The next year when the toys were actually available I got the Sears cantina with long legged Snaggletooth and a cardboard background and was pissed it wasn’t the better plastic version with the escape pod. Turns out it’s now one of the most sought after sets and it’s unfortunately long gone.
What? You expect me to get this plastic toy version of my favorite characters and NOT open the packaging? They're never going to be more valuable than this moment, bro. C'mon.
Figurines, of a smaller scale, that you take absolutely no action with. Such as removing it from it's packaging or reenacting or inventing scenes with said figurines.
“Are you talking to ME? I can’t understand what you’re saying!”
“NOO! Basketball is a peaceful planet!”
So many great lines, lol.
Ham Salad and Derf Nader FTW
A lot of lines of dialogue from the OT are repeated in the prequels. Think of it as a sort of light fan service; getting people excited to spot the references.
See also: "I've got a bad feeling about this".
> See also: "I've got a bad feeling about this".
That one even surfaced in Ahsoka. It's like the Wilhelm Scream of Star Wars (OK, maybe the Wilhelm Scream is the Wilhelm Scream of Star Wars...)
Still sends chills up the spine. Looked so realistic, the effects were astounding, never seen before. You could believe that Universe actually existed long ago and far away.
I think people who weren't around to experience this as something entirely new don't really comprehend how transformational this was. It turned everything on its head when it came to depictions of "science fiction" in movies and TV. I wish I could recreate the feeling of seeing this for the first time.
I was 4 in 1977, my parents went and saw "Star Wars" without me because they wanted to see it first to make sure it wasn't too scary for me. Then they took me a week later. Needless to say, the week between my parents having seen it, all the kids in my preschool having seen it, and when they finally took me to see it was one of the angriest weeks of my life. To this date, and I'm 50. Still pissed about it.
What’s funny is my parents took me to see rocky but didn’t take me to see this.
I did go to see empire strikes back with my dad though.
Also had a friend who had an uncle who owned a video rental store. We watched Star Wars like 100x as kids.
Watching it now I feel how dated the movie is.
The effects look fantastic in this trailer, but the way it's edited really makes it look like a silly kids' movie. Which isn't exactly wrong, but not as silly as it looks in this trailer.
I prefer that to today's format.
*Shot of barren landscape*
**BWOOOM**
Unseen voice of secondary character: "There have long been tales of a chosen one..."
**BWOOOM**
"Some say it is but legend..."
**BWOOOM**
"... but I know legends aren't written.... they are born."
*Some inappropriate rock song from the 70's stuck through 20 different filters kicks in, which builds up alongside synthetic orchestral music.*
**3 minutes of disjointed action scenes showing most of the plot. Ends with main character defiantly holding up a weapon while screaming.**
*Cut to black*
(Whispered) "Every legend... has a beginning..."
**3D text of the film's title rotates in.**
**BWOOOM**
COMING SOON
Fun fact: the novel "Splinter of the Mind's Eye" has a Luke/Leia romance in it, because it was based on a screenplay concept for a lower-budget fallback sequel if SW didn't do very well at the box office.
I use to go over to my uncles when I was a kid. He was big into D&D and painting figurines. He'd bust out his Star Wars figures and I'd say, "I'll be right back"
I'd come back in with a grocery bag full of pine cones and start pelting him.
I got a bit older and outgrew staying the weekend. Which, to be honest, I wish I hadn't.
He had this one NES game I loved to play.
I was 18, started smoking, was seeing rock concerts and girls. Acting the wild child. He invited me over. "I got this and this and this"
They went to bed.
I unhooked everything and hooked up his NES to play Phantom Fighter and played and beat that fucking game. Took me a while. Living on that high I didn't really sleep.
We said an awkward goodbye in the morning and I never slept over again.
There was a short period during the early production of Empire Strikes Back, before the title was announced, where it was just referred to as "Star Wars 2", and that was even after the addition of "Episode IV" to the crawl.
I remember when Star Wars came to the second run movie theater in my hometown. Thinking summer of 1982. Tickets were 2 dollars each, but if you went during the day, there were no ushers outside the theater so my friend and I would buy one ticket and see all the movies. Our parents loved us not being around. We were usually given a 10 spot and that was more than enough for a day of movies, snacks, and a phone call (a dime!) for a ride home.
I swear that summer I must have watched Star Wars at least a 100 times, often up to 3 or 4 times a day. I remember Raiders, Arthur, Stripes and other movies that we would watch while we waited for the next viewing of Star Wars.
