The buzz? Virtually invisible.....but we all had a feeling. No internet, no twitter, no facebook, no instagram, no youtube, , no nationally covered Comic-Cons......The trailer? A glum, ordinary thing that Fox stuck in front of their 1976 Christmas release, "Silver Streak"......
The theater? A run-of-the-mill, downtown Philly 500 seater.....Philadelphia theaters in those days were privately owned by two families who operated movie houses that weren't much better than watching your Uncle Morty and Aunt Bea's 8 millimeter vacation films in their basement......
The cast? Mark who? Harrison who? Carrie.....oh right, that dull-eyed Lolita who offered to screw Warren Beatty in "Shampoo"......
The box-office lady wore a "May The Force Be With You" button....whatever the hell that meant....(this was still before the days when downtown box-office windows had to be reinforced with 5 inch thick, bulletproof, lead-lined glass...)
The lights go down......John Williams' fanfare manages to blast through the theater's mundane, ordinary sound system......the Imperial cruiser endlessly glides across the screen.....and we the audience practically float off our seats....in a giddy, transporting high, the likes of which we've only experienced a handful of times in a movie theater.....
The group experience here almost defies rational description......we're not simply enjoying the movie together......we're bonding with this movie as if it's a two hour giant wave that we're all surfing simultaneously........spontaneous laughter, cheers, applause.......it's like watching a Phillies ball game where all our guys hit a home run every time at bat......
We all know we've never seen anything like this......up til now, sci-fi fantasy has remained resolutely grim and dystopian.....we're all doomed, either nuked to hell or stuck in our cubicles eating Soylent Green crackers. And suddenly.......we're all back at the kiddie matinees, rooting for the good guys to triumph.......but unlike the poverty-budgeted sci-fiers we grew up with....this one looks like the studio made it with the same lavish technical skills as the ....holy crap, as the grown-up movies!
For two hours, the film and its audience embrace each other like long lost lovers finally united.....and in all our years of movie-going, it's a uniquely rare moment we can only recall happening a few times.....at the first showing of "Goldfinger", hearing the crowd roar with delight at the coolness of Connery's Bond....and at the first showings of "Jaws", with the crowd alternately laughing and screaming.....
Our Galactic heroes receive their medallions from Carrie, the credits come up, Williams' stirring symphony launches once again.....and applause bursts across the auditorium......and we all leave the theater, still holding on to those magical hours that will stay with us for a lifetime.....
Just thought we'd share our most favorite of memories.......of what it was like to see "Star Wars" on that warm, sunny weekend of May, l977.......and why those two brief but wonder-filled hours of our life will forever have 5 stars (*****)
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