Slashdot Mirror
Star Wars is 30 Years Old
javipas writes "On May 25th, 1977 the first film of the Star Wars Saga was released to theaters. Thirty years later, and celebrations are being held all around the globe. Wired has a series of articles entitled The Empire at 30, and many fans are posting about this particular birthday. For example, you can see the best 30 clips made by fans to celebrate this anniversary. The BBC is chronicling the journey of one man who had never seen Star Wars before. IGN has a rundown on some of the highlights of the Celebration convention, running this weekend."
and like most of its fan base...still a virgin....
...it's like a million geeks all came at once, and then were silent.
(got to remember to check pa)
that was pretty funny - but i'm having trouble believing that he not only hasn't seen the film but was so clueless about plot, characters, etc.
It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
Let us all thank Mr. Lucas for the good times and the bad times.
From the first time I saw A New Hope to that fateful day May 19, 1999 when I was raped in the middle of a public movie theater in my hometown. Well, I wasn't raped actually, but that's what I've repressed the memory of seeing The Phantom Menace with. Please don't make me recall the actual movie, please!
May the force be with you.
"....Impressive."
..read "On May 25th, 1977 the first film of the Star Wars Saga was released to HATERS."? Maybe it's a sign of the times..
On this day 30 years ago, I took a girl to go see it as my first date. We were all riding back from our high school senior picnic, and she asked about the book I was reading (the novelization), so I took her to the movie.
The second movie I took my fiancee too, and by the third movie we were married.
So much for your theory.
You trying to jedi mind trick me to believe I was a kid when this came out... We'll I've been using wifi since... since... since...
Infiltrated dot Net
Aside from any witty comment or terse flame I'd just like to say that I'm very happy to be a Star Wars fan.
Star Wars has been such a great story and adventure since I was a child and I hope to continue that legacy. I still remember seeing the movies for the first time and the magic I felt.
Lets forget all the weird flames and just think about what a great adventure Star Wars has been.
Who knew a slave-girl costume could cause such a stir?
It wasn't the slave girl costume. It was the girl! The girl was built like a girl: not some emaciated waif. Carry Fisher had this cute tummy and hips and real boobs - not a body by Joe Schmoe, MD, Hollyweird, CA!
Geeze! And the irony is that, IIRC from one the Star Wars behind the scenes DVD extras, the producers wanted to or did send her to a fat farm.
I prefer Flambe as apposed flamebait.
My mom was pregnant with me when she went to see the first star wars movie. Waited in a line that stretched several blocks.
...30 in a few months... yay =/
Maybe thats why I became such a geek.
The films have at least aged rather well. The effects and general cinematography don't feel all that dated. Of course, I tend to think that the sloppy CGI in the "special remastered" version is what looks old. Then again, I'm one to shun CGI in almost any instance, so biases persist.
"He who can destroy a thing, controls a thing." --Paul Atreides, Dune
except for endless copyright extensions. (I know I'm offtopic, but the fans should be owning this film by now, not George "Greedo Shot First" Lucas.)
Luke!
Carrie!
If brevity is the soul of wit, then how does one explain Twitter?
Yikes, there's even a site devoted to it...
Once I was a four stone apology. Now I am two separate gorillas.
In the beginning, you take a sip of it, and find that it is pleasureful, subtle, and full of aroma.
;-)
Next, you have a bottle of the same vintage and let it age 20 years. It is suddenly a whole new wine, with greater complexity, and a much sharper taste.
Finally you decide to finish off that old bottle that has aged another ten years... too bad it has turned to vinegar...
Now Star Trek: TNG -- that is like Guiness. Great at any time! Always aged to perfection!
Firefly is kinda like Jack Daniels... Really good, but hard to follow up with anything else
Thanks George,
Sincerely someone who saw Episode I 5 times in the first week trying to find some of the greatness that I saw in the originals.
and still lives in his parents basement.
The days of the digital watch are numbered.
If you're old enough to remember Star Wars coming out, you're too old to think anything right now except "30 years, wow I'm old". If thoughts of action figures pop into your mind, or if you're still living in your mom's basement, SEEK THERAPY IMMEDIATELY.
It was a movie, and a good one, but move on!
