Help with my paper?

[ThogtheCaveman]

Sorry to bother you guys with my school work ukerigh:, but I figure if I have to suffer at least I can bring a couple of you with me :bootysha: Seriously though, I have to write a paper on a topic of my choice which is Star Wars (the movies, not Reagan's Star Wars!). I am personally too young to have been around when the original 3 came out, but I figure that some of you probably were there. Anyway, I'm just wondering if you guys can help me out by giving me a few sentences about why Star Wars was appealing (or still is), or why it wasn't (or still isn't) to you. Even you youngsters like me can chime in!!! Thanks for your help!

 

[RedFish]

Seems that every generation has its own out of the world epics. No different from horrors or any other genre. My generation (I'm 50) followed Star Trek on tv but came back down to earth before the first Star Wars motion picture was released. I never really watched any of those films. My brother, 8 years my younger, never realated to the Star Trek series but was a huge Star Wars fan.

 

[EvilScamp]

I was pretty young when those movies came out but to this day i have never watched one of them or any Star Trek for that matter,the whole Sci-Fi thing just never appealed to me.
I love shows about actual space,planets,stars, blackholes etc. but those movies are just to out there for me.

 

[MoParMetal]

ill tell you why.
extremely awesome special effects for the late 70s
and who can forget...

muppet/animatronic yoda. 8)



a wings = fast and light
a bodys = fast and light

:-k

 

[daredevil]

I wanted to do princess leah

 

[dodge-n-it]

my 7 yr old son can probobly tell you anything you need to know about any of the star wars movies. He records everyone of them when they are on. He has told me alot that I didnt follow with the movies.

 

[GTGrinly]

My wife, 54, is a huge fan of both Wars and Trek..has memorabilia for both. She just watched the three movies on TV, plus has them on DVD. We used to have the figures for Star Wars but we also had a dog that liked chewing on them so there're all gone. It's the special effects...to this day you see it and remember how cutting edge it was.

 

[Shishaldin]

I wanted to do princess leah

Me first! I was 11 when Star Wars came out, and I was so in love with Leia/Carrie Fisher. Did I have a poster of Luke or Han Solo on my wall? NO. It was Leia in that white dress (with no bra on!) and her Blaster. Ah, young love:love7:

I think one of the things that captivated a lot of people with Star Wars was the mysticism of The Force, whether for Good (Jedi) or Evil (Sith). The fight between Good and Evil are about as universal as it gets.

George Lucas also used Jungian (Carl Jung - psychiatrist) archetypes for the main characters: Hero (Luke), Cosmic Man (Obi-Wan), Maiden (Leia), and Wise Old Man (Yoda, of course). Archetypes are kind of like "universal templates" of human beings, and it made the "Hero's Journey" story easily related to by the audience. Plus, the X-Wing/Tie Fighter/Y-Wing/Death Star sequences KICKED MAJOR ***! NOTHING could compare to that when Star Wars came out. My young eyes could see nothing but stars for weeks.

Lucas, of course, went to the Dark Side with the next trilogy
Don't get me started on that...

 

[Burntorange70]

I wanted to do princess leah

Ah yes in that gold bathing suit..........WOW.

 

[IndianaDodge]

I liked starwars as a kid, I can remember being in the 1st grade talking to a couple of my class friends about Darth Vader being Luke Skywalkers Dad! As a kid that was exciting... Kinda like watching my mom debate with here friends on who shot J.R.?

Wait... Do you know who J.R. is?

 

['64 Cuda]

I remember lines at the theaters that were nearly a block long. I think a lot of it was, as mentioned above, the cutting edge special effects. Watch a documentary about how they were done & you'll probably be amazed at how rudimentary some of the methods were. A lot of it was cleaned up when the shows were re-mastered for the 25th anniversiary. I think younger peolpe are a bit jaded when it comes to movie effects. So many things are computer generated these days, and look realistic, that they don't realize how things used to be done. When I was young, computers used punch cards (Please do not fold, spindle, or mutilate, remember that?). I'm 50 & I still remember when arcade games used miniatures viewed through prisms & mirrors. Some of the stuff I thought was neat when I was a kid is laughable now.


(I also have a bit of a story about a friend of mine & I on our way to see the movie when it first opened, but maybe that's for another day.........)