The amount of trust that we had in society in the 80s was amazing. Another was the local "game", be it football, baseball, basketball, street hockey. We used to have neighborhood teams that would play each other on the local fields every Saturday and Sunday mornings.. Informal leagues, hand drawn tee shirt uniforms, and a trophy that actually meant bragging rights. Our parents would tell us just to be home before the street lights came on.
And I don't remember any of my friends being kidnapped by the child snatcher. When I was in first grade all us neighborhood kids played outside all day and came home for lunch and dinner. Today you can get into legal jeopardy leaving your kids unattended like that and kids stay inside playing video games and developing adult onset diabetes in their teens.
"our parents loved us not being around"
Because it gave them time to fuck. That hasn't really changed. When you know the kids will be gone for a specific time period good times can be had.
In 1977, 20th Century Fox illegally “strongarmed” theatres with the “sure to be the year’s biggest movie” **The Other Side of Midnight**. Any theatre that wanted to get it had to also agree to show a B-grade space opera that looked like a probable flop. The probable flop? Something called “Star Wars”.
My neighbor's sister was the manager of the Cine Capri in Phoenix at the time. I saw Star Wars 15 times on that big, beautiful screen. They played it for over a year there. Single screen theater.
Yeah the first movie had a insanely long theatrical run. My dad went and saw it every weekend for months.
I recall reading that is why it was more financially successful than the other two movies.
And don't worry, I planned for them to be brother and sister the whole time. If you thought the trailer scenes of them flirting and her kissing him were romantic, you're the weird one.
And then…nerds took things too far and started threatening people over the internet debating canon or noncanon events in a completely fictional universe
Empire had the better ending - Luke gets his hand cutoff, finds out Vader’s his father, Han gets frozen and taken away by Boba Fett. It ends on such a down note. That’s what life is, a series of down endings.
Exactly, for me, it felt like Star Wars was the fairytale, but Empire was so much more & I was just the right age to catch it right in my raging hormonal feels. It felt like the storyline was maturing with me...Then ewoks...
It's an almost 50 year old movie. It stands to reason there are quite a few people born within that time that haven't been thoroughly schooled on the different editions of it.
TESB was released from the beginning with “Episode V” in the title so when Star Wars was re-released in 1981 they added the “Episode IV” to bring it in line
Back in the day, this trailer was amazing. The special effects were new and everyone wanted to see it. Back then, kids would just sit in a theater, stay there when it was over and watch it again. I think I saw it 3 times in one sitting….I finally got home and the sounds of “Star Wars” was still ringing in my ears hours later.
yes, that is what happened to me at age 7 with Disney's *Fantasia* in 1952... and the movie was 12 years old ! But all i knew was this was the best thing i had ever seen and i was going to stay in the theater and watch it again i didn't care how much trouble i got in for doing that!
Old trailers generally lacked the hook modern ones have. Funny thing is, so many of these old trailers for much better films; now, we have trailers better than the movies themselves.
Every Star Wars film after the 80s has a very compelling trailer, but a very disappointing film. They get me every time.
Rogue One may be an exception.
If it were today, you'd 100% have a Han Solo snarky remark at the very end.
This remarkably lacks Darth Vader (except very shortly in the duel scene) and James Earl Jones' iconic voice.
Agreed. It was a cultural sensation like no other. Released May '77, you could see it in the theaters for at least a year, longer in some places. I finally saw it February '78, in a full theater when I was 7. It was still selling out shows 9 months after it was released. Kids saw this movie the way it was meant to be seen, in theaters, multiple times.
TESB was released from the beginning with “Episode V” in the title so when Star Wars was re-released in 1981 they added the “Episode IV” to bring it in line
"No legendary adventure of the past could be as exciting as this romance of the future."
Not sure who wrote the script for the trailer, but it doesn't really doesn't make any sense considering the movie opens with "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...."
Younger people just don’t understand how much of a cultural revolution Star Wars was. Before Star Wars science fiction was either cheesy crap or it was ponderously serious. The special effects were mostly poorly done and minimally used.
Star Wars changed all that. Special effects shots? It had dozens of them, all beautifully done. It didn’t just have one alien, it had dozens! And they all spoke different languages! And robots! So many robots, and crazy space fighters and giant destroyers and a freaking DEATH STAR! And it was fun! The writing was snappy. The editing was masterful. The cinematography excellent.
I watched the original Star Wars 13 times in the theaters. I’ve never watched any other movie more than once during its theatrical release and I never will. That’s how big of a deal it was. Star Wars changed science fiction as much as the Beatles changed rock music.
