massive hit. After the original trilogy was made Lucas said he would only consider making the pre-trilogy once technology advanced enough that he could tell it as he had envisioned it.
Yep.. and then the prequels sucked... sometimes less is more..
Not precisely correct. It was always Episode IV, but it was not “A New Hope” as you mentioned.
As one who saw it in 77 I can say it was never Episode IV it was just Star Wars.
You forgot the secret working title Blue Harvest
@@mikethemotormouth that was for Jedi.
The version you just saw was actually the version that was Re-released in 1997, twenty years after the 1977 release. The 1997 version contains additional content and effects. The lizard mounted storm trooper and the scene with Jaba were added in 1997. The burned corpses of his aunt and uncle are original to the 1977 version as well as all ship and planet explosions. There were a few updates to the Alderaan and Death Star explosions.
Regarding Star Trek:
The first original series with William shatter came out in 1967 and ended In 1969. They did a few movies and the next Star Trek content to come after that was The Next Generation with Patrick Stewart in 1987-1994
In the 2019 updated version, Greedo says "Maclunkey" to Han. (wtf?) That's what Disney+ has.
Good info. The success of Star Wars in 1977 is what got them to start making Star Trek movies with the first one released in 1979.
Star Trek *premiered on September 8, 1966* and the last episode of the 3rd season aired on June 2, 1969.
@@davidolden971 Correct. It was 10 years after the TV show was cancelled before the movie came out, and the movie only happened because the success of Star Wars made them realize it could make money.
The Library of Congress video section has a copy of the 1977 version. Lucas contacted the library and wanted to replace their 1977 version with the 1997 version. The library said NO. They weren't going to change history.
And as for you young Jen, as per usual with Star Wars, I present the infamous quote: "we will watch your career with great interest"
I first saw this on VHS when I was five.
Yes, it blew my mind.
I saw Star Wars in the theater in 1977 and I can confirm that, yes, the special effects did make me lose my shit. My parents also lost their collective shit. And, in sentence I never thought I’d say, my grandmother totally lost her shit.
Welcome to Star Wars! It’s always fun to see someone experience it for the first time :)
Lollll that must have been wild!
I was 7 years old in '77. Imagine how my mind mas blown.
The wipe transitions are actually homages to the wipes used by Akira Kurosawa in Seven Samurai, et al
Also Akira Kurosawa’s The hidden fortress had a massive influence on Star Wars but I think that George Lucas preferred the Seven Samurai even though The Hidden Fortress was a more obviously influence on Star Wars.
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Just a point, some CGI has been added (several times) over the years. You can only see the original on the early VHS, the last version of VHS had added CGI. It looks good b/c Lucas actually used every technique used in films and expanded upon them. By the time computers were being used, he created ILM (Industrial Light and Magic) to do the CGI in his films (and later expanded to do films for others).
Darth Vader was 2 people, the actor in the suit, and the voice of James Earl Jones.
The droids both had actors in them. A little person in R2D2, and a thin man in C3P0.
Star Wars came out about a decade after the original Star Trek series, and over a decade before Star Trek the Next Generation. It was the impetus for the Star Trek Movies to be made based off the original show and cast.
The reason that this was the best... well, George Lucas actually explained why. Also why it was #4, not before that (technology hadn't got there yet).
th-cam.com/video/zAjMoAIObRw/w-d-xo.html
We sure did lose our shit in 1977 seeing this. I was seven years old, it blew my mind.
I Was around the same age..yeah..no other movie I ever went to had an audience that cheered .. during and after.
As an 8 year old in 1977, I saw this every chance I had. Sometimes first showing to last. Then Star Trek, Dragonslayer, Time Bandits, Indiana Jones, Tron... And before that Jaws and Rocky. What a great time to be a kid!
my mom was 11 in '77, she saw this in theaters with her dad. to this day she vividly remembers watching the imperial destroyer fly overhead for the first time, she says it was the coolest thing she'd seen in a movie (up to that point)
That is dope 👍🏻
It’s the best, it’s the OG. And the whole OT ❤️👍🏽
Those wipe and iris transitions are actually a callback to the 1930s, and the "optical printer", perfected by Linwood Dunn. It was the "Swiss Army Knife" of film compositing up until the dawn of the digital age, and very much in use in all three of the original Star Wars trilogy. Essentially, two projectors work at the same time, projecting two separate films, frame by frame, into a single motion picture camera, with the ability to manipulate both images in all sorts of ways to produce the final composition. So the technology was still in use in the 1970s, but the *way* it's used to do the scene transitions in Star Wars is a call back to the way it was used 40 years before Star Wars was made: it was supposed to look "retro", even in 1977.
