I saw Star Wars in 1977 - I was 8 years old and remember it vividly.
Perhaps I remember it so starkly because I had to fight for it! I’d seen the trailer/ads on TV, all of my school friends were talking about it, and somehow I just knew this movie was for me.
So I got home from school one afternoon and my hippie stepmother said casually “we saw Star Wars today! It was great!”. I was like “uh…okay”. “Oh yeah” said Dad through a haze of marijuana smoke “it was fantastic” - and they regaled me with tales of giant spaceships passing overhead and princesses and glorious space battles…
Finally I - the target audience for this damn film - mustered the courage to enquire as to whether perhaps I might get a shot at seeing this thing.
“Alright alright” said Dad, visibly annoyed, “I’ll take you to Star Wars!”. We went some days later, but of course it felt like an eternity to me! We left in the morning but Dad (he was in the music biz) wanted to check out some recording studios that were being built. We finally arrived at the cinema at 5pm after a day of walking around empty building sites. Dad paused in front of the row of movie posters on the cinema wall. The movie was starting in five minutes and we still didn’t have tickets. I knew something was up.
“I’ve already seen Star Wars” my father moaned, “let’s see Close Encounters!”.
Cue Omen theme with me as young Damien!
No, in truth I basically begged “please, please, please can I see Star Wars!”.
The great man relented with an exasperated sigh, and I had the time of my life. It was wonderful - magical. The Force was with me.
Later Dad gave me a lecture on how I hadn’t considered that dying Stormtroopers might have had families…but that’s another story…