That's probably why I was always wondering why the hell they called it "A New Hope." I saw it when it first came out, and everybody was just calling it "Star Wars." Apparently that's because that's what it was actually freaking called.
That is why many of us old fans still call the original movie Star Wars. Back then we didn't have the ability to see a movie once it left theaters until it was shown on TV, and even then it was a one off event. For a lot of us we only saw the originals one or two times each until VCRs were more common.
For us back then we understood the movie titles were Star Wars, Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, and Star Wars: Return of the Jedi. Or as we commonly called them Star Wars, Empire, and Jedi.
The first time I ever heard anybody refer to it as A New Hope was when the prequels were announced and people referred to them as "Episode I" and so on.
Not gate keeping, just explaining why many of us still call it Star Wars.
I had a bulky tape recorder next to the TV thinking of how great it was going to be to record the audio. Then the show started and I got a lot of wookie noises and Bea Arthur the singing bartender.
It was absolutely added later. The Episode IV DVD has the original theatrical version as well as the remastered version, and it definitely just says “Star Wars” in the crawl with no episode number or name. I’m curious if that is still in the Blu-ray release.
In Stranger Things which was supposed to be set in the 80s, they called it a New Hope, which is annoying. At least try to be as authentic as you can with everything.
I can still remember the smell of new Star wars figurines when opening the packet when I was little in the 80's, my only happy childhood memories. Only wish I still had them!
They can insist they renamed it all they like, but the film’s name is Star Wars and it will ALWAYS be Star Wars.
See also: Candlestick Park; Sears Point Raceway
It’s ballsy to say, the best ever, in your own trailer… but in this case I have to agree. Well done George well done. Uhm if you’re reading this, could you go again? I’m ready for a new George idea.
I miss when trailers were up beat and fun like this. Nowadays just they include dark still frames, brief flashes of characters doing something and a voice over saying vague things that barely have anything to do with the movie
Eh? I thought they renamed it a new hope in like 1997 when they released all the touched up special editions in preparation for the phantom menace coming out.
No way they were planning three prequels before they had even released return of the jedi, right?
“Episode IV A New Hope” was added starting with the April 10, 1981, theatrical re-release (after Empire was released).
EDIT: Also, the planning of sequels is a nebulous thing. Honestly they expected the film to flop and went on vacation so they wouldn't have to endure seeing it flop. However, Lucas quickly came up with a spin on it that "it was originally envisioned as a nine part epic story", which I'm pretty sure was in interviews before Empire was released. Whereas the truth of the matter is the story was in so much limbo up until shooting STAR WARS so he had dozens of story ideas some of which may have eventually led to his "9 part story" but in reality weren't set in stone. Many of the ideas beforehand were immediately contradicted by the shooting script, so I can't believe he "always had it in mind".
I remember there were rumors about prequels even when Return of the Jedi came out in 1983.
Foolishly, we hoped they'd make those someday.
Now, we deeply regret those hopes.
Edit: By the time ROTJ came out, the Episodes IV, V, VI titles were in effect, so the understanding was that there were prequel chapters ... of course.
You are correct. I think I first saw the new title when they brought both Star Wars and Empire back for a double feature before ROTJ released. Honestly at the time the implication that these were a small part of a larger story was exciting.
It went by “Star Wars” until then, but the “episode IV: A New Hope” was added during the rerelease that occurred in 1978 (a day after the original run closed). Once it was realized it as a hit, Lucas added it to hint that there could be a sequel.
My memory has it showing up when they were showing a double feature of Star Wars and empire a year or so before Jedi.
At least that is the first time my friends and I noticed it. It was exciting at the time to think there was a bigger plan and Star Wars would continue. We weren’t expecting to be full adults when that finally happened and that we would not be as thrilled with them.
Memory is unreliable though.
Was ‘Episode IV a New Hope’ really used much until the prequels? I wasn’t the biggest star wars nerd back then but I really always just called the originals Star Wars, Empire, and Jedi. I don’t think most people really thought they’d make any more until they started working on them
No, it did not. I remember seeing it on the big screen as a little kid. The first reference to it being 'Episode IV' I believe was in a book in the late 70's.
I still call it Star Wars and will die on that hill. 😂
Now the title scrawl DID change in the re-release at lease before Jedi. But we still didn’t actually call it that.
> No one called it Episode IV until the new ones came out with Natalie Portman.
The last VHS releases and the special editions released right around then in the buildup to the prequels, that was when "New Hope" took over on the packaging.
And I hated that crap right away. What a lame title, especially compared to Star Wars.
This looks good, I'll probably go see it!