Excellent explanation. Much better than the one I tried to give in another reaction video.
@@williamshelton4318 Swamp Thing (1982) did almost a million of them.
@@williamshelton4318 as with Star Wars intended to look retro tho
Even the slanted opening text scroll was a callback to the old Flash Gordon serials that did the same thing.
@@Lethgar_Smith It just amazes me what skilled work could be done with the optical printer. There's all sorts of movies like Citizen Kane and The Day the Earth Stood Still where it's so seamless you don't even realize you're looking at an effects shot.
You mentioned the turning guns when the TIE fighters were attacking the millennium falcon. There is actually something similar to that in reality. In world war II the B-17 bomber had a bubble turret on the bottom that a person could climb into from inside the plane, it was totally circular and could rotate and pivot in all directions covering the underside of the plane when it's airborne.
If memory serves me right, the B-24 also had such a ball turret.✈️
"Cute crew" is exactly why everyone got hooked, along with the amazing effects.
Hi Jen. I've been following your channel for a while now and really enjoy your very natural reactions to the films I love. Something has just struck me though - what have you been doing all your life? It seems like you have crammed in my entire movie life (59 years of it!) into a handful of years watching any number of great, classic films (science fiction is my main area of interest but anything with a good story is fine by me). I think you have covered around 50 years of films I have grown up with in around 2 years! Seriously, don't you have a local cinema, a TV, DVD player? I realise you are a lot younger than me but still . . . Glad that you are obviously enjoying the ride, I don't think I could cram as much into such a short time span and retain any of what's left of my dwindling sanity. You are highlighting some great films that I have almost forgotten about though, you are a good prompt for me to go back into my extensive DVD/Blu-ray archive, cheers.
This is the same universe as ours so there is Earth, but like they said at the beginning this is a galaxy far, far away so nobody from this galaxy knows of Earth or has ever been there.
34:10 *It's my Film theory that that lieutenant who warned Tarkin stole his ship and escaped.*
Han Solo has one of the greatest arc in the history, going from "I only take orders from one person, me!" and only thinking about money to becoming a general in the Republic and saving the day during Luke's tunnel run.
I think the first movie Harrison Ford was in, had to be American Graffiti. He played a hot shot out of town drag racer that wore a reasonably cool cowboy hat.
American Graffiti was the catalyst for long running TV Shows Happy Days and Laverne & Shirley. They just moved the location from Modesto, California to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. A few cosmetic changes like the town cool guy changing from the hot rodder that never lost a race, to a motorcycle guy that was not a member of a gang, but had everybody’s respect and his choice of the ladies.
Ron Howard migrated to Happy Days as well, with some cosmetic changes. He went from the greatly respected student body president to a very well liked guy, but not nearly respected. Cindy Williams migrated as well. She went from head cheerleader dating the student body president to young adult working with her bestie at a Milwaukee brewery. The introduced Williams as double date for Howard along with Henry Winkler (Fonzie) and Penny Marshall (Laverne). It was a very short time later that there was a new spinoff show--Laverne & Shirley.
Harrison Ford had played in some movies before but i think it was in American Graffiti 1973 he got real known, and then the Star Wars triologi made him a real star. And later from the Indiana Jones movies.
The screen wipes aren't 70s, but it was considered retro at the time, and in particular, an homage to 40s and 50s (Akira Kurosawa) movies.
My second rewatch of the night for you, Jen. I'll watch the next two episodes now as well. 🙂
Glad you liked the movie. Yeah, the whole thing has the order 4,5,6,1,2,3,7,8,9. In case you want to watch the full Star Wars saga.
17:11 About Earth being in this part of the area? Well.. the opening line sais " A long time ago in a galaxy far far away...." so no. But who knows how distant their galaxy is to our Milky Way? :)
When we saw this in cinemas in 1977 we were all knocked out by the filmmaking. The impact of these incredible practical effects (models, costumes and props, matte paintings, etc), swift editing, and world-building with a lived-in look was incredible! This was a game changer for all of us, even if I was only a teen at the time. And I had been reading Frank Herbert's Dune books, Asimov's Foundation series, and Tolkien's LotR before seeing Star Wars. Before this, could never imagine any such stories being possible on screen.