- Adam L. Beberg - The Cosm Project - http://www.mithral.com/
I just saw a guy in a Wookie costume. What's that you say? The convention is in LA? Wow guess that's what happens when it's sunny in Seattle, the hairy lumber jacks come to town. :-P
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order." -Ed H
Who cares. Star Wars was great back in the day, Lucas ruined the Legacy, get over it. The same is happening to the Terminator, but at least you can't blame Cameron, as he has nothing to do with the ruining. Lucas on the other hand can eat dicks in hell.
Yeah, but this is Slashdot. Few slashdotters are familiar with such esoteric concepts as girls. Fewer still are familiar with how girls are shaped.
This is not the specialized knowledge you are looking for...
...laura
Ah, nostalgia. When I was a kid, my little sister used to break the heads off of my Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker action figures. I chewed on their retractable lightsabers too, I think, but I grew out of that phase.
My friends and I got even by playing badminton with the severed heads of her Barbie dolls (which aerodynamically resemble shuttlecocks).
Now I feel OLD.
it's a blue bright blue Saturday hey hey
You've given me much joy over the years, in fact I'm going to watch it tonight.
crazy dynamite monkey
The way it's been shitting all over itself, you'd think it would be older...
Another Ewok Festival of Light special!?
Ginga no Rekshiya Mata Each page.
And yet you seem to have enough time on your hands to complain about it. Why are you so threatened by the possibility that someone might enjoy something you don't?
30 years - how many parsecs is that?
It's true I tell you, feller at work's next door neighbour read it in the paper.
Another Slashdot Star Wars story. Full of regrets, memories, happiness, bitterness, fanboy defenses (in dwindling supply), and unmitigated acrimony. The inevitable TNG and Firefly comments are waiting in the wings. The virgin and lack-of-girls comments are prepared. A flame war is set up and somewhat monitored by our guardians. Aaaaaaaaand... ACTION!
u-bend
then, kids's pc's were very primitive and modems were rare as hens teeth. I had built an Altair 8800 in high school and was quite inspired by the droids ;) It really spurred on the quest for artificial intelligence in 8080 assembly code.
try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
Most. Overhyped. Movie. Ever.
Lego Star Wars to come back with all six movies in one game
Caught the Lego story on Digg today. Nice timing. I remember the first time Star Wars was re-released to theaters. My brother got caught running a red light on the way to the Uptown. I told him that the force was not with him. He didn't think it was very funny, especially when the cop found out he didn't have his license with him...
Is there heaven? Is there Hell? Is that a Tuna Melt I smell?-Primus
A quick glance at the ol' wiki:
A Bridge Too Far
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
The Goodbye Girl
High Anxiety
Saturday Night Fever
Smokey and the Bandit
The Spy Who Loved Me
Star Wars
How come we just don't get years like that anymore?
More Twoson than Cupertino
2 good movies out of 6. I want my money back. What's to celebrate?
The Generation
I'd say something witty here, but I'm not that bright.
An old joke but a good one. "What do you give a movie franchise that can't help shitting all over itself?" Punchline: Depends
Oh, yeah, it's not easy to pad these out to 120 characters.
Seriously? I mean, other than PR operatives for LucasFilms and some paid Stormtroopers, does anyone really care enough to attend a "celebration"?
Happy birthday to...Star Wars? LOL I guess...I dunno who else to direct that to.
I'm 23 years old and have always loved the original 3...saw them for the first time when I was 6 and have been hooked ever since. No trilogy in the history of movies has ever spawned so many books, video games, etc. as Star Wars has...from those three movies came about a MASSIVE universe full of interesting creatures, ships, and languages.
Not to mention the 1977 release of A New Hope created an entirely new race of geeks/nerds...Star Wars lingo/trivia/imagery/etc. has become a mainstay in popular culture, even to the "uninitiated" (i.e. the non-geeks)
Anyway, to close up this unbelievably dumb post, happy 30th!
Now let's get shit faced at a Cantina, eh?
Living With a Nerd
Next time, just do not.
Saw the first Star Wars movie when it came out, never bothered to see the others. To someone like myself who spent his formative years immersed in the classics of sci-fi, this stuff was clunky, awkward space opera, the acting as hammy as it comes, the plot too confusing and silly to be interesting, the ideas incredibly primitive compared to Asimov, Heinlein, and others in the golden age of science fiction.
Just FYI for those who enjoyed "The Science of Superman", the same guy, Michael Dennin (a friend of mine from Church [Catholic if you're interested] will be hosting a show on the technology of Star Wars, Mon. May 28th 8PM on the History Channel.