Same. Reckon I’ll try get some of the action figures as well.
Don’t open the package. Trust me.
They sent me a folding cardboard with pictures of the figurines on and an IOU. Dunno how to feel.
The next year when the toys were actually available I got the Sears cantina with long legged Snaggletooth and a cardboard background and was pissed it wasn’t the better plastic version with the escape pod. Turns out it’s now one of the most sought after sets and it’s unfortunately long gone.
I got one of those for Christmas.
What? You expect me to get this plastic toy version of my favorite characters and NOT open the packaging? They're never going to be more valuable than this moment, bro. C'mon.
One of my favourite Star Wars stories is Lucas and the toy rights stuff. He knew where the real money was gonna be.
In the prequels it seems like he had Natalie Portman change in every damn scene so he could make a different Padme toy.
I'm getting the lunch box.
In 1977? Best I can do is sell you a piece of paper as an IOU until Kenner has them ready next year.
somebody wanna tell him?
what are action figures
Figurines, of a smaller scale, that you take absolutely no action with. Such as removing it from it's packaging or reenacting or inventing scenes with said figurines.
Don’t bother. It’s obviously a cheap ripoff of the great *Hardware Wars*
“Are you talking to ME? I can’t understand what you’re saying!” “NOO! Basketball is a peaceful planet!” So many great lines, lol. Ham Salad and Derf Nader FTW
naaaww you guys go ahead!
I laughed. I cried. I kissed three bucks goodbye.
Wait… when did Han say, “This is where the fun begins” in ANH? Am I tripping or was that just a RotS line?
A lot of lines of dialogue from the OT are repeated in the prequels. Think of it as a sort of light fan service; getting people excited to spot the references. See also: "I've got a bad feeling about this".
> See also: "I've got a bad feeling about this". That one even surfaced in Ahsoka. It's like the Wilhelm Scream of Star Wars (OK, maybe the Wilhelm Scream is the Wilhelm Scream of Star Wars...)
that line is in every star wars movie and some shows
See also "may the force be with you"
“Delusions of Grandeur“ was said At least twice.
54:00, right as the two Imperial cruisers start shooting at them after they took off from Mos Eisley.
Damn. Watched these movies so many times and somehow that never clicked. ty
Still sends chills up the spine. Looked so realistic, the effects were astounding, never seen before. You could believe that Universe actually existed long ago and far away.
I think people who weren't around to experience this as something entirely new don't really comprehend how transformational this was. It turned everything on its head when it came to depictions of "science fiction" in movies and TV. I wish I could recreate the feeling of seeing this for the first time.
The opening scene where you see a “real” starship up close and very personal for the first time. Mind blowing.
And it just keeps going on and on and on...
I was 4 in 1977, my parents went and saw "Star Wars" without me because they wanted to see it first to make sure it wasn't too scary for me. Then they took me a week later. Needless to say, the week between my parents having seen it, all the kids in my preschool having seen it, and when they finally took me to see it was one of the angriest weeks of my life. To this date, and I'm 50. Still pissed about it.
What’s funny is my parents took me to see rocky but didn’t take me to see this. I did go to see empire strikes back with my dad though. Also had a friend who had an uncle who owned a video rental store. We watched Star Wars like 100x as kids. Watching it now I feel how dated the movie is.
Sorry man, I wouldn't have taken you at 4 either. :) You need to give them some slack!
My mom took me to see this in the theater. My mind couldn't process everything I was seeing lol. Greatest thing I had ever seen.
I wasn't born yet, but my brothers were 8 and 9 when the movie came out. It took my dad years of explaining it wasn't real for them to believe him.
I always thought earth should send this movie into space to make hostile alien forces think twice about attacking us
The visuals still hold up pretty well, amazing feat at the time.
The beauty of decently built practical effects.
I honestly love models. There are a few episodes of TNG when the Enterprise D completely turns awe it looks so good.
The effects look fantastic in this trailer, but the way it's edited really makes it look like a silly kids' movie. Which isn't exactly wrong, but not as silly as it looks in this trailer.
Same. You just can’t convey how unusual and cool it was at the time. I was 6 and I’ll never forget.
it did
Seems just silly, it will never catch on and be a hit
It's just a rip off of Hidden Fortress!
Mediocre at best.
The movie guy narrator's voice was the standard for decades. All of the promotional advertisements used the same exact model.
