ANOTHER galaxy, another time.
The Old Republic was the Republic of legend, greater than distance or time. No need to note where it was or whence it came, only to know that… it was the Republic.
Once, under the wise rule of the Senate and the protection of the Jedi Knights, the Republic throve and grew. But as often happens when wealth and power pass beyond the admirable and attain the awesome, there appear those evil ones who have greed to match.
So it was with the Republic at its height. Like the greatest of trees, able to withstand any external attack, the Republic rotted from within though the danger was not visible from outside.
Aided and abetted by restless, power-hungry individuals within the government, and the massive organs of commerce, the ambitious Senator Palpatine caused himself to be elected President of the Republic. He promised to reunite the disaffected among the people and to restore the remembered glory of the Republic.
Once secure in office he declared himself Emperor, shutting himself away from the populace. Soon he was controlled by the very assistants and boot-lickers he had appointed to high office, and the cries of the people for justice did not reach his ears.
Having exterminated through treachery and deception the Jedi Knights, guardians of justice in the galaxy, the Imperial governors and bureaucrats prepared to institute a reign of terror among the disheartened worlds of the galaxy. Many used the imperial forces and the name of the increasingly isolated Emperor to further their own personal ambitions.
But a small number of systems rebelled at these new outrages. Declaring themselves opposed to the New Order they began the great battle to restore the Old Republic.
From the beginning they were vastly outnumbered by the systems held in thrall by the Emperor. In those first dark days it seemed certain the bright flame of resistance would be extinguished before it could cast the light of new truth across a galaxy of oppressed and beaten peoples…
From the First Saga
Journal of the Whills
“They were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Naturally they became heroes.”
Leia Organa of Alderaan, Senator
From the prologue of the Star Wars novelization - 1976/77
In early 1976 a small blurb appeared in the news section of Science Fiction Illustrated Magazine stating that film maker George Lucas was shooting some kind science fiction out in the valley north of Los Angeles. The project was way over budget and the executives at 20th Century Fox were getting scared and thinking about cutting their loses. It was the opinion of the reporter that the film would never be finished.
We all know that the unnamed project that George Lucas was wasting Fox's money on was Star Wars which by a shear miracle would end up becoming the top grossing movie of all-time and a pop culture phenomena the world had never seen.
By the winter of 1976 20th Century Fox had determined that they had sunk such a large amount of money into Star Wars that they literally had no choice but to go all-in on trying to promote the movie in hopes that it may actually break even. The first trailer for Star Wars hit theaters in December of 1976 and featured the best of the completed special effects shots. There were space ships, robots, monsters and lots of explosions.
There was some really interesting stuff that ended up on the cutting room floor.
Speaking recently as a guest on the Russo Brothers’ Instagram Live series, the Pizza Film School Hamill reflected on one of the earliest deleted scenes in Star Wars history. It would’ve seen Luke witness the Tantive IV and Devastator’s brief battle above Tatooine before heading on over to Tosche to get those power converters he loves whining about. There, Luke bumps into a few friends: Camie and Fixer, but also a returned Biggs Darklighter, who’s graduated from the Imperial Academy that Luke so desperately wants to flee to himself... but as Biggs confides to Luke, he’s got no plans of staying part of the Empire’s regime.
Star Wars Carrie Fisher: Lunch With Monsters At A Chinese Restaurant
First published in Science Fiction, Horror & Fantasy (Magazine) – Fall /Winter 1977.
In STAR WARS, Carrie Fisher has a film role that measures up to her fantasy life. She portrays the beautiful Princess Leia, a senator from the plant Alderaan and a rebel-leader working secretly for freedom and justice against the oppressive, evil Galactic Empire.
“When I made my first film, SHAMPOO, my scene was shot in Beverly Hills, which is where I grew up. I wore this little tennis outfit, which was something I might wear in real life. It wasn’t at all what I expected making movies would be,” Carrie Fisher said. “I grew up watching movies and they always seemed like adult recess. And that’s exactly what making STAR WARS turned out to be – a kind of adult recess. I got to go to lunch with outerspace monsters at a Chinese restaurant.”
Born October 21, 1956, the daughter of Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher, Carrie Fisher is five foot one with dark hair and large dark eyes. She was brought up in the show-business-oriented world of Beverly Hills and made her professional debut at the age of thirteen in her mother’s nightclub act. After appearing in SHAMPOO she attended the Central School of Speech and Drama in London. She had been approached to do several motion picture roles following the stir her brief scene in SHAMPOO had created, but none of them really interested her until she read and was tested for STAR WARS.
“I wanted to do the role of Princess Leia because I wanted to have real conversations with people with bubbles on their heads,” Carrie explained, “I just wanted to be blasé about someone sitting across from me being a ‘small person’ or some strange looking person who was hired through the Ugly Agency. I love that there’s an agency in London called that. I can’t tell you how thrilled I was to be casually sitting around with those people as if they didn’t have hair-dryer heads and things like that. I wanted to sit next to Wookies, which are tall, half-man, half-ape creatures, Jawas, which are tiny, shrouded creatures with glowing eyes, and all kinds of robots.
