How Star Wars changed movies forever

Forty years ago, “Star Wars” burst onto cinema screens around the world. In many ways, the space adventure franchise hasn’t left the forefront of popular consciousness since.

The ninth live action film in the series, “Star Wars: The Last Jedi,” hits theaters on Thursday, Dec. 14, and it’s primed to be the latest display of the saga’s pop dominance.

Listen to the "Fan Theory" podcast's review of "Star Wars: The Last Jedi":

In our culture, according to Red Bank-based toy collector Rob Bruce, “ ‘Star Wars’ is the big, 800-pound gorilla in the room, but it’s a good gorilla. There’s nothing without it.”

Certainly, the series owes plenty of its success to the cinematic ground broken by writer/director George Lucas. His game-changing 1977 original film, “Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope,” the story of rural dreamer Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) and his enlistment into an epic galactic rebellion.

The film was told with cutting-edge special effects and a reverence for the movies of Akira Kurosawa, the writings of Joseph Campbell and a stylistic precedent set by pulp serials.

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“One of the things it did was establish what was possible,” said Monmouth University professor John Morano, who teaches film criticism at the West Long Branch school. “Prior to ‘Star Wars,’ (you had) ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ (1968), but I don’t think people fully understood what was possible and that you could have something that was so sophisticated in its production values and yet be such a fun production at the same time. … Those things that ‘Flash Gordon’ gave you a glimpse of, Lucas realized, and it was mind-blowing.”

“In the old days, you went to see a romance or a drama or you went to see a funny film, and now (with ‘Star Wars’) you’ve got all three of those things plus you’ve got science fiction, and a film that was really I guess targeted to youngsters ended up being for everyone,” said Al Nigrin, film professor at Rutgers University in New Brunswick and executive director of the New Jersey Film Festival.

But beyond the silver screen, there was something else that played a crucial role in the success of the films: merchandising.

Bruce, a pop culturist who’s a regular fixture on the AMC reality hit “Comic Book Men” and one of the founders of the New Jersey Horror Con and Film Festival, specifically cited the importance of the 3.75-inch “Star Wars” action figures introduced by Kenner in 1977 after rival toy company Mego passed up on the license.

“You have to think about this: 1977, what is the licensing for an unknown movie?” Bruce asked. “I mean, how much can it be? Two thousand, three thousand dollars? That’s a lot of money in 1977 but today it’s a billion dollar industry. I mean, they pump out so many action figures and it all started, really, with this figure, and the fact that Mego dropped the ball. But Kenner went and they picked up the ball and they started mass-producing all kinds of figures, 170-plus in the original run.”

That line of figures was followed by all things “Star Wars,” including blankets, play sets, Dixie cups, trading cards, games and comic books.

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“They got smart and they realized that there was an audience out there that would play with these things,” Bruce said. “And now we’re at this point, 40 years later, if you’re 10 years old (then) you’re 50 (now), you’re a hedge fund guy. You’ve got a disposable income. You can buy back your childhood.”

Steve Rogala of Monroe remembers seeing "Star Wars" three times on the big screen in 1977 when he was 8. Together with his wife Michelle and their 11-year-old daughter Maddie, Rogala is part of a family of saga fans, and he recalled how the merchandise was able to help give "Star Wars" life beyond the cinema.

“You were able to go and then come home and continue to play with storyline, like, ‘I’m Luke Skywalker, I want to blow up the Death Star,’ and it keeps it fresh in your mind," Rogala said. "And then as you grow older there’s the nostalgia of bringing you back to when you were a kid. You know we’re all about not growing too old too soon, so you get to relive your childhood a little bit and share it with the new generation.”

And over time, methods of engaging with the "Star Wars" universe only grew with the release of canonical novels, comic books, video games and more.

“Whatever is your outlet or you feel most comfortable in, you have a way to still engage with these (stories)," Rogala said. "I don’t know whether it’s a phenomenon or it’s just pretty darn cool.”