If you want some understanding of the roots of these movies (including "cheesy" shot choices like the wipes and a number of other shots, and even characters), in interviews George Lucas has said they are based on serials that were played in cinemas in the 1930s and 1940s, as well as being influenced by Westerns, a few war movies, and by the "Easterns" of Akira Kurosawa (The Hidden Fortress, Seven Samurai, etc - 'jidaigeki' movies, that show the samurai warriors' way).
Oh, and guess which four-letter word Lucas coined for the Star Wars universe, based on "jidaigeki"?
Harrison Ford had broken through as a film actor in Lucas' previous film - very different in style: American Graffiti.
Also, since you asked, I saw Star Trek, TOS, when first being broadcast in the latter half of the 1960s, when I was a kid. But the first Star Trek movie appeared after this first Star Wars movie - and was disappointing by comparison.
Btw, you may enjoy a fan-made remake of the Darth Vader duel with Obiwan Kenobi in scene 38 - no spoilers now that you've seen The Empire Strikes Back.
th-cam.com/video/to2SMng4u1k/w-d-xo.html
George Lucas envisioned Star Wars as a 9 part story divided into 3 trilogies. He was working on ideas for all 9 at once, but he was having more success with Epudode 4 so he decided to concentrate on that first and see if anyone liked it. The test screenings, done without the music were a flop, and even his friends Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese found it co fusing, caustics go ready it.
When it opened, he was so afraid it would get bad reviews that he went to Hawaii with Spielberg so he wine in town when the reviews came out. That was when they came with the character of Indiana Jones.
This was Harrison Ford’s second movie . He had a small role Lucas’’ first film, American Graffiti
In an interview with Mark Hamill, when he climbed out of his ship and Leia hugged him and laughed, he said that he accidentally said "Carrie!" instead of "Leia!". You can barely hear it over the din.
I picked that up that ‘Carrie’ line when we got Star Wars free with the purchase of a Laser Disc player. I watched it most every day during summer vacation. I’d usually put in side 2, which starts right when they’re getting pulled into the Death Star. That’s also when I noticed the stormtrooper knock his head on the door when they walk through. I laughed myself silly at that the first time I saw it. Couldn’t wait to show all my friends!
@@goldenageofdinosaurs7192 Ahh, Doors fan, huh? awesome.
Surprised by an old Star Wars reaction. However, we all know Next Jen Sundays are the best :)
I was 17 in 1977. My date and I stood in a line that was 200 yards long. All 4 screens at the theater were playing only this movie. It was a blast.
Iconic quotes- Never underestimate a droid. I have a bad feeling about this. I find your lack of faith disturbing. (one of my favorite scenes) That's no moon. If you strike me down I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine. Great kid, don't get cocky. The force is strong with this one.
Since no one at the studio thought this movie would do anything, George Lucas was able to secure all merchandisng rights as part of his pay check. For all the SW movies/animation made, these rights alone are worth 12 Billion dollars. Star Trek-1966-69 (Lucielle Ball's studio, Desi-Lu produced Star Trek)
Saw it 7 times in theaters back in 1977 (thank you dad), it was just Star Wars, no Episode IV or New Hope stuff...
When this movie was released it wasn't called Star Wars Episode 4, it was called Star Wars and was meant to be just that, a one story movie. The response was earth shaking so Lucas started piecing together other ideas which became two other movies and years later the prequel trilogy. It was renamed Star Wars Episode 4 when it was rereleased later because it fit in the middle of the other stories.
6:26 that line never gets old
"People in 1977 must have lost their shit."
Yes. Yes we did.
Note that the CGI Jabba was not part of the 1977 release.
Being 13 in 1977 and seeing the originals, the one thing that annoyed me was how Lucas seemed to have to go back and tweak something. Like whenever the films were released in a new format. and especially when the prequel film were set to be released. You have yet to see the most egregious change, to me, in Return of the Jedi to tie it in to the prequels.
@Kristopher Chavez It's really not out of the ordinary for an artist to go back and tweak his own work. Funny thing is, Lucas also made changes to the prequels. I still remember being pretty surprised to learn that puppet Yoda in TPM had been replaced with digital Yoda for the Blu-ray version.
