I wasn’t old enough to see the original in the theater (I was in utero) but did see Empire and Jedi.
I’m one of the fans disillusioned by the 1997 remastered releases and the hollow eye-candy of the prequels.
Maybe that’s why there wasn’t a thread right away… or the fans were nerding out with an original trilogy marathon
I can’t believe that we went to the drive-in theatre to watch the first one(and only one I’ve watched)and my youngest was such a baby we left her with my mom. She turn’s thirty in July! 
Sorry, I am one of those who found the original movie kinda hoky and the worship of it, even hokier. I know that I am blaspheming, etc., but especially all the Force nonsense. I mean, didn’t you spiritually needy get your ya-yas watching re-runs of Kung Fu???
Frankly, I think the Matrix stole the flame from the Star Wars torch with the saviour metaphor, etc etc etc. And it was digital too.
Let’s put this in perspective. The value of the first Star Wars film was not in the story, the characters or the acting. The value was that they made it look REAL. It was a cosmic leap in special effects. We went from Buck Rogers bubbles to Star Trek sticks and strings to a Star Wars universe that actually looked real. The visuals had tremendous affect at the time, and sort of overshadowed the total lack of quality in all other aspects of the film. It wasn’t until the third movie that people really started to retch at the sugar syrup mentality with the teddy bears (a foreshadow of how tasteless George Lucas was to get later with Jar Jar Binks).
I liked the prequels in that I knew not to expect any quality from Lucas as far as story or characters, so that I could just sit back and enjoy the visuals. And besides, Natalie Portman is soooooooooo hot! 
djm
Exactly.
Yeah, the original trilogy is totally cracker jack entertainment. It was the right blend of genres with identifiable and likable characters… though as time wears on Luke Skywalker seems increasingly petulent. Had I seen them originally at my current age I would probably find them a little hokey but still enjoyable.
I agree that The Matrix also stole the torch in a lot of ways like visual effects, cultural impact, and disappointing with lame sequels.
I posted this is in the youtube thread but my posts in there get lost pretty quickly:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whUr3Xxl9zc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0aHGq7RZ84
Excellent!