*****POSSIBLE STAR DESTROYER-SIZE SPOILERS*****

Anticipation

Back in the late 1970s, I saw “Star Wars” multiple times theatrically.  This was back in those dark, primitive days before we watched movies on our phones and tablets three months or less after their theatrical runs. In those days, we then-young, future-oldsters learned the often difficult art of…

But, as I realized in old age, a little delayed gratification now and then goes a long way toward a more satisfying experience (that was not meant to sound as kinky as it does). Forgive this unintentional sidequel to a column I wrote a short while ago (What it was like to be a young “Star Wars” fan in the late 1970s), but this is more about the anticipation of seeing Star Wars rather than the movies themselves.

Star Wars, 1977 (aka Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope)

The first time I saw “Star Wars” (pre-“A New Hope” subtitle) was in August of 1977, sometime after its debut. Not sure exactly why I waited so long to see this one, but I remember we went to see it with family friends of ours the day before Elvis Presley died (which was all over the radio the following morning).  We saw it on a matinee showing at the (now-defunct) United Artists multiplex at the Tyler Mall in Riverside, California. There was almost no line to get in, despite what we heard on the news.  We got got our tickets and promptly got seated for what would be a life-changing moment in my then-young life. As we left the theater?  We saw that a line had formed for the next showings around the building, and onto the sidewalk (this was nearly three months after the debut on May 25th).  Somehow, miraculously, we avoided all of that.  On the site of that long-razed theater now stands a Barnes & Noble bookseller, so I still go there, and occasionally relive that summer of 1977… 

Of course, each subsequent time I would see Star Wars in those days (maybe a dozen, in total), the lines were always huge. You have to remember that we didn’t pre-buy tickets back then. No theaters in Southern California at that time had assigned seats, either (those came to be only in the last decade or so). Most screenings were at chintzy, low-end mall multiplexes or small movie houses with two little auditoriums. In 1981, I saw “Star Wars” in double-features, and after the 1980 release of “Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back,” it was re-titled “Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope” (still hate that name; sounds like a damn soap opera).

The only time I got to see “Star Wars” in all its glory was when my family sprang to see it in Hollywood, at the Mann’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood (now TCL {The Creative Life} Theatre). I was around 11 years old when we saw it there in late 1977, and it truly was the deluxe treatment. Outside the theater, we saw the Star Wars actors’ cemented footprints, and even at that young age, my big hooves already fit snugly in “C3PO” actor Anthony Daniels’ steps. That screening also came with a complementary program booklet, which I held onto for years afterward, but it got lost in one of the many moves I’d made in my 20s. A shame…

At that Hollywood screening, “Star Wars” was playing in 70mm, on a huge screen (not quite IMAX-sized, but impressive enough for a kid in late 1977), with multi-track Dolby stereo sound. The ships sounded as if they were flying over our heads, into the ornately-decorated ceilings.  Yes, I’d already seen “Star Wars” several times at this point, but I felt like I was finally seeing it with my eyes and ears fully opened.  Even at a young age, I could see a substantial difference in projection quality.  To be honest, it was a little disheartening seeing movies at the old multiplexes after that (usually in grainy, half-faded16mm prints, full of pops and scratches). But we didn’t have VCRs or cable, let alone DVDs, Blu-Rays, or streaming (which were all decades away), so we early Gen Xers learned to eat what was on our plate. 

Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, 1980

I was 13 when the first sequel arrived in May of 1980, and learning from our previous mistake of seeing a Star Wars movie in a crappy theater, my family waited until my dad’s vacation in July to see “The Empire Strikes Back” at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood (now the American Cinematheque). And this time, we waited in an hours-long line through the faux-Egyptian motif of that classic venue.  This wait only built up the anticipation within me.  We sat closer to the rear of the theater, with powerful speakers situated behind us.  This really came in handy with the rumble of the Imperial star destroyers, or the heavy-thumping of the AT-ATs, making their ominous trek across the snowy plains of Hoth. 

On that 70mm screen, I also fell in love with the sweeping sunrises and sunsets of Bespin (still my favorite Star Wars planet), and I adored Yoda, though he did sound a bit like Fozzie Bear (as one of my friends warned me).  For me, the big surprise twist (“I am your father!”) was already spoiled when I bought the paperback novelization two months earlier, but it didn’t ruin the impact, and I kept that secret to myself. I would only see “The Empire Strikes Back” about five times or so theatrically (as opposed to the dozen or so times I’d seen the first film), and mainly in neighborhood cinemas, but it’s still my favorite of the saga.

Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, 1983

I was 16 and in high school by the time “Return of the Jedi” came out, and while my enthusiasm for Star Wars never waned, the pressures and hormones of adolescence and high school diluted some of my earlier fascination.  Nevertheless, this time I was determined to see a Star Wars movie on opening night. In this case, opening night was May 25th, 1983; a Wednesday, and yes, a school night. Seeing it in Hollywood on a school night wasn’t an option, so we chose to see it at a decent theater downtown, with two reasonably large screens in 35mm. Once again, this was before pre-booking movie tickets and assigned seatings were things, so my family came to the theater after dinner, around 8 pm, to find that the only available screening was the midnight show (!). So, we bought tickets to see “Return of the Jedi” at midnight, the early morning of May 26th, only a few hours before school started.   Be careful what you wish for…

I’m not sure if it was impatience, or grogginess, or teen hormones at work, but my enjoyment of “Jedi” was distinctly lesser than it’d been with the first two movies.  I remember an older guy, arriving late, fumbling with his damn cigarette lighter to find a seat just after the opening crawl started (I might’ve force-pushed him if I had the power). I also remember someone behind us accurately commenting on the blue elephant at Jabba’s Palace, saying it looked “like a damn Muppet movie.” That urbanite Ebert wasn’t wrong, either.  And at the precocious age of 16, I found the zipper-backed Ewoks both cloying and silly. On the plus side, the scenes between Luke, Vader and the Emperor felt like proper Star Wars; and they made the other issues worth sitting through in silence. I also knew going in that those first two films were going to be tough acts to follow.

After we got home, I slept for about an hour before going to school. This time, I didn’t have to ignore my classmates’ gossip about the film; in fact, I joined it. Though my enthusiasm for the movie was considerably less than theirs. Nevertheless, I’d still see “Return of the Jedi” one or two more times theatrically, for fandom’s sake…

The Special Editions, 1997

There was also the hype surrounding the release of The Star Wars Special Editions in early 1997 (the first film’s 20th anniversary).  By then, I was 30, and living at my old apartment in the city. Life was pretty different from when I’d last seen “Return of the Jedi” 14 years earlier as a high school kid.  As a working, bill-paying adult, I now owned the entire Star Wars trilogy on widescreen laserdisc, and watched them to the point where I’d memorized even the foley effects.  

Note: It’s amazing that I had any kind of social life in those days, given how I was such a full-blown geek. I had to Clark Kent the shit out of my work life, in order to pass for halfway normal.

While the TV ads for the digitally-remastered Star Wars Special Editions certainly piqued my interest (more for what they’d changed than anything else), I also wanted to somehow recapture the experience of seeing them for the first time.  My solution?  Take my friend from work, whom I’d learned had never seen the original trilogy theatrically.  So on a Saturday morning in January of 1997 we went the Marketplace 6 Theatre to see the Special Edition of “A New Hope.” The line to get into that morning matinee was longer than we’d imagined, but I’d bought our tickets a few days earlier, thanks to “Moviefone” (which I’m shocked to learn is still around). The theater was in my neighborhood and featured then-brand new ‘stadium seating’ (no more heads in the way… nice).

While I wasn’t overly fond of the cartoonishly-digital changes made to Star Wars (Han Solo shot first, dammit), my friend had only ever seen the movies on TV, so theatrical Star Wars was new to her. Her enjoyment and enthusiasm allowed me to vicariously relive the experience. We would also see “The Empire Strikes Back” a month later in a much shorter line. Fortunately, “Empire…” had the least CGI augmentation and remains my favorite of the bunch. I would later see “Return of the Jedi” by myself (“Solo!”) on a boring night off in March, with nothing better to do.  I walked a few blocks from my apartment to the University Village Theatre. There was no line. I was seated in about two minutes.

Despite a few strong objections of mine to some of the changes made (though not all of them), I thought releasing the remastered trilogy over the first three months of 1997 was a nice idea, since I couldn’t imagine waiting to see these movies three years apart again.  No CGI facelifts are worth that level of patience. A few months later I bought the Special Editions on widescreen VHS, because I’m a completist and a sadist. I would later get rid of them at a yard sale. Who knows what I could’ve fetched for them on eBay…?

Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, 1999

16 years after “Return of the Jedi,” I was now 32 years old and engaged to be married to a fellow Star Wars geek (the love of my life, who’s still with me over 25 years later).  We still kid each other about how we arranged our June wedding as not to clash with the May 21st opening of “The Phantom Menace”; the first of three planned prequels to the original trilogy.  Sigh. If only we knew then…

This time I went to the theater on a day off and bought our tickets weeks in advance at the box office (I didn’t have internet in those days; only a few people I knew did). I bought tickets for us and our friends. On the day of the show, we waited outside the still-newish (now gone) Marketplace 6 Theatre a couple miles from my old apartment (this was where I saw the “New Hope” Special Edition only two years earlier). “Phantom Menace” was presented in pure digital sound, which was also a newish thing in the 1990s, and it sounded as clean as a compact disc (remember those?). Theaters in L.A. were holding all-digital ‘film-less’ screenings of “Phantom Menace”, but we opted for local-analog, since even analog cinema had come a very long way since 1977, and much of that was due to the original Star Wars, and the pioneering technologies George Lucas and his companies developed (THX, Skywalker Sound, etc). 

With our tickets already in hand, we still waited in line for about two hours outside the theater.  This time, some of us brought folding chairs, which could be quickly taken back to the car once the line began to move.  I still remember a stupid girl heckling us from outside the queue, calling us “nerds,” and telling us to “get a life.” We watched as she herself headed to the back of that same line.  Her attempt at geek mockery fell harder than a dead Tauntaun. People laughed at her, not with her.  

Once inside, the movie was a rich serving of mixed emotions.  Hearing that John Williams opening fanfare again in a theater was joyous. Seeing the golden letters of an all-new opening crawl induced mild euphoria.  The scene aboard the Trade Federation ship (ignoring the stereotypical Asian accents out of a bad 1940s war movie) had some of the same tension as the boarding of the Tantive IV in the original 1977 film.  However, once we meet Jar Jar and Anakin?  The movie went to hell a bit. Nevertheless, the three-way lightsaber duel between Darth Maul, Qui-Gon Jinn and young Obi-Wan Kenobi was a dazzling display of action choreography (and perhaps the main reason we’d see “Phantom Menace” more than once). Though it lacked the emotional oomph of Luke and Vader’s duel in “Empire,” it was easily the best part of the film.

At the end of the day, seeing “Phantom Menace” left us both elated and disappointed; a feeling that would come to mark the rest of the prequels for us as well, which we’d see on opening weekends with pre-bought tickets, but with our expectations tempered, and with much of that earlier excitement gone.  Part of what fueled the frenzy of seeing “The Phantom Menace” in May of 1999 that it was the first new Star Wars movie in 16 years, but that nostalgia only goes so far. 

After seeing “Star Wars: Episode III: Revenge of the Sith” (2005) with my wife and friends on an uncommonly hot day in May (105 degrees), we came to regard it as our ‘favorite’ of the prequels, mainly because it connected a few more dots to the original trilogy (Vader’s emergence, the birth of Luke and Leia, Leia’s adoptive father, etc). Despite these disappointments, at least the prequels still had that wondrous John Williams’ music; a constant in the Skywalker Saga (as the chaptered Star Wars films are more commonly known these days). 

Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens, 2015.

The last two times I’d wait in long lines for a Star Wars movie were more recent; in 2015 for “The Force Awakens,” and in 2016 for “Rogue One.” That last time was only a few months before assigned seating in SoCal movie theaters became an industry standard, and waiting in long lines for good seats was pointless. Suddenly, a major ritual once associated with seeing a new blockbuster movie was rendered obsolete by this simple, time-honored concept of making reservations. Oh, the hassles (and arguments) this would’ve eliminated back in the day…

“The Force Awakens” came out on December 18th, 2015, was the first new Star Wars movie in ten years at that point, after the sale of Lucasfilm to the Disney Corporation.  This was the first Disney-made Star Wars film, and the first sequel to follow “Return of the Jedi.” It was also the first Star Wars movie to have no involvement from George Lucas whatsoever. It would feature the return of original actors Carrie Fisher, Harrison Ford and a rumored cameo by Mark Hamill.  The internet spoiled a few surprises of this movie, but I did my personal best to ignore it all.  I pre-bought our tickets online, but since assigned seating wasn’t the standard yet, I took a camp chair and waited an entire day (11 am-6 pm), sitting at the top level of a parking garage next to the AMC 16 Theatre, where the movie would be screening in IMAX 3D. 