/. Great work.
Here's a link: Star Wars - The Legacy Revealed
Michael is a professor of Physics and Astro-Physics at UCI and an all-around great guy.
Cheers Michael, if you read
Oh Yeah, that show kicks off the whole Star Wars History Channel event which starts at 9PM.
A fool throws a stone into a well and a thousand sages can not remove it.
Since it's only fair that Lucas gets 1000x the money that he put into this, he (and the corporations that survive him ) needs another 65 years of payments.
I heard an ad on XM Radio the other day about the 30th Anniversary of Star Wars. It wished Star Wars fans well with a phrase sure to draw their ire: "Live long and prosper."
--I'm so big, my sig has its own sig.
-- See?
The real power Star Wars holds over me lays in the expanded universe. Am I the only one who, when Star Wars is mentioned, not only thinks of Luke, Leia, Han, and Vader, but also Mara Jade, Corran Horn, Grand Admiral Thrawn, and Talon Karde. IMO, if your Star Wars experience is limited to just watching the movies, then you are missing out. There is some absolutely great Star Wars fiction out there. I highly recommend Timothy Zahns "Thrawn" trilogy and "Hand of Thrawn" duology, as well as Michael J. Stackpole and Aaraon Allston's X-Wing series. Heck, even Kevin Anderson's "Jedi Academy" trilogy is pretty good (and a nice precursor to the video game of similar name).
"Now I'm seriously serious!" - Serious Sam
STAR WARS KID!!! LOL!! Original @ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQibs3albtM
Wonderful Special Effects. Poor material, especially after the first released movie.
5 /brin_main/index.html/5 /brin_side/index.html/
Please take if off the pedestal.
See:
http://www.salon.com/ent/movies/feature/1999/06/1
http://www.salon.com/ent/movies/feature/1999/06/1
http://www.davidbrin.com/starwarsarticle1.html/
It wasn't the slave girl costume. It was the girl! The girl was built like a girl: not some emaciated waif. Carry Fisher had this cute tummy and hips and real boobs - not a body by Joe Schmoe, MD, Hollyweird, CA!
My personal opinion is that this was so iconic because of how dignified Leia remained even in such a degrading and revolting situation. This is a princess and leader of the rebel alliance. A gangster has essentially stripped her naked, put her in chains, and routinely licks his lips with his revolving, rotten tongue. And through all of this, she remains cool headed, keeping her mind of the mission and playing her part. When Luke shows up at Jabba's lair, Leia gives him a look that doesn't convey embarrassment or anger but almost a sense of amusement as though only she and Luke are in on the joke that Jabba's about to fall for.
That was an unusual amount of strength for a woman to show in the 80s. Hell, even nowdays the movies show tough women as having a huge chip on their shoulder. Leia simply got the job done without worrying how she looks and she was willing to sit through anything. It's a bit interesting to compare how she faces adversity in this situation versus the trip to trash compactor in the original movie where she's nowhere near as calm and confident. Everyone focuses on how much Luke changes during the original trilogy, but Leia changes just as much.
Sure, there's a sexual aspect to the entire situation as well, but I don't think that has much to do with Leia's body. Quite frankly, it's fairly unremarkable. It's the fact that Leia remains calm and collected even in such an awful situation that makes her sexy, not her body. You can see better looking women every day just walking down the street. But how many everyday women would be able to act as heroic as Leia did?
GMD
watch this
Hidden Fortress by Akira Kurosawa is 49 years old. Hidden Fortress, a film set during Japan's feudal civil wars was the inspiration for Star Wars.
[Insert pithy quote here]
Looks like there's a Star Wars marathon in Australia... storm trooper Olympics, w00t!
The Army reading list
A few of fanboy favorites:
Bladerunner
Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Kahn
Conan the Barbarian
Tron
Poltergeist
ET
The Dark Crystal
48 Hours
Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid
John Carpenter's The Thing
Fast Times at Ridgemont High
Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl
Pink Floyd The Wall
Rocky III
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1982_movies
fsck! It's always one second after I hit submit I see my typos.
I wonder what would have happen, had George Lucas been able to get the rights to Flash Gordon from Dino De Laurentiis as he originally wanted, and made a Flash Gordon film instead of Star Wars!
e d&search=
I guess we would have been deprived of this masterpiece:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=uQVLFn2PTzY&mode=relat
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07133/785788-254.st m
I like this comment from the article...
