Mielr

I have a '78 "Circus" poster framed on my wall that I see everyday, and a screensaver on my laptop that I made from photos of the recent Technicolor screening.

I have a shelf unit in my closet that was filled with SW memorabilia that I just transferred into a large plastic storage box, because I desperately need the shelf unit to store actual clothes!

I get a knot in my stomach when my mind drifts to the blu-ray release and the current state of affairs.

I check in here once a day, and about once a week at the SW facebook page I made.

That's pretty much the extent of it, these days.

The fanclub gave out iron-on t-shirt transfers as part of the membership pkg several years ago. I haven't looked at it in a while but I think it was a vintage SW logo with an illustration of an x-wing.

I've made my own t-shirts for my nephews using the '78 circus poster artwork and the Struzan red "Revenge of the Jedi" poster artwork.

I never cared all that much for either the Jung or Hildebrandt posters, though I
do have the '82 re-release poster, which re-uses the Jung artwork. I got the poster mainly because that's the year I first saw the film, and it has a nice silvery-blue metallic background.

http://www.movieposter.com/posters/archive/main/13/A70-6927

I still love the White/Struzan '78 "circus" poster best. It's a masterpiece, imo.

http://www.theforce.net/collecting/posters/anh/images/anh_-_style__d__1-sheet__1.jpg

none said:

Mielr wrote: I remember seeing another TV version once (may have been the broadcast premiere on CBS) that cropped out Luke and left Leia on the left of the screen and Han to the right.

Here's pics from a 1995 Sci-Fi broadcast:

<img src="http://desmond.imageshack.us/Himg842/scaled.php?server=842&filename=swtv19950728scificfanhe.jpg&res=medium" width="320" height="235" /> <img src="http://desmond.imageshack.us/Himg27/scaled.php?server=27&filename=swtv19950728scificfanhe.jpg&res=medium" width="320" height="235" /> <img src="http://desmond.imageshack.us/Himg192/scaled.php?server=192&filename=swtv19950728scificfanhe.jpg&res=medium" width="320" height="235" />

In relation to russs15's page, in the opening widescreen shot in this 1995 Sci-Fi broadcast the last frame of the SD flyover (the next shot is FS) has a different vertical cropping then the rest of the shot.

I only saw the original SW once in the theater, but I saw the HBO version literally hundreds of times- I even recorded the audio onto cassettes by propping a mic up to the TV's speaker.

In the medal ceremony scene, there's a close up shot of Luke, Leia and Han which was cropped for TV, and IIRC the HBO version cropped out Han, leaving only Luke to the left of the screen and Leia to the right. I remember seeing another TV version once (may have been the broadcast premiere on CBS) that cropped out Luke and left Leia on the left of the screen and Han to the right. The "faces" P&S VHS split the difference and cropped off half of Luke and Han's faces, rather than cropping one of them out completely.

I have the original full-page announcement for the SW premiere from the HBO directory booklet (which used to be sent to HBO subscribers) that I will scan as soon as I get my new scanner.

SilverWook said:

Reminds me of the Kmart brand cassettes I used back then to record the audio of tv shows. :)

xhonzi said:

Why do you think that Yoda and the Emperor were never implied to have lightsabres in the OT?

xhonzi said:

Why do you think that changed in the PT?

Better to have produced too few action figures than too many- if the movie had flopped, they would have gotten stuck with a lot of unwanted junk. Even in the case of TPM- they produced too much stuff, and a lot of it ended up in outlet stores like Big Lots.

No one could have predicted the popularity of SW, plus the movie tie-in-merchandising concept had not reached full maturity prior to SW.

I always assumed that the actor who played Bib Fortuna supplied the voice.

Akwat Kbrana said:

True, but that one's a bit unique in that pronunciation vacillates in the actual movie.

Tobar said:

<a href="http://www.redbubble.com/people/tomkurzanski/works/8608567-george-shot-first">Didn't know where else to share this but I knew I had to post it somewhere.</a>

Akwat Kbrana said:

Yeah, he's always had a hard time pronouncing his own fictitious proper nouns. Other examples of this are Naboo ("Nay-boo"), Gungans ("Goongas"), and Dooku ("Doe-koo").

DavidBrennan said:
I literally called Dave Filoni "effeminate".  That was all.  They SWARMED on me.  I absolutely refuse to believe that any honest sampling of grown-ups are that hysterically politically correct to be so outraged.  One guy there was apparently being too sincere about it, he was talking about how he is "transgendered" (don't know or want to know what that even means) and so calling somebody "effeminate" was "offensive"......

There has recently been an influx of....well....girly shills at TFN who literally come across as LFL employees masquerading as fans.....

It was insane. You can go to 1,000 other message boards and never again see apparently grown men behaving with such girlish hysteria. Ever.......

Finally, I have been banned there (for calling Filoni "effeminate". And, okay, when they swarmed on me I did double-down and observe that, in videos, Filoni also has a lisp and a womanly gait.

But they're a bunch of girly, ignorant (you would be amazed at the rank stupidity in the average post mixed in with all the, "Ahsoka is the best Star Wars character ev-ah!!!" quotes from 30 year old dudes), catty, stooges........

DavidBrennan said:

Any people with distaste for the current state of the SW "brand" or LFL in general feel any vindication by the floppage of TPM 3D?

