FIRST TIME WATCHING **Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977) ** MOVIE REACTION/COMMENTARY!!
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- Опубліковано 18 бер 2024
- I CANNOT BELIEVE I'VE GONE THIS LONG IN LIFE WITHOUT SEEING STAR WARS!! It was such a fun ride of absolute genius film making. I hope you join my Star Wars Journey and MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU!
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Original Movie: Star Wars A New Hope
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“Hands on the hips. Sassy…” is not a line I believed I’d ever hear spoken about Darth Vader. 😂
watch Vkunia's starwars reaction she said the same thing and my reaction was "you can't refer to the Dark Lord of the Sith as Sassy!"
I mean if you consider the total context of Vader/Anakin in canon, he is undeniably a sassy drama queen.
Darth Vader: Dark Lord of the Sass
@@davidbrown3212 VK is a faker though
"The Sass is strong in this one."
"You've taken your first step into a larger world."
It’s fun to watch your sincere reactions. The next two movies skyrocket from this in terms of depth and excitement.Here’s some key background history of this franchise.
1) George Lucas was inspired partly by Flash Gordon and other film serials from the 1930s. Thus, the opening text and transition wipes.
2) Lucas was an independent film maker. He had to invest and create Industrial Light and Magic to create the types of special effects he had in mind because the industry couldn’t do it at the time. The effects company then went on to win awards for revolutionizing the way movies are made.
3) There are other influences in this franchise, not just from sci fi novels such as Dune and films such as Metropolis, but from history and mythology. The Empire conjures images of Nazi Germany and Imperial Rome. There are elements of the mythological hero’s journey.
Indeed she has
This is where the fun begins 😊
Welcome to a much larger realm of possibilities."may the force guide you in your journey,which is far more important than the destination.
Thank you for getting the binary sunset. So many reactors be like: “hey two moons!” 🤦♂️
Ya but to be fair, most of those geniuses are probably Americans who are only familiar with moons because we put a flag on one.
🇺🇸🤪👍🇺🇸
"Thats no moon...!" ;)
or a moon and a sun
Actually, Tatooine has 2 suns.
@@BrotherDerrick3Xthanks captain obvious 😂
Wow Sophie! Do you know how many people (including me) watched Star Wars half-a-hundred times without noticing that C-3PO has one silver shin until it was pointed out to us? Well done girl! 👍
You can’t see it, but I’m wearing my first time knowing this shocked face.
I only found this out a couple of months ago too.
Well, the thing is, it's just not that noticeable in most shots. The color difference is not that big partly because C-3PO is a little dusty and grubby.
I totally agree that it's really fun and impressive that Sofie noticed.
I did. “Spare parts” droid was the intention
Establishment sheep with no personality spotted
My parents saw this opening night in the theater. They sat front row center, and always used to tell me what it was like in that opening scene when the Star Destroyer entered the scene, and kept going... and going... and going... :)
Decades later, when I first got a VR headset, I had them come over and watch that opening scene again, from the front-row of a VR theater. :)
Are you sure you (or they) don’t confuse that with Spaceballs?
@@polytropos1.1 Oh, quite sure. :)
Before Cinemascope, I sat as near front row center as I could. After watching 'The Robe" I felt nausiated from moving my head from side to side. After that I sat as close to the middle of the theater as I could.
@@gordonhaire9206 I like to use my glasses as the framing. If I can see the entire screen just barely fitting inside the bounds of my lenses, I'm the right distance away. ;)
@@polytropos1.1 omg thats not a ship its a TRANSFORMER!!!!!
I saw Star Wars in 1977 at the perfect age of 14. It was as if it’d been made for me. Back then it was so NEW and REVOLUTIONARY that seeing it was an event like going to an amusement park. I had the good fortune to see it in a big theater with a gigantic screen. They encouraged you to boo the bad guys and cheer the heroes! As it opened it sort of just washed over you back then. Great memories and I’m glad you enjoyed it.
I saw it in 77 for my 5th birthday. My dad brought me and I remember coming out of it talking about the spider ships (tie-fighters). I've been a lifer ever since. :D
Same here. It was a once in a lifetime experience.
I was 13, and I agree completely. It was a phenomenon; people lined up around the block in some places to see it.
I was the perfect age of 20, and it suited me just fine. No booing or cheering in the movie theater, though, just a lot of "wows" and "ooohs"
@@BeingMikeH Wow! I had a popcorn and a coke and did not leave my seat, I had to piss like a racehorse. I still wish I had my 5-year-old bladder.
I love that you know so little about the story. It's pretty tough to find people these days who don't instantly recognize every character or know certain plot points. I look forward to seeing the rest of your Star Wars journey! :)
Yes Star Wars is so ubiquitous with our pop culture that even people who haven't seen it generally know the gist of it.
