Ok, ok... before you decide to hunt me down and use my fragile internal organs as a hyperdrive generator, hear me out!
Being born in early 1989, and thus being 10 years old when Episode I came out, I have fond memories of going out on a great summer day in July and watching Episode I for the first time! It was great... I obviously know that the prequels are poorly written pieces of... ahh you know... but I'm now permanently nostalgic to the years 1996 to 2003... that includes (almost primarily Episodes I and II!)
The first Star Wars flick I've ever watched was in fact, in 1995 and at that time I only knew very little of Star Wars (I saw a bunch of ads for it somehow, I'm not completely sure).. and I wanted to get the "one with the walking things on the snow". So I went to the local video rental department, and my dad unfortunately mixed up Star Wars with Star Trek and told me that there are hundreds of episodes from it, and thus it would be pretty hard to find that particular one... so, the VHS covers to the old Star Wars trilogy were the ones with the red titling and white outlining.. you know those... and I think ROTJ's had a picture of an AT-AT on it (you know the one shown a brief second transporting Vader and Luke on the forest moon), and some AT-STs, so I figured that's the one! I watched it, I loved it, I didn't care it was the third film, I rented all the other ones they had left, and when the 199 special editions came out, I didn't even know what the fuss was about... but I didn't see it in theatres for some odd reason.
My point here is, I'm nostalgic to both Star Wars trilogies! But primarily the prequels... Of course I love the OT much much much more than I do the prequels, but I watch them (the PT) oftentimes to get reminded of the really cool times when it was really fun to fight with plastic hasbro lightsabers (even outside the theatre in the RAIN after watching Episode II) and make stupid Star Wars movies that are really cheesy! Interestingly enough, TACO BELL's tacos remind me the most of Star Wars, believe it or not!
Anyone else feel this way? well, anyone else below 20 at least...
I do have fond memories of when TPM was coming out. Exciting days, and I was only 13....
By the time the other two had come out, my tastes had shifted a bit. While conceding that the prequels weren't good at all, I finished my venting a long time ago. When a movie is 'bad' in my view, I turn it into a source of joy by MSTing it. So everyone wins! VADER: Let me look on you with my own eyes...
I too am nostalgic, but only for a specific moment of the PT.
After years of Lucas hype,-- months of ads and trailers, --days and nights of of the party in line, --counting down the minutes inside for the theater to go dark. I'm very nostalgic to that one moment during 'Phantom Menace' when the screen silently read "Along time ago in a galaxy far, far away..." and the audience exploded with cheers. WOW.
After such a innocent moment of hopes and dreams of all the possibility's ahead came to a slow realization that the magic was gone.
And even if george hadn't insulted the audience with Jar-Jar and metaclorine antics and delivered a great film, it would of been hard to match the anticipation that had been built up. The 'having' isn't always as great as the 'wanting'.
Since then I don't get caught up in the pre-hype before film openings. Now excuse me as I must get back in line for 'Transformers'. We've analyzed their attack, sir, and there is a danger.
I'm nostalgic for the line. I met a lot of people in line and we all had a good time. Unfortunately, due to the burnout and having a family, it's not something I can do these days. I'm not sure that I would though, since I haven't been that excited about a movie since.
I'm sure one day, when my son is older, we'll be taking turns sitting in line waiting to see the next big film. F Scale score - 3.3333333333333335
You are disciplined but tolerant; a true American.
awesome, but, not to be rude, I was talking about being nostalgic to the prequels themselves in particular, and all the hype surrounding it (i.e. toys, games, whathaveyou)...
like, when I watch Episode I, despite being incredibly dull, it feels like good times... that kind of thing.
Lord Phillock, I am like you. TPM is the first film I can remember watching in theatres, because before TPM came out I didn't go to the theatre any (mostly because of how young I was). The first time I saw Star Wars was also in 1995. TPM was also the first film I saw more than once at the theatre. That was my favorite Star Wars film at the time, but my how things have changed. So, yes I do get nostalgiac when I watch TPM and a little when I watch AOTC, because I saw that film at the midnight premiere which was awsome.
Originally posted by: Major fatal Moebius I feel more nostalgic towards the times that the PT didn't yet exist.
