43 Comments

I remember the Star Wars mania of having to stand in a line that wrapped around the block to get in to see the movie.

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I knew Velveeta was dated, but the cook time was not a variable I had considered in the mix.

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My wife (6 months pregnant) and I saw the movie in May of ‘77. Leaving a matinee showing at twilight, the sky had turned that surreal pinkish look you sometimes see. The movie was so impactful I kept expecting a landspeeder go flashing by. It was then the absolute coolest movie I had ever seen.

I just saw a TV documentary about toys. Apparently Mattel turned down the opportunity to market the toy line so Kenner, a small company, took the bait! Good for them!

By ‘77 the most impactful, cutting edge movies I had seen - until Star Wars - were:

Forbidden Planet (Leslie Nielsen)

2001 A Space Odyssey

A Fistful of Dollars (Clint Eastwood)

Thunderball (Sean Connery)

The Exorcist

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My husband and I were the parents of a child in the fourth grade when the first Star Wars came out. We went as a family and all three of us fell in love with the movie and the whole concept. We didn't know about the toys then. Apparently we were clueless about a lot of things. But we are all still big fans. I didn't enjoy some of the prequels, but I love the newer ones maybe just not as much as the original. Thanks for the reminders.

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founding

I remember it was just after college graduation and I went to visit my girlfriend whose family had moved to a different city. She wanted me to go to this movie that had a cute robot. Ok, happy to go to anything with her. Loved the movie. Now, decades later my grown sons are continuing fans. It does span generations.

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The bear movie trailer is outstanding!

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I saw the original Star Wars seven times -- the last time was the day after I had just seen it for the sixth time. There is a scene where Luke and Han are walking through the city and at one very brief moment, some life form walks in front or or behind them and all you see of it are its knees. No one with me at the sixth viewing saw it so we went back the. next night, and when the knees appeared, everyone in my group yelled, "I see the knees!" for which we were promptly shushed, and rightly so.

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There was a time...if you wanted to see a much-anticipated movie after release, if you lived in Los Angeles, you trekked up to Westwood, stood in line due to the Hollywood ‘process’ of the early release to limited, large movie theaters. After an unacceptable delay, the films would then be released to smaller, for want of a better term, suburban theaters. Star Wars was a sensation due to the special effects, the quality, personalities and diversity (human, mechanical, alien) of the characters. In this category of memorable films, standing in line: The Exorcist, Jaws, Rocky. Christmas Day releases: Ben Hur, West Side Story. I’m forgetting more than I can remember.

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I was a little to young to see the original film in the theater but The Empire Strikes Back was the first real movie I ever saw in the theater. I loved it had a huge collection of action figures and of course a land speeder, X wing etc. I saw the original a couple years later on vhs. I am still a fan as is my teenage son. We have a BB8 on our Christmas tree. Might have to get an R2-D2 or C-3PO to pay proper respect to the original

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I was too young to see the original Star Wars, but my dad took me to see The Empire Strikes Back. My dad worked very hard and long hours, and it's the only time he and I ever went to the movies together. I was a huge Star Wars fan as a kid, with lots of action figures and I still have the Battle at Sarlacc's Pit Board Game somewhere at my parent's house. I'm proud to say that my youngest daughter (15) is now probably a bigger fan that I ever was. She has lots of "merch" - posters, t-shirts, etc. - and she and her uncle (my younger brother) buy each other obscure fan tshirts for holiday gifts. This year for Halloween, my daughter dressed as Rey to go trick-or-treating with my 1-year-old nephew who dressed as "Baby Yoda," ushering a new generation of Star Wars fans into the family.

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Last summer, before taking the boys to Disney World for the first time, we watched all of the original episodes of Star Wars which made the "Rise of the Resistance" ride so much fun and memorable. Needless to say, the kids became big fans and watched all of the Mandalorian and Bobba Fett as well.

Pure homemade cocoa (koko Samoa) is a favorite drink of mine growing up and I cannot get enough of it. I ration it through the winter months as they are very hard to come and require a lot of manual work. My husband and kids like drinking it and it's a great way to share a bit of my culture with them.

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founding

I was in high school when this movie came out and we had a drive in theater in our town but no indoor movie house. It was not until 1983 when I was stationed in Germany that I first watched the original Star Wars on the new beta max I had just purchased. The guy I was dating had seen it several times and he and his sons were huge fans. I did enjoy the movie and also agree that the prequels were not of interest to me but enjoyed the others very much. I never owned any of the figures, t-shirts or posters but certainly bought more than my share for gifts over the years. My mom just loved R2-D2 and C3P0! I think of her every time I see one of them.

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I saw Star Wars in the theatre when I was 17 and on a date.

The thing about that movie was its ability to tap into the zeitgeist of that time. There was a persistent malaise (not unlike the current situation), where the cold war was in full swing, inflation was a problem, there was unrest all around, and Star Wars presented an example of good triumphing over evil. Adults liked it as much as kids. It was a new hope.

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Dec 1, 2022·edited Dec 1, 2022

My memory of the first Star Wars? Still waiting for a certain young guy (who would no longer be young!) to live up his promise to take me. After 45 years, guess it’s not going to happen.

I remember the first Star Trek movie more. I was dating a guy who had a model of the USS Enterprise hanging from the ceiling of his place. Wasn’t the best movie but his enthusiasm was inspiring.

The velveeta lady should enjoy her 15 minutes of fame, as I don’t see the lawsuit going anywhere. Never was a fan of Kraft dinner.

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We saw Star Wars at the drive-in theater '77. I would have been five. It was one of those put on your pajamas and cuddle up in the wayback of the station wagon deals. My main memory of that night was hiking to the bathroom and hearing the sound effects of Star Wars coming from all the cars and then from speakers in the men's restroom. After that day I was in love with Star Wars. And since movies stayed in theaters for YEARS back then we saw it almost every summer in double features paired with movies like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and Silver Streak. It wouldn't be until years later that I would see Star Wars in an actual movie theater, though. In the mid '80s a local theater ran all three original cuts of the trilogy as a marathon. Star Wars fandom was at its lowest ebb so the theater was barely half full.

And yeah, Friends of Eddie Coyle is great. In Quentin Tarantino's new book of film criticism he calls the movie "overrated," but I disagree.

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We took our 3 kids to see the original Star Wars and then listened to the NPR series on the radio. Our youngest daughter was fascinated by the radio broadcast and told everyone we had a TV that you didn't have to look at.

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