'He's definitely a scoundrel.' Funny you should say that...
Scruffy looking one...
I'm 49 and was born three years before this came out. As there were additional Star Wars movies every three years, my young childhood almost felt like I was INSIDE Star Wars!
Everyone loved it, traded the toys etc. It was one of the first ever examples of mass toy production for movies too and that really helped bring it into our homes in a new way, as did early VHS video tapes. Back in the days when you'd tend to buy or record a tape and watch that thing 30 times! So loads of us became connoisseurs and addicts of the amazing George Lucas and Steven Spielberg films coming out during that time.
Worth mentioning that you're watching the 'remastered' version so SOME of the effects are CGI (even though the original had none ... well, apart from the targeting computer animations!) But it's just stuff like Jabba the Hut, some background stuff, some tweaks to the X-Wing engine effects etc. Almost all of it is all original 1977 goodness. And in the original when Han shoots that bounty hunter in the bar, the bounty hunter didn't fire at all - so Han really just blew him away!
I'm 1000% confident you'll LOVE the next two of the original Star Wars movies. They we SO cool at the time they practically tore a hole in the universe!
I am about to turn 49. My earliest real memory is Star Wars!
bullshit, the original did have some cgi
Same here, 49, and Star Wars was a huge part of my upbringing
The movie’s concepts and effects were so revolutionary at the time. I attended twelve showings, and every one got a standing ovation from the audience at the end.
The light saber duel between Darth and Obi-Wan seems pretty tame today, but the whole light saber idea had the audience captivated. I felt electrified myself at the cracking sound when their weapons made contact for the first time. No one expected any of it, and we were blown away.
I was amazed as an 8-year-old seeing this in 1977 and nothing has compared since.
You are not alone at all in ‘feeling things’ from the music. John Williams, the composer of the orchestral sound track for all 9 Star Wars saga movies, is one of the greatest ever to do it.
LET'S FREAKING GO!!
Watching star wars with Sofie ❤
I was 6 when this came out and watched it at a drive-in theatre, it was incredible on the big screen surrounded by the night sky. Every kid knew all the characters from Star Wars. The anticipation for next 2 along with the Indiana Jones trilogy and Back to the Future was incredible. Hearing this music still gives me a nostalgia feeling.
It's really nice to see someone swoon over gorgeous, artful shots. 5:34
And over the wonderful music too. (1:59 / 21:45 / 29:05)
"The fact that we're following non-human characters is kinda genius"
These movies make much more sense if you assume that R2D2 is the protaganist.
The desert scenes were filmed in Tunisia. They kept the sets and made it a tourist attraction.
One more thing, now you have Star Wars under your belt you have to react to Spaceballs!
Spaceball's is hilarious! "Comb the desert..."😂
She needs to see Alien first, if she hasn't already. The Wizard of Oz and the cartoon One Froggy Evening will also help.
Crucial scenes in "A New Hope" were filmed in Death Valley between the Sierra Nevada mountains and Mojave Desert. Although most of Tatooine was shot in Tunisia, crucial scenes in “A New Hope” were filmed in Death Valley between the Sierra Nevada mountains and Mojave Desert.
They filmed alot of the Tatooine scenes in Tunisia
So glad you’ve started this series, it’s one of my faves of all time. The creativity and using the technology to even beyond what they thought they were capable of at the time is just off the charts
Actually (yeah I know), the canyon scenes with the jawas was filmed in Death Valley, California
They _invented_ new technology for this film - such as computer controlled cameras to shoot the space battle scenes.
I think they filmed the Tatooine scenes in, or near, Tataouine, Tunisia.
Indeed, the scenes at the moisture farm were@@menachemsalomon
I've been to where the exteriors of the Lars moisture farm were filmed in Tunisia. The cool thing is that the caves in the rock were already there; the production crew didn't need to drill or dynamite anything. The caves were thousands of years old and had been used by troglodytes.
In 1977 we would take a trip to the theater, back in the days when a theater showed only one movie, and the line was blocks long to buy the tickets, then another line, blocks long to get into the theater itself. Even though we spent hours outside in anticipation, when the movie was finally over, many actually went right back outside and got in line again. THAT was the effect that the original Star Wars had on us.
_A long time ago, in a movie theater about 50 miles away ..._
*THERE WAS NO EPISODE TITLE*
The studio didn't think this film would make much money. Lucas was crossing his fingers that it didn't bomb. For all he knew, Lucas was making one standalone movie. "Episode IV" and "A New Hope" were added in later releases, to be in line with the numbering adopted with Episode V.
I first saw _Star Wars_ in 1977, at the Indian Hills Theater in Omaha, Nebraska, US (a city of about 1M). The Indian Hills was one of the last remaining Cinerama theaters in existence (it's long gone, now).