“The people in the restaurant wouldn’t react. I thought that was terrific. And we were in Borehamwood, which is the English version of Crazylady, Wyoming. If I saw someone who was seven foot two, like Peter Mayhew, who plays Chewbacca the Wookiee, with someone like me, who is really small, and all of the rest of the weird looking cast, I certainly would react. We looked like a Fellini congregation entering this little Chinese restaurant.”
“Although I never read much science fiction before I made STAR WARS I had a kind of active space fantasy life all my own.”
When asked about her feelings about making a space fantasy film such as STAR WARS, Carrie admits that she enjoyed doing the stunts. “Especially swinging across the Death Star chasm. I was scared to death. And when I finally did it, I felt like my body was being ventilated from the inside. But it was a different kind of terror. And I knew it wasn’t going to be fun to do. I was really afraid of doing something wrong. I was sort of sorry we got it right on the first take. Once I got over the initial shock of doing it, I wanted to do it again. I still do. And that’s why I hope they do a sequel with lots of swings across chasms in it.”
What Was It Like To See Star Wars In 1977?
A brand new video from Looper that is circulating around that rather accurately depicts just how popular and life changing an experience seeing Star Wars back in 1977 actually was.
Most Star Wars fans know that the evil Lord of the Sith, Darth Vader, has been played by multiple actors.
Even though British actor and stunt man David Prowse insists he IS Darth Vader.
Of course Prowse played Vader (Physically) in the original trilogy while James Earl Jones supplied his voice. Veteran theater actor Sebastian Shaw played the Sith Lord when we was unmasked in ‘Return of the Jedi, while Hayden Christensen donned the costume (with help from some shoe lifts) in ‘Revenge of the Sith’.
When Vader returned to the screen in 2016's ‘Rogue One’, James Earl Jones once again provided his iconic voice, while Spencer Wilding and Daniel Naprous were responsible for the physical performance.
One name you may not know is Bob Anderson an English Olympic fencer and a renowned film fight choreographer who stepped in for Prowse for the lightsaber battles in The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.
Anderson subsequently went on to be involved in all three of the original Star Wars films. Anderson did not receive much recognition for his work for years after their initial release. Mark Hamill in 1983 revealed, "Bob Anderson was the man who actually did Vader's fighting. It was always supposed to be a secret, but I finally told George I didn't think it was fair any more. Bob worked so bloody hard that he deserves some recognition. It's ridiculous to preserve the myth that it's all done by one man." Anderson in 1994 specified that for The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi he staged the lightsaber duels and also wore the Vader costume in fight scenes. David Prowse, who played Vader, said he did his own swordplay in the first Star Wars film but afterward, "having one of the principals do his own stunts made [the filmmakers] very weird from an insurance point of view. - Wiki
Here is a short bio for Bob Anderson:
Robert James Gilbert Anderson (15 September 1922 – 1 January 2012) was an English Olympic fencer and a renowned film fight choreographer, with a cinema career that spanned more than 50 years and included films such as Highlander, The Princess Bride, The Mask of Zorro, The Lord of the Rings, and Die Another Day. He was regarded as the premier choreographer of Hollywood sword-fighting, and during his career he coached many actors in swordsmanship, including Errol Flynn, Sean Connery, Antonio Banderas, Viggo Mortensen, Adrian Paul, and Johnny Depp.
Star Wars: Mark Hamill Press Conference
Mark Hamill Talks About His Experience Making Star Wars
From a press conference of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association – By Yani Begakus
Mark Hamill – With all the merchandising that’s going on, I really wish they would publish the original screenplay for STAR WARS. It is so thick with ideas – more descriptions and more of everything than was in the movie. There just wasn’t time to get it all in. Yes, it is very simple, and people say there is no story line – just bad guys chasing you because you have something they want. On one level, that’s true; on another level…you know, even though I am ostensibly the hero, George Lucas has given me a menagerie of supporting creatures – animal, vegetable and mineral – and everybody’s working together. Men working with machines, working with rodents, working with whatever…I think it’s terrific.
There are things that don’t satisfy the audience about Luke – I’m too naïve, too straight forward, too earnest. All those things are complicated by Harrison Ford’s character, who is cynical, or Carrie Fisher’s character, who is very aggressive and sure of herself. Every creature in the story line has such a recognizable human quality. The kids, of course, respond to the Wookie because he’s big and furry and scary, but also he’s more scared than they are. That they love!
They were always fair with us during the filming. They didn’t make us fly blind. I mean, we had all those oil paintings that were done by Ralph McQuarrie, visualizations, beautiful paintings of all the characters. On certain sequences, like say, the rescue of the Princess, they used story-boards just like a Sunday comic strip. Like a Walt Disney animation.
We went to see all the models before filming; and they said: this is the Millenium Falcon, and these are the fighters. I just sort of memorized them all so I knew what they were talking about in the screenplay.
As much as possible, they tried to show us what it was all going to look like. But we were still amazed when we saw it!