Us older SW fans tend to have a bitterness towards the PT and the SE, which is understandable. Our SW is only very remotely related to the SW of now, plot lines and whole characters have been greatly altered and changed by the PT and SE, to most of us these changes were very unwelcomed and it terrible taste. But regardless of that, I still think it is great that younger generations love Star Wars, I hope they enjoy it as much as I did when I was there age. I also think they are lucky they have toy lightsabers durable enough they can really beat the snot out of each other with them. What I wouldn't have given for one of those $7 telescoping lightsabers with the belt clips when I was a kid. Probably good I did not have one, because I may very well have worn it all the time if I had.
"Every time Warb sighs, an angel falls into a vat of mapel syrup." - Gaffer Tape
I can understand the nostalgia of anything growing up, cause it just holds a place in you that you dont' forget. I grew up watching Rocky III & IV, and never saw Rocky I & II in the theaters, so they were the sequels from the series that defined all of us who grew up in the 1980's. As years have gone on, I now see Rocky I as the classic it is, and Rocky II as a damn good sequel, and the rest of the series have their ups and downs, but are entertaining. I think that is the same way alot of the younger SW fans will look at the saga now.
Having been born in '85, retroactively just in time for the original versions to officially never be hitting the big screen ever again, my answer would have to be yes, of course I'm nostalgic towards the PT. It was more Star Wars movies.
Speaking of plastic sabers, I'll never forget being at the Tysons Corner Galleria FAO Schwartz a couple weeks before TPM was released and swinging around the Darth Maul saber while a tv monitor there played both trailers on a loop. That's also where I spoiled the ending for myself by flipping through the comic book adaptation but I think I'd already heard about it/figured it out for myself by that point anyway. The spoilers were something I'd follow for the other prequels as well.
Then there was opening day, and I went to go see TPM by myself sometime in the late afternoon passing a friend who'd just seen it as I arrived. The aud wasn't even filled to capacity, but as I left afterwards I remember passing a pretty huge line and seeing yet another friend who was about to see it. It is funny looking back on it now how TPM got hyped only because it was the first Star Wars movie in 16 years and ROTS got hyped because it would be the last ever, leaving nothing to hype AOTC over.
Speaking of which, I remember being at my uncle's house outside of San Francisco in August of '01 when I first read online what the official title of Episode II would be, a very cool moment since I wasn't far from where Star Wars was pretty much born. My uncle had a toy car and he mentioned it was of one of the cars in American Graffiti. Months later I saw Spider-Man on opening night and a kid turned on his green toy lightsaber and waved it in the air at the exact moment that Mary Jane kisses Peter Parker and I yelled "only 2 weeks to go!" amidst the other yells of the crowd. The morning of the 16th there was a story on the radio about how people were planning on skipping work to go see AOTC, and indeed I cut class with a bunch of friends to see it at the union station amc theater. I must've been pretty bored that summer because I went back to see it multiple times, unfortunately not once in digital projection no thanks to scooby-doo.
That last year before ROTS was pretty good. The lack of an OOT dvd didn't bother me to anywhere near the extent that it bothers me now, and besides I remember a lot of people picking up that boxset anyway. A friend and I watched Star Wars on his 60 inch widescreen in component video and 5.1 surround (I'd already read about the soundtrack screwup and yea, it was definitely noticeable. The Lars Homestead scenes come to mind). We were blown away by the picture resolution right from that opening scuffle aboard the Tantive IV. We just weren't used to it looking that clear! It was cool to once again hear Luke mention the Clone Wars now that we'd seen it for ourselves. The next month was the ROTS teaser, timely in its use of that very same digitally restored footage. The trailer in March blew me away.
I could go on and on and on about this, but I'll just close by saying that it was a blast seeing ROTS at midnight with another group of friends. Before the show started, I noticed someone in the audience watching the original version of Empire in widescreen on his laptop! I'd already known that fan preservations existed, but that was another thing that eventually led me to this very site.
I'm certainly not nostalgic to the films in anyway, but looking back I miss the build up. My pal Brad and I would talk for hours at work about what secrets were in the new episode. I still have the Darth Maul cup topper out on my shelf. Too bad the movies didn't live up to the hype.