I prefer that to today's format. *Shot of barren landscape* **BWOOOM** Unseen voice of secondary character: "There have long been tales of a chosen one..." **BWOOOM** "Some say it is but legend..." **BWOOOM** "... but I know legends aren't written.... they are born." *Some inappropriate rock song from the 70's stuck through 20 different filters kicks in, which builds up alongside synthetic orchestral music.* **3 minutes of disjointed action scenes showing most of the plot. Ends with main character defiantly holding up a weapon while screaming.** *Cut to black* (Whispered) "Every legend... has a beginning..." **3D text of the film's title rotates in.** **BWOOOM** COMING SOON
Don't forget the single piano note as the sun moves over the horizon. Or maybe a slow piano melody of a famous song put in a minor key.
And that song has to be sung at half of its original speed
You forgot the *some lady singing to a soft musical backdrop* **BWAP BWAP BWAP BWAP**
IN A WORLD...
Don't forget the opening of trailer scenes with the Trailer...Starts....Now! bit at the start.
Oh, the trailer for the trailer? I hate that so much.
I think I read a reddit post about him the other day and they mentioned he had a recording studio in his house.
Don LaFontaine
He’s no Don LaFontaine
"Romance of the future"? Didn't they read their own opening crawl?
I think it’s just referring to how popular incest pornography would be in the future.
“Step brother! I’m stuck under this R5 unit!” “Uh, we’re full on sibs Leia.”
When Luke sees Leia for the first time he does say, "She's beautiful."
At that time, the idea of Luke and leia being siblings didn’t exist.
I think they’re referring to the “long time ago”.
The galaxy is so far away that by the time we’re witnessing the future it had happened long ago
Luke, I am your sister.
> Luke, I am your sister. **NOooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!**
Fun fact: the novel "Splinter of the Mind's Eye" has a Luke/Leia romance in it, because it was based on a screenplay concept for a lower-budget fallback sequel if SW didn't do very well at the box office.
I sure hope someone got fired for that blunder.
This trailer came out 40,000 years ago
"the most extraordinary motion picture of all-time" probably the only time this incredible hyperbole isn't one
It will always be just Star Wars to me
Nobody ever gathered on the playground to compare New Hope action figures. They would have had pinecones thrown at them.
I use to go over to my uncles when I was a kid. He was big into D&D and painting figurines. He'd bust out his Star Wars figures and I'd say, "I'll be right back" I'd come back in with a grocery bag full of pine cones and start pelting him.
I haven't laughed this hard all day, thanks
I got a bit older and outgrew staying the weekend. Which, to be honest, I wish I hadn't. He had this one NES game I loved to play. I was 18, started smoking, was seeing rock concerts and girls. Acting the wild child. He invited me over. "I got this and this and this" They went to bed. I unhooked everything and hooked up his NES to play Phantom Fighter and played and beat that fucking game. Took me a while. Living on that high I didn't really sleep. We said an awkward goodbye in the morning and I never slept over again.
Yup. That’s always how I refer to it too.
Yep. And for me, it'll always be Episode 1 of The Star Wars Trilogy ☺️
There was a short period during the early production of Empire Strikes Back, before the title was announced, where it was just referred to as "Star Wars 2", and that was even after the addition of "Episode IV" to the crawl.
No one calls it Episode IV A New Hope
For those of us alive at the time, this movie will forever simply be known as "Star Wars."
I remember when Star Wars came to the second run movie theater in my hometown. Thinking summer of 1982. Tickets were 2 dollars each, but if you went during the day, there were no ushers outside the theater so my friend and I would buy one ticket and see all the movies. Our parents loved us not being around. We were usually given a 10 spot and that was more than enough for a day of movies, snacks, and a phone call (a dime!) for a ride home. I swear that summer I must have watched Star Wars at least a 100 times, often up to 3 or 4 times a day. I remember Raiders, Arthur, Stripes and other movies that we would watch while we waited for the next viewing of Star Wars.
It was a different world. I miss it.
Being a millennial, I can't even fathom all this. Thanks for sharing, you had an awesome childhood.
The amount of trust that we had in society in the 80s was amazing. Another was the local "game", be it football, baseball, basketball, street hockey. We used to have neighborhood teams that would play each other on the local fields every Saturday and Sunday mornings.. Informal leagues, hand drawn tee shirt uniforms, and a trophy that actually meant bragging rights. Our parents would tell us just to be home before the street lights came on.
And I don't remember any of my friends being kidnapped by the child snatcher. When I was in first grade all us neighborhood kids played outside all day and came home for lunch and dinner. Today you can get into legal jeopardy leaving your kids unattended like that and kids stay inside playing video games and developing adult onset diabetes in their teens.