One of the most difficult things was the final battle sequence. Everybody, all the pilots, sat in the same cockpit. It was like popping people into a dentist’s chair. Pilot number one, pilot number two, pilot number three….I was pilot number five. Take a number and wait. They had all these guys rocking you on a platform ten feet off the ground, bored. And there was nobody reading off lines to you – no script girl. We went through what must have been fifteen pages of that last battle without stopping! I had to memorize all the different dives and where this guy gets blown up and that he was supposed to be my friend in high school and where to turn off the targeting device and then just fly along for a while. If I forgot, I’d just fake it. That was really hard! I asked George later why he did that sadistic thing to the actors, and he said because it added a sense of urgency.
Tunisia. Ah, that was my favorite part of the movie. It was very easy to imagine you were out in another galaxy if you just turned your back on the film crew and watched the sun going down. It’s so exotic. Plus, when I’d be in the Landspeeder, they’d give me a suite, a robot – all those toys!
George Lucas is very generous with his actors. He’s very open to suggestion. If you have a better idea for a line of dialog, he’ll listen. He’s much more, I think, a technical director. He knows film. He knows camera angles, F-stops, lighting, everything like that, but he’s such an inward person – a private shy man – he is not the kind of director who will say: that was GREAT. He just says: that’s not right, do it again. He doesn’t want to tell an actor how to do it.
When I went in to do the screen test for the part, George didn’t say: Luke is an innocent but shy, earnest young lad. He wanted my version, and I lucked out. I played it straight because I thought the six pages I was reading were so ridiculous it must be like BATMAN or something. I mean, it’s a very fine line you tread when you’re saying things like: Golly, they followed us! You’re just potato chip thin away from being camp.
The new KING KONG (1976) didn’t get that line right. They couldn’t decide whether they were sincere or not. I have to think that one reason it didn’t work was that it was not set in the thirties, when people were naïve and you could do those lines. Why did it work in the original and it didn’t work with the Seventies sensibility?
That’s why setting STAR WARS in another galaxy is a stroke of genius, as far as I’m concerned, because then it not burdened with being scientifically correct for the science-fiction buffs, the ones who say it’s absurd to have sound in outer space. You ask them: is it any more absurd than having a nine-foot apeman wearing headphones flying our spaceship? In STAR WARS, we don’t things the way we would from a Seventies point of view – with all we’ve been through. Then the Princess can give me a kiss on the cheek to show me her confidence. It’s funny to us, because the Stormtroopers are after us and forty-thousand ray guns are pointed at our heads. But it’s not the Seventies, it’s somewhere a long time ago; so why shouldn’t the Princess give me a kiss on the cheek for luck? It’s my favorite part.
STAR WARS is like a good ride at Disneyland. You just put on your seatbelt, relax, and off you go. George really and sincerely made it for children, but it has that magic ingredient you find in the classic Disney movies – it doesn’t pander to children. It tells the story straight. George gave them a thousand things at once without explaining any of them. He hit a chord with adults. It’s a cliché, but it’s true that there is a portion of child in you until you die.
Is Luke really George Lucas? I didn’t think so a t first. I just didn’t make the obvious connection of Lucas and Luke. I started thinking of it when I saw the things that tickle George, or the kind of humorous things I might say to cheer him up (he suffers so when he makes his movies). I discovered that George is such a kid. He built this movie around gadgets and toys because he loves them so much. We gave him a little BUCK ROGERS liquid helium pistol, Carrie and I, as a gift. He loved it; he wouldn’t put it down. He’d spin it – and not let the other children play with it.
I think George just thought: if I’m going to have to write a character who’s going to appeal to children, I’ll have to write all the things I would like to do if I were the hero – whether swinging across the chasm or flying the X-Wing.
From the beginning I thought we were going to be doing sequels, so I chose to play Luke really young, as I could and get away with it. More than the other characters, my character will have to swing into young manhood.
I understand George’s and Gary Kurtz’ intentions; they always wanted to set up their own little JAMES BOND series – taking the environment George has set up but keeping it limitless in terms of what the characters can do. For the sequel, he’s going to add new characters. It won’t be a direct sequel to the first story; it’ll be a series of adventures, you know, in that galaxy. George has such an opportunity to surprise you!
I think the second film will be better than the first one, simply because the vision is so much clearer now. When they were trying to get over nine hundred people to match up with what was in George’s imagination, when they had to have a guy in the art department go and tell this guy to build something and then explain to the studio why it costs so much money…I mean, the fact that it came off at all is amazing. But now that’s it’s clear in people’s minds what we’re trying to do….which, as far as I’m concerned is just escapist entertainment.
I think the only danger with this whole phenomenon of STAR WARS is that people are placing too much importance on it. I think that’s why you’re getting some negative reactions. People say: oh, come on – it’s fun and it’s dazzling, but it’s very simple minded. Well, what’s wrong with that? I mean, I don’t need to have some sort of false intellectual experience every time I go into a movie theater. What for? To make me feel better about the fact that I’m nor home reading a best-seller?