Morano, whose sons are now 21 and 23, said the experience of viewing the divisive prequels “Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones” (2002) and “Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith” (2005) “was almost like a filmmercial. I knew, when I was sitting in the theater with my two sons, ‘I’ll be buying that,’ ‘I’ll be buying that,’ ‘I’ll be buying that.’

“And it was just throughout the film, and I didn’t feel that way in the beginning, … that everything I’m looking at is going to be for sale somewhere and I’ll be buying it because my kids loved it.”

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Does that overt commercialism diminish the cinematic experience for Morano, who worked as a film critic before his time at Monmouth University?

“For me, if it comes at the expense of good storytelling, then it diminishes it,” he said. “If there’s not room for both and the choice that we make is ‘Let’s sell rather than tell,’ then it diminishes it for me. But I don’t know personally that the true strength of ‘Star Wars’ was inherently its storytelling as much as some other films maybe that we can compare it to.”

Think you know "Star Wars"? Then take our quiz to match the iconic quote to its correct franchise film — bonus points if you can get it done in less than 12 parsecs.

Since Disney purchased Lucasfilm, and the rights to “Star Wars” with it, in 2012 for $4 billion, the studio has released a pair of critically-acclaimed box office successes, “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” (2015) and “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” (2016).

This month’s “The Last Jedi” is set to be followed in May 2018 by “Solo: A Star Wars Story,” a prequel centered on the roguish smuggler Han Solo originated by Harrison Ford and now played by Alden Ehrenreich.

The ninth proper episode of the “Star Wars” saga, still untitled at this time, is expected in late 2019.

“Disney understands that fans want to see movies,” said Bruce. “And when Lucas owned ‘Star Wars,’ he was reluctant in (committing to) releasing moves more (often) than three years apart or (in) 10-year gaps because he didn’t want to overdo the characters, for whatever reason.

“But I think Disney understands there’s a marketplace. It’s not getting tired. The stories keep on being reinvented and re-infused in new characters, younger characters, and the minute you have a younger character you grab into a whole other age group and that’s really what it’s about, generations.”

"The Force Awakens" and "Rogue One" particularly spoke to a new generation of female "Star Wars" fans, thanks to the central roles played by Rey (played by Daisy Ridley) in the former and Jyn Erso (played by Felicity Jones) in the latter, delivering on the promise held by the late Carrie Fisher's Leia Organa in the original trilogy.

“It’s great for the whole girl power mantra that’s going on, they’re not just relegated to (the sidelines)," Rogala said. "Even in the originals, Princess Leia was not a push-over, you know?

"She would grab the blaster out of the hands of the guys and start shooting them up in her white dress. She’s the one who killed Jabba the Hut, so it’s nothing necessarily new. It’s just probably more in the forefront, whereas she was more of an ensemble person before.”

But the question remains: with at least one “Star Wars” movie a year on the calendar for the foreseeable future, is the franchise running the risk of wearing out its welcome and losing the luster it’s fairly consistently maintained for 40 years?

“Those are legitimate concerns, and it’s an absolute (possibility), it could happen. It’s sitting right there,” said Morano. “I personally prefer quality rather than quantity, but that doesn’t fill the cash register I guess the way Disney might like it to.”

“I think ‘Star Wars’ still knows that it can’t cop out because its fans are so virulent if you betray them, so they have to stay honest to a certain extent,” said Nigrin. “So that’s still there, and I think that’s an exciting thing for the fans."

Rogala, for his part, remains optimistic.

“I don’t see the 007s getting stale, and they’ve been around for even longer," he said. "There’s always a new story coming out ...  and people will always go to see that to see what the new thing is.

"And ‘Star Wars,’ you’re talking about a galaxy that’s far, far away, but it’s not just limited to one planet or one race or just one storyline — even though it is the tale of the Skywalker family, at least so far.”