Besides, the films did need a drastic update due to the deterioration of the original print. It helped to fix issues such as the lightsabers changing colour or the matte lines showing up ;)
Harrison Ford first movie was ' American graffiti ' in 1973. He (rumor has it) flies his plane to here (TN) to visit her relatives -- or so I've been told
Saw this 11 times in the theater. Yes everyone lost their minds because there was nothing to compare it with. Jump forward years later I was working as a professional model builder and got the chance to work with 2 companies. Ertl was a company making models of the ships and some of the characters. I did a lot of the box art and catalog art for the Star Wars series, actual models not something done on a computer. The other was Hasbro and I did the color masters for the Mos Isley band members and their instruments. These were 12" tall limited release figures and the cool part is Hadbro sent me 8x10 photographs taken on set of the movie to use for reference.
What a cool job!!
@@jenmurrayxo it was. Over the years I got to play with very cool toys lol. I even have models in the Pentagon, Special Forces Command, Congressional offices, private collections and a bunch of museums. Thanks for the reply.
Cool? Kids immediately wanted toys of half the stuff they saw!
The trouble was no toy company had ever heard of making toys about a movie. And by the time Kenner came around, there was no way they could make toys by December. So they sold empty boxes, basically as IOUs that the toys would arrive in, say, March. 😄😉
The Death Star arrives at Alderaan.
Jen: "Is that Earth?"
Literally the first words of the movie "A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away."
Lol sometimes dumb stuff pops out of my mouth. I usually cringe in editing when I realize & debate taking it out to avoid being called dumb by everyone, but it is what it is!
@@jenmurrayxo Very glad you left it in, "You have taken your first step into a larger world." ~Obi-wan Kenobi
@@jenmurrayxo So not dumb. Scads of people ask that the first time they watch it.
Jen: Oh no, I hope they didn't hurt his aunt and uncle.
me: (chuckle)
Jen: Oh no, I hope they didn't kill them.
Me: (cackling)
The original trilogy has a special heart. I watched them on VHS as a kid. My favorite out of these 3 is the 2nd film but I love all of them, as they are needed to build the Star Wars universe. My first Star Wars movie in theatres was Episode 1 and it has a very special place in my heart, it has some of the best fighting and music in the entire series. Older people (hardcore "fans" of the OG trilogy) usually shit on it (which hurts me) because it has a lot more humorous moments for younger Star Wars fans but for me (a 10yr old) it was just a great first Star Wars big screen experience.
It was originally a three movie trilogy, but it was so successful that years later they decided to do a prequal trilogy and that when they added numbers. The original trilogy was only known by the movie name until then.
This was originally screened as Star Wars back in 1977. The success of this one led to the idea of a trilogy of trilogies. The first three shown would be the middle three, the next three would be the Clone War era, and the end would be the New Republic. The only characters in all nine would be R2-D2 and C3P0.
Fun fact, Carrie Fisher (Leia) and Harrison Ford (Han Solo) were dating during the filming of this movie.....despite Harrison Ford being a married man at the time.
"That guy (C3 PO) seems kind of pessimistic". LMAO!
"Is this a different universe?" You didn't pay attention to the beginning. "A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away..."
George Lucas wrote the whole Star Wars saga at one time. When he finally secured the means to make a movie, he was concerned that the audience might not be as receptive to the story if he started from the beginning. The first three chapters were more about character development and weaving together the incidents and actions that created the stage for the start of the story line. So, he chose to start the movie with the fourth chapter of the saga which Lucas thought was more engaging than the beginning.
The movie is Episode 4, cause George Lucas was a great fan of the old adventure TV serials; where you could literally pick up at any moment; you would get a quick recap at the begning of th eepisode of what had happen previouslly an still enjoy it, sometime even filling the gaps in your mind.
That's part of the success of this movie. The movie is constantlly refering to 'Clone Wars', the Jedi Knigths, the Galactic Republic, the Emperor... LOTS of concepts that the characters in the movie know very well off; but that we as the audience do not comprehend... but it doesn't bother us! It simply make us feel that the universe is extremelly 'lived in'. At the moment, Lucas had some ideas of the things that had happened before, but just some wide strokes... Ben been a general in the Clone Wars, alongside Anakin Skywalker (Luke's father); that the Republic fell down after that and the Empire arose... but only after he ended up Episode VI he did decide to come back and tell the very first 3 episodes.
