My sons are huge Star Wars fans, so I've had to watch more than my share of the first three films (I won't even stay in the room when the last three are screened, they're so awful). From the perspective of decades later (I was 10 when the first Star Wars film came out), I can't decide which is more wooden: Mark Hamill's performance as Luke Skywalker, or George Lucas's screenwriting.
That question would have been obviated had the unbearable alternative future promised by this old screen test come true. Presenting Kurt Russell in the 1970s, reading for the part of Han Solo:
What next? Ken Berry trying out for Obi Wan?
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Actually, I can see KURT (not Ken) Russell as Han Solo. In any case, he was fantastic as Jack Burton in BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA, one of my all-time favorites. In fact, all his early work with John Carpenter (ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK, THE THING, etc.) is noteworthy.
Mark Hamill was awesome as the voice of The Joker in Batman: The Animated Series. Best Joker ever.
I'm with Rod on this. I saw Star Wars as a "relaxing break" from studying for the upcoming finals week at Caltech. What a mistake! I hated it, mostly because of the non-scientific/magical Force angle. But the dialogue was also miserable to sit through. And I saw it at the Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood, so there were no problems with projection or sound.
Oddly enough, the parody version that was made for the Family Guy television show was enjoyable. I think that was because it was faster paced and shorn of tedious solemnity.
Rod is onto something here. My friends and I were so blown away after seeing the first "Star Wars" over the summer of 1977 that we turned around and marched right back into the theater for a second screening.
The luster had not worn off with the second and third installments, but looking back on that era now it is obvious as to why these movies were so compelling: The special effects were a mind blowing departure from anything that had come before. Three decades later, those special effects are still terrific if now dated, but the dialogue and acting is astonishingly wooden.
Wow -- talk about a disturbance in the force! This was excruciating to watch. I have to say I loved the first three movies so much that I walked out of a business conference in Buffalo, NY, to see the first showing the third film, along with a sea of eight-year-olds. But now, in my maturity (dotage?), I can see that the early SW flicks fall into the category of "so bad that they are good." But those are my favorite kinds of movies.
Thank goodness for Harrison Ford!
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