really? that's funny...in "Empire of Dreams" Lucas said he wanted it to be a secret right up until the line was said by James Earl. Only Mark Hamill and JEJ knew the line before it was to be filmed.

Or, please don't bore us with your incorrect generalizations.

Lucas' recommendation that people watch his movies in chronological order makes me want to recommend he takes notes from another director (*cough*Tarantino*cough*) on why stories are sometimes more interesting when the narrative is jumbled around.

I actually liked the other suggestion in this thread to watch 4,5,1,2,3, then 6.

Yeah...pretty disgusting. I wonder if Lucas ever thought of erasing that scene. That scene alone further shows that Lucas really never meant for Leia & Luke to be siblings until he started writing Return of the Jedi.

no kids of my own, but both of my nephews, as well as my girlfriend's nephew have no interest in the OT. they don't run around with their lightsabers playing "luke skywalker", they play "anakin" now. it's the prequels that are their source of inspiration, not the OT. the OT, as far as they are concerned, are some old movies their dads made them watch once.

Umm, not saying that I do this or anything such, but I have seen siblings kiss on the lips. They are family, and to be honest, it wasn't a deep kiss or anything.

Also, THEY didn't KNOW they were siblings, but the did have a very close relationship, and for a reason, they were twins. These things DO happen.

Plus, the rumor has it, is that if George DOES make 7-8-9 they will pretty much revolve around Luke and Leia in counceling over Daddy issues, and the insestual relationship they could have embarked on had they never found out they were twins.

I'd say that you are the one taking a couple of "exceptions" and generalizing from that. My observation has been that when kids are exposed to both the old and new they are just as interested in the OT. Why wouldn't they be? It's not like they look all out of date or anything. Kids like the OT. They don't consider it old-fashioned. It's not black and white with hokey special effects. In fact, many of Lucas' changes that a lot of us oldtimers may complain about have kept it fresher for youngsters today. The "Flash Gordon" analogy is bogus.

okay... if you say so. i'm still waiting to meet one kid, or even hear one story from a parent in here about there 15 or under child preferring the OT over the PT. there have been a number of shared stories to the contrary posted in the past.

Well when I have kids, they'll be watching 4-6 first, then the 1-3. Its the way I saw them and its the way they're going to see them.

Pre Internet? I'm guessing you meant you weren't on the internet at the time because I was definitely on the Internet in 96, hell I'd been "online" in some form or another (Prodigy, Compuserve) since 1990.
Either way though, valid point.

I thought the true people that mattered were the ones who were watching the movie. For the future generations to have the same chance we got. That's the problem with the media, you see it so carelessly in commercials, other movies, do you see Citizen Kane, which is regarded as in the top 10 greatest films of all time, Rosebud's meaning carelessly being thrown around?
Why, i even read Conan Doyle's The Hound of Baskervilles, 100+ years since it was written, a whole century of people reading it, after having read it i'd be damned if i read the ending beforehand somewhere or it was pointed out.

Ugh, too much is made about the "kiss". They weren't kissing out of lust or romance. She kissed Luke to get Han's goat. There's nothing disgusting about it. It all comes from this assumption when SW first came out that Luke and Leia might become a couple or there might be a love triangle. I just watched SW again today and there is no, repeat, NO romantic tension between Luke and Leia. It is set up from the first moment to be Han and Leia. From Luke enticing Han to help rescue her to when Han and Leia "meet cute" (she rescues him), it's all Han and Leia. Hell, Luke and Leia don't even have a proper conversation until Return of the Jedi.

As for the secret, that belongs to our generation alone. It is a reward for being part of the first generation to see the films. Five of the six films revolve around it. It's no longer a secret. Accept it.

So what you're saying to the future generations is "screw you, your fault you weren't born earlier."

Where did you get that from? I saw it opening day, and I, along with everyone else on the planet who saw it, was floored.

Is the glass half empty or half full?