I saw CLOSE ENCOUNTERS yesterday for the second time. I really liked the movie. It’s inevitable, I guess, that it’s being compared to STAR WARS, but as far as I’m concerned, the only thing they have in common is vehicles that go off the ground. It’s like trying to compare PSYCO with SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS. The two movies have such different intentions. CLOSE ENCOUNTERS is a realistic account of what would happen if people on Earth in the present day came in contact with extraterrestrials. Even my family is doing it. I took them all to see CLOSE ENCOUNTERS; and of course they’re so loyal; they said: STAR WARS is better. I said: why didn’t you say that TURNUNG POINT is better or GOODBYE GIRL or HIGH ANXIETY? You just can’t make comparisons like that.
Did the Success of STAR WARS help CLOSE ENCOUNTERS? I don’t know. I think CLOSE ENCOUNTERS would have done well regardless of us. Because it’s just a real good movie. It’s funny…I saw it with George Lucas and Gary Kurtz, and as soon as we had finished seeing it, we had dinner with Steven Spielberg. It was great. Both of them really like each other’s films. George doesn’t feel threatened by CLOSE ENCOUNTERS and Spielberg doesn’t feel threatened by STAR WARS. There’s so much rivalry in this business that it’s nice to have two people who are this successful and are both friends.
The future? If the STAR WARS series runs as long as I think they’re going to run. I will be Ben Kenobi’s age when I do the last one.
First published in Science Fiction, Horror & Fantasy (Magazine) – Fall /Winter 1977.
In STAR WARS, Carrie Fisher has a film role that measures up to her fantasy life. She portrays the beautiful Princess Leia, a senator from the plant Alderaan and a rebel-leader working secretly for freedom and justice against the oppressive, evil Galactic Empire.
“When I made my first film, SHAMPOO, my scene was shot in Beverly Hills, which is where I grew up. I wore this little tennis outfit, which was something I might wear in real life. It wasn’t at all what I expected making movies would be,” Carrie Fisher said. “I grew up watching movies and they always seemed like adult recess. And that’s exactly what making STAR WARS turned out to be – a kind of adult recess. I got to go to lunch with outerspace monsters at a Chinese restaurant.”
Born October 21, 1956, the daughter of Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher, Carrie Fisher is five foot one with dark hair and large dark eyes. She was brought up in the show-business-oriented world of Beverly Hills and made her professional debut at the age of thirteen in her mother’s nightclub act. After appearing in SHAMPOO she attended the Central School of Speech and Drama in London. She had been approached to do several motion picture roles following the stir her brief scene in SHAMPOO had created, but none of them really interested her until she read and was tested for STAR WARS.
“I wanted to do the role of Princess Leia because I wanted to have real conversations with people with bubbles on their heads,” Carrie explained, “I just wanted to be blasé about someone sitting across from me being a ‘small person’ or some strange looking person who was hired through the Ugly Agency. I love that there’s an agency in London called that. I can’t tell you how thrilled I was to be casually sitting around with those people as if they didn’t have hair-dryer heads and things like that. I wanted to sit next to Wookies, which are tall, half-man, half-ape creatures, Jawas, which are tiny, shrouded creatures with glowing eyes, and all kinds of robots.
“The people in the restaurant wouldn’t react. I thought that was terrific. And we were in Borehamwood, which is the English version of Crazylady, Wyoming. If I saw someone who was seven foot two, like Peter Mayhew, who plays Chewbacca the Wookiee, with someone like me, who is really small, and all of the rest of the weird looking cast, I certainly would react. We looked like a Fellini congregation entering this little Chinese restaurant.”
“Although I never read much science fiction before I made STAR WARS I had a kind of active space fantasy life all my own.”
When asked about her feelings about making a space fantasy film such as STAR WARS, Carrie admits that she enjoyed doing the stunts. “Especially swinging across the Death Star chasm. I was scared to death. And when I finally did it, I felt like my body was being ventilated from the inside. But it was a different kind of terror. And I knew it wasn’t going to be fun to do. I was really afraid of doing something wrong. I was sort of sorry we got it right on the first take. Once I got over the initial shock of doing it, I wanted to do it again. I still do. And that’s why I hope they do a sequel with lots of swings across chasms in it.”
A brand new video from Looper that is circulating around that rather accurately depicts just how popular and life changing an experience seeing Star Wars back in 1977 actually was.
Before I share that video I want to share my very own experience. The first ever image that I ever saw from Star Wars appeared on a fellow classmates school folder. It was a scene from the film that featured two Imperial Stormtroopers in combat. I didn't known anything about the movie in fact I didn't even know that the characters I were looking at where called Stormtroopers. In fact I'm sure that I thought that they were supposed to be robots. It honestly didn't matter. From that one image I knew that I had to see Star Wars. Those two Imperial Troopers were the coolest thing my ten year old eyes had ever seen!
I actually didn't get to see Star Wars in it's first run, even though I pleaded and pleaded, due solely to the fact that I lived in a small Texas town with a small theater that didn't show it. The closest theater showing Star Wars was an hour away and my parents weren't going to take a four hour round trip to see some space movie.