His idea was that this story worked alone pretty well. Is a standalone story, but he is placing it somwhow in a fake grand story... and this was felt by the audience that was eager to know MORE about this world... and thus the Greatest CInematic Saga ever was born.
i know its not movie related, but i love that van gogh you have in the background! :)
Ooh Jen I was so shocked as a kid when I saw the skeletons too! Literally first ‘dead body’ I’d seen in a movie haha Love the videos, you’re awesome!
Thanks Kyle! :)
You are correct, in 1977 our heads absolutely exploded seeing Episode IV.
It’s easy to see Han as selfish, but you have to understand that he comes from a world where anyone would backstab you for a few credits and he owes a huge debt to one of the galaxy’s most ruthless gangster. He just can’t afford to stick around when Jabba is waiting for his money
Great strong line from him 3:15
I was 5 when this came out and I had my mom (or dad) take me to see it 7 times in the theater. That's how groundbreaking it was. The effects were SO good, we did actually lose our shit. Lol
Speaking of Earth, the only things we really know are that this takes place in another galaxy, not our Milky Way, and it takes place in the distant past. The presence of humans in that distant galaxy wasn't ever explained, although there was a story that was going to explain it, but it never got finished and published. It involved time travel and travel over vast distances, to another galaxy, of a small group of humans from future Earth, which over thousands of years became the most populous species of the galaxy in which Star Wars takes place, still in our distant, ancient past. I kind of wish that story got published.
It's hard to explain just how ground-breaking this movie was, in so many ways. I will never forget the first time I saw the opening scene with the massive Imperial ship flying overhead. That single shot told you it was going to be a really fun ride! Oh, and if you want an even younger Harrison Ford, watch American Graffiti .
It's the perfect opening. Within 10 seconds, you know that the rebels are hopelessly outclassed and outpowered by the Empire. It tells you everything you need to know.
R2 and chewie be like “Where’s my medal!?”
Excellent reaction!! FYI, C3PO is played by Anthony Daniels & Darth Vader was played by David Prowse. James Earl Jones only did the voice . 🙂
The laughs from Han’s “boring conversation anyway”, were huge.
A lot of people were upset at the ending of this movie because Chewbacca did not get a medal
It's been nearly 45 years and I'm still seething! Why didn't he get a medal? He did as much as Luke and Han!
Yep, there were actors inside both C-3PO & R2-D2, Anthony Daniels & Ken Baker, respectively.
TOS (the original Star Trek series) was in the mid sixties, long before this movie came out. Although the franchises have been long rivals (an even moreso with their diehard fanbases), in hindsight I would say each only managed to make the other better during those competitive years rather than take anything away.
@Yewan Memnos Yeah, the debate used to be over which was better, now it's over which one is more broken. :(
I love both franchises, if not so much the movies since the 2000s onward. Star Wars is better at the epic sweep adventure story telling, more along the lines of mythology; whereas Star Trek is better at morality plays and allegories about the human condition, and striving for a bright, better future.
Star Wars was the "first" Star Wars film made. George Lucas planned Episodes I, II and III as a story about Darth Vader. The working title was The Adventures of Luke Starkiller from the Journal of the Whills Saga I The Star Wars.
Lucas said in a interview back in the 80’s he had scripts for 9 films after the success of American Graffiti the studio approved 1 film so he started with the strongest one in hopes it would allow him to get the rest made, I read another interview later where he denied he had other scripts written, Ford is also in Graffiti, to make ends meet between roles he worked as a carpenter, Lucas used him to read against other actors for roles and finally decided to use him in the film.
Lucas has retconned his own personal history with the development of the Star Wars saga over the decades. In the lead up to the release of the prequels, the magazine SCI-FI UNIVERSE did an extensive timeline of the contradictory claims Lucas had made (taken from various interviews) about the development of the sequels and prequels.
