I taped that special they ran on A&E on Sunday about George Lucas and Star Wars, and watched it tonight.
Goddess help me, when they showed the scene of John Williams conducting the score for the first time with the film running behind the orchestra, I actually got a weird little thrill and teared up, just exactly like I did back in 1977, the first time I saw the movie. That "Oh WOW!" feeling I haven't had at a movie in decades. We take special effects so much for granted now.
I'd forgotten just what an impact that movie had on me. I saw it over 100 times in the theatres that year. I was just out of HS and scared of life and it was my escape. My friends and I even drove to Denver regularly so we could see it 'on the BIG screen' at the one really good theatre in the area showing it. (That theatre has now been broken up into 3 smaller ones. Sad, but a sign of the times, I guess)
I remember seeing a trailer reel of 'rough' scenes at a local SciFi con a few months before it came out, including the famous 'Luke and Leia do Tarzan and Jane' scene, and thinking "This is either going to be great, or it's going to totally suck."
And I'd never really realized just what a resemblence Mark Hamill had to David Cassidy until tonight, either. :)
Anyway, it really brought home to me that no matter how Lucas might have (to my mind) messed up on the sequels, he still transformed the art of movie making, and gave us back heroes, something we sadly needed in 1977. So, for that, Thank you, George.
Goddess help me, when they showed the scene of John Williams conducting the score for the first time with the film running behind the orchestra, I actually got a weird little thrill and teared up, just exactly like I did back in 1977, the first time I saw the movie. That "Oh WOW!" feeling I haven't had at a movie in decades. We take special effects so much for granted now.
I'd forgotten just what an impact that movie had on me. I saw it over 100 times in the theatres that year. I was just out of HS and scared of life and it was my escape. My friends and I even drove to Denver regularly so we could see it 'on the BIG screen' at the one really good theatre in the area showing it. (That theatre has now been broken up into 3 smaller ones. Sad, but a sign of the times, I guess)
I remember seeing a trailer reel of 'rough' scenes at a local SciFi con a few months before it came out, including the famous 'Luke and Leia do Tarzan and Jane' scene, and thinking "This is either going to be great, or it's going to totally suck."
And I'd never really realized just what a resemblence Mark Hamill had to David Cassidy until tonight, either. :)
Anyway, it really brought home to me that no matter how Lucas might have (to my mind) messed up on the sequels, he still transformed the art of movie making, and gave us back heroes, something we sadly needed in 1977. So, for that, Thank you, George.
From:
no subject
*squee!* When I lived in California, the local artsy theatre showed all three OT films....first time since their original release dates (I never knew if that was a nation-wide release, or just local). I was a kid when Star Wars came out, so the chance to see it on the big screen again was too much to resist. And I had that same feeling all over again, just like you described! Hearing that music blast forth, and seeing (and feeling) the big star destroyer basically fly right over us at the beginning...it was magic!
Anyway, it really brought home to me that no matter how Lucas might have (to my mind) messed up on the sequels, he still transformed the art of movie making, and gave us back heroes, something we sadly needed in 1977. So, for that, Thank you, George.
Many people were inspired to get into movie making because of Lucas's vision, but if it weren't for Star Wars, I never would have been inspired to write! I guess that's what makes Lucas's subsequent errors in judgment and bad, bad scripts so hard to swallow. :( I'm willing to forgive him for it, though. He's human just like the rest of us, and humans aren't perfect.