I was a lucky kid to be born in 1971, and in 1977 I was all of 6 years old when Star Wars came out. That movie was my whole life for the next 5 or so years of my life, and when ever I think about what it was like then, a smile still comes to my face.
(For those of you who were there and remember, check out the old 1977 trailer at IMDB: Star Wars 1977 Trailer and tell me that doesn't put a smile back on your face: the Movie is called Star Wars, Vader is in that trailer for two seconds, Luke, the farmboy is the center of the story, wow!)
When I watch Star Wars in its original, unmolested form, it is still my favorite film of all time (and I am not a sci-fi geek at all, the rest of my top 10 list are films like Casablanca, Lawrence of Arabia, The Bridge on the River Quai, Taxi Driver, Paths of Glory, To Have and Have Not, The Godfather, The French Connection and Dr. Strangelove).
When The Empire Strikes Back came out, I loved it as much as the next fan (well maybe not quite, as I always prefered Star Wars, but I really, really loved it). I even can concede that from a technical, filmmaking POV, it might be the superior film; however, from a story point of view, it really is only half of a film--the conclusion of the story being told is found in Return of the Jedi, a film that I strongly disliked even when it first came out. In the end I feel that Star Wars tells a complete story by itself--a truly big, complete, wonderful story of a fantastic universe where good beats evil in a final confrontation (even the opening scroll indicates that the possibility of the Rebels destroying the Death Star would be a conclusive victory). The personal soap opera like story of the Skywalker family that the sequels (and later the prequels) tell is just not nearly as compelling to me. In fact, I have to pretend I never heard it to appreciate the quality of story and storytelling Star Wars is unique in the series for reaching. I never liked or was convinced by the whole story of the evil Vader's redemption--it goes against my own beliefs and values that say one is always responsible for ones actions, even if you say your sorry on your deathbed. So while I can acknowledge that ESB is an excellent film, I do not find it to be a very good story (if this makes any sense).
As for the SEs and PT, I find that they only distract and detract from the original. The juxtaposition of 1990s and 2000s era effects in a film from 1977 is completely distracting and damages my suspension of disbelief; I can buy any one effects convention (none of them are particularly realistic in themselves, they are all, afterall conventions), but when you start mixing them up it just makes you think about them. Every film and fashion is dated by it own time, I have never felt this was a bad thing. Being true to its own time makes it feel true, mixing and matching makes it appear false and ergo harder to accept.
So in the end, I am really a Star Wars '77 fan, first and foremost. So while I enjoy ESB, I would give it up in an instant for a quality copy of my favorite film of all time to watch on DVD whenever I wanted to.
Further the lack of quality of RotJ and most of the prequels and the downright absurdity of most of the EU has hurt the credibility of the original film to many outside hardcore fandom. This is a loss for our cinematic culture as I feel very strongly that Star Wars deserves a place up there with the greatest films of all time, something that the franchise juggernaut is beginning to deny it. And this is far more "tragic" than the story of Darth Vader.