From Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex-Drugs-and-Rock ‘N’ Roll Generation Saved Hollywood
This particular excerpt gives me chills. The first public screening of Star Wars
With the effects and sound finally finished, Lucas screened it again at the Northpoint, just like Grafitti. Marcia [Lucas’ wife] had taken a week off from New York, New York to help George. “Previews always mean recutting,” Lucas said gloomily, obviously thinking about THX and Grafitti, and anticipating the worst. The suits were there, Ladd and his executives. Marcia had always said, “If the audience doesn’t cheer when Han Solo comes in at the last second in the Millennium Falcon to help Luke when he’s being chased by Darth Vader, the picture doesn’t work.” From the opening shot of the majestic Imperial Starship drifting over the heads of the audience over the black vastness of space studded with stars blinking like diamonds, the place was electric. “They made the jump to hyperspace, and you could see bodies flying around the room in excitement,” recalls Hirsch. “When they get to that shot where the Millennium Falcon appears at the last minute, not only did they cheer, they stood up in their seats and raised their arms like a home run in the ninth inning of the seventh game of the World Series. I looked over at Marcia, and she gave me a look like, I guess it works, ya know? So we came out, I said to George, ‘So whaddya think?’ He said, ‘I guess we won’t recut it after all.'”