I feel a strong nostalgia to all of the hype and buildup in the ensuing months before the PT began. The anticipation that we were finally going to be able to go home again after such a long time. That we were going to witness something powerful and amazing. That being said, I had realistic expectations. If the film had been a little weaker than Jedi, that would have been enough for me. The crowd roared with excitement as the Fox log, LFL logo and the "A long time ago..." title cards appeared onscreen. They screamed and cheered throughout the entire crawl. The moment that Captain said, "Yes sir" to Qui-Gon, a hush fell over the audience. Something didn't feel right. A collective gasp echoed throughout the theatre as the Viceroy spoke his first line. The entire theatre was silent for the remainder of the feature except for a group of people "booing" when Darth Maul was killed. When the film was over, my cousin turned to me and said, "THAT was a lot worse than Return of the Jedi." Then other friends and family began to bombard me with questions and complaints. "What the hell is a Sith?" "Why did that frog hold up a glowing ball at the end? I thought it was a bomb like in the battle earlier." "What was up with those goofy accents? Why couldn't they just talk in alien languages like Greedo?" etc, etc, etc
Originally posted by: CO I can understand the nostalgia of anything growing up, cause it just holds a place in you that you dont' forget.
Therein lies the true reason for most (if not all) the anti-Lucas sentiment and anger where some OOT fans are concerned. We all know the truth, the original story, the original scripts, the interviews, etc from the 70s. We know what we saw. However, and in spite of those facts, we still have Lucas still trying to revise history with his doublespeak.
It would be different if he'd made Star Wars and then over the course of the rest of his career, just made more films (sequels\prequels\parallels\etc). But he's not done that. He's instead decided to alter the originals, lie about them, deny their existence, and (until very recently) keep the originals from the people who remember them. Even then, he's decided he'll control how people see them.
It's that desire to control other people's nostalgia, for his own personal reasons, that angers people. He wouldn't have near the public backlash if he'd stop trying to convince people that their past is a lie - it's not.
When Ted Turner was coloring B&W movies years ago, he wasn't trying to tell people the originals never existed, or that using color is what the director really wanted. Nor was he trying to eliminate the originals. He was just offering up an alternative. People were free to watch it - or not. Even Turner knew better than to try and tell people what their memories or feelings {i]should be.
However, George is so megalomaniacal that he's decided he will make those decisions for other people. Forum Moderator
LFL chalking up people's desire of the OOT to nostalgia and using it as an excuse to dump it onto disc was indeed really shitty. At the end of the day, I can't boil down their motives to anything else than money. If George is willing to show it, there simply is no other reason for why he isn't willing to show it the right way. With the 30th anniversary approaching, it seems to me that next to no one cares about the films themselves and just takes whatever LFL says without a grain of salt. Last semester I overheard someone in my film course say to someone else before the class started "I don't even think of Star Wars as movies anymore, to me it's more like a way of life" or something to that effect. This was of course around the time the GOUT discs hit. The other guy was voicing his plans to pick them up and the first guy said "don't, they're non-anamorphic." I think he also implied that the SE's were better but there was no way of knowing what he really thought on that matter without me asking him. I also chimed in and told the second guy not to pay 60 bucks for the original versions. Actually, when you really think about it, the problem is kind of two-fold. People don't care enough about the Star Wars movies as movies and also aren't technically savvy enough to know that the GOUT discs are shit quality. LFL has certainly exploited this. We now live in this world as Star Wars fans where no one is right and no one is wrong. And you're correct, it's all because of GL.
One funny thing I've been thinking recently is that if GL really is persistent about not giving a shit about the original versions, maybe future historians will look back and see that he actually did the world a favor: he made people move on from Star Wars.
"Why did that frog hold up a glowing ball at the end? I thought it was a bomb like in the battle earlier."
LOL
I am old enough to have seen both ESB and ROTJ in the theatres and all 3 movies have played such a large role in my life, so the PT had *a lot* to live up to. When it was confirmed that Lucas was really doing them, I didn't want the movies to come out from the get-go because I just KNEW they weren't going to be able to live up to the originals for me. Also, if they weren't done correctly, the OT could be tainted for both the current fans and the fans to come...
When the SE came out in '97 and I saw some of the changes, "Uh-oh!" is all I could say! I had a sinking feeling in my gut that the PT was going to suck big time...
EPI came out and I was pretty bored with it from start to finish. Also, there were MANY things I didn't like about this new story line: Anakin built C3PO?!? A virgin birth?!? Tatooine is being used AGAIN?!? Midichlorians?!? But I was able to brush those things off in hopes that the future episodes would be better...
EPII was just BORING to me and I can remember almost falling asleep during it (and I have never, ever fallen asleep in a theatre no matter how bad the film was!). This is my least favorite in the series for far too many reasons to list here.
EPIII I actually enjoyed quite a bit and feel that it is the best of the series. It does have its faults, though, Lord does it have its faults...