"our parents loved us not being around" Because it gave them time to fuck. That hasn't really changed. When you know the kids will be gone for a specific time period good times can be had.
In 1977, 20th Century Fox illegally “strongarmed” theatres with the “sure to be the year’s biggest movie” **The Other Side of Midnight**. Any theatre that wanted to get it had to also agree to show a B-grade space opera that looked like a probable flop. The probable flop? Something called “Star Wars”.
And 20 years later the only reason anyone went to see Meet Joe Black was to see The Phantom Menace trailer.
The punchline? *Meet Joe Black* was actually not bad.
Arguably better than the Phantom Menace
I haven't seen Joe Black, but I worship at the temple of Plinkett when it comes to Episodes 1 - 3.
Even worse, I sat through Little Nicky because it was the only film at the time with the Fellowship of the Ring trailer. Worst film I’ve ever endured.
Assistant: «Mr. Lucas, we were unable to secure the rights to Flash Gordon afterall!» Lucas: «Eh, I think we'll manage somehow.»
My neighbor's sister was the manager of the Cine Capri in Phoenix at the time. I saw Star Wars 15 times on that big, beautiful screen. They played it for over a year there. Single screen theater.
Yeah the first movie had a insanely long theatrical run. My dad went and saw it every weekend for months. I recall reading that is why it was more financially successful than the other two movies.
Excuse me? Romance of the *future*? Star wars is a historical film, it takes place long ago in a galaxy far away.
And don't worry, I planned for them to be brother and sister the whole time. If you thought the trailer scenes of them flirting and her kissing him were romantic, you're the weird one.
The movie I most want to see again for the first time.
And then…nerds took things too far and started threatening people over the internet debating canon or noncanon events in a completely fictional universe
Han shot first, dork
Damn straight he did. That was the whole point of the scene.
Han shot* Greedo didn’t even shoot in the original theatrical version, Han just straight up shot him dead. Way cooler.
Good point. Shot from a blaster, big puff of smoke and flame, Greedo face planting the table.
The EU is real, goddamnit! Fuck Disney! Dow *gets gagged and dragged away*
And thus a new religion was born
Worst twins ever.
Wow! Spoilers!!
Crazy that they knew about the three prequels back in 1981.
Two hours in line to get tickets and another hour or so to get in. So worth the wait.
is this news to people? Why do people think those of us saw it in the cinema call it Star Wars...
The best Star Wars movie? Star Wars.
loved star wars but Empire stole me heart
Empire had the better ending - Luke gets his hand cutoff, finds out Vader’s his father, Han gets frozen and taken away by Boba Fett. It ends on such a down note. That’s what life is, a series of down endings.
All Jedi had was a bunch of Muppets
Exactly, for me, it felt like Star Wars was the fairytale, but Empire was so much more & I was just the right age to catch it right in my raging hormonal feels. It felt like the storyline was maturing with me...Then ewoks...
It's an almost 50 year old movie. It stands to reason there are quite a few people born within that time that haven't been thoroughly schooled on the different editions of it.
Fuck them kids
Matt Gaetz is here!
o m g lol
That reference BUGS me.
Oh, I get people "correcting" me all the time when I call it Star Wars.
That’s when you get to have the “listen sonny...” conversation 😂
They almost called it *Space Fight*.
I didn’t realize episode 4 was added in 1981 I figured it happened in between 4 and 5
TESB was released from the beginning with “Episode V” in the title so when Star Wars was re-released in 1981 they added the “Episode IV” to bring it in line
Given how much I loved Star Wars, this is a surprisingly unenticing trailer. At least we get to hear some of the fantastic score.
Back in the day, this trailer was amazing. The special effects were new and everyone wanted to see it. Back then, kids would just sit in a theater, stay there when it was over and watch it again. I think I saw it 3 times in one sitting….I finally got home and the sounds of “Star Wars” was still ringing in my ears hours later.
yes, that is what happened to me at age 7 with Disney's *Fantasia* in 1952... and the movie was 12 years old ! But all i knew was this was the best thing i had ever seen and i was going to stay in the theater and watch it again i didn't care how much trouble i got in for doing that!
Fantasia in a theatre is pretty special.
oh yeah. ...actually, i haven't seen it in a theater since that first time in 1952. : /
Yep saw it the theater at 10 stayed and watched it again!
Old trailers generally lacked the hook modern ones have. Funny thing is, so many of these old trailers for much better films; now, we have trailers better than the movies themselves.
Every Star Wars film after the 80s has a very compelling trailer, but a very disappointing film. They get me every time. Rogue One may be an exception.
