imperialscum said:

Time of release had little to do with anything.

I saw it 2 decades after its release and yet I fell in love with it just as much as people back in late 70's

when I first watched it I loved it just as much as people who watched it at release

With all due respect, those aren't statements you get to make for other people. Particularly those of us who were there. Time of release had a great deal to do with the cultural impact. Plenty of articles have addressed it in detail.

Regarding being just as moved by it as people were in the 1970s: That's not a quantifiable statement, nor one for you to make so definitively. You were clearly moved by it or you wouldn't be on a Star wars board ten years later, but you don't get to speak for other fans' level of emotional impact.