The Film Frontier celebrates 30 years of Star Wars

posted by Tygrrius @ 12:01 AM

Thirty years ago today, on Wednesday, May 25, 1977, a space fantasy called Star Wars opened in theaters and forever changed the way our world watches, hears, and makes movies.

George Lucas: "One of the reasons I started writing Star Wars was because I wanted to see starships having exciting battles in space. I loved the Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers serials when I was a kid, but I thought that with new techniques and special effects, I could create an experience closer to watching a dogfight in a World War II film."

After several studios passed on Lucas' concept, then called The Star Wars, Twentieth Century Fox finally signed on to proceed with the film in 1973.

At the time, Lucas had two movies under his belt, THX-1138, which told of an Orwellian future and met with critical acclaim for its artistic merits though little commercial success, and the soon-to-be released American Graffiti, a tale of growing up in the early 1960's.

When Graffiti became a surprise hit during the early days of The Star Wars, Lucas renegotiated his original deal with Fox. Surprisingly, he did not ask for more money as a director or writer. Instead, he asked for sequel rights, television rights, and control over merchandising.

Since merchandising was nearly non-existent for movies at that time and anticipated sequels were seen as having little value, Fox eventually agreed to the new terms.

Over the next four years, Fox nearly pulled the plug on Star Wars more than once due to concerns that it would not make back its $11 million budget and would become a huge financial loss for the studio.

The studio need not have worried, of course. For over twenty weeks in 1977, Star Wars was the number one movie in the US. That first domestic release grossed $307 million, the highest ever at the time.

Star Wars also earned Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, and Best Supporting Actor (Alec Guinness) Oscar nominations, and took home a half dozen more of the awards including Best Original Score (John Williams).

Roger Ebert (Chicago Sun-Times): "Star Wars taps the pulp fantasies buried in our memories, and because it's done so brilliantly, it reactivates old thrills, fears, and exhilarations we thought we'd abandoned when we read our last copy of Amazing Stories."

A.D. Murphy (Variety): "Like a breath of fresh air, Star Wars sweeps away the cynicism that has in recent years obscured the concepts of valor, dedication and honor. Make no mistake - this is by no means a 'children's film,' with all the derogatory overtones that go with that description. This is instead a superior example of what only the screen can achieve, and closer to home, it is another affirmation of what only Hollywood can put on a screen."

Charles Champlin (Los Angeles Times): "Star Wars [is] the year's most razzle-dazzling family movie, an exuberant and technically astonishing space adventure in which the galactic tomorrows of Flash Gordon are the setting for conflicts and events that carry the suspiciously but splendidly familiar ring of yesterday's westerns."

Gary Arnold (Washington Post): "Parents who suffered dutifully through Logan’s Run in quest of a decent attraction for juveniles may now claim their reward. George Lucas has made the kind of sci-fi adventure movie you dream about finding, for your own pleasure as well as your kids’ pleasure."

Steven Spielberg: "I had never experienced special effects that were so real. [...] George tapped into something very spiritual for young and old. Star Wars is a deeply spiritual story, yet somehow he made a war movie, too, and created a mythology of characters. He touched something that needed touching in everybody."

James Cameron (The Terminator): "I got really energized by Star Wars. In fact, I quit my job as a truck driver and said, 'Well, if I'm gonna do this, I better get going.'"

Leonard Nimoy: "In '77 I was in Equus on Broadway and I kept hearing about the phenomenal success of Star Wars. I went to a theatre in Times Square and the place was packed with screaming, shouting, cheering people. And I thought 'Wow. I think we're going to be getting a call from Paramount.' And sure enough, three weeks later, they announced their Star Trek movie."

Peter Jackson (Lord of the Rings trilogy): "I remember standing and cheering and waving my arms around when Luke was flying toward the Death Star. I remember being completely overwrought at the excitement of it all. That sort of stuff didn't happen in films back then."

Nicholas Meyer (Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan): "In the seventies, there began a revival of film music proper, and no practitioner of that craft was more successful than John Williams. [...] Not for nothing was the term Space Opera coined to denote the work of George Lucas and his brethren."

Bryan Singer (Superman Returns): "I think truly entertaining movies affect you. I think Star Wars talked about growing up and religion and myth, and many kinds of serious things, but in a spectacular way. I think good science fiction ultimately tells stories of the human condition from an extraordinary perspective."

Though he would be heavily involved on the two Star Wars sequels as writer and producer, and was also beginning to bounce ideas off Spielberg about a series of action-adventure movies featuring a character called "Indiana Smith," George Lucas would not direct another movie until 1999's The Phantom Menace.

Star Wars was re-released to theaters in the summers of 1978 (where it was number one for several more weeks), 1979, 1981, and 1982.

1981 marked the first time the film carried the Episode IV: A New Hope subtitle, to synch the film with the Episode V subtitle of its 1980 sequel, The Empire Strikes Back.

To celebrate Star Wars' 20th anniversary, a Special Edition version was released to theaters in 1997. Featuring updated special effects and a couple of newly inserted scenes, the Special Edition was an unexpected hit (to non-fans, anyway), number one for four weeks, and the eighth top-grossing movie of 1997.

Including those re-releases, the film eventually earned $461 million in domestic box office sales. In terms of 2007 dollars, the first Star Wars film has thus raked in about $1.2 billion in US ticket sales alone. It remains the second-highest ticket seller in US history, second only to 1939's Gone With The Wind.

The Film Frontier on Star Wars

The Power of the (Unaltered) Force
REVIEW: Star Wars: Unaltered DVD
GAME OVER, Insert Coins (Star Wars arcade game memories)
REVIEW: Star Wars graphic novel
Star Wars, Tarantino Style
Star Wars: The Fandom Menace
A Lot Of Simple Tricks And Nonsense

Information Sources
The Making of Star Wars by J.W. Rinzler, 2007.
The Cinema of George Lucas by Marcus Hearn, 2005.
Sculpting a Galaxy by Lorne Peterson, 2006.
Star Wars Trilogy: The Original Soundtrack Anthology--Liner Notes by Twentieth Century Fox Film Scores, 1993.
The Internet Movie Database
Box Office Mojo
RogerEbert.com
Variety.com
LA Times: Calendar Live
Washington Post
Jam! Showbiz
ign.com