Had it been a John Wayne movie my dad would have been up for it, but a movie about robots and stuff, not a chance.
As luck would have it, the very next summer Star Wars would return to theaters and my family would be in the process of moving from Texas to New Mexico. My folks had a bunch of boring paperwork to do so they mercifully dropped off this kiddo at a local theater for my first viewing of Star Wars. I have to tell you, my geeky little mind was blown away within the first few minutes of the movie. The film, as you know, starts of with a bang and before I could recover from the opening scrawl spaceships are flying over my head locked in combat. You really have to put that one scene into perspective for someone in the seventies seeing it for the first time. Nothing like that had ever appeared in a movie before. In shows like Star Trek a space battle consisted of two ships pairing off face to face taking two or three shots at each other before someone surrendered. This was an actual space battle!
From that point on I was engrossed in the type of science fiction film that I had always dreamed about and to make a long story short, I have been a die hard Star Wars fan ever since.
Now here is that video I promised:
Bob Anderson The Forgotten Darth Vader
Most Star Wars fans know that the evil Lord of the Sith, Darth Vader, has been played by multiple actors.
Even though British actor and stunt man David Prowse insists he IS Darth Vader.
Of course Prowse played Vader (Physically) in the original trilogy while James Earl Jones supplied his voice. Veteran theater actor Sebastian Shaw played the Sith Lord when we was unmasked in ‘Return of the Jedi, while Hayden Christensen donned the costume (with help from some shoe lifts) in ‘Revenge of the Sith’.
When Vader returned to the screen in 2016's ‘Rogue One’, James Earl Jones once again provided his iconic voice, while Spencer Wilding and Daniel Naprous were responsible for the physical performance.
One name you may not know is Bob Anderson an English Olympic fencer and a renowned film fight choreographer who stepped in for Prowse for the lightsaber battles in The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.
Anderson subsequently went on to be involved in all three of the original Star Wars films. Anderson did not receive much recognition for his work for years after their initial release. Mark Hamill in 1983 revealed, "Bob Anderson was the man who actually did Vader's fighting. It was always supposed to be a secret, but I finally told George I didn't think it was fair any more. Bob worked so bloody hard that he deserves some recognition. It's ridiculous to preserve the myth that it's all done by one man." Anderson in 1994 specified that for The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi he staged the lightsaber duels and also wore the Vader costume in fight scenes. David Prowse, who played Vader, said he did his own swordplay in the first Star Wars film but afterward, "having one of the principals do his own stunts made [the filmmakers] very weird from an insurance point of view. - Wiki
Here is a short bio for Bob Anderson:
Robert James Gilbert Anderson (15 September 1922 – 1 January 2012) was an English Olympic fencer and a renowned film fight choreographer, with a cinema career that spanned more than 50 years and included films such as Highlander, The Princess Bride, The Mask of Zorro, The Lord of the Rings, and Die Another Day. He was regarded as the premier choreographer of Hollywood sword-fighting, and during his career he coached many actors in swordsmanship, including Errol Flynn, Sean Connery, Antonio Banderas, Viggo Mortensen, Adrian Paul, and Johnny Depp.
Mark Hamill Talks About His Experience Making Star Wars
From a press conference of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association – By Yani Begakus
Mark Hamill – With all the merchandising that’s going on, I really wish they would publish the original screenplay for STAR WARS. It is so thick with ideas – more descriptions and more of everything than was in the movie. There just wasn’t time to get it all in. Yes, it is very simple, and people say there is no story line – just bad guys chasing you because you have something they want. On one level, that’s true; on another level…you know, even though I am ostensibly the hero, George Lucas has given me a menagerie of supporting creatures – animal, vegetable and mineral – and everybody’s working together. Men working with machines, working with rodents, working with whatever…I think it’s terrific.
There are things that don’t satisfy the audience about Luke – I’m too naïve, too straight forward, too earnest. All those things are complicated by Harrison Ford’s character, who is cynical, or Carrie Fisher’s character, who is very aggressive and sure of herself. Every creature in the story line has such a recognizable human quality. The kids, of course, respond to the Wookie because he’s big and furry and scary, but also he’s more scared than they are. That they love!
They were always fair with us during the filming. They didn’t make us fly blind. I mean, we had all those oil paintings that were done by Ralph McQuarrie, visualizations, beautiful paintings of all the characters. On certain sequences, like say, the rescue of the Princess, they used story-boards just like a Sunday comic strip. Like a Walt Disney animation.
We went to see all the models before filming; and they said: this is the Millenium Falcon, and these are the fighters. I just sort of memorized them all so I knew what they were talking about in the screenplay.
As much as possible, they tried to show us what it was all going to look like. But we were still amazed when we saw it!
