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The Empire Strikes Back...30 years ago...
Neoavatara ^ | May 22, 2010 | Neoavatara

Posted on 05/22/2010 7:49:14 AM PDT by Neoavatara

30 years.

Three decades.

Man, do I feel old.

Many of you weren't even born in 1980. That is a scary thought. Me, I was 6 years old and a Star Wars fanatic from the first moment I saw the opening scene of the original movie. My generation didn't play cowboys-and-indians, or soldiers on a battlefield...we were Luke Skywalker, Han Solo and the rest of the characters from "A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away"...

(Excerpt) Read more at neoavatara.com ...


TOPICS: Arts/Photography; Books/Literature; Society; TV/Movies
KEYWORDS: empirestrikesback; georgelucas; movies; starwars
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To: IYAS9YAS; Rocko
The best of the Star Wars series.
Except for the whole “Ewok” thingy, and George Lucas’ vision of them being like the Viet Cong

yes....Empire, #5, was the darkest and because of that the best....

number 4 was just fantastic.... the beginning of #6 was great, then went right downhill

1,2, were just awful....but like 5, I like #3 for its darkness....

and the Ewoks and Jar jar tie for worst species...and Jar jar wins for worst character....

41 posted on 05/22/2010 4:31:19 PM PDT by Vaquero (Don't pick a fight with an old guy. If he is too old to fight, he'll just kill you.)
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To: Popman
That opening scene with the ship coming in from the top of the screen which seemed at that time to take five minutes and the walls rumbling and the star cruiser just filling the entire screen...

How were you able to hear the star cruiser since sound doesn't travel through the vacuum of space?

Just asking.

42 posted on 05/22/2010 4:35:29 PM PDT by Fresh Wind (Republicans should campaign like Rush Limbaugh. A lot more of them would get elected.)
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To: GeronL

Just my impression but I think the Empire was very loosely based on the Roman Empire while the Storm Troopers were quite clearly meant to be evocative of the German Nuremberg rally.

I thought Jar Jar would have been cool in a total fantasy but was out of place in an adventure story.


43 posted on 05/22/2010 4:39:39 PM PDT by yarddog
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To: Vaquero
Yeah. I screwed up my response. I was thinking ROTJ, but answered to Empire. Out of the six, I still like Empire the best, then "Star Wars", then ROTJ up until the Ewoks - I do like the struggle between the Sith/Jedi at the end of ROTJ.

Of the prequels, I like the darkness of Revenge, but hated most of Attack of the Clowns Clones.

The Phantom Menace would have been great without Jar Jar and had they put someone who could actually act as young Anakin. Well, that and having someone, anyone, besides Lucas writing the dialogue.

44 posted on 05/22/2010 4:45:07 PM PDT by IYAS9YAS (Liberal Logic: Mandatory health insurance is constitutional - enforcing immigration law is not.)
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To: bigredkitty1
Today’s kids won’t have the experience of waiting in line for HOURS for a movie and being rewarded mightily for their patience. I waited hours for ‘Empire’ and ‘Jedi’. I loved them both.

They also won't have the experience of seeing these movies in sold-out, super-gigantic theaters alongside 1,000+ raving fans.

During the 70s and early 80s, when movies trickled out of ho-wood at a slow pace, enormous stand-alone movie theaters were economically viable. This is no longer the case.

45 posted on 05/22/2010 4:53:15 PM PDT by Vision Thing (He has a white house, and he wants to paint it black.)
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To: bigredkitty1

Rebel scum.


46 posted on 05/22/2010 5:31:12 PM PDT by El Sordo (The bigger the government, the smaller the citizen.)
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To: ThomasThomas

What is this theater of which you speak?


47 posted on 05/22/2010 6:37:58 PM PDT by TheOldLady
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To: TheOldLady

It is long gone it was in San Diego near the corner of University and College Ave.


48 posted on 05/22/2010 6:56:44 PM PDT by ThomasThomas (Sometimes I like nuts. That's why I am here.)
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To: fieldmarshaldj

On my personal top 10 list, despite the fact that I was scared to go into the theatre as there was a guy dressed as Darth Vader at the entrance.


