"I don't know what the clone wars are."

Even George didn't know at the time. It was a throwaway reference for flavour, just like Luke wasting his time at Tosche Station or Han flying the Kessel Run.

Chewbacca was presented with a medal at the 1997 MTV Movie Awards. Carrie Fisher, who played Princess Leia, presented him with a "Lifetime Achievement Award" and finally placed a medal around his neck to make up for the oversight in the 1977 film Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope. She wasn't going to do it, until she found out that Peter Mayhew, who played Chewy, was gonna be the person in the suit.

Peter Cushing ( gov Tarkin) didn't have comfortable boots in this film, so he wore slippers ,  it's funny to think that while he was threatening  Princess Leia he had soft comfy slippers on 🙂

Good catch with the Wilhelm scream. It became popular to use in "modern" films because of this production. Ben Burtt (Sound Designer) decided to use it as an in-joke among Sound Designers and the it just kept going. You'll find it in all Lucasfilm productions. Star Wars, Indiana Jones, etc

I'm 70 it's hard sometimes hearing someone who's never heard of Star wars or watched it to since I grew up with every series LOL😅

Most hilarious mixed metaphor of all time when Luke made his approach on the DS!  He turns off computer and you combine “eyeballing it” with “freehanding it”!  

“I can’t believe he’s gonna FREE-BALL it!”

Luke going commando in his flight suit is something no-one has ever considered!  
😂😂😂😂

As the briefing suggests, the Empire overlooked the "weakness" in the Death Star because they didn't consider small one-man fighters to be any threat. It was assumed that any attack made on the Death Star would be made by a fleet of large cruisers (which could be shot down by the laser towers). An attack made by a squadron of fighters seems suicidal, as these small ships wouldn't have the firepower to do any damage.

The "money shot" itself was virtually impossible -- you're flying hundreds of miles per hour and at a distance of at least 5 miles, you've got to hit a target 2 meters wide. The shot has to be made at that distance because you've got to allow enough run-off for you to pull up before you crash into it. At that distance, you can't even SEE IT -- your targeting computer can lock on to the tower that the exhaust port is on, but it can't lock on the 2-meter wide port itself.

The "target" is just a thermal exhaust port -- that's why it leads to the core. Sort of like the exhaust pipe on your car -- yes, it leads directly to the engine, but it's necessary.

Your first mission is to get through reading that intro young Jedi ✨

Okay, this reaction was a little hard to watch at times, however, i realised there is a bit of a Generational Gap and about 50% of the time people miss things the first time they watch a movie. e.g. you were wondering what's happening with the ship, is it being scanned. Yes it was scanned when it was brought into the Death Star and they were about to do a more thourough scan when they jumped the 2 storm troopers who walked in with the scanning equipment and took their uniform.

Oh and it's cool you have google now, there wasn't all this information when it came out before Internet was Public. Also the Storm Troopers are not clones. When this movie came out there was only a reference to the clone wars when Ben Kenobi (Obi Wan) was telling the story to Luke. So imagine having watched this the first time without any of the knowledge you already had and or have access to.

I'm never doing the drinking game where you say "Like, OMG!"
My liver can't take it.

I remember going to the theaters in 1977 with my family (I was 7 years old) seeing this movie and my life was forever changed in a good way.  I must have seen it 20 more times that summer.  I remember going crazy when my mom brought home the dual record set of John William's epic score and playing those records over and over.  For those not born yet when this movie came out, imagine what life and movies were like back then before Star Wars came out.  It was so ground-breaking.  I still remember the crowded theaters when people laughed and cheered. We were witnessing a rare and special event together.  It was an amazing time to be alive and when I re-watch this movie, I am instantly brought back to that time of wonder, excitement, innocence, and hope.  Hard to believe that was almost 50 years ago.

Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia) was 19 when she filmed Star Wars. Her mother, Debbie Reynolds, was also an actress and she starred in a movie when she was 19. The movie is, Singing In The Rain (1952) it was a Musical so she sings and dances. You should check it out when you get a chance.