Cinerama was an experimental widescreen format seen in the 1950s and 1960s. It had an extremely curved screen, such that films shot in Cinerama used _three cameras_ and _three projectors_ : one for the center of the screen and one for each side. Everything had to be constantly synchronized so that the film looked normal onscreen.
If you see Cinerama films on DVD/Bluray/streaming today, it often looks distorted on the left and right. This is caused by converting a curved film to a flat screen.
So there I was at the Indian Hills at the tender age of 12 -- the film's precise target demographic. The Indian Hills seated 810 patrons: 662 on the main floor and 148 in the balcony. It was completely packed, as was every screening of _Star Wars_ in every theater in the world, until the film left theaters.
I'd gotten to the theater rather late, forcing me to sit in the center seat of row one.
This turned out to be fantastically good bad luck.
Today, the center of row one is a terrible seat due to parallax distortion. In a theater the size of the Indian Hills, that distortion didn't exist because the screen was far enough away from the seats. However, it was close enough so that it filled my field of view from top to bottom.
The screen was large and curved enough so that it filled my field of view from periphery to periphery.
_Star Wars_ was shot in CinemaScope, a more popular widescreen format that we still see today. While not technically the same as Cinerama, it still lent itself well to that screen.
I watched _Star Wars_ with the film filling my entire field of view from top-to-bottom and side-to-side. I didn't have to turn my head to watch it unless I wanted to, and I usually didn't.
It was an astonishingly immersive experience. Not even IMAX comes close.
Add to that the massive audience reaction that shouldn't be overlooked. It was a shared experience that I've only seen at _Infinity War_ and _Endgame_ on their opening nights, when there were a lot of fans present.
This audience reaction happened at every screening, in every theater, everywhere in the world, until _Star Wars_ left the screens.
Imagine 810 people all cheering, clapping, jumping to their feet, and occasionally crying all at once. The shared experience was amazing, as it fed on itself. No one held back, it just kept growing and growing until the destruction of the Death Star -- which prompted massive roaring from the audience.
The film itself was like nothing put to the screen at that time. While cinematically based on old _Flash Gordon_ and _Buck Rogers_ movie serials of the 1930s, this was a big-budget, big-screen version like nothing anyone had ever seen before.
It completely changed science fiction on the movie screen. Until that time, you occasionally got a good science fiction film, but they tended to be years apart. After _Star Wars_ , there were multiple good science fiction movies every year, a trend that continues to this very day.
There would be no modern _Star Trek_ without _Star Wars_ . _Star Wars_ was such a massive hit for 20th Century-Fox that Paramount quickly looked around and said, "Aha! We have this _Star Trek_ thing that Trekkies are always saying they want more of. Let's make it into a movie!"
Thus _Star Trek - The Motion Picture_ was released in 1979. Without that, there would be no _Star Trek_ today.
_Star Wars_ changed filmmaking from a business perspective. The film grabbed audiences like nothing seen in the entire history of cinema. While _Jaws_ was technically the first summer blockbuster, _Star Wars_ cemented summer as the time to release action-heavy, family-friendly films.
The special effects of _Star Wars_ were utterly innovative, and the tools created by the likes of John Dykstra became commonplace in films that don't even have special effects.
Almost all special effects in the Original Trilogy were achieved either in-camera, with optical effects, miniatures, extremely detailed paintings, or a combination of those techniques. CGI that allows an entire film to be shot on a green screen wasn't even a glimmer in anyone's eye.
In 1977, the most advanced computers were the size of an SUV and didn't have the computing power of your phone. CGI as a primary filmmaking technique wasn't popularized until _Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow_ in 2004. By then, computing power/square centimeter had skyrocketed exponentially.
The special effects spawned Industrial Light and Magic, a company created and owned by George Lucas. ILM is still in existence today, constantly innovating with new technologies to create visual effects for many, many films and TV series. From it's inception, ILM has been considered the gold standard of VFX companies.
In short, this film was nothing like what had come before. It changed _everything about cinema_ .
And I got to see it with an audience of 810, on a screen so immersive that I got nauseous during the Trench Run.
I was born in 75 and grew up with these movies. This is what I thought the pinnacle of cinema was. I always enjoyed other smaller movies, but I also always wondered why there weren't more big movies like this. It wasn't until the Avengers movies came around that my blockbuster desires were truly satiated. But I still love me some Star Wars. Those first three movies will always hold a special place in my heart.
I was 11 YO in 1977. I remember standing in a line that wrapped around the outside of the theater, in the rain, waiting to get in to see Star Wars.