49 posted on 05/22/2010 8:39:36 PM PDT by Clemenza (Remember our Korean War Veterans)
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To: Fresh Wind
For the same reason there is a swish sound when the Enterprise zooms onto the screen.

The advantage of Sci-Fi/Fantasy is that you get to make your own background reality, which gives a lot of flexibility. BUT you have to sell that reality to a modern day, earthbound audience. To go between worlds in any kind of reasonable timeframe a spacecraft has to move really quickly, and with our earthbound senses fast means swish. If it didn't have the sound, it would not come over as fast (or dramatic. In the final analysis all movies, irrespective of genre, are telling a story, and everything is (and should) be subordinate to that.

It's like when some fan asked J. Michael Straczynski of Babylon 5 fame how fast his "star fury" space fighters go, and he answered "at the speed of plot".

50 posted on 05/22/2010 11:50:16 PM PDT by Vanders9
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To: Clemenza

I was about 6 when my father took me to see it. That was the only time he ever covered my eyes during one scene when that large monster attacked in the Ice Cave.


51 posted on 05/23/2010 12:08:55 AM PDT by fieldmarshaldj (~"This is what happens when you find a stranger in the Amber Lamps !"~~)
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To: Vaquero; Clemenza; Impy

It helped that #5 (Empire) had an excellent director in Irvin Kershner. The fact that he didn’t return to do #6 to reign in Lucas’s cutesy excesses was quite lamentable. Kershner did two films in the ‘60s that were enjoyable, “The Flim-Flam Man” with George C. Scott and an early Robert Shaw vehicle filmed in Montreal, “The Luck Of Ginger Coffey.”


52 posted on 05/23/2010 12:15:07 AM PDT by fieldmarshaldj (~"This is what happens when you find a stranger in the Amber Lamps !"~~)
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To: ThomasThomas

Ha ha! NO! I’m saying facetiously that it’s been so long since I went to one — about twenty-five years — that I don’t remember what a theater is. Netflix is my friend, and before that, the Laser Disc Store, and before that, the Video Store.

The last time I saw a movie in a theater it was a midnight showing of the Rocky Horror Picture Show at the Nuart in Santa Monica, California.


53 posted on 05/23/2010 4:25:13 AM PDT by TheOldLady
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To: Cheburashka

Cheburashka, I saw the opening show at a movie house
on Lawrence Ave. Can’t remember the name right now.

I know the Admiral had XXX movies, not sure if that
was the show place we went to see the opening... dang


54 posted on 05/23/2010 7:29:15 AM PDT by ThreePuttinDude (o).. Elect Marco Rubio in 2010 .. (o)
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To: Vision Thing

And every one of those raving fans were just as, if not more, eagerly anticipating the opening scene. I remember applause and cheering during those films. I can’t remember the last new movie I went to where anyone in the audience cheered, laughed or applauded. Just shows how far Hollyweird’s standards(and ours) have fallen.


55 posted on 05/23/2010 12:31:29 PM PDT by bigredkitty1 (March 5,2010. Rest in peace, sweet boy. I will miss you, Big Red.)
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To: El Sordo

Damn straight and proud of it!


56 posted on 05/23/2010 12:39:20 PM PDT by bigredkitty1 (March 5,2010. Rest in peace, sweet boy. I will miss you, Big Red.)
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To: Perdogg

Is it really?


57 posted on 05/23/2010 1:23:54 PM PDT by Neoavatara (http://neoavatara.com/blog)
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To: ottbmare

FAIL.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars_opening_crawl

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Opening_crawl


58 posted on 05/23/2010 1:27:55 PM PDT by Neoavatara (http://neoavatara.com/blog)
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To: Neoavatara

This is impossible. I’ve seen that movie nine kajillion times. Gonna fire up the old VCR and find a tape and see if it’s true—and if so, I’m going to start taking Aricept!


59 posted on 05/23/2010 2:41:25 PM PDT by ottbmare (I could agree wth you, but then we'd both be wrong.)
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To: PapaBear3625

That always struck me as odd too. All that cumbersome body armor and it was totally ineffective against anything. I doubt it would have worked against a BB gun.

I know it was a bit of a fantasy but just the tiniest bit of reality would help at times.


60 posted on 05/24/2010 3:44:25 PM PDT by yarddog
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