Today marks the 30th anniversary of the premier of the movie Star Wars. It’s hard to believe that it’s been that long already.
Some six months prior to its release, I ran across the novelization by George Lucas (actually, it was written by Alan Dean Foster) in a bookstore, thought it sounded good and gave it a read. I still have this first printing of the novel on my bookshelf.
I was living in Fresno at the time, wrapping up my senior year of high school, and looking forward to moving to San Diego. The movie, when it premiered, was in limited release and not available where I was living. The closest theater it was playing at was in San Francisco. I couldn’t figure out what the hub-bub was all about, or why anyone would drive 4 hours to go see a movie. People did. I know, because I knew some who did exactly that (I was not on that list).
It was probably early July before I finally did see Star Wars at the Valley Theater (I think that was the name) in San Diego. It was situated near Fashion Valley shopping center near the mission district. I learned what the big deal was. The film rocked! It was action, adventure, thrills and chills, with a little romance thrown in. It was fun!
It was a ground-breaking science fiction film, with state of the art special effects (which look primitive compared to what the special effects gurus at ILM now do with computers) and visuals that this adventure film seem truly out of this world. The costumes were interesting and simple in their design, which was part of their attraction. The props were modeled after military surplus, predominantly of WW2 German vintage. The cantina scene with aliens galore was a make-up artists dream gig.
People wanted to be Luke Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Han Solo, Princess Leia or Darth Vader. And at the Cons (science fiction conventions), they were.
Stars Wars quickly became THE SF film to beat all SF films. It was the new Star Trek. It was a pop culture phenomenon.
About a year after its premier, it was still going strong in the theaters. I saw it seven times during its original run in the course of a year. I knew a lot of people that saw it far more than that, including a couple of gals who went to see it every week, racking up over 50 viewings during the first year of its release, something that was unprecedented in film, and I believe it to be a record unsurpassed by anything (Raiders of the Lost Ark came close, though).
Over the 30 years since its premier, Star Wars has resulted in five additional films (original reports were that Lucas planned on three trilogies or nine films in total), television specials, books, comic books, games and a plethora of mass-marketed toys. Not to mention numerous fan clubs, including the 501st Legion.
It has also been the inspiration for many fan made films, with Hardware Wars being an early entry, and the famed Troopers, a spoof of the reality cop shows still enjoys a popular following.
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