While talking in the movie theater is anathema (and don’t you dare pull out a phone), the communal human experience continues to make actually leaving your house to see a movie worthwhile. There’s nothing quite like a screaming, cheering crowd. Some movies only exist in front of an audience. Jump scares are better in a movie theater. Don’t look it up, but I assume they didn’t bother with a Blu-ray release for Transformers: Dark of the Moon. Only a packed theater (with a healthy population of inebriates) can keep those anti-Decepticon wingsuits afloat.
Star Wars movies, excepting those made between 1999-2005, have always been fantastic to watch with a crowd. Sure, the Disney days have overplayed the fan service, but it’s hard not to get caught up with a gasping audience as Darth Vader activates his lightsaber at the end of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.
Now, thanks to a very special tape recording William Forsche made when seeing Star Wars with his mother in 1977, we have a taste of what it was like when Star Wars changed movies forever. Homer Thompson synced Forsche’s tape recording to Luke Skywalker’s trench run, pulling a moment of blockbuster history into the present day.
For those of us who missed out on Star Wars before that dumb A New Hope subtitle was appended, before the Special Editions and before sci-fi action adventures became our most dominant mode of storytelling, this video opens a gateway into Star Wars’ remarkable past.
