Happy 30th Birthday
I was 13… The Surf Theater on Miami Beach… my dad walked out on the film… I went back a few times… how about you?
April 27, 2024
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It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” ā some novel, you know?
So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.
And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it ā I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.
There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.
I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury ā he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” ā and I’d forgot who he was.
So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging ā I was with her at that moment ā she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.
But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy namedā” “Yeah, sure ā you want his phone number?”
My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher
“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that Iām on the phone with you now, after all thatās been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didnāt seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. Thereās not a case of that. He wasnāt using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had ā if that were what the accusation involved ā the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. Iām not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, āYou know, itās not this, itās thatā? Because ā let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. TimesĀ piece, thatās what it lacked. Thatās what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.
~ David Simon
I was 4. My parents dragged me to see it. I wound up studying the history of eighteenth-century France, as far from Tatooine as you can possibly get. But I couldn’t possibly imagine my life without it. Forever has it dominated my destiny, as Yoda might say. The Force will be with us, always. Star Wars is forever.
I was -4.
Wasn’t bored either, only caught up to the trilogy on video in the mid/late 80s, as a kid. Never quite had that huge an impact on me, though I still managed to watch the films many times and enjoy them. Still, I’m more of an Indiana Jones/Back to the Future kid. Even then, I only saw the third films of those in the theater…
I was 11, and the local 4-screen multiplex held on to the movie for an entire year. Oh, the days before video.
Hope this doesn’t double-post. Damned TypeKey!
I was also 13 — I think your birthday is within a couple of months of mine. Some mall theater in suburban Detroit with my mother and younger brother. I vaguely recall that the first few issues of the Marvel comic had come out, so I knew what was going to happen in the first part of the film. I saw it several times, read the novelization, had a Threepio and Artoo T-shirt…it was the movie I hadn’t known I’d been waiting for, eclipsing previous favorites, the Planet of the Apes films.
It was a VERY long wait until Empire, which didn’t dissapoint, and another ’til Jedi, which did.
I was 4. I remember how long the line was to get in and I remember loving the scene in the garbage chute and the scene where Han shoots the intercom.
27 and on MDA at the Coronet in SFO
Han, Luke, Leia and the Falcon that weekend.
Now Jack, Will, Elizabeth in The Black Pearl this one.
We’ve come a long, long way baby.
Oh wait, no we haven’t.
5 years old. Whenever Vader came on the screen, I was terrified. I don’t really remember the rest of that first viewing other than jumping up and down with joy as we left the theater. In retrospect, it came at just the right moment, providing me an “escape” from my parent’s recent divorce.
I don’t remember a time in my life where I didn’t know all three by heart. Return of the Jedi is probably the only one of them I saw in the theater in original release(I don’t remember going though, I was four). The earliest Star Wars memory I can conjure up is watching Empire Strikes Back on vhs recorded from a network tv showing.
It is literally impossible for me to count the number of times I’ve seen those first three, or even estimate. Hell, I’m watching Return of the Jedi on Cinemax while I type this.
I may have seen Empire Strikes Back in theaters but I was too young to remember for sure (3) although I do remember the marketing in terms of tie-in books at the time and how oppressive and cold Hoth was. I do remember seeing Return of the Jedi, however, at the Century 21 theater in Denver, since renovated into a retail space; the film broke during the Rancor sequence.
I was 12 and I’m sure it was somewhere in Westport, Connecticut… don’t remember where exactly, with whom or how many times (I did way too many drugs in the years that followed)… oddly, I do remember the first time I saw Raiders of the Lost Ark more than my first Star Wars experience. I guess I must have seen it a couple times, but I don’t think I went opening weekend or anything…probably saw it weeks after everyone else, same with many other movies around that time.
I wasn’t even 1! :p
I can’t place the first time I heard about the story and have to no distinct recollection of the first time I saw the movies, because I can’t remember a time when they weren’t part of my childhood memories. I had a colouring book of Empire as a kid; records with the story narrated (with bits of the original dialogue and a picture book to accompany them), would love playing with a friend who had several action figures. I guess I could have seen Jedi in the cinema, only I was living in Saudi Arabia then so no movie theatres!
But I do remember going to see them on opening night 10 years ago, and it was truly “seeing them as you’ve never seen them before”! Totally WOW!!! (and that was the first for THX as well… that x-wing that sounds like it’s coming in from somewhere behind you?!). Unfortunately dubbed in Spanish (man I hate dubbing!), but since I knew the movies by heart, well I just replayed the original dialogue in my mind! ;o) SO having been blown out of the sky by a movie I was already so familar with, I can only imagine the joy of those lucky enough to see it 30 years ago!
I was 7, in my pajamas, at the drive-in theater. I remember the tinny little speaker hanging in the window of our Volvo station wagon. My brother and I stopped fighting for one night because we were mesmerized by the most amazing images we’d ever seen.