About that 2-meter (a tad over 6 feet) wide auxiliary exhaust port. Note that a standard traffic lane is 12 feet wide. A ship is not going to fit in that hole. Yes, it's a straight shot, because a straight line vent is the most efficient way to do it. Bends in an exhaust vent will heat up. This is true in your house as well as the Death Star. Yes, the Empire did game out an attempt to exploit the vent. That's why the vent is ray-shielded and has a point-defense tower beside the vent. The Empire's mistake was assuming a capital ship would attempt to line up a shot, which could be blasted away. They never anticipated anyone being crazy/desperate enough to attack using small, one-person fighters skimming along the surface of the Death Star.

The creator George Lucas, actually liked characters pronouncing names differently. He felt those where "space accents", basically the more British you sound the more towards the core of the galaxy you where from, but if more American you where from the outer edge of the galaxy. With each planet having slightly different accents from those countries. So a mid-Atlantic American accent was from one world, but a Boston accent from another world and so on...

The Democratic Republic existed long ago, but later was converted into an Empire. What you see very early on in this movie is the Imperial Senate, Leia saying she is part of the Senate. A few scenes later Tarkin says to his commanders that he received word that the Emperor dissolved the Imperial Senate and now each star system governs their own territories directly, but of course the Empire remains supreme rule over everyone.

I love seeing people watch this for the 1st time. Sometimes when I wonder how anyone could not know this story,  I have to remember how long ago this franchise began.

"The Force will be with you, always."

Fun Fact: The first movie to make over $300 million domestic box office. It was also the first movie to cross $500 million worldwide in its initial release.

Action Star Fact: Stunt doubles were not used for the scene where Luke and Leia swing to safety in the Death Star. Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher performed the stunt, shooting it in just one take.

CGI Over Practical Fact: All the CGI was added in the late 90s and NOT part of the original release. I don't mind the changes, except for originally Han Solo (Harrison Ford) shot Greedo (Paul Blake) before the bounty hunter could do anything.

Gun Enthusiast Fact: The weapons the stormtroopers used were essentially the Sterling L2A3 9mm SMG (sub-machine gun), a military weapon developed in the late 1940s in the U.K. and adopted by the British and Canadian Armies in the 1950s. The curved left entry side mounted magazine was removed, and that was as much as it was modified for the movie. The longer sandtrooper weapon was the MG-34 machine gun from Germany.

Location Location Fact: The Tatooine scenes were filmed in Tunisia. There is a town in Tunisia's rural south named Tataouine (Berber for "eyes") and George Lucas liked the name so much, he adopted it for Luke Skywalker's (Mark Hamill) home world. Some of the interiors and the courtyard of Luke's house were filmed in a hotel in Matmata, Tunisia. One can visit this two-star hotel and see some pictures and the painted ceiling of what was used for the Lars' dining room. When Luke goes out of the farm, he appears in a flat deserted area, while the reality, when you get out of the hotel, there are a lot of other houses, small stone hills, and a lot of prickly pear cacti (a variety very common in Tunisia). The skeleton that C-3PO (Anthony Daniels) passes belongs to a Tatooine creature called a Greater Krayt Dragon. This artificial skeleton was left in the Tunisian desert after filming and still lies there. During filming of Star Wars: Episode II - Attack Of The Clones (2002), the site was visited by the crew once more and the skeleton was still there.

It's funny that you were surprised that this movie is so good.
I mean, all it did was spawn a 50 year franchise with 11 movies, over 200 episodes of live action or animated TV shows, too many video games to count, dozens of novels, dozens more graphic novels and comic books, enough toys that just one of everything would fill a Walmart, clothing, theme park attractions, and anything else you can think of.
It all started with this movie.

To answer your question in the title: None of that would have happened if this movie sucked.

was 5 when I saw it in NYC theater in 1977^^

22:29 When Luke says "I can't see a thing in this helmet." Mark Hamill didn't know that the camera was rolling. George kept the line in.