One of the most difficult things was the final battle sequence. Everybody, all the pilots, sat in the same cockpit. It was like popping people into a dentist’s chair. Pilot number one, pilot number two, pilot number three….I was pilot number five. Take a number and wait. They had all these guys rocking you on a platform ten feet off the ground, bored. And there was nobody reading off lines to you – no script girl. We went through what must have been fifteen pages of that last battle without stopping! I had to memorize all the different dives and where this guy gets blown up and that he was supposed to be my friend in high school and where to turn off the targeting device and then just fly along for a while. If I forgot, I’d just fake it. That was really hard! I asked George later why he did that sadistic thing to the actors, and he said because it added a sense of urgency.
Tunisia. Ah, that was my favorite part of the movie. It was very easy to imagine you were out in another galaxy if you just turned your back on the film crew and watched the sun going down. It’s so exotic. Plus, when I’d be in the Landspeeder, they’d give me a suite, a robot – all those toys!
George Lucas is very generous with his actors. He’s very open to suggestion. If you have a better idea for a line of dialog, he’ll listen. He’s much more, I think, a technical director. He knows film. He knows camera angles, F-stops, lighting, everything like that, but he’s such an inward person – a private shy man – he is not the kind of director who will say: that was GREAT. He just says: that’s not right, do it again. He doesn’t want to tell an actor how to do it.
When I went in to do the screen test for the part, George didn’t say: Luke is an innocent but shy, earnest young lad. He wanted my version, and I lucked out. I played it straight because I thought the six pages I was reading were so ridiculous it must be like BATMAN or something. I mean, it’s a very fine line you tread when you’re saying things like: Golly, they followed us! You’re just potato chip thin away from being camp.
The new KING KONG (1976) didn’t get that line right. They couldn’t decide whether they were sincere or not. I have to think that one reason it didn’t work was that it was not set in the thirties, when people were naïve and you could do those lines. Why did it work in the original and it didn’t work with the Seventies sensibility?
That’s why setting STAR WARS in another galaxy is a stroke of genius, as far as I’m concerned, because then it not burdened with being scientifically correct for the science-fiction buffs, the ones who say it’s absurd to have sound in outer space. You ask them: is it any more absurd than having a nine-foot apeman wearing headphones flying our spaceship? In STAR WARS, we don’t things the way we would from a Seventies point of view – with all we’ve been through. Then the Princess can give me a kiss on the cheek to show me her confidence. It’s funny to us, because the Stormtroopers are after us and forty-thousand ray guns are pointed at our heads. But it’s not the Seventies, it’s somewhere a long time ago; so why shouldn’t the Princess give me a kiss on the cheek for luck? It’s my favorite part.
STAR WARS is like a good ride at Disneyland. You just put on your seatbelt, relax, and off you go. George really and sincerely made it for children, but it has that magic ingredient you find in the classic Disney movies – it doesn’t pander to children. It tells the story straight. George gave them a thousand things at once without explaining any of them. He hit a chord with adults. It’s a cliché, but it’s true that there is a portion of child in you until you die.
Is Luke really George Lucas? I didn’t think so a t first. I just didn’t make the obvious connection of Lucas and Luke. I started thinking of it when I saw the things that tickle George, or the kind of humorous things I might say to cheer him up (he suffers so when he makes his movies). I discovered that George is such a kid. He built this movie around gadgets and toys because he loves them so much. We gave him a little BUCK ROGERS liquid helium pistol, Carrie and I, as a gift. He loved it; he wouldn’t put it down. He’d spin it – and not let the other children play with it.
I think George just thought: if I’m going to have to write a character who’s going to appeal to children, I’ll have to write all the things I would like to do if I were the hero – whether swinging across the chasm or flying the X-Wing.
From the beginning I thought we were going to be doing sequels, so I chose to play Luke really young, as I could and get away with it. More than the other characters, my character will have to swing into young manhood.
I understand George’s and Gary Kurtz’ intentions; they always wanted to set up their own little JAMES BOND series – taking the environment George has set up but keeping it limitless in terms of what the characters can do. For the sequel, he’s going to add new characters. It won’t be a direct sequel to the first story; it’ll be a series of adventures, you know, in that galaxy. George has such an opportunity to surprise you!
I think the second film will be better than the first one, simply because the vision is so much clearer now. When they were trying to get over nine hundred people to match up with what was in George’s imagination, when they had to have a guy in the art department go and tell this guy to build something and then explain to the studio why it costs so much money…I mean, the fact that it came off at all is amazing. But now that’s it’s clear in people’s minds what we’re trying to do….which, as far as I’m concerned is just escapist entertainment.
I think the only danger with this whole phenomenon of STAR WARS is that people are placing too much importance on it. I think that’s why you’re getting some negative reactions. People say: oh, come on – it’s fun and it’s dazzling, but it’s very simple minded. Well, what’s wrong with that? I mean, I don’t need to have some sort of false intellectual experience every time I go into a movie theater. What for? To make me feel better about the fact that I’m nor home reading a best-seller?