The opening crawl is a reference to the old 30's and 40's movie serials that Star Wars and Indiana Jones were based on. A movie serial was basically something kind of like the miniseries we get on TV today, a short series of 4 or 5 episodes/movies, each somewhere between 40 and 60 minutes. The difference was that serials were showed in the movie theaters, since television wasn't really a thing yet. People would go to the movie theater to watch serials and news reels, so the former often had opening crawls at the start of the 'episode' to let new watchers, or those who had missed a part, catch up on the story so far.
24:54 It's not really explained in the movie itself, but Biggs is one of Luke's old friends, and a big part why Luke wanted to leave the farm and go to the Imperial Academy, as Biggs was going there himself to learn to be a fighter pilot for the Empire. The two of them running into each other is a happy coincidence resulting from Biggs defecting from the Empire and joining the Rebels.
Sofie, there are two reasons this looks so good - 1) you are watching the remastered 'enhanced' (there is argument about this) version; 2) it was originally shot on high-grade film, by skilled professionals. It's always looked great. Finally, the costuming and set design is very sleek and has great contrast so even all the greys and blacks don't look washed out.
Mind blowing is an understatement. As a little kid this movie was so incredible, life changing... kids nowadays cannot understand.
One of the best reactions to this movie., I saw this at 7 years old, 1977 , in a real theatre. Went back 2 more times that Summer. Thank you for reminding an old guy, how it felt to be young again.
This is the revised version. There have been some changes along the way. But in the original, Jabba the Hutt was a human, and later removed from the scene.
And btw: Han shot first.
The binary sunset scene is one of the most epic in movie history
Great reaction Sophie! I distinctly remember my 10yr old brain exploding when these movies came out! Omg and all the toys they released afterwards..great time to be kid!
Star Wars is full of timeless tropes. That's not a bad thing. They are timeless tropes for a reason. 😉 And they are executed very well in this movie.
Lucas is consciously telling the story of the hero's journey, a story as old as myth. He just put it in a science fiction setting, and used spectacular, ground-breaking effects (that still hold up well - even without the CGI added later). But the old story at it's core is part of why Star Wars was so successful, and has endured so well.
I was 13 Years old in 1977 when I saw Star Wars in the Movie Theatre. The Special Effects were ahead of its time. The Movie was originally just called Star Wars because George Lucas did not know if he would be able to show more Star Wars movies. It was renumbered Episode IV when episode V The Empire Strikes Back was released in 1980. George Lucas started with the First Movie of his middle Trilogy!
03:38 Why is his right leg silver?
Of course you spotted that right away! 👏👏 It is the attention to little details like this and your sharp mind in understanding storylines and characters that makes you one of the best reactors ever on youtube, Sofie.
I had an all silver C3PO action figure somehow...!
@@TheChiraagG Are you sure that it wasn't meant to be some other protocal droid?
@@Quirderph possibly, but I received it alongside the R2 figure and it was an original from the 70s / 80s, so not sure. I was young.
This movie came out before I was born, but my father told me what it was like seeing this in the theater for the first time: the music and effects were so mind blowing, that during the opening scene people in the audience ducked.
You are going to love the next installment, The Empire Strikes Back; considered by many to be even better. Hope you can avoid spoilers!
Dear SoFie back in ‘77 when I saw this my child mind was so happy because a movie was finally as believably fantastic as the images in my brain. The movie you just watched has had some extra new scenes added that fit in very well. So glad you are watching this, thank you.
This & Alien made the setting feel real & lived in. Droids & vehicles looked used so different from the sterile setting from previous sci-fi movies.
It was so popular the line literally went around the block. It would take several hours just to get tickets.
I was 12 when this movie came out. This was the first time (as far as I know) where they made space look real. When the light went down and they started with that enormous star-scape, it was mind blowing. The "new thing" in '77 and '78 was going back to the theater to watch it again. It was a point of pride at school to brag about how many times you'd seen it. This film totally changed the movie experience from what it was before.
When you watch something like this, you can't even imagine what it was like for someone like me to see it in a theater in 1978 the first time around. Back then everything was fresh and new. I was sixteen when I first went to see this at a neighborhood cinema with my older brother Mark, R.I.P. We got high on a couple of joints before the movie and you can just imagine what an extra wild ride it was for us.
I was 7, so I was blown away..
Where were you when I needed a date to see Star Wars back in '77, SoFie? Your sense of humor, your appreciation for the brilliance of those who created Star Wars and your adorable laugh... I can't wait to see your future Star Wars reactions.
After that, please, Lord of the Rings, the best ever! Good luck to you, and thank you.😎
I remember when this came out. It was the first time I was in a sold-out theatre. The score and sound effects were amazing, especially the TIE fighter sound. This is not the original release as there are some newer scenes from the first release but overall it was a well edited/produced movie. I am so glad for you to experience this especially without having to wait years for each subsequent episode.
