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When you were introduced to Star Wars for the first time — Page 2

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TV’s Frink said:

HansiG said:

in 2005

This thread is not going to make me feel very young…

Me either. I seem to be the oldest one so far.

My mother took me to see it in 1977. She’d read the book and then seen the movie once and thought I might light it. I ended up seeing it 10 times over the next 3 years. Then I saw on HBO a couple of times at a friend’s house. Then we moved and a new friend had it on tape (from HBO). The OT was one of the first things I got when we finally got a VCR in 1987. The 1985 version of A New Hope is my go to version because I watched it so often (way more than 20 times).

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Wow. I didn’t expect so many replies. I only thought I would get one or two replies.

“If only you knew the power of the dark side. Obi-Wan never told you what happened to your father.”

“He told me enough! He told me you killed him.”

“No, I am your father.” - Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker, The Empires Strikes Back

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I’ll give two answers.

  1. I saw Episode III when it released in 2005. I was 9 years old. I didn’t think of it as anything special and never bothered to watch another SW film. I don’t consider this my real intro, as III is not a real Star Wars movie. 😃

  2. In 2011, I was in an FYE store (they sell DVDs and the like, for you non-Americans), when I spotted a DVD of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope that claimed to also include the original theatrical version. Not knowing anything about the changes made at the time, I did some quick Googling and came to the conclusion that I had to see the Star Wars movies, and that I had to see the original versions, as I couldn’t stand for the injustice that is altering such an important film to such a heavy degree. Fortunately, the same FYE also had Empire and Return, so I bought all three for a total of about $20 (I know, quite the steal). Anyway, I initially found Star Wars to be a bit boring, but I LOVED Empire and, to a lesser extent, Return. After discovering the Despecialized editions in 2014 (thanks to a Reddit TIL post), I have since found a deep love for the first film. So anyway, though the GOUT is truly awful, I wouldn’t have my current love for Star Wars without it.

“You don’t really mean you’ll kill me, do you?” - Juror 8
“Silence, Earthling! My name is Darth Vader. I am an extra-terrestrial from the planet Vulcan!” - Calvin “Marty” Klein

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Colson, about Episode III, I kind of disagree with you. While it certainly doesn’t reach the levels of the OT, it certainly far outclasses the other two prequels in terms of storytelling, pivotal moments, and even pacing. It is also better than your average typical science fiction film these days.

As for the GOUT, I enjoy the set, but I don’t love it. It is outclassed by the De-Ed, the Silver Screen Edition, and from what I can tell, the Legacy Edition. I still have it, and though the discs are scratched up, they play without error. I also bought the Blu-Ray, with Darth Vader as the cover of the Complete Saga, but that was before I knew about DESPECIALIZED.

“If only you knew the power of the dark side. Obi-Wan never told you what happened to your father.”

“He told me enough! He told me you killed him.”

“No, I am your father.” - Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker, The Empires Strikes Back

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David Zaragoza said:

Colson, about Episode III, I kind of disagree with you. While it certainly doesn’t reach the levels of the OT, it certainly far outclasses the other two prequels in terms of storytelling, pivotal moments, and even pacing. It is also better than your average typical science fiction film these days.

As for the GOUT, I enjoy the set, but I don’t love it. It is outclassed by the De-Ed, the Silver Screen Edition, and from what I can tell, the Legacy Edition. I still have it, and though the discs are scratched up, they play without error. I also bought the Blu-Ray, with Darth Vader as the cover of the Complete Saga, but that was before I knew about DESPECIALIZED.

Just because the turd I took today was better than the turd I took yesterday doesn’t make it any less of a turd.

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I saw a clip of the trench run on the BBC science and technology show Tomorrow’s World early in 1977. It was about the motion control cameras used in this weird unheard of up and coming science fiction film. There was a man in a suit of gold armour and a monkey and an airplane traveling down a metal canyon. I was hooked.

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I saw Star Wars in a cinema in 1979. I was 7.

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Around 92/93. I was about 5 years old, and my mom let me get Return of the Jedi from the library. I’ve been hooked ever since.

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Impossible for me to say since my parents never really properly “introduced” me to Star Wars. I was born in the 90s and had seen it many times since I was less than a year old. It’s just always sort of been there in my life from before I could even comprehend what it was.
I kind of wish my dad had made a conscious effort to not let me see it until I was five for so, so that I could actually have a “first Star Wars experience” that I remember.

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I saw TPM on VHS in 1999 because all the kids at my school (1st grade btw) were talking about these weird things that I didn’t understand. It made recess kind if tedious when they constantly had to explain to me what a Wookiee was and I would ask dumb questions such as; “Is the Millennium Falcon some kind of alien bird?” or “this Dark Vader guy is some kind if robot, right?” Basically they wouldn’t play with me until I’d seen the films and knew what I was talking about.
I originally saw TPM and the SE of the OT with my uncle. However I was lucky in that when my mother bought me my own copies of the OT it was the unaltered editions.
Over the next couple of years I went from being the only kid who hadn’t seen SW to being the biggest SW geek in my class.

Star Wars is Surrealism, not Science Fiction (essay)
Original Trilogy Documentaries/Making-Ofs (YouTube, Vimeo, etc. finds)
Beyond the OT Documentaries/Making-Ofs (YouTube, Vimeo, etc. finds)
Amazon link to my novel; Dawn of the Karabu.

