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Star Wars (1977, 1981)

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  • Star Wars (1977, 1981)

    I saw Star Wars on the 68-foot-wide screen at the David Geffen theater in Los Angeles on Tuesday, May 31.

    My father died unexpectedly in January. He was a huge film buff who documented every movie he watched on an index card. A couple of years ago I showed him how to transfer his "list" to Letterboxd.com. He had a few titles that weren't in their database and figured out how to get the site to add them. His final count was 12,637.

    I believe he took me to a few Disney re-releases as a toddler, but the first movie I remember him taking me to was Star Wars. I had just turned six. When Darth Vader appeared, I told him I was scared and wanted to leave. We left our seats, walked up the aisle, and he encouraged me to watch from the back corner. A few minutes later, I told him we should go sit down. I loved the movie and ended up working for LucasArts years later, though I'm now a "grumpy" Star Wars fan. I don't care much for the new stuff and hate the changes made to the originals over the years. Getting to see Star Wars on the big screen again was a bittersweet experience. I had Dad's card in my pocket.




    The Academy showed a 70MM Kodak print from 1981. It included the added subtitle (which screws up the timing of Williams' crescendo when Tatooine appears), but none of the other changes.

    I sat in the center of the 4th row. The print looked absolutely amazing. Once we got past the Fox logo, there wasn't any dirt and there were never any scratches. The image was rock-solid steady, bright, and colorful. The sound was rich and expansive and the surrounds were definitely active. ("I think we took a wrong turn" echoed behind us.)

    There were two very minor splice interruptions where the film had torn in the past. Unfortunately, there is now a third, because the film broke as the Falcon approached the Death Star, which stopped the movie for three or four minutes.

    The (packed) audience was great. There were chuckles here and there, along with cheers and applause when Greedo went down and at the climax of the film.

    If they ever show this print again, it's worth the trip.
    Last edited by Geoff Jones; 06-02-2022, 12:10 PM.

  • #2
    Interesting - did he or you add the 'IV: A New Hope' later on that card?

    - Carsten
    Last edited by Carsten Kurz; 06-02-2022, 01:35 PM.

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    • #3
      He added it, typo and all.

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      • #4
        But, obviously, later? I think I only ever realised the 'A New Hope' subtitle when Epsiode 1 came out. Before, it was just Star Wars for me.

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        • #5
          "Episode IV: A New Hope" was retconed into Star Wars lore when it was clear an Episode V would be released. So, it's great to see how Geoff's father also retconned it onto that card. I guess that were already the first signs of things to come.

          Originally posted by Geoff Jones View Post
          I loved the movie and ended up working for LucasArts years later, though I'm now a "grumpy" Star Wars fan.
          I've had a special admiration for the early LucasFilm Games and LucasArts games, especially their point and click adventures, which included some awesome storytelling and delightful humor. So, now I'm interested... what did you end up doing at LucasArts?

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          • #6
            I didn't work on any of the adventure games. I started in QA, where I actually had as much influence on some projects as I did in later years as a designer. I was one of the QA leads on Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight.

            Later, I designed levels for Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine, Battle for Naboo, Bounty Hunter, and Republic Commando.

            On Infernal Machine, I designed a pretty cool bonus level where Indy goes back to the Peruvian temple from Raiders. Because the boulder still is blocking the entrance, Indy gets in by swimming through some caves beneath the lagoon (where he whipped the gun from Barranca's hand). You come to a small rectangular dead end with nowhere to go but up. If you flood the chamber, the water rises and you realize it's the pit he swung across in the film. There are new chambers that opened up when everything collapsed in the room where the idol was, with lots of new traps and puzzles. Eventually, you come to another idol and another rolling boulder, but with an even more exciting configuration.

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            • #7
              I remember seeing Star Wars during its original run at the Rimrock Theatre in Billings, MT. It was a "mall" theater with four screens. None of the screens were super big... it's too bad the movie didn't play at the Fox or Babcock Theatres, which I think were still operating at that time... the Fox had about 1400 seats and the Babcock (which has been refurbished) had in the 500s, but the Rimrock was the only theater in BIllings at that time that had the stereo sound equipment, so that's probably why Star Wars went there. The movie played in that theater for over a year and I heard they used four prints over the run. (Too bad Film-Guard hadn't been invented!)

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              • #8
                I don't doubt that print would be brittle. I've screened 7O's of THE RIGHT STUFF (1983) and ALIENS (1986) a bit in recent years and trust me, you never leave when they are running through.

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                • #9
                  Here's a link to the introduction, which includes a discussion of the print, as well as the 30-minute FX panel that took place afterwards with John Dykstra and Richard Edlund.


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                  • #10
                    Well it looks as if Disney isn't as stubborn as George Lucas when it comes to presenting the original Star Wars version. Can we expect a high quality restoration of the original on Bluray/UHD? I hope we don't have to wait till 2027 for that to happen.

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                    • #11
                      "A New Hope" (I'm not sure what "version") is playing June 18 at the Ellen Theater in Bozeman MT, along with a couple of Disney films later in the summer. They're a non-profit non-mainstream theater that has live events more often than movies, so of course they can get all the good stuff that us real movie theaters are shut out of. What a goofy-ass industry this is sometimes.

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                      • #12
                        Originally posted by Carsten Kurz View Post
                        Well it looks as if Disney isn't as stubborn as George Lucas when it comes to presenting the original Star Wars version. Can we expect a high quality restoration of the original on Bluray/UHD? I hope we don't have to wait till 2027 for that to happen.
                        I wouldn't bet on it just yet with Lucas still alive and Kennedy still in charge.

                        The original negatives were reconformed to include the "Special Edition" content in 1997, so they can't really use those, and I thought I remember reading that Lucas destroyed the original VFX footage that was removed, so they can't recreate the edit that way.

                        I don't think they're all that keen on releasing a BluRay or UHD that was struck from a release print.

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