"Thats no moon, It's a space station!"
Ben Kenobi
With the release of the Indiana Jones Trilogy on DVD this year, there remained one Holy Grail movie left to be released on DVD. That, of course is, Star Wars. Unless you live in a cave, you know the long wait for Lucas’ trilogy is over. It was released yesterday. While in line to purchase I counted nine people in front of me, all nine had the set it their hand. Please don’t mistake me for a Star Wars fanboy who can name each minor character along with their family lineage etc, etc. That’s not me. Not that that is a bad thing.
Star Wars came out in 1977. I was the ripe old age of ten. I walked in Northpark Cinema I & II (where the rich people went!) with absolutely no idea what kind of movie my dad was dragging me to. Why do I care to see a war movie?? Two hours later, the way I looked at the movies was forever changed. It wasn’t the story, heck the good vs. evil motif has been used countless times before and often better. It wasn’t the actors, Carrie Fisher? Mark Who? Ok, that Harrison Ford guy went on to have a serviceable career if you want to get picky, but the reason Star Wars impacted me so much was the fact that I, (hell, no one) had seen a story told so visually different. There was nothing to compare it to. Nothing like that had ever been put on film before. I literally remember the awe that I felt during the opening battle sequence, the Star Destroyer filling up the entire screen. I REMEMBER that feeling. Twenty Seven years ago and I remember. That is the beauty of Star Wars for me. I can show Star Wars to my fifteen year old and he’ll say “boy the effects sure sucked back then”. But the thing that really sucks is that he’ll never walk into a theater, unaware, and witness the advent of something so impactful, it completely revises the way you look at something from that point on. The special effects in movies today are so fantastic, that they seem run of the mill. A “been there done that” attitude has snuck up on us. Even the creator of the Star Wars saga is not immune to the “no story, all special effects” syndrome with his horrible soul-less prequels. But, now, with the DVD set, I can take a trip back that late May evening in 1977 where everything changed. Pick up the set if you haven’t already. And tell your teen-ager that the effects DO NOT suck!
Ben Kenobi
With the release of the Indiana Jones Trilogy on DVD this year, there remained one Holy Grail movie left to be released on DVD. That, of course is, Star Wars. Unless you live in a cave, you know the long wait for Lucas’ trilogy is over. It was released yesterday. While in line to purchase I counted nine people in front of me, all nine had the set it their hand. Please don’t mistake me for a Star Wars fanboy who can name each minor character along with their family lineage etc, etc. That’s not me. Not that that is a bad thing.
Star Wars came out in 1977. I was the ripe old age of ten. I walked in Northpark Cinema I & II (where the rich people went!) with absolutely no idea what kind of movie my dad was dragging me to. Why do I care to see a war movie?? Two hours later, the way I looked at the movies was forever changed. It wasn’t the story, heck the good vs. evil motif has been used countless times before and often better. It wasn’t the actors, Carrie Fisher? Mark Who? Ok, that Harrison Ford guy went on to have a serviceable career if you want to get picky, but the reason Star Wars impacted me so much was the fact that I, (hell, no one) had seen a story told so visually different. There was nothing to compare it to. Nothing like that had ever been put on film before. I literally remember the awe that I felt during the opening battle sequence, the Star Destroyer filling up the entire screen. I REMEMBER that feeling. Twenty Seven years ago and I remember. That is the beauty of Star Wars for me. I can show Star Wars to my fifteen year old and he’ll say “boy the effects sure sucked back then”. But the thing that really sucks is that he’ll never walk into a theater, unaware, and witness the advent of something so impactful, it completely revises the way you look at something from that point on. The special effects in movies today are so fantastic, that they seem run of the mill. A “been there done that” attitude has snuck up on us. Even the creator of the Star Wars saga is not immune to the “no story, all special effects” syndrome with his horrible soul-less prequels. But, now, with the DVD set, I can take a trip back that late May evening in 1977 where everything changed. Pick up the set if you haven’t already. And tell your teen-ager that the effects DO NOT suck!
Comments
And, nearly every trend-setter producer/director, as well as many, many movie stars came to NorthPark over the years. (Imagine - you COULD have sat in the very seat Steven Speilberg or Ridley Scott sat in as they previewed their latest epic for the sophisticated heartland audience that was the NorthPark patron base.)
On the other hand, NorthPark East was the perfect example of the cramped, cookie-cutter multi-plex General Cinema, among others, threw together in the 80's and 90's. (This mis-guided business model eventually led to the company's demise.)