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One hot May afternoon back in 1977 when I was just 10 years old, my Mon told me and my older sister to get out of the pool and into the car, because we were going to see some new space movie at the local cinema.

I had no idea at all of what I was in for! Later that same day all I wanted was a model of that huge triangle ship from the start of the film. No toys like that had been released yet, so I went home and carved my own version out of a Styrofoam pool kick-board. I also found out that my classmate who lived across that street had also seen the movie that very same day, so the two of us just played Star Wars in my back yard all the rest of that day. One thing I was very thankful for was that my Mother did get the official movie program-book at the theater that day, so every one of those images are now forever etched in my memory.

Here is a photo of the theater where I saw Star Wars for the very first time. About 8 years later, I worked there as an usher. Sadly, the original building was torn down and the theater operation moved to a new location sometime in the mid 1990’s.

“First feel fear, then get angry. Then go with your life into the fight.” - Bill Mollison

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I don’t remember exactly when it was, probably the late 90’s. My parents had a VHS of Return Of The Jedi, the unaltered version. I think one of my earliest memory of Star Wars is watching this VHS with my family, I vaguely remember the scene on Dagobah, I must have been about 4 or 5 years old.
But I became a fan a few years later, between Episode I and II (so this was around 2000-2001), after watching my brother’s VHS tape of Ep. I, and then getting the 1997 SE of Star Wars and Empire on my birthday.

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I wasn’t introduced to Star Wars. I introduced myself.

真実

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Walked to the theater myself in June 1977 - I was a senior in high school at the time. But I knew about it at least a year earlier, from clips shown on the Bob Wilkins late night creature features series.

"Close the blast doors!"
Puggo’s website | Rescuing Star Wars

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Here in the UK, Star Wars did not arrive until Christmas 1977. It went on general release in January 1978.
Before the film arrived here, many pictures and scenes from the film were appearing in magazines and on the television. I was collecting pictures even before the film came here.

I saw Star Wars sometime early 1978 aged 12 at Guildford Odeon in Surrey. I went back many times as the film was being re-released every school holiday.

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Wolfman said:

Here in the UK, Star Wars did not arrive until Christmas 1977. It went on general release in January 1978.
Before the film arrived here, many pictures and scenes from the film were appearing in magazines and on the television. I was collecting pictures even before the film came here.

I saw Star Wars sometime early 1978 aged 12 at Guildford Odeon in Surrey. I went back many times as the film was being re-released every school holiday.

So you’re saying you were a fan before the movie was even released (at least in your country). That’s awesome.

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My first memory of anything Star Wars related was watching my dad play an arcade game where you have to fly a snowspeeder around and take out AT-ATs. I also recall there being a speederbike level. This was when I was around 4 or 5. I watched the 6 currently released movies on DVD around a year later, so the only Star Wars movies that I’ve seen in the actual theatre are TFA and Rogue One.

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I’m 20 so the prequels were coming out when I was a kid. My dad wouldn’t take me to Revenge of the Sith which came out when I was 9, because it’s pretty violent. In retrospect I’m glad that he didn’t because I don’t think the scene of Anakin killing children or getting horribly burned would’ve sat well with me. I used to catch the prequels on TV and I know I’d seen Episode I, II and IV at some point because my parents own the VHS tapes and when I finally watched these movies a lot of the scenes seemed familiar. I definitely didn’t know the plot though.

The big problem is when I caught the prequels on TV, it made me think that Star Wars was some boring science fiction series and that it wouldn’t be very good. I thought the movies looked really fake and boring. I’m glad to have finally seen the OT.

My first real Star Wars experience was The Force Awakens. My friend took me to the midnight release and I really loved the movie. I went and watched the OT and PT pretty out of order but always struggled to get through the PT films. I’ve actually never seen AOTC all the way through and I’m glad to live that way.

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I was 10 years old in the spring of 1977 and my mom took me to see it.

“First feel fear, then get angry. Then go with your life into the fight.” - Bill Mollison

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I’m going to say '96. I know my folks rented the OOT tapes to show me before I saw the SE, but given my age at the time it couldn’t have been more than a year before (I turned 7 in September 1996). The SE in the theater is the first SW experience I really remember. Spent the next few years obsessively checking those big “Essential Guides” out of the library and drawing ships and characters out of them, then reading whatever EU stuff I could find when I was a little older. Also played a lot of Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight in those days. Then came the PT, which I would consider the end of the beginning of my relationship with the franchise.

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I’m probably one of the younger farts around here…my first exposure was around Christmas 2000 or 01 at my grandparents. I walked in on my cousins watching Empire from the '95 VHS set, and I vividly remember seeing the walkers and being absolutely fascinated. I was in a huge robot frenzy at the time, and probably pestered them throughout the entire film asking “Is this a robot? Is that a robot?” I think they eventually just put in Jedi and left me alone, completely engrossed with the TV.

Went home, found my household had the same box set, and then the true obsession began. Over the next 8 or so years I brutally wore those tapes out (didn’t upgrade to the DVD set 'till 2008 or 9). Never found out about the prequels until Ep.III’s trailer hit…I have no clue how I stayed that ridiculously sheltered, but thank god I was.

What, a man builds a giant mound of dirt in his house and you aren’t entertained?

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SwissArmyTin said:

Never found out about the prequels until Ep.III’s trailer hit…I have no clue how I stayed that ridiculously sheltered, but thank god I was.

You don’t know how much I envy you right now.

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In 2005, my dad bought the special edition box set and I saw it for the first time.