I saw CLOSE ENCOUNTERS yesterday for the second time. I really liked the movie. It’s inevitable, I guess, that it’s being compared to STAR WARS, but as far as I’m concerned, the only thing they have in common is vehicles that go off the ground. It’s like trying to compare PSYCO with SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS. The two movies have such different intentions. CLOSE ENCOUNTERS is a realistic account of what would happen if people on Earth in the present day came in contact with extraterrestrials. Even my family is doing it. I took them all to see CLOSE ENCOUNTERS; and of course they’re so loyal; they said: STAR WARS is better. I said: why didn’t you say that TURNUNG POINT is better or GOODBYE GIRL or HIGH ANXIETY? You just can’t make comparisons like that.
Did the Success of STAR WARS help CLOSE ENCOUNTERS? I don’t know. I think CLOSE ENCOUNTERS would have done well regardless of us. Because it’s just a real good movie. It’s funny…I saw it with George Lucas and Gary Kurtz, and as soon as we had finished seeing it, we had dinner with Steven Spielberg. It was great. Both of them really like each other’s films. George doesn’t feel threatened by CLOSE ENCOUNTERS and Spielberg doesn’t feel threatened by STAR WARS. There’s so much rivalry in this business that it’s nice to have two people who are this successful and are both friends.
The future? If the STAR WARS series runs as long as I think they’re going to run. I will be Ben Kenobi’s age when I do the last one.
I am not alone with feelings about seeing Star Wars for the first time. Several years ago I asked some of my celebrity friends to share their own stories:
Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca Speaks!)
KH - Your first Hollywood job was playing the Minotaur in Sinbad and the eye of the Tiger. Is it true you got the job because of a photo in a London newspaper?
PM - Yes, actually, the article was about people with big feet. A reporter noticed me and a much smaller mate of mine when he visited his sick mom in the hospital where I was working and photographed us walking together and took some pictures of my feet. I didn't win the big feet contest, but that eventually led to my role in Sinbad.
KH - Back when you were working on Star Wars: A New Hope did you get a sense that you were working on something special or did it just seem like the usual B-movie space opera?
PM - I'm not sure what the usual B-movie space opera would have been. I don't think my thinking went that deep at the time, I really just thought it was a B-movie....period. I really don't think anybody knew what we were about to become a part of.
KH - What was it like to be in the Chewbacca costume? I would imagine it was quite uncomfortable on the set, but I bet you got the last laugh in Norway filming Empire?
PM - Yes, Norway I would have been the warmest one of the lot. Otherwise, it's something that you get used to and hopefully build some tolerance for the heat. I do admit that the new Chewie suit has a water cooling system though, makes it better.
KH - What were some of your favorite moments from filming the original Star Wars trilogy?
PM - Probably the chess match. I really didn't know how to play chess and since there weren't any pieces on the board anyway, I didn't feel very handicapped. I thought the final scene of the chess match as it was composited turned out really well. Well, at the very least, you should always let the wookiee win.
KH - What was it like to work with George Lucas? Many people have had different takes on him. What was your impression of the man?
PM - I really, honestly like George and can tell you from personal experience that he hasn't changed much, if at all, over the years. I'm pretty sure those were the same sneakers and the same flannel shirt that he was wearing during shooting in 1976.
KH - Many fans have wondered why "Chewie" never received a medal at the end of A New Hope? Did you ever want to speak up and say "Hey where's Chewie's medal George?"
PM - I was much too timid for that, but Chewie did finally get a medal at the MTV Awards several years back, it is one of my prized possessions.
"Star Wars" was of course a cultural phenomenon that changed the world of filmmaking. I remember all the action figures when I was little, and I always thought they were pretty cool. I remember those and my brother's 'Kiss' action figures vividly. The first time I saw Star Wars was on VHS. I was completely blown away with the creativity, concept and characters! I thought the effects were amazing- particularly so for 1978! I loved R2D2 and C3PO. The Star Wars bar rocked, and I make references to it often. If I have to pick my favorite characters- it would have to be the Ewoks from Return of the Jedi- ugly, cute, and whimsical all at the same time. As a "true" Star Wars fan - I'm not as fond of the new 'prequels'...."
Carl Craig (Jim Morgan in Destroy All Planets/US Air Force/US Government)
"The summer of 1977, I was a rising senior in college. I had just signed on for a new job right after finals. I already had a job with UPS and I needed the extra bucks for the new Corvette I was going to buy that summer. That and a serious relationship with a college girlfriend were the two most important topics of the day. However, there was a rumor of an incredible movie due out at the end of May and there was a big buzz about it. Also, there was talk about a new space TV show that fall (Battlestar Galactica). I liked the thought of some space themes as opposed to a big shark eating everyone and the last thing that was "spacey" was Close Encounters but that movie seemed so goofy and distant. The idea of a space theme with the name "Wars" in the title stimulated my thoughts of what a fighter pilot of the future might be like."
"I was learning how to fly that summer as a part of my Air Force R.O.T.C. scholarship. I was due to be commissioned and go to pilot training in 1978 and was really into airplanes, spacecraft, and the likes. I built every flying model known to man as a young boy and still had aspirations of space travel as an astronaut. I had the Battle of Britain hanging from my ceiling despite my folk's concern for me destroying the structural integrity of the ceiling and the house. It is funny how your dreams as a kid can be so exciting but when the realization of them coming true becomes a possibility, new feelings emerge from your already heaving emotions."
