XPost: rec.arts.movies.past-films, alt.fan.starwars, rec.arts.sf.movies
XPost: rec.arts.sf.written
From: dakidd@sonic.net
In article <%5Q3i.914$px2.440@bignews4.bellsouth.net>,
ted@loft.tnolan.com (Ted Nolan ) wrote:
> In article <1179617795.926362.133910@e65g2000hsc.googlegroups.com>,
> wrote:
> >
> >
> >On May 19, 9:00 am, Howard Brazee wrote:
> >> On Fri, 18 May 2007 16:09:22 -0700, "Frank R.A.J. Maloney"
> >>
> >> wrote:
> >>
> >> >I was hooked the December before when I saw my first Star Wars trailer,
> >> >featuring a light saber duel. That buzz and I was a goner.
> >>
> >> >"Coming to a theater next summer." That was long, long six months.
> >>
> >> I saw a slide show in the previous year's Kansas City World Con. I
> >> wasn't expecting much, I wasn't much of a fan of movie SF. I did
> >> talk with this pimply faced kid who was staring in that movie.
> >
> >I saw a whole package of posters and standup cutouts when going to see
> >Airport 77. Yeah, I know. At least I think that was the movie.
> >
> >> The opening space ship that went on and on and on was very different
> >> from anything seen before - kids nowadays have no idea its impact at
> >> the time.
> >
> >I saw it first at a not terribly big theatre where a whole lot of
> >people filed out right in front of us waiting to go in, and I wondered
> >at their stunned look until that shot when I realized I was in for one
> >hell of a ride.
> >
>
> I won tickets to a sneak preview the night before the regular
> opening. I would have been 16, and it was the first time I was
> able to drive myself to a movie. I didn't know anything going in other
> than it was clearly SF. Going out I knew it was going to be huge.
I remember seeing one trailer for it and knowing that I *HAD* to see it
- The theater in our town put up the posters, and the next day, I rode
my bike downtown to go see it on the "opening day 4:00 matinee showing"
(This theater NEVER did matinees, but they planned one for SW.)
Got there, was in line with probably 200 other people, and showtime
rolled around. Still nobody in the ticket window. Half an hour later,
STILL nobody, and the crowd (which by then had grown to probably 500,
I'd guesstimate) was getting restless and grumpy. About this time, I
guess management noticed, or something, and someone carrying a roll of
tickets came out a side door and started passing out freebies,
announcing that the projectionist was sick, so the matinee was
cancelled, but the tickets were going to be honored for whatever later
showing we wanted to come to. (In true "small town grapevine" fashion,
it later became known that the projectionist had a case of brown-bottle
flu, and until his "backup" who knew how to run the ancient projector
got off work from his "real" job, they had nobody who was capable of
firing up the carbon-arc system that it used)
Went back for the 7:15 showing, and got my socks blown off...
That star destroyer rumbling across - and rumbling across - and rumbling
across... My god, how big IS this thing!!!! That bad guy who was SO good
at being bad... The 'droids... The spaceship battles... "The Force"...
The "walking carpet"... The spaceship that wouldn't go to lightspeed...
The EVERYTHING!!! It was spectacular. It was Star Trek. It was
Battlestar Galactica. It was Silent Running. It was 2001: A Space
Oddysey. It was Space: 1999. It was Johnny Quest. It was everything I
ever dreamed of seeing on a movie screen, AND a bag of chips!
I saw it 11 more times, and when the trailers for Empire Strikes Back
started showing up, I waited in drooling anticipation for it to hurry up
and come out!
20 years later, when the re-release happened, it was like I was 11 years
old again... I knew the second time around was going to be huge - two
generations, one that had grown up with Luke and Ben and Leia and Darth,
and a new one, that had undoubtedly heard their parents talking about
them, but never REALLY knew what the fuss was about... There was no way
it could "miss". The difference this time around was that at least half
of the people in line were in Darth Vader, and Ben Kenobi, and
Stormtrooper costumes.
And it was just as "bigger than life" as I remembered it as a kid...
--
Don Bruder - dakidd@sonic.net - If your "From:" address isn't on my whitelist,
or the subject of the message doesn't contain the exact text "PopperAndShadow"
somewhere, any message sent to this address will go in the garbage without my
ever knowing it arrived. Sorry... for more info
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)
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