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This topic comprises 6 pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6
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Topic: Happy 30th, Star Wars!
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Claude S. Ayakawa
Film God
Posts: 2738
From: Waipahu, Hawaii, USA
Registered: Aug 2002
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posted 05-26-2007 12:51 AM
The original STAR WARS film opened at two theatres in Honolulu on June 8, 1977 at Consolidated Cinerama and the Kapiolani. The Kapiolani engagement was not very long. Both theatres ran the movie in 35mm mono because neither was set up for Dolby yet. After the Kapiolani's showings ended, the Cinerama had a exclusive for the rest of it's run in Hawaii which was over a year. After the film played in 35mm for several months, Dolby Stereo was installed at the Cinerama and STAR WARS continued it run at this theatre in 70mm and 6 track stereo in early October.
Because Honolulu's engagement was in 35mm in the beginning, I decided to hold off seeing it until i was in San Francisco on my way home from a national professional photographers convention in Chicago. I had planned to see it at the Coronet in 70mm in the bay area but by a stroke of luck, the first time I got to see STAR WARS was in the grand ball room at the Hyatt Regency O'Hare in Rosemont, Illinois late one evening during the conventIon. It was a 35mm mono showing on a very large scope screen and I was very impressed with the presentation, I did get to see it again in 70mm at the Coronet as planned but because of jet lag, I slept through most of it.. When I returned to Honolulu, I saw it twice at the Cinerama in 35mm and again in 70mm.
-Claude
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Michael Schaffer
"Where is the
Boardwalk Hotel?"
Posts: 4143
From: Boston, MA
Registered: Apr 2002
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posted 05-26-2007 12:17 PM
IIRC, Star Wars came to Germany the following year, in February of 1978 (not sure if that's correct though), and by that time, it already was massively anticipated because everyone knew what a big hit it was in America. It was much more interesting back then because all you got to see were pictures and a few brief clips on TV, the trailer (which I remember wasn't all that long either), unlike today where you get bombarded with adds and clips and overlong trailers which give most of the movie away.
I first saw the movie which in Germany was called "Krieg der Sterne" (literally, "The War of the Stars") a few months after the opening in Berlin's biggest theater, the "Royal Palast", in 70mm. The opening title read "Es war einmal in ferner Zukunft" - "Once upon a time in the far future" instead of what the original means - later they changed that to a more literal translation.
Oddly, even though I was only 10 and didn't know much about technical stuff, I remember it said "in 70mm 6-channel magnetic sound" in a yellow band across one corner of the marquee. That theater had what was advertised as "the biggest screen in Europe". It closed a few years ago, like so many other big movie palaces.
I clearly remember the slight hiss of the magnetic sound system coming on just before the main feature began, and the effect of the space ships (and the sound) coming from the back. The movie left a very big impression on me, and I saw it many times that summer and the following years.
I still remember how pissed off I was when it finally left that theater (after a very long engagement) and was replaced by "Convoy". Which I never watched, but I haven't forgiven Kris Kristoffersen to this day.
But it came back after 2 years or so, again in 70mm.
I don't remember when and where I first watched "The Empire Strikes Back". But I clearly remember I was in London when "The Return of the Jedi" started, on the same day as in the US, and I saw it at the "Odeon Marble Arch", another huge screen which has since then closed, in 70mm, on the third or fouth day.
quote:
Here's where it opened (From my retrospective article May 25, 1977: A Day Long Remembered):
What I found interesting in that article is that "The Spy Who Loved Me" only opened in 200 theaters while stuff like "Orca" and "The Deep" opened in 700-800 theaters (no doubt because they hoped that scary movies with monsters in the sea would make a "Jaws" effect). But I thought Bond movies were already a really big thing then.
quote: Bobby Henderson
I forgot to mention in my previous post how members of the Star Wars crew stayed in Yuma, AZ hotels during parts of the film's production. Some of the Tatooine scenes were shot in the sand dunes just west of Yuma.
Wasn't that for "Return of the Jedi", not "Star Wars"?
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Christian Appelt
Jedi Master Film Handler
Posts: 505
From: Frankfurt, Germany
Registered: Dec 2001
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posted 05-27-2007 03:05 PM
I saw it (dubbed and titled KRIEG DER STERNE, as Michael already noted) at the Frankfurt MGM theatre (later ROYAL theatre) in a 70mm print and on a deep curved screen. Being only 11 years old, I was thrilled by the impact of space fight scenes on the Cinerama type screen. Today, I know that this fascination had to do with the fact that at that time I had seen none of the classics from GUNGA DIN to LAWRENCE OF ARABIA, no classic pirate movie and few other genre classics, so what Mr Lucas had stitched together and coated with some Castanaeda philosophy looked entirely new to me.
Today, I prefer THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK, and when I saw STAR WARS: SE in 1997 on the same screen (only with bad color, unsharp prints and overblown sound and CGI effects), I decided never to spend money on a Lucas movie again.
Back then, it was great.
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