He shot first! And there it is! Sofie said it and so it was.
It's so great to watch a reactor that gets all the humor in this film. Also wonderful to see how much your enjoying this film just as much as I did in the theater back in 1977! I suggest getting a Mod to go through the comments so you don't get spoiled, ppl may not mean to, but they do, on purpose or not.
Yes, I enjoyed her reaction a lot.
And yes I hope she is protected from spoilers by someone. 👍
*Thank you so much for your reaction, reminding me of the joy and inspiration I first encountered when watching star wars.* I was in year 7 when this first came out. I saved all my pocket money from mowing lawns, for months before and ended up going to the cinema over the next 6 months 12 times. _Yea, it had a huge impact on me._ I became a software developer, and robotics engineer. To this day (I am 59), I dabble in AI and 3D printed humanoid robotic parts. ... _A few years later we got Alien, with a different twist on space adventures._ ...
Before the movie was released, major newspapers ran weekly installments of the novelization to build interest. I was 13 years old, and captivated by the story, then seeing it visualized on the big screen was amazing.
John Williams' score adds SO MUCH
24:53 "How do they know each other?" It is a deleted scene, so it kind it is kind of left untold.
Welcome to the Star Wars journey! I look forward to the next episode. One unique thing about this movie was the costumes. In every other science fiction or fantasy movie the costumes and scenery were spotless and new. In Star Wars everything is a little dirty and beat up. Used. Real.
I love how completely invested you got, in the characters and plot line. Just to give you some idea of how impossibly huge. This movie was, both the main title theme and the cantina band song were played very often on the radio when this movie was out.
My mom, bless her, took me to see this opening day, first showing when I was a kid. It was life altering and one of the best memories of my childhood.
I was 7 when this movie came out. My Father took me to see the movie in part because he felt it was a culturally defining movie & he didn't want me to miss out.
Neat..I was seven also..only movie I ever went to where people cheered at some scenes ..the first jump to light speed and the death star explosion were scenes where it wa loud 😃
The Force will be with you, always.
This was absolutely awesome seeing it in the theater for the first time in the 70's! Especially the flyover shot of the Imperial Star Destoyer!
26:49 "Stop wasting time playing with your nobs!"
"PHRASING!"
-Archer
Seeing this movie in the theatre for the first time as a seven-year-old in 1977 was life changing! Even without the added special effects.
I saw this as an 8 year old in 1978 as part of a birthday party. To say we were blown away doesn't begin to describe it haha.
Being 7 and seeing this at least 10 times in the theater, all I can say is this was like seeing a Boeing 747 land in the 19th century. It was a HUGE jump in cinema.
The point about the effects holding up is good--Lucas basically has a philosophy of not putting in an effect that he couldn't actually achieve, which is why this looks a LOT better than anything else that came out in 1977. (And yes, I was there--no one had seen anything like Star Wars. When I went the first time--and people habitually went to these in the theater many times--I was seven, and the line at the theater stretched around the block twice. We little kids had to sit on the floor in the front of the theater.)
She is watching the modern remake, she doesn't see the original effects of 1977
Everything about Star Wars (this is the first SW movie) was set up like an old serial adventure reel from the 1940s and 50s that Lucas would watch a s young kid at matinee theaters on weekends. They were like 20 minutes long, and had a "catch up" scroll or title card first, in case you had not seen the previous story. Then each episode would end on either a win or a cliffhanger. (literally like the hero hanging off of a cliff, or about to get killed by the bad guys -- come back next week to find out!)
A lot of people wonder what inspired Star Wars and
two movies come to mind -- of course Stanley Kubrik's epic 2001 A Space Odyssey (1968) raised the bar for realism (and surrealism!) in space movies,
and Joseph Campbell's book "The Hero with a Thousand Faces" and to a lesser extent "The Lensmen" science fiction novels by E. E. "Doc" Smith.
SW is kind of like a space western, or a medieval swords and sandals adventure but spaceships instead of long ships and ligt swords instead of long swords. A true hero's journey. The first movie sets up a lot and tells a relatively simple story with the bad guys losing and everyone all smiles. The next gets a bit more complicated.
STAR WARS is kind of "all-genres-mashed-up-together".
Other large influences were Flash Gordon, Westerns, movies about WW fighter pilots, the Wizard of Oz, and samurai films (particularly the Hidden Fortress) .
Lucas put all that stuff together with revolutionary special effects, and a classical score... and he somehow had the presence of mind to realize that it could be emotional, warm, and funny at the same time.
