TavorX said:
However, I assume you saw ANH in theaters and I can understand the nuanced experience you had over me.
I was born in the early 80’s and like Luke and his mother, I have no memory of the first time I watched the OT. I had seen the movies dozens of times at a very young age, before I was old enough to remember. From there I grew up on them in the 80’s and 90’s and the “Faces” box set in '95 was the first thing I ever bought for myself.
My favorite as a boy was always Return of the Jedi. It had nothing to do with the Ewoks, I just wanted to be like Luke Skywalker. Then I started getting older, and Empire became my new favorite. As a teenager I was drawn to its darkness. As an adult I started to appreciate the seemingly near-perfection of its design and execution. I’m happy to say that even to this day, it’s my favorite film ever, and hardly a viewing goes by that I don’t discover something new that I hadn’t previously discovered and appreciated.
The original Star Wars was always my least favorite of the OT, for some of the reasons you and I both mentioned. The pace is slower. It’s more of an introduction to the world and characters that I was already an expert on since birth. When I was very young it just didn’t have enough whirling and beeping and buzzing and flashing lights to distract my limited attention span the same way Return of the Jedi did. As a teenager it didn’t have the darkness that Empire did. So it was always the one I tolerated because it was still Star Wars and still pretty good after all.
I think as I’ve gotten older and I’m now sitting here in my early 30’s, I can say that I appreciate ANH more and more over time. You reach an age, or at least I hope you are fortunate enough to reach a point, where you are simply not just viewing movies as a popcorn eating schlock in a theater chair. Besides the entertainment and the action and the witty jokes, there is a certain beauty in the way a film is put together and presented. Binary sunset, the Cantina, the trench run on the Death Star, the throne room celebration … these are things that make the original movie stand out for me. The editing in the OOT version of Star Wars is a masterpiece. The combination of the score and editing in the assault on the death star are unequaled in film history. I can honestly say that at this point and for a long time, I’ve elevated ANH into 2nd place on my rankings, where it will safely sit behind Empire for the rest of time.