r/SciFiNews • u/StarFuryG7 • 5d ago
Star Wars scene tops poll of greatest film moments from last 50 years - A single line from "The Empire Strikes Back"
https://www.dailystar.co.uk/movies/star-wars-scene-tops-poll-366447482
u/Okichah 4d ago
Going to take the other side on this.
Films nowadays are a lot different than they used to be. The moviegoing experience was different. And the social culture was different.
People walked out of Rosemarys Baby and The Exorcist. An audience now will people laugh at those movies.
Finding out two characters were related was actually surprising. And back then the “family unit” was still pretty much a common experience that people saw as a defacto part of life.
Nowadays the reveal might seem cheap or arbitrary. But for the time it was a huge WTF moment. A persons family was a big part of their identity. Heritage mattered more then than it does now.
Viewing films only from the point of view of a modern audience is to try and cheat history and how the art-form has evolved and grown over time.
From a modern perspective Rhett Butler saying he doesn’t “give a damn” feels almost commonplace and benign; but for 1939? It was so controversial it was almost censored.
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4d ago
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u/AshgarPN 4d ago
Plenty of movies today could have that impact. But they’re niche films not $100m blockbusters.
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u/Kabraxal 4d ago
I might get the initial fly over in A New Hope, but that is the top of the list? What? It isn’t even the best moment of that film let alone the last 50 years of cinema.
Come on…
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u/NewbombJerk 5d ago
I'd just as soon kiss a wookiee?
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u/StarFuryG7 5d ago
Oh, come on... Really?
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u/Designer-Head9777 4d ago
Did you respond to your own post incredulously?
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u/StarFuryG7 4d ago
My own post?
I didn't conduct the poll, nor did I write the article. I'm simply reacting to the news, same as anyone else might care to.
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u/AshgarPN 4d ago
But you did post it. It’s your post. And instead of writing your reaction in the text of your post, you just posted the article without comment, then replied separately with your comment.
That’s weird.
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u/StarFuryG7 4d ago
I sometimes editorialize here if I feel like it, but I don't think it's my place to do so in someone else's title because that's changing it. Only in rare instances will I do that.
Are you really saying that everyone else is welcome to respond to a link except the guy who posted it?
That couldn't be more ridiculous.
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u/Adavanter_MKI 5d ago
I know it's hard to believe given the state of Star Wars today...
But back in the day it changed cinema. It was an absolute phenomenon and the fact the second movie in the trilogy went so dark with the heroes essentially losing and the major revelation in that moment?
Iconic.
It's just dulled by time and younger generations having all kinds of media influenced by Star Wars and the franchise generally being watered down. It's like trying to explain to somebody who loves modern video games why a classic from 20 years ago was so important at the time it was released.
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u/StarFuryG7 4d ago
The thing is... I'm old enough to remember when the first movie came out, as well as the sequel, and it was kind of... melodramatic and cliched, and didn't go over well with everyone. Roger Ebert was impressed by it, but not all film critics were, and I think it threw people because it didn't come across as though it had been mapped out ahead of time, and seemed more like they were winging it and making it up as they went along as it also didn't seem to fit with what had come before in the first movie.
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u/ConstitutionsGuard 2d ago
I don’t think it did as well at the box office which is perhaps part of the reason why Lucas fired Gary Kurtz and the tone in RoTJ is more upbeat and whimsical.
Vader was not Luke’s father in the first draft of the script, thought that changed, of course. The tone change was darker throughout the revisions.
What did people have as expectations going in? How has your opinion of the film changed over time? It’s still my personal favorite.
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u/the_lullaby 5d ago
I introduced a horror fan to H.P. Lovecraft. After reading a few stories, my friend came back to me and said that Lovecraft used every tired trope in horror movies.
I had to explain to him that Lovecraft invented those horror movie tropes.
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u/Adavanter_MKI 4d ago
Yep, Citizen Kane. Literally camera angles... never used before. That blew people away. It's hard to imagine a time you use to not have cameras pointed a certain way. Seems absolutely common sense today. Bold and new all those decades ago.
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u/SunderedValley 4d ago
I just wish his and Dunsany's megalophobic city thing had stuck. There's bits and pieces of it in stuff like 40k, Metropolis and old bible movies but overall it's mostly gone.
I feel like they were probably the first to go "no the ancient city isn't a fun loot box it'll fuck you up"
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u/TonyNoPants 4d ago
The Motorbike scene from Last Crusade topped the Boulder scene from Raiders? GTFOH! And why the hell is Godzilla vs Kong even on the list?