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when did you see SW first...

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I saw Star Wars on the opening night of general release here in Australia.

It was shown in a 70mm 6 track version in a cinema with a huge curved (ie proper 70mm screen).

What I remember most was that for some reason instead of closing the curtains after an teaser for another film in 35mm the screen just exploded in every direcuon into 70mm and the 20th century Fox intro ...it was just awe inspiring to hear that fabulous fanfare (which Fox had stopped using btw and GL brought back) as the screen exploded in every direction and then .....

total black and "in a galaxy far far away ...."

STAR WARS

and then the famous opening scene ....the audience gasped and cheered ...really cheered ....it was one of those moments in a cinema when the hair on the back of your head stands up!

Whatever GL does to SW ...I will always remember this ....I still have the program and tickets from that night!

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I was exactly two in 1977. It was in an old theater (probably mono soundtrack). I can hardly remember it. My parents were young (25 and 21ish), so they were into it too. I had no idea what we were going to see, but it was my first movie, so I didn't care much.

However, in the middle of the movie (I think during the cantina scene), I choked on a piece of hard candy. Being young parents and having your only child choking and unable to make things work like they should, they freaked out, took me to the lobby, held me upside down over a heating vent and beat on my back. Eventually, I threw up and the piece of candy escaped my throat's clutches.

They were reasonably paniced and just wanted to go home. While I was choking, I put up a pretty big tantrum... but not as big as the one I put up when they wanted to leave the theater. I was hooked. Stuck on Star Wars like the piece of whatever was stuck in my throat.

God, I love this movie.
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I was 12 years old in May of 1977, my dad, cousin and I waited in line for 6 hrs to see a movie we knew nothing about..I can remember eating KFC in line while we waited...

I will never forget that Intro.....made the hair stand up on the back of my neck! Everyone was cheering...it was awesome. Two 12 year olds came out of that theater with their mouths hanging wide open...we just could not believed what we had seen. That Dolby Stero was rocking....

I prefered the Empire Strikes Back...and had wonderful memories of opeaning day in 1980 and in some ways it was better, but still I dont think I will ever have that same feeling that I had with the first one....it was truly amazing.
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I saw it when I was 8 in 1995 when the THX versions came out. I was just kind of wandering through video store when the opening scene from ANH started playing on their monitors. I was just so amazed I just had to seek out that video. After watching it I got the entire trilogy and I haven't looked back since.

Gentlemen, you can’t fight in here, this is the war room!

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London, 1977, Odean Cinema Leicester Square, with my Uncle. Fell asleep coz I thought it was boring! I was young!

When it came to our local, which was 3 mins walk from our house, I saw it again, and again. Watched the other 2 even more times than Star Wars. I was hooked by 78. Which was when I got my first figure, Ben (Obi-Wan) Kenobi..
By the time Jedi came to our cinema, I was old enough to go when ever I wanted too. That was about 17 times, in the 3 weeks it ran. Happy days!

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I saw it in 77 when it came to the little town of Milan, TN. I was 6 years old at the time. I believe I lived in Medina at the time so we had to drive into Milan which was then and still pretty much is a rural hole in the wall.

The movie theater only had one screen so we had to stand in line for what seemed forever waiting through showing after showing before we could finally get in.

I remember when we got close enough to the lobby doors that we could see the big cardboard standups of some of the characters.... it wasn't like the individual cardboard standups you can get today, this was like a big Star Wars poster on cardboard.... for some reason I think the Jawas were on there... I just remember looking at it thinking wow, I have to see this.

From that moment forward I was hooked.

My parents were not the type to spoil their kids so I had to wait to get the figures on my birthday and christmas which both come in December so that sucked each year but man did I get a lot of figures over the years

From that first day in 77 I wanted to fly in space and I wanted a "laser sword". No at age 32 I have a crap load of lightsaber replicas, a stormtrooper helmet, Han's blaster and more figures, books and comics than I care to admit

Good times
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I first saw it when I was nine, back in 1997. Until then I hated Science Fiction, because my father would always watch TNG, and I thought Star Trek was the most boring thing ever, and I figured Star Wars was similarly boring.

