A comment and an image over HERE (where they’re discussing how many G’s the Millenium Falcon is undergoing as it maneuvers at the end of the “Force Awakens” trailer):
Patrick Farley Wait, we’re only just now questioning Star Wars’ disregard for Newtonian physics? I thought we had an unspoken agreement, back in 1977, that we were all just gonna sorta look the other way.
(This photo has nothing to do with the topic, but I put it here to remind you young people of what was considered “state of the art” science fiction literally months before Star Wars premiered.)
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That comment was promptly followed up by this nugget of eternal wisdom:
tincansailorman Semi-naked Jenny Agutter in her prime is always state-of-the-art to me.
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Preach it, brother!
Say what you will about Star Wars, it changed the face of sci-fi movies. Before Star Wars, it was just expected that all future or alien sets would looked like cheap cardboard, or impractical, precise, chrome plated and oddly spotlessly clean. Shortly after Star Wars, we got “Alien” and “Blade Runner,” which set new standards in visual realness. You can’t watch “Logan’s Run” now without noticing that not only do the miniature sets look awful, so do the full-size sets, the costumes, the props, the robots, etc.
Star Wars opened in May, 1977. Logans Run opened in June, 1976, slightly less than a year earlier, long enough to have done its business by the time Star Wars came out. But you know what movie *really* got boned by Star Wars? As it turns out, 20th Century Fox had two big sci-fi movies planed for 1977… Star Wars was expected to be the “minor” one. The one Fox expected to be the big blockbuster? “Damnation Alley.” Opened in October, 1977… and closed shortly afterwards, and has been largely forgotten. It has one of the all time greatest sci-fi vehicles in it, but is otherwise devoid of… well, pretty much anything good. But had Star Wars not happened, Damnation Alley probably would have done ok. But it already looked like garbage the day it came out.
Now, if “Damnation Alley” had had Jenny Agutter in it… hmmmm….