Star Wars fans

[Opsimath]

I've been watching a few movies on Prime. A couple of days ago I watched Meet Joe Black, and afterwards googled up some additional info on it. The Wiki page gave the box office gross, but said that since it was one of the few movies chosen to show the trailer to Star Wars Phantom Menace, I think it was, that scores of Star Wars fans bought tickets to Meet Joe Black and then left after the Star Wars trailer!

Is that the kind of thing typical Star Wars fans do, or just the hard core ones?

 

[GAD]

You have to remember that PM was the first Star Wars film in almost 20 years so it was a huge deal. Also YouTube wasn’t really a thing so there was no other way to see the trailer.

Star Wars fan are also MENTAL so….

But it’s definitely not just them. Marvel and Harry Potter fans would do the same, and I think have but my fangirl daughter who would know is still asleep from seeing Spideman at midnight last night.

 

[Opsimath]

But a full priced movie ticket just to watch a trailer and leave? I guess I can't quite get a grip on that.

 

[GAD]

But a full priced movie ticket just to watch a trailer and leave? I guess I can't quite get a grip on that.

I'm a pretty rabid fan but I didn't do that, probably because at the time I had a pregnant wife and an 18-month old and my wife would have murdered me.

I can definitely see doing something like that with my super-fan daughter, but I'd stay for the movie unless it turned out to be really bad.

I can tell you that on opening day my boss paid for everyone in the office to go see Phantom Menace. We went in two shifts so the office could still operate. A different job did something similar for The Matrix Reloaded when it came out.

 

[HeyMikey]

If you haven’t seen it there is a grade B movie called Fanboys. It will help you understand the Star Wars mania of the time anticipating the new movie. It’s pretty sophomoric but…

Here is a free version on YouTube

 

[awagner]

I remember hearing about a sailor who went AWOL to catch the Phantom Menace when it came out.

According to him, it was not worth it.

 

[Midnight Toker]

There are folks that fall in the überfan category for all sorts of things. Dr Who, Rocky Horror, Star Trek, you name it.

I STILL crack up at an old segment on Jay Leon's Tonight Show where that dog puppet Triumph The Insult Comic (Robert Smeigel) interviewed folks standing in line for a SW premier, many in full character costumes. He went up to a guy in a full Darth Vader getup and pointed at the red and blue buttons on his chest plate and asked, "What does this one do? Tell your mother to come pick you up from the theater?"

 

[awagner]

I STILL crack up at an old segment on Jay Leon's Tonight Show where that dog puppet Triumph The Insult Comic (Robert Smeigel) interviewed folks standing in line for a SW premier, many in full character costumes. He went up to a guy in a full Darth Vader getup and pointed at the red and blue buttons on his chest plate and asked, "What does this one do? Tell your mother to come pick you up from the theater?"

Classic, although it was Conan O'Brien's show

 

[fronobulax]

Star Wars fan are also MENTAL so….

I saw Star Wars (Episode IV: A New Hope) eight times in the theatre the summer it opened. Basically I saw it, liked it, saw it again and then spent the rest of the summer weekends visiting friends who had not seen it, wanted to and took me along. Most interesting was going with a friend who was legally blind but had partial vision. So we sat in the very first row. At that point I was ready to notice things like pancake makeup that had rubbed off a chin and onto a storm trooper's armor. That also means there is a VHS copy of the original before Lucas's edits and revisions in a drawer somewhere.

 

[chazmo]

I've been watching a few movies on Prime. A couple of days ago I watched Meet Joe Black, and afterwards googled up some additional info on it. The Wiki page gave the box office gross, but said that since it was one of the few movies chosen to show the trailer to Star Wars Phantom Menace, I think it was, that scores of Star Wars fans bought tickets to Meet Joe Black and then left after the Star Wars trailer!

Is that the kind of thing typical Star Wars fans do, or just the hard core ones?

Wow, they went to the movies just to see the trailer? That's definitely bizarre. I'd sure agree that's hard core, Cynthia!

I don't know if the story awagner heard about the sailor is true, but the assessment of Phantom Menace certainly is.

 

[jp]

Wow, I didn't know that, but this doesn't surprise me at all. I find it interesting how some younger generations have latched on to Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Marvel films but don't have no enthusiasm for Star Trek or Star Wars, which I can understand.

My wife and I have very slowly been going through the movies--not in proper chronological order, for you purists--and we're about to watch Phantom Menace next. It's taking me way back because I clearly remember my dad taking me (and my sibs) to see the first one when it came out.

