More like the creepy jock that graduated 5 years ago but still hangs around the high school and even at 40 still follows his high school team like a pro team. His best years were long ago but he refuses to let it go.

Yeah that's why the Abram's movie got bad reviews and didn't make money at the box office.

Born in '72 so I faintly remember seeing it in the movie theater. I loved it and waited 6 years for it to come to HBO in 1983 (we didn't have a VCR in the early 80's). When it finally came to HBO in 1983, I probably watched hundreds of times and still love it today. You would see the 20th Century Fox Logo come up and hear the drums and I would yell to my brother, "Star Wars is on again!!!!"

I was living in Pensacola, FL and had a lot going on. First time living away from home and at my first duty station, so keeping up on movies wasn't high priority. A friend came over and told me about this cool movie that just opened up. I had to see it and that opening scene of the space battle sold me right there.

My 20 year old sister saw it opening weekend and insisted that I see it as soon as possible. I was 13. I ended up seeing 13 times in the summer of 1977. It will ALWAYS be Star Wars to me. None of the others are close for me. Sure Empire is great, but I could be happy with just SW.

No, it got good reviews and made money because he made it more like Star Wars.

Then why did I like it?

Poppin' a top to GL and his franchise! thanks for the memories.

Because you weren't paying attention?

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Same here. Empire is a great film, but SW is at the top for me, for similar reasons.

I picked up the novelization a few weeks or so before the movie came out. It read like almost exactly how the movie turned out. I thought it sounded good and was looking forward to seing it. The next thing I see is lines around the block and people going crazy for it. I saw it maybe a month or so into the run and thought it was fantastic. I remember arguing about what was better, Star Wars or CE3K in the bar we hung out at. I saw both a few times including tripping and really liked both. CE3K was better suited for chemically enhanced viewing. After Raiders came out I really had alot of respect for Lucas. He really did some great stuff despite the suits. Too bad he became one.

I was born in 1984, so I didn't get to see any of the Star Wars films when they were originally released until the prequels. However, living in Southern California, I did get to go to Star Tours, and it blew my little child mind. I became obsessed with Star Wars. My mom would place these huge orders for action figures with Kenner, I guess they were clearing out old stock or something and she cleaned up. My grandmother got me the VHS box set with the hologram cover and the From Star Wars to Jedi documentary, and I watched all the movies endlessly.

What's sad is that George Lucas has run it so thoroughly into the ground that I feel disgusted even looking at the logo. And knowing what effect Star Wars and Jaws had on the movie industry from then on also kind of sours my enjoyment. At this point the only one I can watch and enjoy completely is Empire.

I will say, though, that when I was in film school we had a Technicolor-processed print of the original 1977 version of Star Wars, one of five in existence. Watching that was an absolute trip.

Yeah it's like plastic surgery.

I was 19 in 1977. No "childhood" experience here, but it was something cool to see stoned. Very hard to get tickets the first few months. Box office would open in the morning and sell out all shows for the day almost immediately. Limited to one screen.
Remember the one year anniversary of playing non-stop at the theater. Newspaper ad showed birthday cake with a big 1 and caketop figures of 3PO R2.
Empire was just as difficult to get tickets for. By ROTJ's release theaters had changed and it opened on half dozen screens around town. Walk right in.

My childhood Star Wars was Thunderball. I was 7 when I saw the original release in 1965.

As a Star Trek fan. Thanks for posting this!

And as a gracious Star Trek fan, Happy 35th Birthday Star Wars!



"You did it your way, George!"

Finally got around to watching the original on BluRay last night with someone who had never seen it (yeah...I know). I had no idea it was the anniversary until later that night, just good timing I guess

Happy Birthday and RIP.

Pretty much sums up most fans who grew up on the Original Trilogy.

I got a chance to see the trailer at a movie screening in grad school (UCLA) and thought it looked bizarre but intriguing. Then Time magazine came out with a rave review cover story and I had to see it. Stood in the long line at a Westwood theater, about a week after it opened, with a college girlfriend who was a grad student in astronomy at Caltech.

We had some technical criticisms (she pointed out that the dual sunset on Tatooine was completely wrong for binary star systems and, of course, the ship noise in space was pretty absurd—The Mad Magazine "review" was called "Star Roars" IIRC). But we really enjoyed it, despite being jaded young adults. I ended up seeing it six times over the next year and had a friend who saw it more than twenty times. I became a big fan and made sure to see Empire Strikes Back and Jedi on opening day.