I was born in 1976 and didn’t see any Star Wars movie in the theater until Return of the Jedi was re-released into second run theaters in the late 80s. Mom took us to see it cheap, and then took us to see it again the next night with a cleverly hidden grocery sack of popcorn, so we didn’t have to pay for snacks. It was all of our idea to see it again, by the way - probably her and me, mostly.
But we recorded all the SW movies off TV and cable, and played them so many times. I used to play along to the movies - I’d sort of be the doppelganger of Princess Leia, and jump out from behind couches and blast things. She kicked ass.
I used to be scared of the scene where Luke goes home and sees his aunt and uncle dead and burned. But my parents had the books, and one of the books had a still shot of the skeletons, and that made it less scary for some reason.
There was a documentary on The History Channel recently about the making of it, and I realized that hearing the beginning of the score seriously puts a lump in my throat. That cymbal crash, and then…
I don’t follow the alternate stuff, I just barely know what canon vs. off-canon is and I’ve never seen Episode 2, but damn…I love it. I have always loved it.
I was born in 1983, just after the release of Return of the Jedi. I therefore missed seeing the movies first-run. My parents once tried to get me to watch the movies on VHS, but I was too young. Not interested. It was scary. It was boring. It didn’t help that the only copy they had was bootleg as hell, and of a poor visual quality (my dad was the king of taping stuff off of HBO).
They tried showing it at day care. I read my books. Finally, when the rerelease came out in 1997, my mom said, “you HAVE to see this” and dragged my sister and I to the theater.
Oh. My. God. Even with the changes. . .Oh. My. God. I freaking LOVED it. I dug out the bootlegs my parents had of ESB and RotJ and watched them the next day. I was already into scifi (Terminator 2 had done that), but. . .man.
I’m just too young (born in 73) to really remember the full impact of seeing it for the first time. I vaguely remember that when we first went to see it (presumably in the year-or-so-later rerelease), I was already excited about it.
However, the main thing I remember is that the first time we saw it, there was a blackout and the theater lost power just when the x-wings were attacking the death star. D’oh!
I must admit that just reading this thread is making me a bit misty-eyed.
Missed this the first time through! It’s like we’re related or something! We have GOT to hook up one of these times I’m in Chicago.
The Eden’s was one hell of a theater, wasn’t it? I saw SW, Close Encounters, Superman and a bunch of others there over the three years (77-80) we lived in Wilmette.
We lived just off Lake where it crosses the Eden’s Expressway. A little street called ‘Leamington’ on the side away from the strip mall. Heading away from the lake.
One more anecdote about seeing Star Wars 30 years ago.
When that famous first phrase popped up at the very beginning, (A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…), there was an undercurrent of mumbling and conversation in the audience. “A long time ago? I thought this was in the future?” “Another galaxy, isn’t this about Earth?” I was thinking to myself, “Heh, that’s a pretty cool way to say Once Upon a Time…”