Can you believe that Star Wars is 30 years old today? The original movie blasted into theaters on May 25, 1977 — three decades ago.
And it seems like just a couple years ago Luke and Leia were only a babies. (Oh, that’s right, they were.)
To commemorate the 30th anniversary, today is officially “Star Wars Day” in Los Angeles, California.
And, to celebrate Star Wars’s birthday (as well as the increase in postal rates) the United States Postal Service has issued commemorative, 41 cent postage stamps with Star Wars artwork. You can see them — and order them — here.
http://www.uspsjedimaster.com/main/splash.html
As some of you may have already noticed, many of our nation’s mailboxes have been replaced with R2 units. Four hundred mailboxes across the country have been replaced with R2-D2 replicas. “R2-D2 is the feisty little droid who embodies the trust and dependability for which the Postal Service is so renowned,” the Post Office said, unclear whether they were complimenting the droid, them mailbox themselves, or the feisty little mail carriers. Regardless, you can trust the little droid pictured at the link below with your most sensitive mail.
http://www.ohgizmo.com/2007/03/09/usps-r2-d2-themed-mailboxes-not-so-long-ago-in-a-post-office-not-so-far-away/
Here’s George Lucas talking about 30 years of Star Wars as hoards line up today for a special screening of the original classic.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIfUD_j1jDI
And finally, for the curious, here’s a little about George Lucas’s next project: Singing in Rain: The Special Edition.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YeYgju2qopM&mode=related&search=
I’d link to Bill Murray’s lounge act, “Nothing But Star Wars,” but can’t find it.
All this begs the question: which is YOUR favorite Star Wars movie?
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Eric D. Goodman became a jedi-in-training at the age of six, when Star Wars came out. Now, he is a professional, full-time writer and editor. His work has been published locally, nationally, and internationally, including stories in the current issues of The Baltimore Review and Coloquio. A semi-finalist in the Gather First Chapters Writing Competition, Eric seeks an agent for TRACKS, his novel in stories. You can hear Eric’s reading from TRACKS on National Public Radio at the following link.
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Comments: 43
When you go back now and watch the original Star Wars (aka "A New Hope" or Episode IV) it seems a little off in tone and such (like Vader getting bossed around by Tarkin for instance) by comparison to the others because it was the first. Kind of how like in the first season or two of "The Simpsons" some of the voices like Homer or Mr. Burns sound different than the other seasons because it was still evolving at that point.
I have to set my VCR to record the History Channel special on Star Wars Monday night at 9pm because otherwise I'll probably forget to watch.
In terms of my favorite of the series, I thought Harrison Ford made Empire Strikes Back the best of the trilogy. I had a huge crush on him (until I saw John Travolta in Grease!)
One I found interesting was that it was his ex-wife who was really good at character development and created the personality [not the character] of Hans Solo. One of the reason the early films seemed to be better stories.
Among my screenwriter friends, Lucas is known for focusing too much on the technical effects — in which he is undeniably world-class. One local screenwriter said after the 4th movie returned us to the Star Wars series, "You'd think, with all the money he'll make, he could spend $100 grand for someone to punch up the script."
Regardless of any criticisms, I do admit that I have a working light saber though I think the original ones are better than today's model.
For more information on these programs, go to www.thehistorychannel.com and click on schedule. Then click on the calendar date 28 and it will give you the information.
Thank you for the links and pleasant memories -
Blessings -
Sveta
But you are not a Jedi yet.
the movie when I was on vacaction with my family, in Ocean City,
Maryland in 1977, on a rainy night. rpw
Thanks for making me feel old, Eric! =:o)
Like Orson Wells, Lucas seems to have entered with youthful genius, but then went over the top and down the hill. His forte these days is his video game empire where he employs a myriad of young minds to keep the games innovative and fresh.
i've not seen the r2 mailboxes before! what a hoot!! and yes, i voted in the usps.com stamp thing.
our fave? #3.
Return of the Judi
for my friends and I.
I have now also finally accepted this to my "Everything" group, sorry for any delays...
..
U wishing you laughter