Chat corner 30: A New Hope

[annathecrow]

Welcome to this week’s chat corner!

Optional prompt

This week’s topic, should you accept it, is “Star Wars: A New Hope”. The very beginning of everything!

Have you seen it? (I think it’s perfectly possible to be a SW fan without seeing the OT, for the record!) Was it your first SW? What made you watch it? How old were you?

…did you like it? Do you like it now, if your first watch was a long time ago?

 

Comments

[kittywhite]

I’ve seen it several times now but the first time I ever saw it was back in 1999 when I was 9 years old.
To celebrate the upcoming release of the new Star Wars film “The Phantom Menace“ all three classic Star Wars episodes were shown over 3 weekends on cable TV.
I decided to watch it because I was interested in seeing the new movie but hadn’t seen the older ones yet.
Instantly I was drawn into the story and excitedly waited each weekend to see what new adventures Luke and his friends would have. Whilst ESB is my favourite of all the films (typical choice I know) I wouldn’t have become a lifetime Star Wars fan without starting my journey here. The last time I watched ANH was actually on a plane to Japan in 2017, I wasn’t feeling well because of the prior turbulence so needed something easy and familiar to watch. It might be time for a rewatch this Christmas Holidays!

[annathecrow]

That's actually an interesting watch order! I saw OT because of Ep I as well, but only after I've seen the movie.

[annathecrow]

I wanted to throw in a few links to meta about A New Hope I accumulated over the years:

• An Annotated Guide to The Star Wars Portfolio by Ralph McQuarrie
• How an Antique Camera Flash Became the Most Iconic Star Wars Prop
• Star Wars: The man who designed the films' 'look' -- an interview with the art director Norman Reynolds
• Strange Tales: Star Wars at 40 -- a wonderful series of blog posts about the OT
• The Real Aerial Battles That Inspired Star Wars

[yourlibrarian]

Thanks for those! I didn't know about the lightsaber/camera flash.

[fleurviolette]

The first time that I watched ANH was when I was 8 years old. After watching ep.2, I watched the vhs 1997 special edition. I loved that movie so much, haven’t been the same ever since lol

[annathecrow]

Oh lol. Have you been a fan (whatever definition you'd use) for all that time? I ask because I wonder whether I'm odd for taking such a long break between the time I loved the movies as a child, and between becoming a fan (maybe last two years, if that).

[fleurviolette]

Ah, that depends on the person. For me, I became a fan when I was a kid until middle school. I phased from the prequels to the original trilogy. Around high school until end of college, I liked different things, but Star Wars still lingered in the back of my mind, even though I focused on other things.

And then the Disney films came out. Initial excitement to disappointment within the past 4 years until the Mandalorian. And then seeing Luke properly returning brought me back to SW.

I still love the original saga. It stays intact to me. I view the Disney sequels as separate so it doesn’t ruin the ot and pt for me at all.

It’s possible to take a break from something, doesn’t mean you stop loving the thing unless you have bad memories associated with it.

[yourlibrarian]

I'm not sure how many times I've seen New Hope but the first time was before it was called that 😉 It was when it originally came out in the theaters. I vaguely remember that it was already being lauded as a big hit by the time I did so it wasn't opening weekend or anything. I loved it at once and was very excited to hear there would be sequels. I don't recall who I went to see it with, but I know that I saw it more than once in the theater. So I'm thinking I may have gone with my parents the first time and the second with friends. I remember that neither of my parents liked it as much as Star Trek but they both quite liked the element of the Force in it.

I later owned the original trilogy on VHS, before the later tampering/improvements. I haven't seen it in some time now but still recall it so well I could probably recite most of the dialogue as we go along. Plus, there are so many elements of that film that have callbacks in other SW content.

[annathecrow]

Me and my little brother had a VHS set as well, although ours was... either late 90s or early 00s, I can't recall. We used to quote it at each other as well, although I've forgotten all of that by now.

I was always so confused by the whole SW "improvement" thing! I still don't know what changed when and how the movie looked originally, and at this point I'm too afraid to look it all up. XD

[yourlibrarian]

Being an older film, it could definitely use some improvement in remastering, particularly for the SFX sections. But Lucas decided to change certain things and insert some previously deleted content. I can't say I minded getting deleted stuff back but you've probably heard of the big controversy over the Han and Greedo scene.

I know that in 2019 when I saw ST: TOS remastered it made me quite happy, because I'd seen some older versions where, for example, there was a semi white box around the Enterprise in all its external shots, making the effects they had really obvious and clunky.

[philstar22]

Yup. It was the first one I watched. My dad showed it to me when I was 7 years old. He's a huge nerd. He used to read books like the Hobbit to me when I was really little. No brothers, and my sister was never really interested in this stuff, so it was just him and me together. I instantly fell in love and have been a fan ever since.

I still love it. Honestly I love most Star Wars things, whether movies, books, tv shows, or whatever. There are only a few things I dislike. Overall I'm just a fan of the universe in general. It just works for me. I'm also super into fantasy. I love that Star Wars mixes scifi, fantasy, and mythology together in this perfect stewpot.

[yourlibrarian]

It's always neat to hear of second generation fans of a media property 🙂 It gets talked about all the time with sports fans, but not as often with other fandom sources.

[annathecrow]

Nerd dads win :D My dad was the one who showed us SW as well, although I don't think he was ever as big a fan as me and my brother were!

Yeah, Star Wars is very "fantasy" for a SF film. Some people don't like it, but I think it works. Being a "fairy-tale in space" is something that makes it unique, compared to a lot of other SF.