On this day in 1977 (36 years ago), Star Wars opened with an intergalactic bang, the first of George Lucas' blockbuster movies 'Episode IV: A New Hope'
The incredible success of Star Wars began when it received seven Oscars, and earned $461 million in U.S. ticket sales and a gross of close to $800 million worldwide. The anticipation of this revolutionary movie-watching experience spread like wildfire, causing long lines in front of movie theatres across the country and around the world.
With it's groundbreaking special effects, Star Wars leapt off screens and immersed audiences in 'a galaxy far, far away.' By now everyone knows the story, which followed the baby-faced Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) as he enlisted a team of allies--including hunky Han Solo (Harrison Ford) and the robots C3PO and R2D2 on his mission to rescue the kidnapped Princess Leia from an Evil Empire governed by Darth Vader. The film made all three of it's lead actors overnight stars, turning Fisher into an object of adoration for millions of young male fans and launching Ford's now-legendary career as an action-hero heartthrob.
Star Wars was soon a bona-fide pop culture phenomenon. Over the years it has spawned five more feature films, five TV series and an entire industry's worth of comic books, toys, video games and other products. Two big-screen sequels, The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and The Return of the Jedi (1983), featured much of the original cast and enjoyed the same success (both critical and commercial) as the first film. In 1999, Lucas stretched back in time for the fourth installment, Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, chronologically a prequel to the original movie. Two other prequels, Episode II: Attack of the Clones (2002) and Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (2005) followed. Sutherland Library holds ALL of these Star Wars DVDs, why not resverve and revisit them soon?
