I had heard some buzz about STAR WARS, but really didn't think much about it. My cousin (same age) went, and afterwards he wouldn't leave me be until I agreed to go with him. What a game changer. By the time Empire came out...
I was at teachers college when the first SW came out. It was so overhyped I just pretended it wasn't out there. Paul Hogan had a regular comedy series on Aussie TV at the time and he did a SW sendup
before the film had even opened here! I recall walking past the cinema with a banner strip across the movie poster saying "Our 14th big month!" In those days, big blockbusters often lasted three to six months in the one city cinema (before going on their suburban tour), but
fourteen months? (I was the same with "ET" a few years later. I've never seen "ET" on the big screen. It just didn't demand that I attend.)
I do recall the hype over "Superman: The Movie", but I thought it was well deserved. "Superman II" actually debuted in Australia many months before the US got it.
But TMP coincided with the end of college and (perhaps) years of trying to get a teaching position. TMP came along for me as the right movie at the right time. I began buying "Starlog" magazine (and hunted up the first 29 back issues), and by the time "The Empire Strikes Back" hit, I was filled with curiosity, and saw that movie before ever seeing SW. I eventually saw SW on TV, not long before attending the gala premiere of "Return of the Jedi"
(as an Andorian!)
I was so impressed by the Klingon opening of TMP, not realising that the first SW had done a similar opening trick with their models, although a few SW friends recommended sitting in the front row to watch repeat screenings of TMP, as had become their weekly shtick with SW. I'd never seen "The Changeling" or "The Immunity Syndrome" (or about 70 other ST episodes), so I had
no idea that TMP's script was borrowing so heavily on past adventures. And I reckon I was lucky that I ended up
reading the novelization of TMP the weekend before going to see the movie. In discussions with diehard fans during 1980, it seemed like I was the only person who understood/appreciated the movie.
