History Star Wars Turns 30, Begins Mid-life Crisis
posted by on May 25 at 12:52 PM
Bradley Steinbacher just asked me if I was “a Star Wars nerd.” I prefer the term aficionado. As such, it is my duty to inform/remind you that thirty years ago today, Star Wars was released in theaters in all of its digitally unmolested glory.
Since that fateful day in 1977, Star Wars has become a cultural phenomenon. Jedi was included as a religion on the 2001 UK census form, Reagan’s crazy space laser program shared a name with the series and uh, Ghyslain Raza got super famous on the internet with his wicked lightsaber skills:
Despite the undeniable cultural impact of the series, no one in our office would admit to loving Star Wars. Stranger film editor Annie Wagner says she is “totally indifferent to Star Wars” and Josh Feit was only able to confirm that “he saw it” on its initial release but threatened to kill me if I revealed his age at the time. By my calculations, he was 55.
Finally, enjoy this vintage Nightline clip where film critic John Simon outs himself as the world’s biggest asshole:
I’ll be watching SW while doing bong rips and making Wookie noises at my cats all weekend. Feel free to stop by.
DE WANNA WANGA.
I've never seen "Star Wars".
Man, I miss Gene Siskel. And what an arrogant prick John Simon is... should have been fired long before he was.
I want to put a big sticker on that guy's head that says "Fuddy Duddy."
Imagine that spreadeagled urinal from earlier today. Now imagine a spreadeagled Yoda urinal.
Happy 30th!
John Simon is a hater. He is NOT invited to my birthday party.
Why does John Simon sound like Dr. Strangelove?
Wow, do I miss Gene AND Roger (who's alive, but has been recovering from surger and away from the day-to-day reviewing business for some time). And John Simon? Calling Harrison Ford untalented? Hah! I do have to say, though, it sounded like he was reviewing "Phantom Menace", "Attack of the Clones", and "Revenge of the Sith". His reactions and opinions would have been just about PERFECT for those three movies. But not the first trilogy.
none of y'all are gonna admit you love goddamn Star Wars? are you so serious.
fucking freedom haters, the lot of ya.
You didn't ask the techlab, my friend. You made a huge mistake.
I. LOVE. STAR. WARS!!!!!
Did you ask Lindy West? Pretty sure she has the trilogy on VHS, bro.
The Empire Strikes Back is the only one of the six that's worth a damn. It's edgy, dark, and has stood the test of time of a great movie--unlike cheesball Star Wars and Return of the Jedi, which is awful with its freaken Ewoks.
I miss Roger and Gene too, especially when they were on PBS and had their terrier Sparky and "Dog of the Week."
I once overheard a couple of Star Wars geeks talking about one of their 'eating disorder' sisters. How did I know? He said his sister was as skinny as IG-88.
"Despite the undeniable cultural impact of the series, no one in our office would admit to loving Star Wars."
You didn't ask ME.
wait... never mind... forget I said that.
The first SW movie was okay, but I was such a SF geek at the time, that I compared it quite unfavorably (correctly, too IMO) with "2001".
Roger sure did wiggle around a lot when he was younger.
Nothin' but love for "A New Hope" and "The Empire Strikes Back". Yeah, I saw "Return..." to see the cool Jedi-fu, the run on the 2nd Death Star, all of that...the film was a bit meh in the final analysis, as I didn't care for the Ewoks and the cheesy song at the end.
I felt cheated of my money and time by "The Phantom Menace", rented the Clone bit on disc & struggled to pay attention to it & I've missed the third one entirely. I may have to see it sometime...
Whatever, the first two flicks rule, and they ruled my imagination from age 4 to age 13, at least. I get a little creeped out when I realize that the first image of death I can remember is of Luke's reaction to Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru's burning skeletons at their house on Tatooine.
/raises hand as an old-fart Star Wars nerd
To be fair, Simon is critiquing Jedi, which is probably the worst of the bunch.
He's still an obvious dick, and it's clear he's the least fun person ever. I liked, "That's the kind of movie I'd take my children to, if I had children." Poor bitter old man.
That being said, George Lucas can write himself some wooden dialogue. The first three are great, but Empire is the only one that's a proper film.
@ 8 Yes.
@ 19 You didn't miss anything; don't rent it.
Some of us may remember what a kick in the head Empire was... We waited a couple of years to see the SW sequel, walked in expecting it to be wrapped up neatly, only to find out it's a freaking cliffhanger that wouldn't be resolved for years. Picture the happy, wound-up ticket holders waiting in line for their Empire screening, watching our shell-shocked faces as we exited from ours. People were asking me, Is it good, Is it good? I didn't want to spoil it for them. I don't even remember what my answer was. Probably something like, "oh, it's good all right..." Inside I was thinking, I have to wait another two years for the end now?
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