A blog about Star Wars (Episode IV A New Hope) the first time around in the 1970s.
Including production, first release, reviews, merchandising, the novelization, Super 8 movies, Marvel comics and more.
Showing posts with label Original Star Wars. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Original Star Wars. Show all posts
Star Wars opened on both screens at the Gaumont, Bournemouth
In a shorter Episode Nothing post than usual (thank my internet provider for that), I'm taking a look at the 40th anniversary of my own first viewing of Star Wars – and asking you for your memories.
The approach to Yavin, as seen in the 1977 cut of Star Wars
With Christmas upon us, there is one gift that legions of first generation fans want but seem destined never to get. The original, unaltered, 1977 cut of Star Wars on Blu-ray or DVD. Today, we consider whether we'll ever see Star Wars the way first generation fans remember it – and what form the ideal Blu-ray would take.
Episode Nothing, the site about the original, unaltered, 1977 Star Wars, and its first release, has returned, with plenty to say about the movie 40 years on.
If you've been here before, welcome back, and please read on for some details of what's coming up. If you're new, here's what it's all about.
A stormtrooper bumps is head in Star Wars' most famous blooper
At least two actors thought they might have been the stormtrooper who bumps his head in Star Wars' most famous blooper. Episode Nothing considers each one’s case – and reflects on what the interest in this gaffe tells us about the film.
The cover of How Star Wars Conquered the Universe by Chris Taylor, published by Head of Zeus
You would need a wookie’s lifespan to read every book published so far about Star Wars – and most of that time would be spent on spin-off novels or the sumptuously illustrated official guides to the films.
But Chris Taylor's book How Star Wars Conquered the Universe is something different: an intelligent, entertaining unauthorised account of the influence Star Wars has had on the world – and a record of the highs and lows experienced by Star Wars fans over the past four decades.
The pictures above are the Father’s Day cards I received from my two sons last weekend. There are no festivals that Star Wars does not reach.
They set me thinking about the role of fatherhood in Star Wars. Released at a time of sharply rising marital break-up, the 1977 film was the tale of a fatherless young man looking to find his place in the universe. Today, Episode Nothing considers how Star Wars dealt with the subject of fatherhood.
Today, Episode Nothing points you towards one of the most beautiful, warmly nostalgic Star Wars experiences you can have on the internet, as we hear a first generation audience react to the film.
Episode Nothing looks at the first Star Wars Annual, from 1978. It was the book which gave UK fans behind the scenes features about the film, plus a taste of something Americans had already had – Marvel's Star Wars adaptation in colour. (Or, if you prefer, color.)
Sir Alec Guinness brought Star Wars gravitas and star power. In return, it garnered him an Oscar nomination, a new generation of fans, and a good deal of money. But the actor-knight would become increasingly curmudgeonly about Star Wars and its fans, deriding autograph collectors for their "idiotic hobby" and saying of the film: "I shrivel inside each time it is mentioned."
Here, Episode Nothing takes a look at Guinness's troubled relationship with his most successful film.
Mark Hamill voiced Corey in the Hanna-Barbera cartoon Jeannie
How the animated series Jeannie introduced children to Mark Hamill
Back in 1977, which Star Wars performer was the best-known?
It would have been quite an easy question for adults to
answer, since it would just have involved a toss-up between Peter Cushing and
Sir Alec Guinness. But not so for children.
This Friday, I'll be publishing the last (for the time being) in my short series of posts about how Star Wars was featured in the youth magazine Look-In in the UK. I'll be sharing some of the impressive colour posters that the magazine ran in 1977-78.
In the meantime, though, any child of Britain in the 1970s will find it impossible to resist this TV ad I found on YouTube. It's a commercial for the March 11, 1978, edition of Look-In, which featured plenty of Star Wars, including an interview with Harrison Ford. Watch it and be transported back to a time when 10p could buy you enough glossy entertainment to last a week. And don't forget to return to the 21st century for this Friday's post.
The alternative cast for Star Wars: Will Seltzer (Luke Skywalker), Christopher Walken (Han Solo), Terri Nunn (Princess Leia)
Brian De Palma’s Carrie is well worth owning on Blu-Ray just because it’s a great horror film – and a reminder of how much talent was around in 1970s commercial cinema. But for anyone interested in Star Wars in the 1970s, the UK and Ireland Blu-Ray release of the film contains a bonus feature that makes fascinating viewing.
Threepio takes the wheel of the landspeeder in one of Star Wars' deleted scenes
In our continuing look
at the deleted scenes of Star Wars, we discover that See Threepio can do
something useful other than talk – and we watch George Lucas grapple with the
question of which bits of the story to leave out.
The 20th Century-Fox logo: a great curtain-raiser to Star Wars
When the Star Wars films
were made available to download earlier this month, many fans were disappointed
at yet another change to their treasured movies.
Han Solo prepares to shoot first in the 1977 theatrical cut of Star Wars
We've looked at Star Wars on Super 8 and home video. Now it's time for a brief guide to the frustrating history of the original film on DVD and Blu-Ray.