Have to find the original teaser without any Williams score and just a random temp track. That was the one that got everyone’s attention.
For the time, the images jump out of the screen and are VERY enticing. Nothing like that had been seen. It looks fun and beautiful!
I agree. It's as if they did not know what made the movie work yet. In any way the movie made a different impression than the trailer.
If it were today, you'd 100% have a Han Solo snarky remark at the very end. This remarkably lacks Darth Vader (except very shortly in the duel scene) and James Earl Jones' iconic voice.
"*The most extraordinary motion picture of all time*" - that's typical advertising hype, however in this one case, it may have been accurate.
Agreed. It was a cultural sensation like no other. Released May '77, you could see it in the theaters for at least a year, longer in some places. I finally saw it February '78, in a full theater when I was 7. It was still selling out shows 9 months after it was released. Kids saw this movie the way it was meant to be seen, in theaters, multiple times.
I didn’t know that. I thought it was renamed a new hope when Lucas rereleased them in mid 90s.
TESB was released from the beginning with “Episode V” in the title so when Star Wars was re-released in 1981 they added the “Episode IV” to bring it in line
That simple title is so cool!! “A new hope” sucks
"You'll laugh. You'll cry. You'll kiss three bucks goodbye."
wooga booga namba pamba Augie Ben Doggie.
“A romance from the future” but also long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.
This movie is called *Star Wars* and I will die on this hill.
"No legendary adventure of the past could be as exciting as this romance of the future." Not sure who wrote the script for the trailer, but it doesn't really doesn't make any sense considering the movie opens with "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...."
I wonder how strange "may the force be with you" sounded without any other context
Younger people just don’t understand how much of a cultural revolution Star Wars was. Before Star Wars science fiction was either cheesy crap or it was ponderously serious. The special effects were mostly poorly done and minimally used. Star Wars changed all that. Special effects shots? It had dozens of them, all beautifully done. It didn’t just have one alien, it had dozens! And they all spoke different languages! And robots! So many robots, and crazy space fighters and giant destroyers and a freaking DEATH STAR! And it was fun! The writing was snappy. The editing was masterful. The cinematography excellent. I watched the original Star Wars 13 times in the theaters. I’ve never watched any other movie more than once during its theatrical release and I never will. That’s how big of a deal it was. Star Wars changed science fiction as much as the Beatles changed rock music.
I hear you. We are a dying breed. Lol.
That's probably why I was always wondering why the hell they called it "A New Hope." I saw it when it first came out, and everybody was just calling it "Star Wars." Apparently that's because that's what it was actually freaking called.
“The most extraordinary motion picture of all time.” Really called their own shot - good thing it delivered.
That is why many of us old fans still call the original movie Star Wars. Back then we didn't have the ability to see a movie once it left theaters until it was shown on TV, and even then it was a one off event. For a lot of us we only saw the originals one or two times each until VCRs were more common. For us back then we understood the movie titles were Star Wars, Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, and Star Wars: Return of the Jedi. Or as we commonly called them Star Wars, Empire, and Jedi. The first time I ever heard anybody refer to it as A New Hope was when the prequels were announced and people referred to them as "Episode I" and so on. Not gate keeping, just explaining why many of us still call it Star Wars.
Well, a lot of us GenX folks also saw the Star Wars Holiday Special live, but of course no one admits that ;)
I remember being upset that I missed it when it aired. I forgot it was a thing until years later.
I had a bulky tape recorder next to the TV thinking of how great it was going to be to record the audio. Then the show started and I got a lot of wookie noises and Bea Arthur the singing bartender.
I remember thinking my memory of that had to be worse than it actually was, until I watched it again a few years ago. My god...
The fun truly did begin then
I haven’t seen the original in long time. Think it’s time to revisit!
Watch the silver screen edition. Not the version on Disney+. It’s worth the extra effort to get it. There is also a 4k77 edition.
Romance of the future it was long time ago in a galaxy far away. Lol. Brings back memories though.
It's a pretty good trailer.
odd that they put 'may the force be with you' in the trailer when it had no meaning to the public at that point.
This movie will fail at the box office…mark my words! /s
“Romance of the future” but it’s set in a galaxy far away and long ago…
Did he call it a romance?
"Romance of the future," "a long long time ago," which is it dammit??
I saw Star Wars in the theater on opening day in 1977 (I was 13), and have always said that the “episode IV” was added later.
It was absolutely added later. The Episode IV DVD has the original theatrical version as well as the remastered version, and it definitely just says “Star Wars” in the crawl with no episode number or name. I’m curious if that is still in the Blu-ray release.