Sitting in the queue in my comfy camp chair with my iPhone, I also brought a few books (including “The Making of Star Wars,” by J. W. Rinzler), and an umbrella (protection against the low, bright winter sun).  Here, I would wait for my wife and our friend, who’d join me later.  Unlike the long lines of previous Star Wars movies, this one became something of a happening, with fans playing the original movies on laptops for anyone to see, trivia contests, impromptu lightsaber duels, and John Williams’ glorious music filling the air. It was almost a carnival atmosphere.  This was a smaller-scale version of what I’d heard about in the months-long lines for “The Phantom Menace” (see the 2001 documentary, “Starwoids”) for which I was too busy planning my wedding—and having a job—to actively participate in.  Now, here I was at 49 years old, starting to feel some of that old-school Star Wars adrenaline coursing through my veins once more…

While “The Force Awakens” is loathed in some fan and critical circles (with legitimate reasons), my wife, our friend and I enjoyed it. It works less as an original story, and more as a salute to the original trilogy. It’s “Star Wars: The Next Generation,” with a new group of core characters (Ray, Finn and Poe) getting a sentimental sendoff from the older gang. The moviegoing experience felt a bit like a homecoming for me, as well, since I saw “The Force Awakens” in a new, all-digital theater built on another corner of the same mall where I’d seen the original movie, 38 years earlier.  The more things change, the more they remain the same…

Despite Disney’s current overdevelopment of the Star Wars brand, hearing that familiar blast of John Williams brass against a starry backdrop with that iconic text crawl still makes my heart skip a beat, many years later.  It’s an almost Pavlovian response. Despite my issues with the Star Wars canon after “The Empire Strikes Back,” that music will always remind me of that one great cinematic event; that afternoon matinee in 1977 that changed my life forever.  Flash forward to 2015, and there I was, a 49-year old man waiting all day to see a new Star Wars movie. And Harrison Ford’s pitch-perfect line delivery of “Chewie, we’re home!” remains one of my favorite cinematic moments of the 21st century. 

Note: Someday I plan on doing an in-depth review of “The Force Awakens,” maybe for its tenth anniversary next year. Even though I have the “Chewie, we’re home!” gif on the site home page, it remains the only one of the Star Wars sequel trilogy I haven’t reviewed (I’ve already reviewed “The Last Jedi” & “The Rise of Skywalker”). It’s on my bucket list…

I would repeat this ritual only a year later, on a drizzly December 16th, with “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” (2016), also in IMAX 3D, and the first of the non-chaptered, non-Skywalker Disney movies. We thoroughly enjoyed “Rogue One,” and it remains my favorite of the Disney Star Wars movies to date. However, coming only a year after “The Force Awakens,” I worried at the time that Disney was going to prime the Star Wars pump a bit too aggressively. New Star Wars movies were coming out every year, and the introduction of the Disney+ streaming platform in 2019 opened the floodgates for even more Star Wars content; a floodgate that’s never closed. This has diluted the knee-jerk excitement I used to feel whenever a new Star Wars project was on the horizon. It isn’t special anymore; it’s a regular occurrence.

“It binds the galaxy together…”

Waiting all day to see a new Star Wars movie seems ridiculous now, with 100% online tickets and assigned seats, you can walk into any theater to see any movie whenever you wish. There’s no rush to get the best possible seat. And if you miss a Star Wars movie in theaters, or if you simply don’t like going to theaters? No sweat. It’ll be on Disney+ in just a few months, along with a bunch of new Star Wars content that you can stream on your phone, tablet, computer, widescreen TV, or digital projector (in my case).

The anticipatory experience of waiting in a long line to see a Star Wars movie, which I found tortuous as a kid, taught me a valuable lesson in patience, and in making the most of the fan-gathering experience itself—something I’ve taken to heart at sci-fi conventions, including the 2022 Star Wars Celebration in Anaheim.

With a virtual avalanche of Star Wars content flooding into Disney+, I’ve lost track of all the new cartoon series, short films, etc.  I would get more excited over a new Star Wars movie or streaming series if they were less frequent—which would make them eventful again. That taxing three year gap between Star Wars films was tough on us kids, but it was also one helluva way to build suspense. And the long lines to get into the theaters in those days only added coaxium to the fire.

Of course, different generations will have different and equally misty memories of how they first  experience Star Wars. So however you choose to embrace these stories, here’s hoping the Force is with you, always. Enjoy.

Where To Watch

Most of the Star Wars films, live-action TV series, cartoons, and who-knows-what-else can be streamed on Disney+, with a subscription (with the exception of that godawful 1978 Star Wars Holiday Special).