May the Fourth Special 2018: Star Wars in 1977
May
25, 1977.
To
some people that’s just an ordinary date. To others it’s the day that movies,
and in some cases entire lives, were changed forever. That was the day Star Wars premiered for the first time
ever.
While
I can’t give you a first-hand opinion of what it was like to be there for the
movie’s premiere in 1977 (I was still about 19 years away from showing up and I
don’t have access to a time machine yet), I’ll do my best to capture how it
felt.
As
someone who discovered Star Wars about
midway through the Prequel Trilogy’s theatrical run, it’s kind of hard to
believe there was a time where A New Hope
was all there was. No Empire or Jedi, no Yoda, no Lando, no Palpatine or
Boba Fett, no Expanded Universe, and certainly no Prequel, Sequel or Anthology
films. Vader was Obi-Wan’s fallen pupil that killed Luke’s dad, Leia was the
princess of a destroyed world with no ties to our heroes, and the Clone Wars
were some mysterious event that took place in the past. It’s honestly kind of
weird thinking about it like that.
But
one thing you can’t deny is the instant effect the movie had on popular
culture. If you think it’s been tough reserving good seats for Infinity War this past week, imagine
what it was like back in 1977 before things like pre-booking tickets existed.
Because the movie was so immensely popular you had to arrive there often hours
before showtime even started, wait in line until the doors open, and rush in to
get the seats you want. Too slow and you ended up sitting in the front and get
the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to stare directly up Harrison Ford’s
nostrils.
It
was also unusual just how much of a surprise Star Wars was. With something like the previously mentioned Infinity War we had an idea that it was
going to be something special, as it was the culmination of the Marvel
Cinematic Universe, a franchise that’s been on a seemingly non-stop winning
streak since 2014 at the earliest. By contrast, Star Wars came seemingly out of nowhere. The only real precedent we
have for it was Jaws from two years
prior, and that’s just because it basically invented the concept of the summer
blockbuster that Star Wars later
perfected.
The
movie was such an instant success that on launch day there were people who had
seen it four times already. There were people who would wait in line, watch the
movie, then get back in line to watch it again immediately after. George Lucas
was famously vacationing in Hawaii the day Star
Wars launched, and didn’t discover he was Hollywood’s latest success story
until he saw Walter Cronkite reporting on the instant phenomenon in the
evening. Only 32 theaters were screening the thing on Day 1, and yet somehow it
still became one of the biggest movies ever made on its first day of release.
And
the rest, as they say, is history. Star
Wars mania swept the globe like no movie had ever done before. Every
product imaginable had characters from the movie plastered on it at some point
or another. A cheap sequel Lucas intended to make if the film was a flop as
most of the cast and crew predicted it would be was turned into the first Expanded Universe novel as Lucas went to work on a much more ambitious second
movie. A holiday special was made the following year in hopes of filling the
void between movies (it didn’t). C-3PO, R2-D2 and Darth Vader left their
handprints in front of Hollywood’s famous Chinese Theatre. Kenner Toys couldn’t
meet the demand for Star Wars action
figures in time for Christmas, instead handing out empty boxes with vouchers
inside that fans still bought in
droves.
Star Wars has been through many ups and
downs over the years. Some would even argue it’s never been as good as it was
back when this movie launched. But on that one special day in May 1977, it felt
like it had changed everything forever.
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