re: Growing up in Louisiana, give me your original Star Wars viewing experience.

Saw all three when they came out in theaters, but I can’t remember the experience in the theater for Star Wars, only the scenes in the movie itself. I saw The Empire Strikes Back in Texas when we went back to visit some friends my parents knew when lived there.

I remember remember waiting in line and can recall seeing The Elephant Man poster outside. Watching the movie was a bit of a chore because the male parent that brought his adopted son along was hyper and already had seen it. Kept asking us if we wanted to know what was coming next. His dad threatened to whip his arse in the theater

Finally, saw Return of the Jedi with some friends back in Louisiana during the day and that was fun. Went straight to the arcade next door to the theater after the movie.

I wouldn’t say I was a huge fan of the franchise. Never asked for any merchandise like clothes and toys. I think the experience in Texas curtailed me and my brother from wanting anything more than watching the movies. That kid had all kinds of Star Wars toys and clothes. Kept talking about it nearly every day we were there.

The only time we had something Star Wars related, was when my mom bought an R2D2 remote control toy. She brought it as gift for Christmas, and the remote had a rocker switch which turned his head, and when you released the rocker switch, it would turn in the direction that his “eye” was facing.

Having already seen The Hidden Fortress and Robin Hood (1939), you could tell the movie was based on The Hidden Fortress with a lot of the banter of a movie like Robin Hood thrown into it.

I saw it at the Bon Marche Twin Cinema, which at the time was the best theater in town. They had already spilt the theater before 1975, it was a huge theater when it first opened. At the time it had the best sound and projectors in town.

Still had large showings 2 months after it opened.

May of '77, University Theater off LSU's campus. Saw it 3 times in 1 week. 48 years ago the special effects were amazing.

I was 17 in 1977; saw Star Wars (there’s still only 1, IMO) at the University Cinema near LSU. The buzz (and long lines) had just started and I had to sit on the front row, which made the opening crawl & battle even more gee-whiz. I thought it was really cool, with the special effects of the time, music, and storyline - I remember telling somebody that it was an old-fashioned cowboy movie but in space and with aliens.

Long version (but with graphics):

In January 1977, when we were 11 years old, my friend Danny and I went to see the movie Silver Streak at Lakeside Cinema in Metairie. One of the trailers was like nothing we had seen before and blew us away. This one:


Notice the "Star Wars" title had not yet been refined to have the connecting "ST" in Star and "RS" in Wars.

This was a glimpse-- we knew no character names, nothing of the plot, but there was a lot of cool scenes/sets, spaceships, aliens, laser beams and robots. And a glimpse of wild "laser beam swords". But mostly a boatload of ACTION, not like the usual ponderous sci-fi stuff there was before that time. We both agreed it would be a movie to see when it came out.

Fast forward a few months, right about the time school was ending in May. At the local Wilshire Shopping Center K&B, in early May I saw a Marvel comic book on the rack of that Star Wars movie trailer I had seen a few months earlier. This particular issue, in fact:


So I purchased it and read it. It was Issue #2, so I missed the early stuff. The issue began with Luke being woken up after being knocked out by the Sand People. By issue's end (when they escape from Tatooine) I had learned names such as Luke Skywalker, Obi-Wan (Ben) Kenobi, Darth Vader, Han Solo, Chewbacca, and Princess Leia. I knew what a Wookie was. I knew those laser beam swords were called "light sabers". And I knew the basic set-up, but not what was to come after that departure from Tatooine.

(As an aside, the comic included an interaction between Han and Jabba the Hutt, who was a very different type of alien than the slug creature he became in the 3rd movie. That scene was cut from the movie before its release but not before the storyboard made it into the comic book):


So, school ended, and as I normally did, I left almost immediately afterward to spend most of the summer with my grandparents and extended family over in Biloxi. The buzz was starting to hit about this 'Star Wars' movie coming out, and my appetite was already whetted by the trailer a few months back and the comic book a few weeks back. So right after it opened, my aunt and uncle took me and 4 of my cousins ranging from ages 2 to 8 to the SurfSide Twin Cinema on Highway 90 to catch it one afternoon.

It did not disappoint.

From the opening fanfare of the John Williams theme being played over the scrolling storyline, followed by the weirdly angled "under" shot" of the rebel ship being attacked by the star cruiser, I could tell this was something different, unlike anything I had seen before. Previous sci-fi movies I saw had some decent special effects (2001: A Space Odyssey, Silent Running), but most were crap (Logan's Run as a prime example). But more importantly, there was so much action and adventure-- almost non-stop. This was a complete juxtaposition from TV's Star Trek and Space 1999.

EVERYTHING in the movie was new, and interesting, and COOL, whether it was a hovercraft land speeder on Tatooine, or the Tie Fighters, or the idea of "The Force" (especially when used by the menacing Darth Vader to choke someone from a distance). As the movie went on I was entranced and riled up. Loved it. And when it was time for the final attack, as the rebel ships went into formation, I remember letting out an audible "Whoa!" as the rebel leader called out, "Lock S-foils in attack position" and the X-Wings (we didn't know they were called that yet) opened up into X's!!.

Youtube Link

Then the whole desperate attack military operation, the perfect ending with Han and Chewie coming to the rescue and Ben's voice ("Use The Force, Luke!"); it was all so perfect.

It became a major influence for me after that (after all, I was 11 years old), but also for EVERYONE. It was more than just a movie. Over the rest of the year I went and saw it a few more times, with friends and other family members. All of that new terminology (Jedi, droids, Death Star) became a part of our lexicon. All of that lore started in that movie and became commonplace to everyone, a real worldwide cultural change.

And people bought a LOT of stuff because of that movie: soundtracks, posters, Halloween costumes, T-shirts, toys, lunchboxes, Burger King meals to get collectable glasses, etc. It was really the first movie to do that, and started that whole merchandising arm for films which continues today.

My Uncle had a VHS copy that you could see the wheels on the Speeder in the first film. It was worn out with lots of static. First time I saw it was on one of those TV's that sat on the floor. We wore that tape out even more.

Grew up in Morgan City, but I saw the original Star Wars "New Hope" when we were on vacation in Pensacola. I was 14. I remember just being in awe and losing my shite during the opening scene when the battle cruiser (whatever they are called!) came on the screen. We sat through it twice before we left the theater.

Same here I was 5, my mom and some friends of hers took us to the movie place in New Iberia. All I remember is how bad arse I thought it was. Then years later I faked sick because it was showing on hbo/cinimax/showtime forget what we had so i could watch it that morning.