"I was really excited about being a pilot and more excited about being a fighter pilot. The futuristic battle in space was looming just weeks ahead. I can remember that I made a special effort to be at the box office some 5 hours ahead of the first showing. My college roommate thought I was crazy when we pulled into the parking lot at about 2 P.M. We had done this numerous times to get good student tickets for college football games. In fact, we had camped out a few times overnight to get them but to go to a movie theater this early? His thought of how crazy I was quickly diminished when he saw that we were going to be somewhere in the middle of the line to see the movie. The hoopla was genuine; the people we were talking with in line were extremely excited."
"We first sprinted to get seats and then I went and got a tub of well lubed corn and Raisinettes. It was unseasonably hot that week of May and the a/c was feeling pretty good while we waited for the lights to dim. I realize that Industrial Light and Magic and the program Lightwave was the basis for all the special effects from Lucas in new films of the era but the miniatures and models of Star Wars were spectacular! As a Japanese Monster Movie veteran, I was thoroughly impressed with the effects of Star Wars as opposed to my experience in Destroy all Planets with piano wires and the "man-in-a-suit" efforts."
"I had not been in a movie theater where people cheered and screamed when a premier was over. I do recall my folks telling me when they went to see Cecil B. DeMille’s 10 Commandments, the people applauded as the curtain closed. Now I was really fired up about being a pilot and an astronaut. Not only was the flying great, the pilot got the good looking chick to kiss him. Ok, it was his sister but how were we supposed to figure George Lucas out that early?"
"Anyway, I rate that movie as one of the most moving movies of my life. It could not have been timed any better and now, (40) years later, I still can sit through the entire movie and feel the same way I did the very first time. Star Wars has a special place in my life and I celebrate the (40th) anniversary with great enthusiasm. Long live the Jedi Knights and I am a firm believer in the "Force." It was with me for a long time and I hope it will stay with me for a long time to come."
Mr. Lobo (Host of the nationally syndicated TV series Cinema Insomnia)
"As a child of divorce in the 70's Star Wars was my mother and father. Star Wars was the Beatles of my generation and next to Creature Features the main inspiration that jumpstarted my career in fantasy."
Christopher Mihm (Writer & Director of The Monster of Phantom Lake)
"Actually, my first brush with Star Wars is my first memory EVER. I was born in 1976. When I was a kid, my parents would take my brothers and I to the local drive-in almost every weekend. I don’t know if it was the summer of ’77 or a repeat showing in ’78 but my dad took my mom, older brother and I to see Star Wars at the drive-in. He’d already seen it a couple times so it was no big deal that he would miss part of the movie to go get some treats from concessions for my mom. I wanted to go with so he took me. I distinctly remember being walked by my dad to the concession stand and turning around to look at the screen. I saw Obi-Wan Kenobi’s flashing lightsaber as he fought Darth Vader. I remember being mesmerized by the color and movement and to this day, it is literally my earliest childhood memory. I grew up with Star Wars and to this day, I am a rabid fan. I own a collection of Star Wars memorabilia that is easily worth $50,000 (or more) and I have introduced my own kids to it. My love of Star Wars and its inspirational effect on my filmmaking is equaled only by my uber-geek love of Star Trek."
"Star Wars changed my sex life forever. What better way to get the middle aged fan boys eating out of my hands then to don my Princess Leia slavegirl outfit! It never fails!!"
Norman England (Director)
"Seventeen at the time of its release, I was certain that Star Wars had come custom made for this sci-fi geek who had grown up on a steady diet of 50s and 60s sci-fi films and TV shows. But Star Wars' impact - great as it was - came not so much from the first screening but a week prior its release in the form of a small B/W photo run in the Arts and Leisure section of the Sunday New York Times. A somewhat blurry dot matrix picture, it showed two Storm Troopers with weapons extended. Nothing more. "Holy crap!" I thought as the design of both the outfits and the laser rifles announced that some cool cinematic times were brewing in the genre I loved most.
Being (Forty) years ago and seeing as I saw the film no less than ten times in the theater (topped only by EMPIRE, which I saw sixteen times in the theater) it is hard to weed out the memory of the very first screening. However, one memory that does stand out is a visit to the house of a girlfriend shortly after seeing STAR WARS for the first time. Gathered upon her dresser was the entire set of just-released Kenner Star Wars figures. My first time to see such a thing, I asked what "that" was all about. "I'm not sure," she replied, "but I like the way they look." And now forty years later, it seems that so did the rest of us."
I was a child when STAR WARS came out but I remember my parents taking me to the film and being mesmerized by the whole experience.
I remember loving the whole fairy tale aspect of the movie at the time- the princess being rescued etc.
But as I grew older, I learned to appreciate the multi layered movie that Lucas created it is astounding! it was the first time, I became aware of the difference of good and evil in a movie.
May the 4th be with you!
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