I was 12. My little sister and I were there the first week. We were among those who “lined up around the block” to see it again and again. We would have our mom drop us off in the blistering hot valley at the multiplex which is now a discount market, across from the Topanga Plaza. We paid to see it at least ten times, although sometimes we’d see it twice in one day, three times in one day without paying. We were so young we thought Luke was the cute one. And it was the following exchange that made our young hearts go pitter pat:
“Aren’t you a little short to be a storm trooper?”
“Huh? Oh, the uniform. I’m Luke Skywalker and I’m here to rescue you.”
“You’re who?”
Watching the movie now, Hans Solo is the gorgeous one, obviously. Luke seems like a whiney piss ant.
Star Wars was our whole world, seriously. And yes, I do realize we were (“part of the rebel alliance and a traiter, take her away!”) part of the demo that destroyed movies ultimately, but hey, what a ride.
The best thing about Star Wars? Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill. As the franchise progressed, the women got weaker and more boring, the men became stoic and boring. In short, everyone took themselves WAY too seriously. The story itself was never good enough to build an epic universe on. And with the possible exception of Empire, it never got better than the first one.
Of course, perception is everything and you shore can tell the general age of your readership by when they saw, if they saw, the original Star Wars.
Allow me to plug JW Rinzler’s new book ‘The Making of Star Wars’ as it really is a beautiful piece of work, truly the most exhaustive chronicle of a single film i’ve ever seen. You may think there’s little left to be said about the film, and you’d be wrong. Who knew that Tommy Lee Jones auditioned for Han Solo? Or that a character called ‘Binks’ (a name that would return to haunt the series many, many years later) was in the script as far back as 1973? Check it out, you won’t be sorry.
Thanks to working as as a kid for a sci-fi bobshop as my summer job I saw it in London in the summer of 77 at the Dominion Theater in a special mass-media screening that Fox organized in the West End. The film did not open in England until Boxing Day (December 26th) so people drove you mad with questions if they knew you had seen it. I sat next to Michael Aspel, who hosted the British version of THIS IS YOUR LIFE. When the second spaceship started rumbling its way towaerds the screen he said “fuck me!” Of course, I thought it was wondeful and sometimes even now it still is.
i was 5. My dad took me and my three older brothers to see it in Jupiter, Fl.
I remember loving the film but being ticked off because there were no action figures. That week, i grabbed by Dad’s Teri Cloth robe and a broom and ran around pretending to be Luke Skywalker.
Saw it when I was 4. Funny, I saw the original three in the cinema but ESB is the only one I have fond memories of (and it is still the only good one out of all 6 films, so perfect and satisfying (mostly because Lucas didn’t fuck with the director)).
I was 13. Saw it later in the summer in Vancouver, Washington- at the Hazel Dell cinema.
I had read the serialization in the newspaper and I enjoyed it. I wasn’t the best movie ever, but I did see it about 5 times over the next 5 years or so.
I went to an afternoon showing of Empire after a “friend” of mine blurted out “I couldn’t believe that…(famous spoiler)”.
I showed up about 2 hours early for the next show, walked in to the theater and it was about a half hour in.
I finally got to see Jedi in 70mm six track after being blown away by it for the first time by Raiders of the Lost Ark 6 years earlier.
I was reviewing it for the Daily Northwestern and went to a nighttime press screening at the glorious, now-defunct late deco Esquire Theatre in Chicago. There was one ebb in the dialogue where a few rows behind me there was the epic sawing-of-logs by late Sun-Times gossip columnist Irv Kupcinet, who lived very long because he was seldom ever awake after the lights went down on anything.
I was five years old and don’t remember much of the initial theatrical experience itself, but I was instantly consumed by collecting the trading cards and figures. I was only allowed to buy two of the latter at a time, my first being R2-D2 and Chewbacca. My mother would always chastise me for opening the packages in the car and not waiting until we got home, and of course I would always lose the tiny guns underneath the seat as a result of not listening to her.
If you can believe this, my entire second grade class was actually taken to see The Empire Strikes Back as a field trip. Unreal–50 kids taking a school-sanctioned afternoon off to see a popcorn movie? I can’t imagine that happening now. One of my classmates spread a rumor about Luke’s hand getting cut off, but that was all we knew going in.
20 years later, and me and about 10 of my coworkers, guys and girls most in their mid-to-late twenties, took the morning off work to go see The Phantom Menace. We all had a great time, oblivious to the backlash that would follow. Kids again, at least for a few hours.
I was -3 when the first Star Wars came out. But Return of the Jedi was the first film I saw in theaters, with my dad. Even though I was only three, I predicted the ending – reasoning that, because my dad was good, Darth Vader had to “turn good” in the end. Sadly, I fell asleep ten minutes into the movie and stayed that way, so I never got to see my prediction come true…
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Guy Maddin was wrong. The Saddest Music in the World is the misty whine of true Star Wars geeks remembering the 77 release. With each passing year their memory of that pivotal 77 experience gets more vivid, more detailed and even richer. Tis quite a shame when in actuality they simply weren’t old enough or are confusing their many years later TV viewing with seeing it on ‘the biggest screen’ in the world.
