It's Monday, So Wipe that Smirk Off Your Face, Rebel Scum! OT

Howdy howdy. Howd it go today?

Star Wars premiered on May 25th, 1977. I didn't see it until sometime in late summer after I turned 7. I remember waiting in the loooong line for tickets and wanting to go home about 10 minutes after we got there. 

Nerf herder says "what?"

A few details from the movie stuck; the landspeeder had a weird shadow under it (later I learned that Lucas used vaseline on the lens to obscure the wheels), the fights looked clumsy and stiff, the tie fighters and x-wings were pretty cool. But mostly I remembered the transition wipes. So many wipes.

Everyone knows what they are and how they're used, but here are a few things about them you may not know - 

• it was first used in 1903 in a film by George Albert Smith called Mary Jane's Mishap. 
• It was an expensive process that could only be done in the film lab and was still expensive when Lucas made Star Wars. 
• He probably picked it up from watching Kurosawa who might actually match Lucas's enthusiasm for them. Kurosawa, in turn probably picked it up from watching early films and serials from Europe and the US. 
• It's easy and cheap now that everything is digital. You can probably do it on your phone.
• It usually takes the place of "...meanwhile..." when there are several story threads to follow. At least in Star Wars. What would the SW movies look like without wipes?

Here's a video of every wipe used in Star Wars, from episode one to eight plus Rogue One and Solo:

That's practically every kind of wipe possible; matrix, barn door, clock, invisible wipe in every possible direction, with the exceptions of the heart wipe and, of course, the star wipe. 

I didn't watch it again until the '90s. It was still just OK. I did really enjoy The Empire Strikes Back though.

How old were you when you first saw episode 4?  What did you think?  Oooo Dope! or Ewwww Nope! New Pope?