I don't think of it in such a negative sense. The overall arc of 5 the 6 movies in the series involves the very concept that Vader is Anakin Skywalker. Three of them tell how he became Vader and 2 tell how his son redeems him. Only in Star Wars E4 is he just a villian. It was a secret for exactly 3 years of the 28 years the saga has existed. It is now part of the larger pop culture. The original novel of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde keeps the secret about their split personality until the final pages but the pop culture has completely assimilated the concept that Dr J. and Mr H. are the same person. I'd argue that Psycho is similar. That Norman is his mother is too ingrained in the popular culture to pretend that it's a spoiler anymore. If someone has managed to completely ignore pop culture and has not been spoiled for these things then they are either blessed or terribly oblivious.

We of the original generation get a bonus for having been there with George the whole time.

Just an opinion, of course.

I think it was in the last Entertainment Weekly that Lucas said he could give two sh!ts about how people watch the movies. I think this is just another fanboy divination from the legions of kooks that claim Georgie raped their childhoods. He intends for them to stand as a six-part series - which they do. But, as he says, that doesn't mean you have to watch in that order.

If you watch the movies Episode 1-6 then it wouldn't be a surprise anyway, so what difference does it make?

The only reason Lucas didn't want anyone knowing about back in 1980 was because people saw in 1977 that Vader was evil and no one knew who he was. But now in 2005 we've all seen all the episodes (or soon will) and it makes no difference. I know one person who hasn't seen any star wars movies and she is well aware that Anakin is Darth Vader.

Really? I was talking to a buddy at a bar when someone asked how it would be when Anakin became Vader, that buddy said "Anakin is Vader?" I was so surprised. There are people who don't know, despite how immersed you are in SW and think how the whole world knows every detail.

There are Star Wars fans who don't know "A New Hope" refers to Luke Skywalker

Ever see those VOXPOPs type things on shows like Jay Leno where they ask people on the street common knowledge questions? They'll ask people who the Vice President is or something and there's always someone who doesn't know. Just because someone has managed to stay completely oblivious to popular culture doesn't discount that something is known to more than just devotees. I've never watched an episode of Survivor but I could tell you who the winner was that first year. It was all over the popular culture and pretty unavoidable. Same with American Idol. You couldn't pay me enough to watch that but I had the winners plastered over the magazines and newspapers I read.

There's always going to be someone who's never heard of something that seems fairly common, but I'd venture that anyone who cares to be in touch with pop culture past their own navel and doesn't know probably doesn't really care one way or the other. Nothing wrong with that. Doesn't make them stupid, just not interested. In which case, it doesn't even matter if it is spoiled.

Yeah that's a TV show, not a movie. I mean would you care if someone spoiled you a Sherlock Holmes tale?

If something is specifically a mystery/whodunnit, then it isn't supposed to be spoiled. To spoil a mystery/whodunnit is rude. Doesn't matter how old it is. I'd even say something like Soylent Green being people should probably haven't been spoiled. It pretty much ruins the movie knowing it ahead of time. It's what the whole movie builds toward and once you get to the end it's kind of a let down because that's all there is to it. It's too late, though. If Soylent Green is ever refererenced ANYWHERE in pop culture, it is that Soylent Green is people. It's not as well known as Star Wars, but if you've heard of it you know the spoiler, having seen it or not. There are just some things that are out there in the pop culture that the world has already spoiled and it's too late. If the movie or story is good enough, it doesn't matter. It's the journey that's important.

At last! Someone else who shares the hate of the Schultz with me! The same thing happened to me in the early '70's when I was 5 or 6. The odd thing is, out of the whole digest (it was a collection of Peanuts, not a daily strip) that's the only freakin' one I remembered. It actually did kind of ruin the initial viewing of Citizen Kane.

In other news: The Titanic sank (for those of you who have not seen the movie).

"Norman is his mother" dammit, i was going to watch this movie for the first time.. now it is ruined.

"Soylent Green is people." curses, another movie ruined.

Titanic is a historic event, did you know the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in Pearl Harbor?