36:52 "Why did Lucas start with EP4?" Lucas went to the studio and said "I want to make a trilogy of trilogies, and here are the 9 synopses". The studio said "Sci Fi isn't a real genre [it was seen as a kid's thing at the time, like cartoons and comics] and none of these will work as a movie except maybe this 4th one". After EP4-6 he made EP1-3, so 1-6 match his original vision. When he sold Star Wars to Disney they received his plans for EP7-9 but decided that instead of using those they were going to go in a totally different direction with EP7-9.
great reaction really enjoyed it. you asked about release order and george has said he did this one on a really small budget and to pitch it to the studio he had the whole basic series in his head and picked the one he thought would be best shot to get funding, and in case it was not enough of a hit to get funding for any more the one he most wanted to see made. when the first three were released they had no chapter numbers just the movie title all that has been added in the 2000s during redos of some of the effects shots. on a side note george created ILM to do the effects as there were no effects depts left in the studios. oh and the original star trek series was on tv about 10 years before this in the late 60s.
1. Sir Alec Guinness/Obi-Wan didn't want the part. Being a Shakespearian actor he thought the entire idea was silly and was beneath him but his wife
talked him into taking the part.
2. IRL Kenny Baker/R2D2 and Anthony Davis.C3PO didn't get along.
3. These movies were put out in a certain order because there was limited technology and Lucas used and pushed forward the images needed to make
a quality produce. The best way to watch the is in the order they came out. We had to wait years for the next one. There was no internet where we had
access to them whenever we wanted.
4. The peddlers were Jawas. Ewoks are in Episode VI.
5. No need to go into anything after VI. Disney took over and the quality dropped.
6. The only CGI in this film are the critters the stormtroopers were riding at the beginning of the search for the robots, a couple of the huge critters
outside the pub and the scene with Jabba the Hutt. Those were put in later after CGI was available. Otherwise, everything is what we had in 1977.
7. Obi-Wan sacrificed himself after he told Vader he would be stronger than ever. He went back into the force. He knows it's Luke's job to take over.
8. The awkwardness in the detention space is because Ford forgot his lines. It was kept in the movie anyway because it worked.
9. The next two are the best of the series. Enjoy!
10. Two movies where Harrison Ford is not Han Solo or Indiana Jones that get little notice but would be great first time/shares are
"Witness" and "Force 10 From Naverone".
I've gone through phases of loving each film, and now it's hard to see them separately. The narrative works so well as a cohesive whole, each building on the last.
Episode 5 is one of the best sequels of all time, and episode 6 uses all that momentum for an incredible conclusion. I can guarantee the only disappointment you'll have is the fact that the experience won't go on forever :)
@ 15:50 The scene there with Jabba was added in this update version. It was originally shot with a human character but left on the cutting room floor, so to speak. Jabba the Hutt was not revealed until Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, although after The Empire Strikes Back we speculated Jabba would likely show up in VI because he was mentioned more often than in IV. When he showed up in VI we were not disappointed! LOL! I wish this added Jabba scene wasn't included here because Jabba was a mystery worth waiting for after watching V, and the scene serves no useful purpose to the story. Likely a reason why it wasn't included in the original. There were other small cuts and additions. Anything that looks CGIed in was not in the original. Like the expanding fire rings blasting out from Alderaan and the Death Star exploding were added in later. If you really get into the Star Wars world, perhaps someday you can watch the originals of the first three. One thing about Lucas calling this one Episode IV, around the time Empire Strikes Back was released, is it gave us fans a message that three prequels would come about someday. And they did, and you're going to enjoy those later! ✌️😎
When I first saw this as a kid in '77 it was simply called Star wars. It wasn't until the film's theatrical re-elease in 1981 that it received the episode IV a New Hope. A 6'6 guy named David Prowse played Darth Vader but James Earl Jones was the voice.
Yes! That Star Destroyer flying over in the beginning was utterly mind blowing in 1977!!!!
Must have been wild!! ☺👍
@@jenmurrayxo I was almost 7 years old when my old man took me and my big bro to see it! 😁
I vividly recall my first time watching this in 1977. I was sitting in the second row, and that Imperial ship came in right over my head...lost my sh*t for sure. That film raised the bar for special effects much higher than it had been before, and this was well before CGI.
That must've been so cool!!!
@@jenmurrayxo Oh, it was! Science fiction and fantasy geeks world wide were flipping out. It was fun.
James earl jones is only the voice. The actor in the Costume is David Prowse, a british actor/bodybuilder who also had roles in A Clockwork Orange and several Hammer Horror films(as Frankenstein's monster)
I hope you continue with Star Wars. The empire strikes back is one of my favorite movies of all time.
Oh yes Episode V is on Patreon, coming to TH-cam soon! 👍
After movies like JAWS and Star Wars, film making would never be the same again.
Loved this reaction, Jen!