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Any others here remember Star Wars before it was first a thing?


karelm

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On 6/6/2019 at 4:42 AM, karelm said:

Do any others here remember a time before Star Wars? 

 

I don't remember a time before Star Wars (I was in pre-production at the time), but I do recall it not being a thing because - outside of the anglophone world - it really wasn't one and, if international box office numbers are to be believed, it still isn't.

 

In the 2000s, where everbody in my Israeli high-school should have been all about Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith, they were rather all about Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings.

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4 minutes ago, Chen G. said:

In the 2000s, where everbody in my Israeli high-school should have been all about Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith, they were rather all about Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings.

 

Why would anyone prefer HP and LotR to SW? I mean, they aren't even in space!

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 Not surprise by consistent snide and flippant responses from many here.

 

Few people at this site have no idea of the phenomenon that was Star Wars in 1977. Few know any of the 70's phenomena. Maybe KM, Ricard and Richard do. Alex as well.

 

Everyone else sees Star Wars as a product, as a packaged blockbuster event. 

There was a time where the word blockbuster was rarely used. Star Wars had no set audience. Star Wars was found by unsuspecting audiences just as Jaws was two years before. Neither film was expected to succeed as they did. They weren't even their studios top priorities. 

 

So yeah I remember the time before Star Wars. It was a more naive time, people were not jaded like they are today. Star Wars was a memorable moment in history. Its well worth remembering for what it was then since its so different now.

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I was 6 when A New Hope was released, so understandably I don't really remember much about 'how things were before' in terms of the movie landscape ... I do recall its huge impact on me personally, however.

Then there's the effect on cinema and TV in its wake ... the likes of Battlestar Galactica and Buck Rogers on the small screen and Star Trek, The Black Hole and Flash Gordon on the big one. Even 007 ended up in space in Moonraker, despite the announcement at the end of his previous adventure that he'd next be seen in 'For Your Eyes Only'.         

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24 minutes ago, Sweeping Strings said:

Then there's the effect on cinema and TV in its wake ... the likes of Battlestar Galactica and Buck Rogers on the small screen and Star Trek, The Black Hole and Flash Gordon on the big one. Even 007 ended up in space in Moonraker, despite the announcement at the end of his previous adventure that he'd next be seen in 'For Your Eyes Only'.         

 

Don't forget Krull!

 

8f47ec77b3f8eaf134e5a7abd55c3e83.jpg

 

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57 minutes ago, Sweeping Strings said:

I was 6 when A New Hope was released, so understandably I don't really remember much about 'how things were before' in terms of the movie landscape ... I do recall its huge impact on me personally, however.

Then there's the effect on cinema and TV in its wake ... the likes of Battlestar Galactica and Buck Rogers on the small screen and Star Trek, The Black Hole and Flash Gordon on the big one. Even 007 ended up in space in Moonraker, despite the announcement at the end of his previous adventure that he'd next be seen in 'For Your Eyes Only'.         

You were born in 1975?

 

Alex lets forget Krull. 

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On 6/10/2019 at 7:01 AM, JoeinAR said:

 Not surprise by consistent snide and flippant responses from many here.

 

Few people at this site have no idea of the phenomenon that was Star Wars in 1977. Few know any of the 70's phenomena. Maybe KM, Ricard and Richard do. Alex as well.

 

Everyone else sees Star Wars as a product, as a packaged blockbuster event. 

There was a time where the word blockbuster was rarely used. Star Wars had no set audience. Star Wars was found by unsuspecting audiences just as Jaws was two years before. Neither film was expected to succeed as they did. They weren't even their studios top priorities. 

 

So yeah I remember the time before Star Wars. It was a more naive time, people were not jaded like they are today. Star Wars was a memorable moment in history. Its well worth remembering for what it was then since its so different now.

 

Hey, I will never forget seeing ANH in the theaters.  It blew my mind in so many ways but I was just 5. 

9 hours ago, Alexcremers said:

 

Don't forget Krull!

 

8f47ec77b3f8eaf134e5a7abd55c3e83.jpg

 

Such a wonderful film and score.  Mediocre script though but still very much a gem.  I lump this film into the "trying to recapture the success of Star Wars" category but still pleasurable though quite imperfect.  Wasn't this our Qui Gon Jinn's Liam Niason's first big role? 

Battlestar Galactica (78) was also a very pleasurable SW copy with its own vintage charm.

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20 hours ago, SteveMc said:

Horner's Krull is just as good as Star Wars.  

As for the movie, the leads were very easy on the eyes, I'll give it that.

Related image

 Horner was a great film composer but his Krull score isn't even in Star Wars League. 

What is wrong with people here that they cannot see or here the greatness of Star Wars.

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16 minutes ago, JoeinAR said:

 Horner was a great film composer but his Krull score isn't even in Star Wars League. 

What is wrong with people here that they cannot see or here the greatness of Star Wars.

 

Krull Is Better than Everything!

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If you say so. I remember only the crystal spiders.

1 minute ago, Sweeping Strings said:

Is this some sort of pedantic thing about it only being called that from '81 onwards and not on its initial release, or something? Becuae otherwise, I'm very confused. 

Its reality. In 1977 you saw Star Wars. At that point A New Hope wasn't even dreamed of. Darth Vader wasn't Luke's father and the "SAGA" wasn't on the table yet. Episode IV became an idea after Star Wars release.

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35 minutes ago, JoeinAR said:

Darth Vader wasn't Luke's father and the "SAGA" wasn't on the table yet. Episode IV became an idea after Star Wars release.

 

I've actually been through marketing materials, and the film was always advertised as a "space saga". The phrase also appeared at the title on one of Lucas' earlier drafts to the script.

 

He certainly had the prospect of a sequel in mind, too, although I suspect that - even after the success of the first film - his original idea for sequels was more akin to Indiana Jones where each entry is a completely separate adventure.

 

Otherwise, you're right. And its not just a nitpick, either. The changing of the title encapsulates an attempt (and a rather lousy one) to recontextualize the original film into a bigger series that includes prequels as well as sequels.

 

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1 hour ago, JoeinAR said:

 Horner was a great film composer but his Krull score isn't even in Star Wars League. 

What is wrong with people here that they cannot see or here the greatness of Star Wars.

 

Star Wars wasn't truly great until 1999.

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I remember life before the prequels well. Sadly I wasn't around before the original trilogy, so I never got to experience the cultural phenomenon of its advent firsthand. Instead, I had an elementary school friend who loved the films and would describe scenes to me (sometimes correctly). Around the same time, I'd occasionally catch snippets on TV. Without any context, I'd begin inventing stories that these scenes might fit into. I'd also become familiar with the main title and the Imperial March from the Star Tracks album. So by the time I finally watched the pre-SE VHS tapes straight through, I somehow knew quite a bit and yet very little. I don't remember much pop culture osmosis before that...I might not have even known about some of the iconic twists.

 

Anyway, I became a huge fan overnight, which didn't bode well for me socially, since it certainly wasn't cool to like Star Wars back then. But I had some sense of these films being a sort of legacy. Even though they were less than 20 years old, they felt like some old secret whose magic most of my peers were oblivious to. It certainly wasn't Star Wars mania like it is now, or like it was when the original films came out.

 

Bottom line, these films did get into my brain early enough for me to be unable to judge them objectively, though I do remember a very different time in the SW zeitgeist.

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