But I was wrong!

Unfortunately, I wore out the tapes so much, don't even remember seeing it in the theater, except for Jedi.
It was the last night the theater was showing it, at the 9PM night show. My brother fell asleep, but I was determined to see the end.

Good times.

4

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1977. I was 4. My aunt and my father took me and my sister. It was a Saturday afternoon, downtown Toronto. Huge screen, full theatre. I had no idea what to expect. I was blown away! From that day on, I ate, slept, and breathed Star Wars.

Another fond memory I have is in 1982. They were showing a double bill of Star Wars and Empire downtown at one of Toronto's biggest theatres. This theatre was huge! We sat front row first belcony. Before the feature, they showed the trailer for REVENGE of the Jedi. That was an awsome 4 hours!
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Looks like I'm the eldest fan in this thread so far! I saw Starwars in the theater in 1977. I was 14. Then I saw it at least 8 more times in the theater that year. It was stuff I'd never seen before and was so realistic to me that I felt transported to a different place...for about 2 hours You left the theater and you were just numb all over. You went home with all these scenes and images racing through your mind for days on end. It swept through my junior high along with the popularity of KISS (posters everywhere). Can't remember who I went with to see Starwars or where I went to see it (I remember going by myself several times), but I remember being in line for ROTJ on opening night and saw it with a REALLY rowdy crowd. It was great. I think the release of Starwars left an impression on me that will possibly never be repeated again. It was such a change from what I expected to see from a movie. When they released the short film reels of pieces of the movie, I bought one (mine was a scene in bens place and a fight between the Millenium Falcon and Tie Fighters...color, but no sound, just subtitles!). Still have it! Then I bought the VHS trilogy when it first came out, and then the next 2 versions ending with the SE. For people like me, it was always me being disappointed by myself about the changes being made. More recently it was frustration at why the originals weren't available on DVD (greatest movies of all time not on DVD???). Now I have kids who are into Starwars and am trying to explain to them why I feel the way I do. I try to show them the changes between the movies...and they keep asking, "Why did Mr. Lucas do that for??" What do you tell them?? Just bought a Tie Fighter vehicle and X-wing the other day at TRU...for my kids I never had any Starwars toys when I was young. I still remind my parents of that occasionally I'll never outgrow Starwars.

xpfshost
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I was 3 years old when I saw ROTJ in theaters back in 1983. It was the second movie I had ever watched in my life. The first movie I had seen was E.T., the previous year, but my parents tell me that I was too scared to sit all the way though it. With, ROTJ, I was too mesmorized to be scared. Even to this day, I still have vivid memories of how HUGE Jabba the Hutt was on screen and how colorful the lightsabers were during the final battle between Vader and Luke. From then on, I was hooked.

I soon asked my parents to rent the previous two starwars movies and asked for starwars toys for chirstmas and my birthday. I still own the toy Rancor, Jabba the Hutt with pit, Millenium Falcon and the Ewoks village that I got when I was 4 years old. I remember being so shocked when I learned that there weren't going to make any more starwars films. I couldn't understand why they would end something that was so successful and popular. By the time I was 5, they stopped selling starwars toys altogether. I was heartbroken.

I still think to this day, that if they were going to make 6 films, they should have just extended the OT over 6 films instead of just 3. The actors and the chemistry of their characters on screen had so much to offer and endless possibilities in storytelling...and as we've learned from the PT, were irreplaceable.
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I saw Star Wars when I was Five ... circa 1977. My parents had already seen the film themselves and deemed it appropriate to bring me along. It was a month or two after the initial release. I thought it was the most incredible thing I'd ever seen ... I returned for many repeat viewings.

