MovieChat Forums > Star Wars (1977) Discussion > question for those who saw it at its ori...

question for those who saw it at its original release


I was born in the 80s, so didn't have the chance. Could maybe find out online but who knows if it'd even be true.

Anyway, what I'm wondering. In the original opening crawl, did they title it with "Episode IV - A New Hope" or simply as "Star Wars"?

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Star Wars.

The next movie was called "The Empire Strikes Back," and the third movie was called "Return of the Jedi." It was later that the movies were renamed, "Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back" and "Star Wars: Return of the Jedi," and even later that the "Episode" first appeared.

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That's incorrect. When The Empire Strikes Back originally came out, Episode V was part of the opening crawl. This was a big deal at the time, as until then it was assumed the story began with Star Wars, but the rumor was that Lucas intended to make 9 films in total, in 3 trilogies.

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That's true. I stand corrected.

I was thinking more in terms of what people called the movies. Even though "The Empire Strikes Back" was a Star Wars movie, it was just always called "The Empire Strikes Back. Even after the prequels came out, most Star Wars ish fans would still think that "Star Wars" meant the first movie (ie, Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope)

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Garbage. The original theater run did not say Ep.5.

It was added later because it looked cool, part of a larger story, hinting at a bigger universe, then in the 90's came to planning the prequel.

Star Wars was Star Wars then Empire written next. There was no 9 movie plan, or 6 movie plan at any time during the making of Star Wars 1977 or Empire Strikes Back 1983.

Hence the slight revisions in the trilogy.

You state "incorrect" but theres multiple people here stating the facts already "filmbuff". And you know if you tackle this you will be covered with people who know what is correct.

Apparently for a "filmbuff" you dont.

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Are you old enough to have seen the films during their original theatrical runs? I am. Star Wars was just Star Wars. The Empire Strikes Back included "Star Wars Episode V" in the opening crawl, on opening day in 1980. Further, it was revealed shortly thereafter that Lucas had a 9-part story in mind, and would follow up part 6 with parts 1 through 3, then finish with parts 7 through 9.

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To make sure I'm not misremembering, I did some research.

From Wikipedia:

"Though the film was simply titled The Empire Strikes Back in its original promotional materials, the film still started with the title Star Wars on-screen which was followed by the opening crawl that gave the film's subtitle as Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, causing some surprise among cinema goers at the time as the original Star Wars film had not been given an episode number or subtitle for its first release in 1977."

The same facts are there for you to read on numerous other sites, in case you don't trust Wikipedia.

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so wheres the 9 movie plan?

If it was planned how was Leia not written as Lukes sister until Return of the Jedi, and Vader being Lukes father was not conceived until the writing of Empire Strikes Back.

George Lucas was making it up as he went along. There was no plan.

Putting V in the opening crawl was a cool idea to make the universe and story seem bigger, an epic.

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So where's your admission that you were wrong about the opening crawl not always including Episode V? You spent 6 paragraphs insisting I'm wrong, certainly you can spare one sentence to apologize?

As for the 9-movie plan, I don't have any idea how much, if anything, Lucas had in mind. All I know is that after Empire Strikes Back came out, and the film was labeled as part 5, the Hollywood rumor mill was abuzz with stories that when all was said and done there were to be 9 parts to the story. Beyond that, I can't tell you any more. All I know with certainty is that in 1980, we were all talking about Star Wars as a story that would one day end with a part 9.

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Having a "plan" does not mean that every detail is already determined. Lucas said he had a basic idea of what the story was and where he wanted to go with it.

He did (many times) say he had a 9 part story in mind - a general outline. He said this early on - maybe before Jedi was released, but I'm not certain about that. Then years later he said he really only had the first 6 episodes planned.

In interviews he explained the evolution of his original story and how it soon became clear that it was too much for one movie. That original story was divided into 3 parts and became the original trilogy. If you listen to those interviews or read any of the books about the evolution of Star Wars, you can really see what he's talking about.

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You're a little off on the dates:

Star Wars (1977)
The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
Return of the Jedi (1983)

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"Garbage. The original theater run did not say Ep.5. It was added later because it looked cool, part of a larger story, hinting at a bigger universe, then in the 90's came to planning the prequel."

You don't know what you're talking about. Here's a screenshot from a scan of an original 35mm theatrical film print (pre Special Edition):

https://i.imgur.com/N7DE1kX.jpg

The only one that didn't originally have an episode number subtitle was Star Wars (1977). "Episode IV" and "A New Hope" was added to it for its 1981 theatrical re-release, in order to make it conform to The Empire Strikes Back (1980), which had the episode number subtitle from day one.

"There was no 9 movie plan, or 6 movie plan at any time during the making of Star Wars 1977 or Empire Strikes Back 1983."

Again, you don't know what you're talking about. It was common knowledge among kids my age in the early 1980s that 9 movies were planned. George Lucas mentioned it in interviews back then. We also heard that Anakin Skywalker needed to wear the Darth Vader life support suit because he fell into molten lava in or around a volcano. Also, The Empire Strikes Back was released in 1980, not 1983.

The rest of your post is comically ironic, considering that nothing you said in your entire post was correct.

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It just said Star Wars. Episode IV A New Hope was added after ESB came out and the original movie had another run in theatres.

The 2006 DVDs have the theatrical versions and the crawl on those just say Star Wars.

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"Star Wars". The "A New Hope" was added in the 90s, when Lucas tinkered with the originals and made the prequels.

FYI nobody expected much from "STAR WARS" until the critical buzz started to build and the limited release in big cities had lines going for blocks. I had thought the previews were so "meh" that I wasn't interested... even though I was a sci-fi-obsessed Trekkie nerd kid.

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"The "A New Hope" was added in the 90s, when Lucas tinkered with the originals and made the prequels."

No, it was added in 1981 for its theatrical re-release.

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In the original first-showing of the movie it was titled "Star Wars". Its success took Hollywood completely by surprise.

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The title Star wars was presented on screen and then the crawl would commence

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It was called STAR WARS.

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