---
12:40
The entire course of the film changes in 30 seconds - Han turns up in his plane to fend off the baddies while Luke lines up his shot and makes the target. The Death Star is blown to smithereens and Darth's plane is spinning out of control. Go boys!
---
I still get a charge out of this scene of the film even after seeing it hundreds of times...
I was probably 2.5 years old, it was the summer of 1977. My parents were taking me to a drive in movie theater (when they still had they all over the place) to see the Muppet movie.
I was in the backseat of his truck, standing on the seat so I could see. But I wasn't watching the Muppet movie. I was turned around, looking out the back window, across the lot, even though I couldn't hear any sound, I was watching a completely different movie on another screen just visible thru the trees, completely engrossed in what I was seeing.
That movie was Star Wars.
Thus another Jedi was born.
"All great wisdom is contained in .signature files"
2 generations ago: "we have the transistor & the age of electronics"
1 generation ago: "we went to space and landed on the moon & the space age.
current generation: "we have Star Wars & the internet age"
next generation: "we have myspace & american idol & the social networking age"
See the trend?
Flamer[suit] on
...it's now just a little over 10 years since all had to start yelling "Han Shot First!"
"But remember, most lynch mobs aren't this nice." (H.Simpson)
-- Joe
At least, in a semi-twisted pint of .. uh, I mean Alec Guiness-kind-of-way.
The evil force which Vader was totally suppressed the existence of Skywalker. Pretty much like trauma-induced multiple-personality disorder.
Like, we all know that video didn't ACTUALLY kill the radio star, but it certainly suppressed it to the point where it might as well be dead.
Do daemons dream of electric sleep()?
...my father fell asleep in the theater, watching "some weird space movie" with his best friend. Fortunately, he eventually came around and took me (20 years later) to see all three re-releases.
Any plan which depends on a fundamental change in human behavior is doomed from the start.
My college roommate and I drove for two hours to get to the Creve Coeur Cinema (since torn down) to see this movie. The lobby was packed prior to the show; the word-of-mouth had been very, very good. I'd read the book already (first edition, IIRC there was no hint that it would be a movie), but everything on the screen blew me away. Since then, I've been married twice and had more kids than I can count, but I can still give myself goosebumps by merely recalling the Millennium Falcon's first jump to hyperdrive. The lastest trilogy may have sucked, but the original will live forever.
Nothing for 6-digit uids?
http://svextra.com/blogs/gmsv/2007/05/star_wars_ep isode_vii_the_empire_wises_up.html
May 24, 2007
Star Wars Episode VII: The Empire Wises Up
George Lucas has always had an ambivalent attitude about all the creative fan activity that orbits around his "Star Wars" universe, embracing some that stays within the limits of homage, sending the legal storm troopers after any he feels damage the image or profit from his art, and generally guarding his properties like they were the plans for the Death Star. But starting tomorrow (cue brief, fair-use snippet of "Star Wars" theme music) there's a new hope.
As part of the 30th anniversary celebration for the first movie, Lucasfilm is making 250 clips from all six "Star Wars" movies available on its Starwars.com site, providing a set of drag-and-drop editing tools and telling fans to remix and mash up to their heart's content. Rework the wisdom of Yoda? Sure. Take your revenge on Jar Jar Binks? Have at it. As long as you don't try anything like hot Wookiee-on-Wookiee action, Lucasfilm doesn't mind (and there's a team of screeners in Costa Rica to filter out that stuff anyway). The mashups can then be posted on blogs or social network pages.
The reason reason only some people know about Hidden Fortress is simple - where are the action figures, or playsets?
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
The Chicago Tribune did a piece on this yesterday. I would have submitted it to slashdot, had the actual FA been accurate. But it portrayed Luke Skywalker as a "reluctant hero". Did the writer of teh Tribune Piece not even ever see the movie? Luke spent the first half of the movie trying to convince his Uncle to let him join the rebellion! WTF?
I was 25 when Star Wars came out, and saw it with my oldest friend, Jim Dawson, and his then wife Debbie. Sadly, Jim's been dead since 1992, died of a heart attack two weeks shy of his 40th birthday. At least he was spared seeing Jar Jar! And he was also spered seeing the cheesy digital version where Solo sits there completely unconcerned while an alien blasts a laser four inches from his head before shooting back. In the version Jim, Debbie, and I saw, the alien raises his gun, and from outside the room you see smnoke and hear the explosion, thinking Han had been killed, only to see that it was Solo, not the bounty hunter, who had fired. Han shot first? No, he was the ONLY one that shot! And yes, I have a copy of the old non-digital VCR release where the bounty hunter doesn't shoot.