 

[CudaChick1968]

Well, at 42, I guess it's time to quit being embarrassed and admit in public that I was one of those people who willingly stood in those block-long lines to see Star Wars for the very first time.

The special effects were astounding, the story was captivating, the heroes were selfless and great looking, the maiden in distress was a total beautiful ***** but we loved her anyway ("Would someone get this -- this -- walking CARPET outta my way???"), the aliens were straight out of our worst nightmares but won us over anyhow ... nobody's mentioned him yet, but Chewbacca was one of my favorite characters. Couldn't understand a thing he growled but you still somehow understood what he was saying, and he sure knew how to be the best ship captain's assistant in the universe!

Truth be told, I saw it at the theatre 28 more times after that :wack:before the run was over, but the line wasn't quite so long by then. (Keep in mind it wasn't 8 bucks a ticket then.) All in all, it was a very enjoyable movie experience, and I'll still watch it once in a while when it comes on movie channels today (commercials just kill it for me).

I don't know how much this helps with your school project, but you brought back some great movie memories for me.

 

[ramcharger]

Jeez, I thought you ripped a rolling paper. I could have helped you with that, lol.

But seriously, it was a combination of groundbreaking special effects for the time and as shishaldin so eloquently described, archetypical characters that almost anyone could relate too. Almost any good drama involves the battle between good and evil.

 

[memike]

It made me think of the future when I seen it for the first time in a theater.
and the drama for good and evil like ramchager said.



But still had a robin hood theism.:-k save what was good.:read2:

 

[Sparky]

Rent the original movie..."go you must":cheers:

 

[ThogtheCaveman]

George Lucas also used Jungian (Carl Jung - psychiatrist) archetypes for the main characters: Hero (Luke), Cosmic Man (Obi-Wan), Maiden (Leia), and Wise Old Man (Yoda, of course). Archetypes are kind of like "universal templates" of human beings, and it made the "Hero's Journey" story easily related to by the audience. Plus, the X-Wing/Tie Fighter/Y-Wing/Death Star sequences KICKED MAJOR ***! NOTHING could compare to that when Star Wars came out. My young eyes could see nothing but stars for weeks.

Lucas, of course, went to the Dark Side with the next trilogy
Don't get me started on that...

Funny you should mention that...we were just discussing Carl Jung in one of my classes, we were also discussing how Lucas used his archetypes! I totally agree with you on Lucas going to the Dark Side! I was extremely dissapointed by the new trilogy...

 

[ThogtheCaveman]

I liked starwars as a kid, I can remember being in the 1st grade talking to a couple of my class friends about Darth Vader being Luke Skywalkers Dad! As a kid that was exciting... Kinda like watching my mom debate with here friends on who shot J.R.?

Wait... Do you know who J.R. is?

I assume you mean J.R. from Dallas? The only reason I know that is because I used to watch the show 'Freaks and Geeks' and it was set in 1980 and one of the characters watched that show.

 

[ThogtheCaveman]

Thanks for all the replies! I am an avid StarWars fan myself (not avid enough to stand in line with a full on costume) though I am only 22. I remember watching the original three on VHS, then seeing them when they were released in the 'special edition' format. I also went to see all three new ones and was highly disapointed. I guess I should give a little detail on my paper. I basically have to discuss how audiences view a specific media. I obviously picked StarWars, but I cannot use my own input (otherwise I would be done) so I have to ask other people and stuff like that...anyway, thanks for all the help! Feel free to add any other thoughts!

 

[rumblefish360]

I was young when it came out. I remember seeing onTV how many people were standing on line to see it yet again and again. Some where saying how this is there 17th time. And proudly! My parents didn't have a whole lot of extra money. Being there were 5 of us and growing fast, money was a bit tight, but they found the money one weekend and took us all into the theater.

I did notice that the movie was different right away when the movie opened right up, no credits and into a long scroll words. It comanded my attention right away. Then into a space battle. WOW! (I'm thinking) No waiting, were all ready knee deep into this! As IF this wasn't enough, the ship is boarded and we see "LOrd Vader" and a nasty side no less when he chokes a poor guy with his feet off the floor!

I was like yikes!!!!! It just kept going from there. Weird seens and people. To me, it was a great rep. of hope and why you should keep hope and fight on. Not to stop trying just because your the little guy.

The movie was also just plain fun to watch. New heros were born that day.