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The film opens in 50 theaters across the country, but advance screenings and word-of-mouth have already given it an outsized reputation among film buffs and science fiction addicts—two groups united usually only by their enthusiasm. The first week in April, indeed, 6,000 color transparencies from the film were stolen from the production offices; they are now selling for more than $5 each to sci-fi freaks. Some of the spaceship models used for special effects were later stolen from a workshop, and they too are being advertised on the open market. "Star Wars is the costume epic of the future," says Ben Bova, editor of Analog, one of the leading science fiction magazines. "It's a galactic Gone With the Wind. It's perfect summer escapist fare."
At a special preview in San Francisco early this month, kids screamed in delight at the film's fantastic effects. At the end, while the lengthy credits rolled, the entire audience applauded for two or three minutes. "It was a supermarket audience, ordinary people," says Lucas, who was there and who still wonders at the reaction. "After something like that, you sit there and say, 'Gee, that's what it's all about.' "
Weird Idea. The applause was sweeter still because so many people had expressed doubts for so long. Slight and bashful, Lucas hardly fits the image of the Hollywood director, and he had made only two pictures before: THX 1138 and American Graffiti. Though the latter became the eleventh highest grosser of all time, Universal, the studio that financed it, believed that Lucas had gone, well, too far out when he handed in a twelve-page outline for Star Wars in 1973. "I've always been an outsider to the Hollywood types," he explains. "They think I do weirdo films." Even close friends and film-school colleagues thought the idea for Star Wars a little strange—albeit for different reasons. They felt that Lucas should follow American Graffiti with a deep picture, one that had meaning, significance and recondite symbolism.
Of course, everybody was right: it was a weird idea to make a movie whose only purpose was to give pleasure. Says Lucas: "It's not a film about the future. Star Wars is a fantasy, much closer to the Brothers Grimm than it is to 2001. My main reason for making it was to give young people an honest, wholesome fantasy life, the kind my generation had. We had westerns, pirate movies, all kinds of great things. Now they have The Six Million Dollar Man and Kojak. Where are the romance, the adventure, and the fun that used to be in practically every movie made?"
Eventually, 20th Century-Fox, which had made piles of money with another peculiar but good picture, Planet of the Apes, bought the idea, and Lucas set to work at the typewriter. Four versions and two years later, he was satisfied with his story.
Now the real—or at least, the visible —work began. At first, Lucas thought of making Tatooine, where much of the action takes place, a jungle planet, and Producer Gary Kurtz went to the Philippines to scout locations. But the bare thought of spending months shooting in the jungle made Lucas itchy, and presto, with the touch of an eraser, Tatooine became desert. Kurtz was off searching again, this time to Tunisia, which became Tatooine.