Save Star Wars Dot Com — Page 16

Like Robinson Crusoe, it's as primitive as can be.

Wow. I feel really bad about having my first experience in 97.

At least I didn't start with the Prequels.

At least you had an experience. I spent my whole life watching them, so nothing ever came as a surprise for me. That was part of the beauty of seeing it in theaters in 97, as there were finally parts I didn't have memorized. Same with the prequels, NEW Star Wars. It took me a while to realize that all of the new parts weren't as good as any of the old parts and that the old parts had been repressed forever...

Anchorhead said:

That said:  The truth is, it was all luck of the draw. We get here whenever we get here. So while I got to be part of the Star Wars phenomenon of 1977 - I'm also going to turn 50 before most of you. That can be a sobering thought.

Unfortunately, I beat you by a few months :(
But yeah, being 17 at that time was perfect.  I could go see it whenever I wanted, and looking bad I am so lucky I got to see it on the big screens.

Having said that, everyone can cite something in their lives for which they are grateful they happened to be at the right age to participate.  My cousin was at Woodstock, for example.  I was the wrong age to see the King Oliver Creole band with a young Louis Armstrong on the cornet, or to see Chick Webb pound Gene Krupa into submission in their famous Battle of the Bands, or Buddy Bolden's band ... things for which there are no recordings or film.

Bingowings said:

Baronlando said:

I've heard people insist, with total confidence, that every shot in the special edition is new and that's because in the original they just held the ships up with wires, like an Ed Wood movie. And then you have a whole other breed who don't know that anything has been done to it, and still think it looks crude next to the new ones.

I think the standard response to such nonsense should be....

Funny, I just watched that again the other night (first time viewing it for my new wife).

That film is one of my all-time favorites for psychological horror.  It creeps me completely out no matter how many times I watch it.  And that particular scene tops it all.

I used to have a VHS copy of that with a quote that called that scene "the most terrifying in cinema history".  I tend to agree, personally.

I always wanted to pull a practical joke where a whole group of people pretend to be going about their business in a big open place like a public park, until some pre-determined person (who is not in on the joke) walks through on their way home from work or whatever.  At that point, they all turn and point like in that picture, and then start walking very quickly towards the person while uttering that horrific squeal/shriek.

Most effective if the person in question has seen the film, but still amusing if they haven't.

--SKot

JediTray said:

I can definitely relate.  I've been there since 1977, and wow what a time it was.  No home video, no Internet, just going to see the film whenever we could, blasting the soundtrack on the hi-fi, waiting on the action figures to arrive in the mail....

It was a simpler time.

I guess now would be a bad time to mention one of my neighbors had a Betamax back then, and claimed he had a SW bootleg.

I actually was more impressed by another format I'd read about in a magazine the same year. ;)

There was a fledgling home video market even then, but it wasn't exactly family fare if you know what I mean. :P

SilverWook said:
I guess now would be a bad time to mention one of my neighbors had a Betamax back then, and claimed he had a SW bootleg.

Zombie, maybe I should ask Moth3r about this but do you remember what the source is for the VHS widescreen bootleg telecine? If I remember it correctly, it was believed to have been recorded from a projection booth in '77...

the reason I am asking this is there has been discussions about the color of the original theatrical subtitles being yellow in the cinema in dark_jedi's Gout V3 thread, and one of the members here who attended the Baltimore screening recently said they were actually yellow on that print. When they have clearly been white on both the prequels and the SE prints and also white on this bootleg, Puggo Grande and various Jedi footage it makes me doubt it a little without actual photos to back it up, but I'm also ready to believe him as his memories are still fresh, any ideas? Could they have made different subs on different prints, this sounds very unusual and an odd thing to do.

I've never seen any yellow subs in anything official.

But is it possible that slightly yellowed prints caused the subs to appear creamy or yellow?

zombie84 said:

Could be true, but without something more than the word of one man I would say there's little merit to this claim. Could you quote his statements?

timdiggerm said:

Just wanted to take this moment to say that on the 1977-1981 technicolor dye print that I saw in Baltimore this year, Greedo's subs were yellow.

One statement, nothing more. Yeah, it could be true but I'm also skeptical about it, just wanted your opinion. Thanks.

Maybe, timdiggerm will chime in here with more info about it.

zombie84 said:

Has there ever been other footage of the original greedo scene based off 1977 material other than the telecine bootleg and 16mm prints?

Not to my knowledge, the Greedo subs have never showed up in any documentary footage either. The theatrical subtitles for Return of the Jedi should also be on some 16mm prints and is believed to have appeared on an early UK TV-airing in the eighties. Moth3r had it at one point but got rid of it by accident, I think.

If the print had a pink colour shift, colour-correcting it might have made the whites slightly creamy/yellowish. Or they're just faded...

The photos of that Baltimore screening shows that the print had a slight color shift but nothing major that would make white subtitles to appear yellow. What I read from his statement is that they were clearly yellow nothing in between, it would be nice to hear from timdiggerm about this again, who knows maybe the guy he knew who posted those earlier photos have a picture of them. It's been a while since that screening in Baltimore now, strange things can happen with the memory as we all know. I think they were white but I'd love to be proven wrong, but until then my best sources for the subs are the bootleg and Puggo Grande.