I am so glad you are watching this in release order. You have made us, true Star Wars fans, proud. ❤
As a Junior in high school in a really really rural part of the US and seeing movies in a theater with a bad projector and bad sound, I was lucky enough to be in a big city (Denver) at the time Star Wars IV came out. My older brother and I decided to go to this. It was a packed state of the art theater. You are right. We were in awe from the get go. It was a life changing event.
It's impressive how well you got all the nuances of the characters and the world-building. To be fair, there's a LOT of detail in this movie, and many reactors miss those bits and pieces and end up with some very confused reactions. I think many of them lack the genre-saviness to pick up on context clues as well as you did, and the enjoyment you got out of following both the logic of the plot and the developement of the characters was a pleasue to watch for my old fan-heart. Thank you!
This is where the fun begins...
I watched this for the first time in the theater in "77. It opened a shortly before the end of the school year. In Houston, it was shown in one theater on the west side; I lived in the north east. It was a long way. So I went with 2 friends; my mom was upset that I drove with friends. She didn't like it but had never said anything. I was shocked there was a huge line! I was a little surprised when it started because I saw that this was episode 4; I wanted to see the earlier episodes. In the fall, I was s senior. We got our class picture. It was a very wide shot and came in a tube. I waved mine like a light saber making sound effects with my mouth. I had a teacher complementing me on it. I had a new book from Allen Dean Foster called "Splinter of the Mind's Eye." A teacher saw that and borrowed it from me.
This movie got a CGI enhancement right before the 1997, 20th anniversary rerelease of the movie. Even without the CGI, the movie is such a remarkable achievement and great to watch.
I have the original ones on VHS. Love this franchise to death. Happy to see you invested into this world.
As someone who was 10 when this first came out, I can tell you: We LOVED this soundtrack. I had many, many friends - 10 and 11 year old boys - asking for this soundtrack album! We knew it was a classic even then!
I had a copy of the LP and played it to death.
8:04 You got it on the Imperial uniforms. They are meant to resemble the uniforms of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan.
Also remember this movie came out a year after the American Bicentennial. We were all hyped up about the countries two centuries. So having most of the Imperial officers sound British fed into the zeitgeist.
25:00 "How do they know each other?"
That's Biggs.
Luke and Biggs were friends growing up.
There is a deleted scene with them talking before Luke meets Ben in the desert.
Welcome to the party!! Pure, movie magic, escapism with a fascinating universe, simple good vs evil plot. It gets even better. (Then it gets worse... But let's not talk about that yet,). Yeah, this didn't just blow people away in the 70s. It was more "Global Hysteria".
Hologram/Binary Sunset. One of the most gorgeous pieces of music in cinema.
Going back to my 13-year old self: nothing confirmed to me that we were in another part of the universe more than the scene when Luke goes outside to see the binary sunset. Blew my mind (again). I have to give you credit Sofie for that phrase!
I've been watching a lot of "first time" reaction videos for A New Hope lately and it's refreshing how there's zero baggage over the special edition changes, who shot first etc. People just enjoy the movie. I think we (long term fans) often get too hung up on the little things and forget that whether we personally like or dislike Lucas' tinkering, it remains an absolutely captivating movie.
The scene were Luke meets Biggs again was a deleted scene restored for the special edition. There is another deleted scene which takes place on tatooine where like sees the space battle between the empire and the rebels and goes to toshi station to tell his friends and no one believes him. Once people go back inside Biggs tells Luke that he is joining Rebels as he knows Luke would keep it secret.
25:27, when a Jedi Knight reaches a certain level of alignment with the Force they don’t die like regular people. They physically ascend into the Force leaving behind no physical body. Very very few reach this level of alignment, Obi Wan was at that level when his corporal life ended.
Despite being a master of the Force, Vader was not aware that this was possible. That’s why he was surprised when Obi Wan vanished.
One thing I notice about a lot of newer fans/viewers, is there is so much focus on the cinematic quality, or the effects etc. In 1977, it wasn't about that. It was about a new phenomenon. Episode 4 is the movie that started it all. Without it (if George Lucas was not able to get it to production), maybe we would not have the cultural situation, and popularity for the Star Wars craze that we have today. It was about the story, and the heroes/heroines fighting against evil. It's the idea that despite overwhelming odds, good can prevail over oppression. That is the message of Star Wars. Not fancy effects
5:29 She said the thing!
Hey, Sofie! Welcome to that galaxy far, far away!
Star Wars is deeply embedded in global pop culture and is one of the few franchises to shape multiple generations. Star Trek is another major one. Star Trek is genuine science fiction whereas Star Wars is more space fantasy. The first one I saw in a theater as a little boy was "Return of the Jedi" in 1983. My parents -- and anyone else who experienced it -- remember seeing "A New Hope" in 1977 because their jaws dropped in disbelief when that seemingly endless Star Destroyer kept passing before their eyes in pursuit of that tiny rebel transport.
