All this pain is an illusion...

After about five years of waiting, last night I bought the Star Wars Trilogy on DVD. And while I've been fortunate enough to be able to enjoy my various laserdisc versions of these movies (as opposed to VHS versions), recently they have begun to show there age. Technology marches on and laserdiscs, while far better than VHS and most cable and broadcast television, just don't look as good as DVDs on my 58" HDTV.

( DVD impressions )

This release of Star Wars has brought to mind the memories I had of seeing this movie for the first time in the summer of 1977 in Dallas, TX. I was 8 years old, visiting my grandmother with my parents. I remember that I didn't even want to go see the movie because I thought it had something to do with NASA. My parents finally talked me into going to see it. I bet they regretted that later. It was the most amazing thing I had ever seen - space battles, aliens, princesses, magic, sword fights. Everything an eight year old boy should love. I saw it 7 times in the theater - not all that summer, but over the various releases it had between 1977 and 1981. I made a point of seeing the 1997 Special Edition 7 times in the theater just for that reason. To say that this movie changed my life would be a understatement. It brought a whole new level of imagination and excitement to my life as an child. And it sparked my love of film.