There are a lot of parts from the first three films I absolutely did not remember. I also didn't know Jabba the Hutt was added to A New Hope via CGI, which messed with my head. It's been years since I saw Episodes I, II, and III, and I'm curious to see how they've held up. I do remember being irritated with Hayden Christensen's performance and/or scripting, which kind of ruined them for me.

 

[Midnight Toker]

Classic, although it was Conan O'Brien's show

Correct. Sorry, I’d hate to give Leno any undeserved credit and should have known better as Conan and Schmeigel are very close friends and collaborators.

 

[GAD]

There are extremely well-done fan-edits of the first three films scanned from VERY rare original reels of the films where there are none of the goofy edits George Lucas made when PM came out. They are the only copies I have so my daughter the super-fan was floored when she watched with the specialized versions with her roommate in college.

BTW the original reels are super-rare because George Lucas had all the originals returned and destroyed!

 

[Prince of Darkness]

Wow, I didn't know that, but this doesn't surprise me at all. I find it interesting how some younger generations have latched on to Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Marvel films but don't have no enthusiasm for Star Trek or Star Wars, which I can understand.

My wife and I have very slowly been going through the movies--not in proper chronological order, for you purists--and we're about to watch Phantom Menace next. It's taking me way back because I clearly remember my dad taking me (and my sibs) to see the first one when it came out.

There are a lot of parts from the first three films I absolutely did not remember. I also didn't know Jabba the Hutt was added to A New Hope via CGI, which messed with my head. It's been years since I saw Episodes I, II, and III, and I'm curious to see how they've held up. I do remember being irritated with Hayden Christensen's performance and/or scripting, which kind of ruined them for me.

The original plan was for the actor, Declan Mulholland to be replaced with a stop motion creature, though this would not have been the slug like version that was later used.

 

[Guildedagain]

Still have never seen a Star Wars movie, lots of other war movies, didn't need to watch movies glorifying wars we haven't even had yet, still don't. Never been able to stomach much sci fi beyond the original Star Trek.

 

[Midnight Toker]

Still have never seen a Star Wars movie, lots of other war movies, didn't need to watch movies glorifying wars we haven't even had yet, still don't. Never been able to stomach much sci fi beyond the original Star Trek.

It doesn’t glorify war, despite the word in its title. It mainly deals w/ fighting ruthless oppression and has many undertones that take naziesque imagery into the sci fi “future”. Also, I don’t even think epics like the Band Of Brothers “glorify” war. If anything, they show first hand why there should be none, ever! But still think it should be seen, if anything, for real life lessons learned. Something we do very little of in the US. Teaching kids in history classes memorization of names/places/dates….but not the how and why, and at what cost. A real shame IMO.

 

[Default]

Star Wars was an homage to Saturday movie serials. We are talking Sky King, Superman, and a ton more. The naziesque uniforms were an design choice, that's pretty obvious and intentional. I seem to remember Lucas saying that. As far as glorifying warfare, eh, don't think so. No one enlisted in the Marines because they wanted to shoot like an Imperial stormtrooper.
Anyway, here's a list of serials. It can be pretty fun to watch these to look for the wires on the spacecraft, or just to savor, eyes closed, that sublime and magical word, "orangapoid".

<whispers> "orangapoid" </whispers>

List of film serials - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Prince of Darkness]

Star Wars was an homage to Saturday movie serials. We are talking Sky King, Superman, and a ton more. The naziesque uniforms were an design choice, that's pretty obvious and intentional. I seem to remember Lucas saying that. As far as glorifying warfare, eh, don't think so. No one enlisted in the Marines because they wanted to shoot like an Imperial stormtrooper.
Anyway, here's a list of serials. It can be pretty fun to watch these to look for the wires on the spacecraft, or just to savor, eyes closed, that sublime and magical word, "orangapoid".

<whispers> "orangapoid" </whispers>

List of film serials - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

I remember reading somewhere that George Lucas created Star Wars after he was unable to get the movie rights for Flash Gordon
The Indiana Jones movies were also very much influenced by some of these serials.

 

[fronobulax]

watch these to look for the wires on the spacecraft

Or two by fours maneuvering the monster...

 

[gjmalcyon]

I got my hands on a de-specialized version of Star Wars (Episode IV: A New Hope) and was transported back to the original release, viewed in the closest 70mm move theater, 20 miles away in the summer of '77. Viewing subsequent version had me wondering if what I thought I recalled was actually in the film.

Worst version I have is a terrible VHS transfer version, complete with animation matte artifacts. Almost unwatchable.