Hmmm.... do I smell a term paper? ;-)

In any case, the fact that people who aren't even big fans of the films quote them because the (OT) dialogue has become part of our lexicon and so many characters are used as descriptive monikers for individuals (Old wise guy? Yoda. Mean guy? Vader. Hot shot? Han Solo.) is evidence enough of the cultural influence.

Most of the more recent documentaries (like the one from '97 hosted by Howie Long) show multiple examples of how the OT films have influenced our culture.

Just an example from personal experience, I know that AT&T employees call their round logo-thingy the "death star."

I was 6 when it came out and I didn't get into SW until '82, but even though I wasn't really paying attention in '77 I still remember that it was THE cool thing at the time.

I remember going trick-or-treating (probably Halloween '77) and my friend's little brother dressed as Luke, complete with a "litesaver." Another friend of mine had ALL the Star Wars toys at the time (he once put his hamster in the cockpit of a Tie-fighter and called him Darth Hampster) & he also had a bootleg videotape of SW that I'm sure his father procured for him.

My older sister had a friend with 2 sons and I remember seeing a landspeeder toy for the first time at their house.

SW was just everywhere and there wasn't much else to compete for the public's attention in the same way.

Saw this on "Nightline" tonight. In addition to the sci-fi-inspired costumes (including Princess Leia's metal bikini), they're constructing a replica of the Star Wars cantina:

Article (with many misspellings):
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/business/2012/03/sci-fi-inspired-brothel-near-area-51-is-out-of-this-world/

EDIT: Episode is posted now:
http://abcnews.go.com/watch/nightline/SH5584743/VD55179121/nightline-308-sovereign-citizens-radicals-next-door

I was once one of those people in question....

Back in 1980 or 1981, my teacher was discussing something space-related (may have had something to do with the 1st space shuttle launch) and she somehow got on the subject of Star Wars. She asked that everyone in the class who had seen one of the (then only 2) Star Wars movies, to raise their hand.

I was the ONLY kid in the class who didn't raise my hand and my classmates really
gave me a ribbing because of it!

SilverWook said:

The very first piece of SW merchandise I can ever remember having was the Star Wars portfolio. I liked McQuarrie's designs better sometimes than what appeared in the finished film.

There are some nice moments in the PT scores (like, Anakin's Theme, I think it's called). I've actually only bought one of the PT scores- ROTS because it came with that DVD of OT/PT music videos hosted by Ian McDiarmid.

But overall, the prequel music is lackluster. Williams' composing definitely is not what it once was, but I also think he was a bit uninspired when it came time to write for the prequels.

I forget if it was here or on another forum, but someone had it on good authority that Williams was not looking forward to the PT project.

The most-listened to score for me is ROTJ.

SilverWook said:

Baronlando said:

In 1985 there was a re-release of JEDI that was a total non-event, and was pretty much part of the last gasp of SW, entering its lowest point of popularity.  In tickets sold it's not that far off from this much more expensive reissue, so what does it take for LFL to acknowledge any kind of flaw in their M.O.? (the M.O. being: really little kids are the only thing that matters, the rest of you who supported this thing for 20 years can suck it. Maybe it's a little off-putting? Maybe?) 

Did they promote it much?  I don't even recall the reissue, although I saw a lot of movies that year.

I will always LOVE Star Wars, but I HATE what's been done to it.

I'm sure GL fully expected it to debut in 1st place, just like SW, ESB and ROTJ did in 1997. So, $23 million or not, it has to be somewhat of a disappointment to him.

The numbers will drop off pretty rapidly by next weekend, and AOTC will fare even worse when it debuts, I predict.

Forgive me for enjoying just a bit of schadenfreude this Sunday. :-)

CatBus said:

Mielr said:

On a side note, I know of someone who has all 3 SW films on 35mm (he collects 35mm films).

If he has a copy of non-SE Jedi, ask him if he'd sell/loan his print to someone else to make the transfer.  If he would, I bet we can find one hell of an interested party right here.

I think George is self-isolating. He's fairly ordinary-looking and I think he could put on a hat and walk around Frisco and few people would notice him much less recognize him. I used to live and work in NYC and I saw famous people all the time (much more recognizable than GL), doing ordinary things, and I never saw anyone speak to them, much less mob them. Maybe Frisco is different than NY (New Yorkers pride themselves on acting unimpressed by anything or anyone-LOL), but he's definitely not The Beatles circa 1964.
He's not even Lindsay Lohan, for that matter. :-P

On a side note, I know of someone who has all 3 SW films on 35mm (he collects 35mm films). He works at a company that does film transfers.

I don't know if they're the OOT versions or not (I only spoke with his boss and a couple of his co-workers), but I asked if he'd ever consider making transfers of the films, and his boss said that he's afraid of going to jail (LOL) and that since the guy is such a 35mm enthusiast, he'd probably see no point in doing it even if it were legal.

Just for curiosity's sake, the next time I go back there, I'll ask the guy himself (if he's there) if they're the OOT or SE versions. In any case, the place where he works has a telecine, but so far no 4k or even 2k scanner.

Oh, and thanks for putting links up to these articles. I'd have nothing to post on the blu-ray boycott Facebook page, otherwise. ;-)