That makes me want to see the original, un-George-edited version. I'm a little too young to have done so

Boy, trailers were way different back then, weren't they?

Boy, trailers were way different back then, weren't they?

They have indeed.

The funny thing is... they changed so gradually and over such a long period of time; even for an older person like me, it can be a little jarring to go back and see something like that.

The marketing department unearthed every conceivable astronomical phrase in common parlance.

That makes me want to see the original, un-George-edited version. I'm a little too young to have done so

I notice the trailer lies about a couple small things. It's not the story of "a boy and a girl," at least not as it implies, and there is little, if any, romance.

And most all the footage from the trailer comes from Act II of the film .

And I would also like to comment on how much trailers have changed since then! That was...a trip into the Way-Back Machine !

I notice the trailer lies about a couple small things. It's not the story of "a boy and a girl," at least not as it implies, and there is little, if any, romance.

And most all the footage from the trailer comes from Act II of the film .

And I would also like to comment on how much trailers have changed since then! That was...a trip into the Way-Back Machine !

They were so scared that by having "WARS" in the title, they were alienating women that they might have... well... exaggerated.

I was 10 when this movie came to theaters... soon to be 11. I lived in NYC at the time. I hadn't even heard of it. It opened to such a small number of theaters that it wasn't some weeks before I knew about it and, even then, I had no idea what it was. I never saw a trailer. I never cared to go back and look at the trailers. So today is the very first time I saw that trailer. It didn't make me want to go back and see it again, tbh. In fact, I kinda cringed at it!

For the most part, I agree that trailers have changed a lot in 40 years but, at the same time, I see a lot really hasn't and I wonder if it's more due to technical capabilities that they have. From the 1970's or today, trailers make false promises about the movies they're intended to advertise so that much is the same. I think they're just better at it now. I'm pretty sure that trailers were created, in the good ol' days, by literally splicing together pieces of film and, from the look (and sounds!) of things, they weren't even finished shots. They'd never give you such an unpolished look today so that is, to me, the major difference.

Even the trailer for Return(Revenge) of the Jedi was bad in camparison with what you get now, but then look at budgets for films in comparison.

I notice the trailer lies about a couple small things.

Well, at least it didn't utilize footage that didn't make the final cut of the film; which seems to be becoming more and more commonplace these days.

'A billion years in the making'..? Um... yeah.

But hey, my six-year old self would have probably liked it. Heck, I was there, and as Phee says, we forget how slick marketing is today. This looks like it was made for 50p, even in 'old money'

I don't think anyone could have predicted just how big this was going to be (Exhibit A - the Holiday Special a year later!). It's easy to forget that Harrison Ford wasn't a star back then, and that this was his breakout movie.

They certainly oversold the whole romance angle. In retrospect, that little kiss is kinda daring

Also interesting that they didn't really have any of the catchphrases or marketing hooks. I guess back then it was one of many sci-fi movies and people just didn't quite understand how important it would get.

All that said, the original film really does have a certain power to it, even decades later. I remember my mind being blown even by the opening line: 'A long, long time ago...'

I was there, brain sprained, thinking: 'space-ships...? laser-swords...? A long time ago...?'

I'm also vaguely amazed that my 47 year old self is still here and still intrigued by it. Heck, I'm still dizzy from a weekend of Star Wars gaming! Slightly non-canon for the MarcyVerse (I wasn't the GM) but still, this franchise stirs the imagination and gets all our minds working on new and fresh scenarios (the weekend's fun was a cross between Philip K D_ick's novel 'Through A Scanner Darkly' and 'Danger Days' by My Chemical Romance, if you can believe that)

(goddam it, censors - it's the author's real name, I'm not being obscene!!!)

The following decade was full of films that had a "cop on the edge" so it didnt imprrove much, in fact there is one thing I am glad of the touched up movies for is that they fixed the background noise that became inevitable with multiple playbacks on analog media like magnetic tape and 35mm film. I didnt notice it back then but you certainly notice it now.

Just to confirm im not prodigital or anti-analog in any way, just whatever works.

And just think, when I first saw this on TV I couldn't rewind or go see it again on youtube again.

I had forgotten how voice overs were once the norm. Sometimes they did contribute though. I recall "In space, no one can hear you scream", being a pretty popular phrase before Aliens was released.

I had forgotten how voice overs were once the norm. Sometimes they did contribute though. I recall "In space, no one can hear you scream", being a pretty popular phrase before Aliens was released.

Was there a voiceover on that? I thought it was just text at the end, but I'm probably misremembering. Very effective line either way.

That makes me want to see the original, un-George-edited version. I'm a little too young to have done so

Boy, trailers were way different back then, weren't they?

There's a guy out there somewhere in the internet that restored the three original films to their theatrical release versions, color corrected, all that business, blu-ray quality. They are awesome. I can't for the life of me remember what to search for but it's worth going down the rabbit hole if you have the time to look for it.

Edit: If you're wondering why he did this, I think it was because there wasn't/isn't any hope of Disney releasing blu-ray versions of the original theatrical movies.

I believe they're called the "Despecialized Editions".

I believe they're called the "Despecialized Editions".

I don't mind the Greedo/Han scene change nearly as much as I loath the singing scene in Jabba's palace.

The one that bothered me the most was actually Vader's shuttle ride between Cloud City and the Executor. It completely derailed the momentum of the entire escape scene.

And while we're on the subject; does anyone know why they felt the need to change "You're lucky you don't taste very good" to "You were lucky to get out of there"?

One of the strange things is that a mistake in the original may not have been a mistake apparently the 12 parsec comment was scripted with Obiwan giving an incredulous look. So it may have been that Han was trying to gauge how much they knew to see if he could gouge them or alternatively it was still a mistake and the claim was meant to sound like it was an impressive feat and Obiwan thought it was BS, one things for sure we will never find out unless GL comes right out and admits he thought a parsec was a unit of time. I personally think it was a mistake.

http://m.imgur.com/R2DgMeZ

I don't mind the Greedo/Han scene change nearly as much as I loath the singing scene in Jabba's palace.

When I first saw that I almost couldn't believe that I was actually watching a Star Wars movie

I notice the trailer lies about a couple small things.

Well, at least it didn't utilize footage that didn't make the final cut of the film; which seems to be becoming more and more commonplace these days.

Then, as now, trailers were stapled together BEFORE editing of the movie itself is complete, maybe even before filming has fully wrapped. So, trailers are quite likely to be using alternate cuts or footage from scenes that are deleted entirely from the final cut of the film. Notice also that sound effects, music, looping from the final cut are not there also. Obvious example - no Vader voice questioning the captain of the Tantive IV. That likely was not a result of keeping Vader's voice a secret but probably because the looping by JEJ wasn't yet done. There's a comment above that most of the footage in the trailer comes from act 2 of the film. Obviously, much of the big action starts at that point and they would want action imagery to sell to an audience in the trailer - but they wouldn't want to give away what happens in act 3.

These days, trailers end up in theaters as much as a YEAR before the frikkin' movie is released, especially for a big-budget effects epic like Star Wars. There's certainly more consideration given to the trailers now than 40 years ago, but they still have to get put together before the film itself is complete and that explains why what you see in a trailer might NOT be what you see in the movie. It's not an intentional lie or deception, it's just the nature of how trailers still get done. The earlier in production that a trailer has to be put together the more likely it is to use footage that ultimately seems like it was picked up off the cutting room floor, because in a sense it IS - footage gets used that simply didn't make the cut.