Why does the saga begin with Episode IV?
George Lucas was influenced by a variety of concepts and genres that he blended together in a unique hodge-podge one of which was 1930s serials that ended on cliffhangers and continued for many, many chapters. They initially played these serials on the radio and later as featurettes before the main movie in theaters. If you hadn't been watching the serial from the beginning and just showed up casually on any old weekend, you'd find yourself in the middle of a story. This is called "in media res." Lucas was trying to recreate that sensation of walking into the middle of a story. Originally, the film was just called "Star Wars" because there were no expectations of sequels. As the saga evolved, the episodes were numbered and given subtitles. That's why Star Wars begins with Episode 4, "A New Hope".
Other influences were World War II aerial dogfight footage, Leni Riefenstahl's Nazi propaganda films for the fascistic imagery, Eastern Daoist philosophy, Flash Gordon serials, Akira Kurosawa's samurai epics, spaghetti Westerns, Errol Flynn swashbucklers, Edgar Rice Burroughs' sword-and-planet fiction, Frank Frazetta paintings and Joseph Campbell's scholarly writing on the hero's journey, "The Hero with a Thousand Faces". The reason these films struck a chord with worldwide audiences is because they tapped into both universal archetypes and specific images from a variety of cultural sources.
The non-CGI, PRACTICAL special effects were a quantum leap ahead of anything current and still hold up today. To promote the Prequel trilogy of the 2000's, Lucas remastered the Classic trilogy with DIGITAL effects which is why some elements look computer-generated. The two most narrative-oriented digital additions occur on Tatooine. In one, you get an early glimpse of crime lord Jabba the Hutt and the bounty hunter Boba Fett. This was cool. Jabba was originally played by a heavy-set man before being digitally rendered as a large slug which is why Han refers to him as a human being! In the other, the bounty hunter Greedo, who corners Han in the cantina, is shown to fire his blaster first whereas, originally, Han Solo fired pre-emptively under the table bushwhacking Greedo. This demonstrated Solo's rough, dangerous nature. The change caused a good deal of outrage but we're stuck with it now! Lol.
Artoo (R2-D2) is probably the smartest character in the whole franchise! Little person actor Kenny Baker operated the droid from within! Artoo is a type of droid called an ASTROMECH which are like ambulatory Swiss Army knives whose function is to serve as an onboard mechanic for starships. The two droids are meant to be the WITNESSES of the saga and appear in 11 of the 12 films! Lucas got the idea of servant witnesses from Akira Kurosawa's samurai classic, "The Hidden Fortress".
Wilhuff Tarkin is a Grand Moff which is a military term denoting his administrative authority over multiple sectors of the galaxy. Tarkin is top brass in the military and, under the Emperor's totalitarian regime, the military has replaced the civilian government. During the briefing, we are informed that the Senate has been abolished. Vader is the Emperor's enforcer but doesn't hold a political title or military rank. Tarkin is the man in charge of the nuts and bolts. Venerated actor Peter Cushing, known for playing Dr. Frankenstein, Van Helsing and Sherlock Holmes, portrayed the evil bureaucrat so soulless he could casually order the destruction of a planet teeming with billions and so respected even Vader deferred to his commands!
Leia Organa is the Princess of Alderaan. There are millions of civilizations in the galaxy with a monarchic government. Most of them are obscure. Alderaan's civilization is ancient and it is one of the founding worlds of the Republic so many of the civilized worlds of the Galactic Core would be familiar with her family especially since she is a member of the Senate. However, Tatooine is in the Outer Rim beyond the jurisdiction of the centralized government so there's little reason a farmboy like Luke would know who she is.
The climactic duel between Kenobi and Vader looks stiff and lacks the visceral impact of a more dynamic duel because Sir Alec Guiness was an elderly gent, the Vader suit allowed for a limited range of motion and the lightsaber props kept shattering with hard impacts. A YT fan called FXitinPost crafted an incredibly thrilling edit that lends the scene all the pizzazz it was lacking. It's called SC-38 RE-IMAGINED! Check it out AFTER you see "Revenge of the Sith".
Han received a medal for coming through in the clutch but, as his first mate, Chewie deserved one, too! The poor Wookiee has to wait 35 years for validation!
The opening crawl relates the events of "Rogue One" which concludes just hours before "A New Hope" begins! I strongly urge you to see the movie as it is one of the best Star Wars films around! If you would like to see more of Han Solo, I highly recommend you not skip "Solo" either which tells the origin story of Han. It's an underrated Star Wars film and tremendous fun!
That was the best Star Wars reaction I've ever seen (and I've watched dozens of them). Your insights into the character archetypes was brilliant. Much of the storyline was based on the book "the Hero's Journey", by Joseph Campbell. Can't wait to watch your joyful reactions to the remaining episodes.