-mcgrew
R.I.P., Jim, you are still missed.
And, fittingly, is today's featured article on the English Wikipedia.
>> Standing on head makes smile of frown, but rest of face also upside down.
So now it's not to be trusted?
Any guest worker system is indistinguishable from indentured servitude.
Star Wars left my consciousness for about 5 minutes when this post came around. Thanks George Lucas for keeping me plugged in to your fake world for the rest of your life (and hopefully beyond if your production company has anything to say about it). If we start a rumor that Start Wars is just an incestuous mega-cult akin to Scientology, do you think we can convert any of the believers? Or will it just make their resolve stronger... Either way, you can't win. When's the next Star Wars pez dispenser due for release? Probably around the time of the 6 1/2 year anniversary of the last day of pre-production on "Clone Wars"...
Is on the day before and you can hear his inspirational voice describe how he inspired inventions of the world.
Quality stuff from this dude.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=cGyQVO62QM0
And saw it in the theaters eleven times: this was before VCRs and DVDs, and if you wanted to see something more than once, you paid more than one.
And I loved it, immediately. I had all the toys I could, fell in love with Carrie Fisher and dressed as Luke Skywalker for Halloween. I waited impatiently for the release of Empire and Jedi, and thoroughly enjoyed the whole time.
But, I gotta say, as an adult the movies haven't held up that well for me. My favorite is Empire, because it's the darkest and best plotted, but it seems that as the series went on (and Leigh Brackett died) Lucas really lost his way. In the end, after the godawful mediocre mess which is the second trilogy, I find myself almost completely uninterested in the movies. I think the movies are great if you're a kid, but they are in no way adult stories. And the need Lucas seems to have to worry about the little stupid stuff (just admit the whole Kessel Run/parsec thing was a mistake in the writing and get on with it) instead of things like character and dialogue tell me nothing he does from here out will be any good. Shit, I don't even own any of them on DVD.
Just one man's opinion, is all. No need to start a flame war.
I am a believer of momentum and curves.
A few months ago I noticed an R2D2 mailbox standing on the corner. I immediately assumed that it was just a leftover from when the last prequel was released way back in 2005. Then on the news I heard something about these being _new_ mailboxes promoting Star Wars. I was baffled, why spend money on this sort of thing now?
Everyone quotes Star Wars, nerds, regular people, jocks, you name it. I do not know your age but I am 37 amd saw it in the theater, and for at least 5 years after the first one, my very non nerd father quoted it, and at age 76 still does.
I understand it is possible to be disconnected from certain spheres of popular culture. But for the first three "The Holy Trilogy" everyone watched them.
Outside of being set in space, they originals were an epic adventure of good against evil, underdog prevails, and some good ol swashbuckling.
But a 20 year old, or even a 30 year old, might not connect on a movie that was released years before they were born.
Puto
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
... it has seen the end of Tony Blair and will soon see the end of George Bush.
I'm actually 30 years old, this day the 26th, it's me and star wars :)
(CET)
This was the year I was born also. It is at times difficult to believe that it has been as long as it has. The world has also changed since then, almost beyond recognition.
Very few of the changes, on balance, have been positive.
It's the fact that Leia remains calm and collected even in such an awful situation that makes her sexy, not her body.
As they say, "the brain is the largest erogenous zone".
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
attended only the saturday of the celebration IV convention in LA- it was a lot of fun- though I have to say there were a lot of conflicts in scheduling and instruction/directions of what was going on- the fans were awesome- the vendors were all cool and the clebs were all really cool- but whoever was managing the whole deal didn't seem to do well to accommodate non-insiders since there were prolly close to a 1/4 of a million people there with over 80k fan club members attending. some rooms were too small to accommodate, some major events were all going on at the same time- too much priority was given to fan club members when attending events. they did not allow standing room in any of the halls- they should have had some sort of simulcasting of the larger events outside of the venues. etc
Star Wars
;)
30 Years!
Live long and prosper.
Free PC version of ChipWits at http://www.breueronline.de/klaus/chipwits/