Say it with me in your best Howard Cosell voice, “Down goes Vader! Down goes Vader! Down goes Vader!” I just couldn’t resist that intro.
Over the past 26 hours I watched the Star Wars Trilogy. I had only seen the trilogy in its entirety once or maybe twice and this was the first time I had seen all three movies in succession. The first three (as far as production, but last three in the story) Star Wars movies are truly the greatest trilogy of all time. I guess that’s why we refer to them as “the trilogy.”
Before watching the movies this weekend I had never realized how far ahead of their time they really were. Sure, I know George Lucas spruced them up for the release of the DVD box set, but the originals had some pretty good special effects when they were created.
One question I kept asking myself was who did Vader’s voice. I quickly found out it was James Earl Jones, and as soon as I saw the picture it all made sense. While hearing Darth Vader during the films I knew it was a familiar voice and now I can sleep soundly knowing exactly who it was.
There are countless movie reviews on the films and I’m sure 95% of you have seen them yourself, so I’m not going to bother with any other details. If you haven’t seen the trilogy in awhile, it’s time to get the new DVDs. A++ all the way. Maybe tomorrow I’ll watch the special features DVD and review it.
Nick Momrik 
I also would give the movies an A+++++ They were awesome. The extra features DVD gives a lot of the behind the scenes from the triology and shows how they made the movies and how they over came problems during production. It is really interesting. I give that an A+ also!
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I love you. Seriously. You must be my soulmate. Okay, maybe not but I love the dew and I just happened to stumble upon your site which I think will become a daily for this lass.
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At the risk (okay, the certainty) of dating myself, I find an odd satisfaction in knowing that someone who was not born when the original Star Wars (now Ep. IV) debuted can appreciate to some degree how startlingly good it was.
I write “to some degree” because, when you consider the following, it may strike you even more strongly. Try to imagine 1977. Special effects like these had never been seen. Indeed, the entire notion that everything in the movie looked “used,” as Lucas notes in the box set, was a radical one for science-fiction.
The film seemed much faster paced than when you see it today. In 1977, the quick cut techniques commonly seen today on MTV and in videogames simply did not exist. So being thrown into the opening sequence was as immersive as being thrown into the deep end of a swimming pool.
James Earl Jones was not a familiar voice. He became one because of this movie (though I don’t recall whether he had the prominent credit now placed at the end of the film). You could not have heard him on CNN, because it didn’t exist. All you knew was that Darth Vader was the coolest villain you had ever seen. His entrance into the rebel ship, through clouds of smoke, is an iconic image seared on the brains of kids who saw it then (and I suspect now). And the creepy respirator sound made the hairs on the back of your neck stand up.
Another difference from then to now is referenced on the DVD extras, but worth emphasizing. The tone of Star Wars was unlike that of any other sci-fi flick that a kid could think of — and different from most other films of the period. In the late 1970’s, America was in a serious, downbeat sort of mood overall. Star Wars was heroic, upbeat and funny. That’s not to say the period did not have good comedy: the original Saturday Night Live, Richard Pryor, Mel Brooks, and so on. But the humor and heroics in Star Wars was different in that it harkened back to the old movie serials to which Lucas was paying homage, as well as playing off them. Star Wars was simultaneously classic in tone and radical in technique.
I’ve gone a bit long (as I tend to do). But since you seemed to “get it” instinctively, I thought I might add a few extras to those on your DVDs in the hope that you will enjoy them all the more.
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