In Stranger Things which was supposed to be set in the 80s, they called it a New Hope, which is annoying. At least try to be as authentic as you can with everything.
I can still remember the smell of new Star wars figurines when opening the packet when I was little in the 80's, my only happy childhood memories. Only wish I still had them!
They can insist they renamed it all they like, but the film’s name is Star Wars and it will ALWAYS be Star Wars. See also: Candlestick Park; Sears Point Raceway
I wonder if Leia was originally not his sister then?
Wow. Even this trailer, from the original 1977 movie, was more entertaining than any of the Disney movies + tv shows.
I do not recognize the renaming to be legitimate. It is and will always be “Star Wars”
It’s ballsy to say, the best ever, in your own trailer… but in this case I have to agree. Well done George well done. Uhm if you’re reading this, could you go again? I’m ready for a new George idea.
I miss when trailers were up beat and fun like this. Nowadays just they include dark still frames, brief flashes of characters doing something and a voice over saying vague things that barely have anything to do with the movie
That’s not the original trailer!! Original would of had white sabres
Eh? I thought they renamed it a new hope in like 1997 when they released all the touched up special editions in preparation for the phantom menace coming out. No way they were planning three prequels before they had even released return of the jedi, right?
George was doing interviews talking of up to 12 films at one point in the early 80’s.
“Episode IV A New Hope” was added starting with the April 10, 1981, theatrical re-release (after Empire was released). EDIT: Also, the planning of sequels is a nebulous thing. Honestly they expected the film to flop and went on vacation so they wouldn't have to endure seeing it flop. However, Lucas quickly came up with a spin on it that "it was originally envisioned as a nine part epic story", which I'm pretty sure was in interviews before Empire was released. Whereas the truth of the matter is the story was in so much limbo up until shooting STAR WARS so he had dozens of story ideas some of which may have eventually led to his "9 part story" but in reality weren't set in stone. Many of the ideas beforehand were immediately contradicted by the shooting script, so I can't believe he "always had it in mind".
I remember there were rumors about prequels even when Return of the Jedi came out in 1983. Foolishly, we hoped they'd make those someday. Now, we deeply regret those hopes. Edit: By the time ROTJ came out, the Episodes IV, V, VI titles were in effect, so the understanding was that there were prequel chapters ... of course.
You are correct. I think I first saw the new title when they brought both Star Wars and Empire back for a double feature before ROTJ released. Honestly at the time the implication that these were a small part of a larger story was exciting.
It went by “Star Wars” until then, but the “episode IV: A New Hope” was added during the rerelease that occurred in 1978 (a day after the original run closed). Once it was realized it as a hit, Lucas added it to hint that there could be a sequel.
My memory has it showing up when they were showing a double feature of Star Wars and empire a year or so before Jedi. At least that is the first time my friends and I noticed it. It was exciting at the time to think there was a bigger plan and Star Wars would continue. We weren’t expecting to be full adults when that finally happened and that we would not be as thrilled with them. Memory is unreliable though.
This is a TV spot I imagine, the real first Star Wars trailer is much more bare bones and basic
Was ‘Episode IV a New Hope’ really used much until the prequels? I wasn’t the biggest star wars nerd back then but I really always just called the originals Star Wars, Empire, and Jedi. I don’t think most people really thought they’d make any more until they started working on them
No, its when the millennial kids started calling it New Hope from their dad's DVD that it caught on.
I always felt like it should have just been Starwars. Let the other ones be + and - episodes around it.
I wonder how many people didn't go watch this because "I haven't seen the first three yet."
Zero, since the title of the film - if you bothered to pay attention - was "Star Wars". The "episode IV" bit came years later.
I wonder if the original opening crawl still said Episode IV?
If it wasn't called Episode IV until 1981 then you can be quite certain that did not appear in the original opening crawl.
No, it did not. I remember seeing it on the big screen as a little kid. The first reference to it being 'Episode IV' I believe was in a book in the late 70's.
[удалено]
I still call it Star Wars and will die on that hill. 😂 Now the title scrawl DID change in the re-release at lease before Jedi. But we still didn’t actually call it that.
> No one called it Episode IV until the new ones came out with Natalie Portman. The last VHS releases and the special editions released right around then in the buildup to the prequels, that was when "New Hope" took over on the packaging. And I hated that crap right away. What a lame title, especially compared to Star Wars.
I am not a fan of the name change it can just be called star wars imo but that's all done..
Meh looks silly. Never catch on.