My Empire memories are more cherished ... see, my father had been laid off in early 1980. It was a tough year. The day before Empire debuted, he was hired at a new place (where he still works today). So to celebrate his fortune (and his last few days of being a home-dad), he took me to stand in line for Empire Strikes Back on opening day. I hadn't turned 8 yet, so it was a big deal. On the way to the movie, he grabbed the novelization and he read it during our three-hour wait in line. Everytime he came to a new section, he'd yell, "You won't believe what's going to happen!!" I'd say, "Tell me! What's going to happen!!" And then he'd tease, "Oh, you're just going to have to wait to see for yourself!!" The whole line was laughing.





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I saw ESB on TV back in the mid to late 80s, and I didn't care much about it back then - I remember thinking "this movie has no ending!". I was only able to watch the whole trilogy when it was released in VHS back in 95, I also did not care about it so much.

I only became a TRUE SW fan when the 1997 version was released and I watched in in the theaters, mostly because back then I thought the special editions were for that theatrical release only, and would not replace the old ones. I became an angry fan later, when I realised the truth.
“Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.” — Nazi Reich Marshal Hermann Goering
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I feel so old ..you were all so young in '77....I was 22 when SW opened.

The first I heard of the film was one night I wandered into a record store (this was when records were black twelve inch vinyl things) and they were playing the soundtrack album. It was before the film had opened anywhere ....april '77.

The guys behind the counter were playing it for the first time. They ...and me were blown away. No-one had written a score on the scale of SW for decades.

I bought the album and then began the wait for the film itself. (It opened in the October here).

I too prefer ESB but SW started it all.

SW really changed the way films looked and sounded ....that is why I think that the original version has to be kept somewhere where it can be shown properly!





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I saw it back in 1995 when I was around 6 also, with the Faces set. We were going through the movies at Sam's Club and I ran across this thing called Star Wars, my parents had just bought that RD-D2 shaped Death Star playset for me a couple of weeks earlier and I remembered them saying that was what the toy was from. My dad came over and said something along the lines of "hey, you'd probably like these movies," I said "sure they look pretty neat." He must have been in a generous mood because he bought them on the spot for me. I went home that night, popped in A New Hope and I was astonished, I'd never seen anything like it. I then watched ESB late into the night(around 9 was late for me back then) and got up early around 5 the next morning so I could watch ROTJ before I went to school.
"I don't mind if you don't like my manners. I don't like them myself. They're pretty bad. I grieve over them during the long winter evenings."
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Saw it in the fall of 1977. I was 6, and we were about 10 minutes late getting to the theatre (mum had a meeting, and you know how mums are). I was completely blown away. The one thing I took away from that screening was Leia's line "Would someone please get this walking carpet out of the way?"



The things that stick when you're 6.....

Princess Leia: I happen to like nice men.
Han Solo: I'm a nice man.

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When I saw Star Wars, I remembered very little about the movie, except small bits and pieces. I was literally blown away, and it was only after amassing the SW cards, that I recounted the actual movie experience.

I do remember my Dad quoting Obi-Wan Kenobi for a few weeks after though.
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I first saw Star Wars in 88 I think. I was four years old and my mom had a pretty good collection of VHS tapes. Among them were the Star Wars trilogy, not in a box or anything, I dont know the exact details of the release she had. I remember the covers. I remember thinking that it looked so weird with that guy pointing the sword in the air. What kind of sword, look at those ships, etc.
Then I watched...and man, I think everyone here has that moment. You just get pulled in, and after that, you half lived in the Star Wars universe. I was always Han for some reason, he seemed so cool to me.

At any rate, by the time the '95 faces box came out I already had a ton of figures, an X-wing, TIE fighter, Slave I, etc. So that box set quickly became a part of my collection.
I saw the SE in theatres back to back to back. The theatre had a special thing for it, im sure that wasnt too uncommon. Of course, as a collector, and a completist, I bought the box set, but I think ive only watched them once or twice. All the rest of my viewings, too many to approximate, were the '95 set. I just never got into the changes...

