I was born in 1975, so I was too young to get in on the first movie release. I did go see ESB when it came out (1980) and loved it. I’m not sure if I’d seen ANH at all yet, but at some time in the early 1980s they re-released it to theaters and I got my mom to take me. I was expecting ESB (i.e., Hoth, AT-ATs, asteroids, etc.) and was actually quite disappointed with the original. I appreciate it now, of course, but ESB is still the best in the series.
I agree that ESB is the best of all of them.
But you have to understand that in 1977, nothing like ANH had ever been seen before in theaters or anywhere else, outside of Lucas’ imagination.
2001 came close in its technical wizadry, but it lacked the swash-buckling fun and fantasy of ANH.
Of course, audiences now look at ANH and see how dated it is by modern standards, but it can’t be judged by modern standards. Without Lucas and “ANH”, I doubt if we’d have blockbusters like LOTR, for example.
I’m sure we would’ve gotten there eventually, as everything goes more and more digital, but its just hard to explain the impact and “wow” factor of Star Wars back in the pre-digital, pre-Internet culture.
And because SW changed things forever, I’m not sure we’ll ever see anything else have that kind of impact again.
Remember the hype for “The Matrix”? It was well done and all, but it wasn’t the ground-breaking trail-blazer that ANH was.
I’m glad I was there to see it first hand, because I doubt we will ever again see the like.