May the fauxce be with you.
btw My jab above is at a few others who write on well known sites. And not the honest posters above.
Wait a minute 1977? 1977-1962 I was turning 15 when it came out.
I guess that’s one of the first signs of Alzheimer’s…
I was 13 when Jaws came out, saw the re-release in 1979.
The re-release of Empire was a scratchy greenish print, but the double feature release just before Jedi was fantastic.
Jeffrey Boam’s Doctor – I can think of several things sadder than that. For one thing, someone having to point out how sad it is. Taking the time to give it that much thought in hopes of insulting a few people (probably only one person) is the saddest of all keys. And you’re wrong anyway. My memory was more vivid back then and has since faded, not grown stronger. Most people don’t know what it was like to see The Exorcist in the theater for the first time or Sleeper or Dracula or Young Frankenstein. There is no replacing that experience.
In keeping with what the Jeffrey Boam’s Doctor said, I remember much more clearly seeing the SW re-releases in 1978 and 1979, and seeing ESB in 1980, than I do seeing SW in 1977. I couldn’t tell you when or where I saw it for the first time. I just remember being so enthralled that, after my parents dragged me to see it the first time, I dragged them the next six. Indeed, my most vivid memory of seeing SW the first time is sitting around the kitchen table with my dad reading the newspaper and looking at the ad for it and trying to convince me to see it.
bipederast – the fact that you took it personally speaks volumes. My post wasn’t knocking anyone on this blog per se. I didn’t even read your initial post about your SW experience but reading it now makes me laugh.
Did you have one ice cream or two that fateful day lil fella?
I remember seeing it 1000 times in a week. I met Mark Hamill and had sex with a wookie in the toilet during intermission. Thankfully the memory has faded but I still don’t like the feel of fur on my genitals.
I feel so old. I guess I shouldn’t talk about how I was 24, and reviewing it at a theater in Shreveport. (BTW: Was this one of the last movies this big to be platformed?)
JBD: Thanks for the confirmation of your asshole status.
i don;t remember when I saw Star Wars. I ‘m sure my Pop took me but I can;t remember. Of course bought the VHS as soon as it came out.
I did see Empire Strikes back 50+ times though. Twice at the theater and 48 times at home on vhs.
A wookie, Gross JBD!
I wanted to have intimate relations with Han Solo but I was too young. He was the bomb.
“the fact that you took it personally speaks volumes.”
I didn’t take it entirely personally but was sticking up for all my kind. Does it really satisfy your little man’s ego to use a fake name and spray your miserable droplets of ineffectual juice at the world? Keep jerking it off, baby. You’re bound to produce something of substance sooner or later.
Good thing you have the internet to make you feel like a big man, otherwise what would you do with yourself? Wait, wait, don’t tell me.
I wasn’t even born.
Not until 1981 that is. I didn’t even get into Star Wars because of the films. At least, not at first. I would go over to my cousin’s place when I was a kid, before the films were on VHS, and play with all of his action figures. They were the most amazing toys I’d ever seen. I had Transformers and GI Joe, but Star Wars was something special. I knew just from the Biker Scouts, Stormtroopers and weird aliens that he’d amassed (not to mention the kickass Jabba the Hutt). Anyhow, I saw the movies between the age of 8 and 10 (my family didn’t have a VCR until the late 80s). A life long affair was born.
I’m turning 26 later this year, and the original trilogy still remains my favourite series of all time. I rewatched STAR WARS on Friday morning – sans special edition treatment. It was beautiful. I can’t wait to have children of my own one day and to hopefully see the same reaction I had the first time I watched the film. Plus I have a crap load of action figures to pass on. š
Hey, JBD, Bipedalist might have been a geek for a couple of hours, but you have been an asshole your entire life.
Nostalgia sucks.
I’d tell everyone the story of how I came to discover the film, at the Chinese Theatre in Hollywood on opening weekend, but since George Lucas has pretty much raped every fond memory I ever had of the original films, I don’t really feel like celebrating this once-monumental film.
^ Did you report this rape to the police? I hope you did. My mind can’t bear the thought that this blackguard might be still on the streets awaiting the opportunity to despoil more innocent victims of unblemished virtue. I demand the police immediately re-open this case and assign every officer in California to it. I demand justice. The miscreant must be punished. Send him to Louisiana, where the Supreme Court just upheld the death penalty for child rape. I see no difference between raping a child and raping one’s childhood memories. It’s the same thing. Let him fry. It’s what he deserves.
Just shy of 27 and booking theatres in Cincinnati. I was high on it from the first tine I saw the trailer, and everyone mocked me mercilessly for it, even after the exhibitors’ screening. (The UA branch manager asked me the next day what I thought it would do. Me: “Conservatively, 30 million.” He: “Never happen.” He’s now a bigwig with a major theatre chain.) The day after it opened, everyone conveniently forgot that I’d been predicting it would be a hit. Typical.