Now...I share the same feelings as so many on this board. Longing for a DVD treatment of the movies that I fell into as a kid, and changed everything about movies for me. Hope. Thats all ive got.

BTW, I popped my SE A New Hope in the other day, just for the sake of comparison, and its almost impossible to watch. The tape has degraded horribly. I adjusted a lot of settings on my tv, and still couldnt seem to get a very clear/bright picture. More's the pitty for the SE, my '95 tapes look great.

Peace, Lethe
"You don't own space, so stop actin' like you do."
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BTW, I popped my SE A New Hope in the other day, just for the sake of comparison, and its almost impossible to watch. The tape has degraded horribly. I adjusted a lot of settings on my tv, and still couldnt seem to get a very clear/bright picture. More's the pitty for the SE, my '95 tapes look great.


I think this is Natural Selection at work.
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i have 3 memories that qualify as the oldest things i can distinctly remember. i got some clock toy for my 4th or 5th birthday that i remember playing with in my living room in my pjs on a sunny morning

my other two are star wars memories. i must have been 3 1/2 when i saw star wars at the geneva drive in daly city (just south of san francisco). i remember generally being at the drive in and scenes inside the millennium falcon up on that big screen out in the dark. i remember those speaker boxes on the poles next to our car

i also remember endor scenes from jedi and leaving the coronet theatre in san francisco. i remember the ending credits and filing out of the theatre with the crowds . sadly the coronet is the last big single screen theatre in san francisco and it is scheduled to be torn down soon to make room for a nursing home. the geneva drive in was closed years ago

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My first memory of the Star Wars world is a Hammerhead action figure I received sometime before Kindergarten. The first movie I saw was the Holiday Special when it came out on TV. I was 4 years old at the time, and I found it fascinating. What an introduction, eh? I also recall seeing a "making of Star Wars" feature on TV.

The first real Star Wars movie I saw was the Empire Strikes back, when it came out in the theater a couple years later. It was awesome! Then I saw Jedi in the theaters (third grade by then). And I finally got to see Star Wars a year or so later, I think, when my neighbor got a VCR.

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A funny story, because it happened somewhat by accident. I found a figurine in a ditch near my house and found it really cool. It turned out to be Boba Fett, so my parents rented ANH and it blew me away... just before ROTJ hit the screens, which I saw in theaters twice (although in French). When you're 8 years old and those Tie Fighters come right at you on a big screen...man!
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My first screeing of "Star Wars" on the big screen was 11 years old in 1977. It was a big theater in Paramus, NJ off Route 4. The lines waiting for this movie wrapped twice around the movie theater.

Kevin
"For God so loved the world, that He gave His one and only Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish, but will have eternal life." The Holy Bible - John 3:16
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First time was 1977. I was five years old. When those stormtroopers came bursting through that door my life changed forever...
Greedo's Revenge:

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I never got to see the originals in the threater...unless my parents took me to ESB or ROTJ when I was 1 or 3, respectively, and I simply do not remember.

Probably the first time I saw the movies was off the BETA tapes my dad had (and still has). My first ANH viewing would have definitely been a bootleg copy.
I can only guess that my parents saw ANH in the theaters. We've got 2 original movie posters in our basement, both the van Hildebrant edition. Neither is in very good condition.

I'm pretty sure my first action figure was a Death Star Commander. If all my figures, he's got the most wear, especially on his helmet. For whatever reason, I sucked on it.

Christmas of 1986(maybe 87) was the best year. I got the Ewok Village, Millennium Falcon, Shuttle Tyderium, POTF-edition Jabba's Dungeon, and maybe some other stuff as well (if I did, I don't remember it). That was also the year I found out there was

***Spoilers****

No Santa. I found several of my presents in the basement behind/under a bunch of chairs.

***End Spoilers****
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For me it was sometime in the late 80's-early 90's, these films introduced me to SCI-FI and I have never looked back.