Full disclosure - I LOVE this movie!
How many times have I seen this film? I really don't know? 30?
There are so many reasons why I love all 3 of the original Star Wars films. I'm not even going to try to start here, but I do want to say a few things...
I'm not sure if I can describe to today's readers just how dead cinema was by the time 1977 came along? Just DEAD. Boring films that nobody went to watch. Sure - a couple of interesting ones, but generally nothing worth queuing up for. Cinemas closing down permanently.
Throughout 1976/7 there is increasing talk of a "new" kind of film being made in studios in the UK: Star Wars. It hits US cinemas in May to an absolute crescendo of approving critical acclaim.
The hype grows as the rest of the world has to wait its turn to see this new movie phenomenon...
Fast forward to an afternoon matinee in early January 1978, and I'm sitting in The Dominion, Tottenham Court Road, London waiting for the film. This cinema is vast - one of the largest in the UK, and yet there are only about 20 people here. Star Wars is only showing in two places in the UK - and I'm in one of them!
The lights dim.... "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away..." STAR WARS... That magical music comes in with its trumpets and fanfare... AND THEN I have to look around as I think a Jumbo jet is crashing into the back of the cinema! It's Leia's little space craft pursued by this ENORMOUS Battle Cruiser shooting and blamming! OH MY GOD! THIS IS BRILLIANT!!!....
And that was just the first minute of the movie!
Surround sound - a super clear picture and a cinema experience unlike anything I could ever have imagined. The impact of this thing is just awesome! This is STAR WARS and it's absolutely breathtaking! Fantastic!
I think it may well be the case that today's new viewers of Star Wars: A New Hope, do not see it or experience it the way I did that day back in 1978. Today's viewers may not appreciate that it was precisely THIS film that set movies back on their feet again - made cinema going brilliant again.
After that it's all pretty straightforward. Star Wars: A New Hope has a fairly simple story, and was acted by (in those days) fairly unknown players. The formula worked then and still works today.
What isn't perhaps recognised fully today is that Star Wars set new standards in movie making. It set new expectations about what could be achieved. Set new standards in entertainment. It remains a masterpiece.
In 1977 cinema was dying. Star Wars was its New Hope.
How many times have I seen this film? I really don't know? 30?
There are so many reasons why I love all 3 of the original Star Wars films. I'm not even going to try to start here, but I do want to say a few things...
I'm not sure if I can describe to today's readers just how dead cinema was by the time 1977 came along? Just DEAD. Boring films that nobody went to watch. Sure - a couple of interesting ones, but generally nothing worth queuing up for. Cinemas closing down permanently.
Throughout 1976/7 there is increasing talk of a "new" kind of film being made in studios in the UK: Star Wars. It hits US cinemas in May to an absolute crescendo of approving critical acclaim.
The hype grows as the rest of the world has to wait its turn to see this new movie phenomenon...
Fast forward to an afternoon matinee in early January 1978, and I'm sitting in The Dominion, Tottenham Court Road, London waiting for the film. This cinema is vast - one of the largest in the UK, and yet there are only about 20 people here. Star Wars is only showing in two places in the UK - and I'm in one of them!
The lights dim.... "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away..." STAR WARS... That magical music comes in with its trumpets and fanfare... AND THEN I have to look around as I think a Jumbo jet is crashing into the back of the cinema! It's Leia's little space craft pursued by this ENORMOUS Battle Cruiser shooting and blamming! OH MY GOD! THIS IS BRILLIANT!!!....
And that was just the first minute of the movie!
Surround sound - a super clear picture and a cinema experience unlike anything I could ever have imagined. The impact of this thing is just awesome! This is STAR WARS and it's absolutely breathtaking! Fantastic!
I think it may well be the case that today's new viewers of Star Wars: A New Hope, do not see it or experience it the way I did that day back in 1978. Today's viewers may not appreciate that it was precisely THIS film that set movies back on their feet again - made cinema going brilliant again.
After that it's all pretty straightforward. Star Wars: A New Hope has a fairly simple story, and was acted by (in those days) fairly unknown players. The formula worked then and still works today.
What isn't perhaps recognised fully today is that Star Wars set new standards in movie making. It set new expectations about what could be achieved. Set new standards in entertainment. It remains a masterpiece.
In 1977 cinema was dying. Star Wars was its New Hope.