As surprising as it all is to me, I am finding these days that as more time passes, I actually am getting nostalgic for the PT!!! But like others have said, it is more for the experiences and what was going on in my life at the time versus the actual movies. I must also say now that EPI has actually gone up a few notches in my book, though, and I never thought I would ever say that LOL But EPII will always, always be my most hated and the most pointless in the series IMO...Lucas REALLY missed the boat with that movie!
It's proof positive of how shameless the guy is. He'll bury the originals, but not episode II oh no!
Opening day was unforgettable if only for the reactions of my friends and I. Even then I knew we were all probably annoying everyone else in the aud (we were sitting towards the front) but even I didn't care, the movie was just that bad. My friend to the left went "Jimmy Smitts?!" and my friend to the right patted me on the shoulder and said "hang in there, man" as soon as the scene ended. One of them quoted Anakin's "but the women, and the children too" right before Anakin said it. Even I joined in and went "unleash the beast!" upon hearing Wat Tambor's voice for the first time. We laughed our way through the Geonosis scenes but one of us at least gave a woot as Dooku challenged Yoda to a saber duel. The absolutely priceless quote came from one of my friends who'd sat at the back of the theater as we were exiting during the end credits, "It doesn't matter how well it does because it's never going to beat LIKE MIKE!"
I was around for SW in '77 and I can say I'm definitely nostalgic when it comes to the PT. I have qualms about all 6 movies, but I don't let it blemish the enjoyment of watching any of the films. And when I say qualms, I mean the OOT and the SE's, as well as the PT.
As an adult it's easy to find fault in what essentially should be a children's movie.
Star Wars isn't a children's film. Empire may be even less so. Films 3 and 4 (release-wise) are most certainly children's films. Haven't seen the last two so I can't give an opinion. Forum Moderator
You're entitled to your opinion, but I disagree. George has always marketed his Star Wars franchise primarily to children. If you can't see that by now, you never will.
Originally posted by: sunday256 You're entitled to your opinion, but I disagree. George has always marketed his Star Wars franchise primarily to children. If you can't see that by now, you never will.
It is true that they are children's films, but they don't pander to them. Lucas said originally that he made the film for twelve year olds, but he also made it for adults, for himself. In the new Making-of book he says "its a kids film but in a way its an adult kids film," and that probably the best way he has ever described it. All the great "kids films", the ones that still entertain us as adults are like that--Raiders of the Lost Ark, Superman, Back to the Future, these are all made with kids in mind, older kids but still kids, but they speak to them in an adult manner. Staring with ROTJ, however, he pandered to them, and thats really the main difference. (though with ROTS he thankfully held back on this, though the film has other unrelated flaws).
I agree that he's not totally isolating the movie to just a child's demographic. It's not like it's an ABC-Seasame Street kind of movie. There are adult situations, but it's done in a way that a child can enjoy it. And I think you hit the mark when you say 12 year old. That's an age that's older than a toddler but young enough to still be considered a child and not a teenager. Granted, there's merit in calling a teen a child also.
I'll agree to some extent that ROTJ and TPM are a bit soft and gooey when it comes to pandering, for the simple reason that Jar Jar and Ewoks have this way of grating an adults nerves, but I don't find that with AOTC or ROTS. Now, there may be some really pathetic dialogue in both of those movies, but that's no different than any of the other movies...even the actors will agree.
I'm just tired of hearing the same old hatrid of the prequels from older fans. Just like Anchorhead's post before me, I don't think they should be speaking for me either. I enjoy the prequels, perhaps even more than the OOT. At 37 years old, I can still look back at the stop motion animation of the taun-tauns and cringe, or get entirely dragged down by the pace of ANH, or wishing those ewoks were wookies. And don't think for a moment I don't have qualms about the prequels because I do, but I don't let my qualms get in the way of enjoying all 6 movies like many here do. And I think that's a shame that some people will never just relax enjoy the prequels. They've got to constantly complain about how bad they are and try and convince others that they are crap.
And no, not everyone feels that way. And I'm not trying to lump everyone in one big boat. But from what I've seen that's how a lot of older fans feel. I'm just not one of them. Yes, I'm an OOT fanatic, otherwise I wouldn't be here. But I'm also nostalgic for the PT, and yes even a fan of it. I simply enjoy Star Wars - all 6 movies.
"And I think that's a shame that some people will never just relax enjoy the prequels."
I relaxed the first time I saw ROTS. I fell asleep. "It's the stoned movie you don't have to be stoned for." -- Tom Shales on Star Wars Scruffy's gonna die the way he lived.