Glad you enjoyed it!
I'm sure many someones must've already mentioned this, but what you're watching here is NOT what we saw in the theaters when it first came out. I mean....it IS, but George Lucas continued over the years to clean up the original effects work and add newer, digital effects as the technology became available to do so. The overall effect is that the films look like they could've come out much more recently. The city of Mos Eisley, for example, was digitally enlarged and CGI critters and flying robots were added all over the place. Jabba, for instance, was never seen in the film as originally released - they shot a scene where Solo spoke with a character named Jabba but that character was played by a real, human actor and the scene didn't make it into the final edit.
John Williams wrote the music (Jaws, ET, Raiders of Lost Ark, Superman, Private Ryan, Schindler's List, etc). There's a Rebellion theme for Luke and an Empire theme for Vader
Although heavily inspired by Gustav Holst's The Planets.
This was a life changing event, seeing this when I was 6 years old. So much imagination fuel.
A bonus short film that I have not seen yet being reacted to is "Hardware Wars". It is a spoof of "Star Wars". You will also see how much it cost to see movies at the time.
On behalf of all of us, Welcome to the Star Wars family, .. you have great journey ahead of you … but don’t worry, .. we’ll all be with you.
Welcome to the club! Just think, this movie has been waiting for you to watch it since before you were born. I'm looking forward to seeing you watch the rest .
You and me both!
SoFie is WORTHY.. very nice reaction ^^
You'll find Star Wars plays hell with hands and arms.
Chewie needed a medal; I mean all the repairs and heavy lifting, also great with a bowcaster.
This was the last film 7 year old me saw with my dad before he died of cancer. I can remember watching this as one of the last happy moments with him.
It was a tad irresponsible of your community to let you watch Firefly before Star Wars. 😉
Consider how much Firefly owes to Star Wars when you look at the characters in the following way.
Mal is Han. (Not identical, of course, but they have many traits in common.)
Consider the roles that each of Mal's crew members plays.
Zoe is FIRST MATE.
Wash is the PILOT.
Kaylee is the MECHANIC.
And Jayne is the BIG TOUGH GUY.
Chewbacca... is literally ALL FOUR of those things.
Therefore, one simplistic way of looking at Firefly is to think of it as sort of being Han Solo's life before he met Luke... and Chewbacca has been split up into four separate characters.
I love comparing my favorite things to each other.
(Don't even get me started on how Avatar TLA has a lot in common with both Buffy and Game of Thrones, yet somehow those latter two don't have nearly as much in common.)
Woooohoooo...... I am so happy that you are gonna take this ride Sophie. You are going to love it i just know it.
Can't wait!
I´ll follow you in this larger world, Sofie. Great reaction!!!
If no one has already mentioned it, the Tatooine desert scenes were filmed in Tunisia, with a few B-roll shots from the Mojave Desert in California.
Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Darth Vader. These characters are iconic in cinema and beyond the sci fi genre. Star Wars is beloved for no small reason, it’s the first true blockbuster. “If you strike me down I shall become more powerful than you can imagine” Obi Wan intentionally sacrifices himself because he knows Luke is the future. The rebellion lives on through him.
3:23 "Why are you so angry?!"
Well, it's a long story....
just like with your Firefly reactions, such a joy seeing your reaction
Create genuine reaction. Very entertaining. I'm glad I discovered you and with Star wars at that. Can't wait to see to see more reactions from you. You are great
Welcome to the Star Wars family!
15:44 You might wanna hold up on that one. Back in the 90's Lucas decided to do "special editions" of original trilogy, adding a bunch of CGI creatures and effects, altering scenes and some smoothing filters or whatnot. Then the proceeded to lock up the original prints of the movies in his vault and pretty sure they're no available anywhere to this day. Point being, you're likely to be seeing "boosted" effects.
Id seen this first in Theater as the age of 9. i assure you, you are absolutely right about the Score kicking in, the Krieg der Sterne( Star Wars) Logo fullscreen... it was 1978 and i did never before, and only an few Moments since then been blewn away and fascinated like This. The Impact of this Series of first 3 Films on the Popculture of my Generation is immense in my Eyes. great you did like it to an good degree:)
Stay healthy!
Star Wars is a masterpiece for sure. You have a lot of fun in store:)
I saw Star Wars on the big screen in the theatre when it was released. It was perfect for me. I was reading the Sci Fi greats at the time. Asimov, Heinlein, Clarke. But I was also into fantasy. Tolkien, Howard, Moorcock. And Star Wars was such a fantastic blend of Sci Fi and Sword and Sorcery. I loved it instantly. And I'm glad you're watching it in release order. That's the way to watch it.