{"id":37957,"date":"2022-06-21T10:50:20","date_gmt":"2022-06-21T14:50:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/?p=37957"},"modified":"2022-06-28T07:59:51","modified_gmt":"2022-06-28T11:59:51","slug":"everything-is-better-than-star-wars-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2022\/06\/21\/everything-is-better-than-star-wars-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Everything is Better Than Star Wars"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a title=\"German Dawn of the Dead Poster\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/willceau\/15437573899\/in\/photolist-dFPdce-cUivmL-pwaATe-ppn8c1-8y2RvV-4T2BCx-4t1ZPJ-4tCHkt\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-flickr-embed=\"true\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/live.staticflickr.com\/3934\/15437573899_e98858d852_z.jpg?resize=640%2C386&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"German Dawn of the Dead Poster\" width=\"640\" height=\"386\" \/><\/a><script async src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><em>Star Wars<\/em> clobbered me over the head with its bombastic musical score, fantastic sound design and revolutionary optical effects. I was dazzled as were millions of other kids in the Summer of 1977. It was like a new religion &#8212; the religion of summer blockbusters started with the release of <em>Jaws<\/em> in 1975. I bought the posters, the iron-on teeshirts and I joined the <a href=\"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2010\/12\/07\/geek-cred-2\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">official fan club<\/a>. <em>Star Wars<\/em> forever! Bring on the inevitable sequels and the 10,000 knockoffs featuring plucky heroes, wise-cracking sidekicks and elderly wizards on quests! It will never get old.<\/p>\n<p>Then some time in the late 1970s or early 1980s I saw the director&#8217;s cut of <em>Dawn of the Dead<\/em> at a midnight show in a small theater in <a href=\"http:\/\/cinematreasures.org\/theaters\/11499\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Somers Point, NJ<\/a>. It wasn&#8217;t a long time ago or a galaxy far away. It was set in Pennsylvania in 1979 during a zombie apocalypse. It wasn&#8217;t the most polished production being that it was shot in a wildcat manner by amateurs and semi-professionals with a budget that was probably less than the space opera&#8217;s catering budget. It did have a loopy energy, and I sat in the theater not knowing what was going to come next and enjoying every minute of this extended cut. During that magical midnight screening I forgot all about George Lucas and obsessed over George Romero.<\/p>\n<p>The original <em>Dawn of the Dead<\/em> is not as easy to find as is its remake or the many zombie shows it inspired, and if you have never seen it, the movie may disappoint. It is very much a product of its time and low budget. Many of the zombies are extras with an obvious coating of gray grease paint. My guess is their participation was probably had for the price of a box lunch. It doesn&#8217;t really hold up, but at the time it was glorious. It showed that a movie didn&#8217;t need an army of technicians and a boatload of money. It needed an idea, energy and a camera. It was DIY. It was punk rock.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Star Wars clobbered me over the head with its bombastic musical score, fantastic sound design and revolutionary optical effects. I was dazzled as were millions of other kids in the Summer of 1977. It was like a new religion &#8212; &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2022\/06\/21\/everything-is-better-than-star-wars-3\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[31,26],"tags":[199,1893,5364,192,711],"class_list":["post-37957","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blast-from-the-past","category-stuff-joe-likes","tag-199","tag-dawn-of-the-dead","tag-george-romero","tag-star-wars","tag-zombie"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1ed1x-9Sd","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":15413,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2014\/01\/21\/cylons-is-golden\/","url_meta":{"origin":37957,"position":0},"title":"Cylons is Golden","author":"Joe_Williams","date":"January 21, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Sorry. I can't resist a pun, and I've been itching to use this since the late 1970s. When ABC rushed Battlestar Galactica into production in the wake of the phenomenal success of Star Wars, it was roundly dismissed as a knockoff of George Lucas' money making machine. Every other film\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;What I Miss About Comics&quot;","block_context":{"text":"What I Miss About Comics","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/what-i-miss-about-comics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Cylons-is-Golden-det.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":20125,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2015\/12\/18\/slaves-to-star-wars\/","url_meta":{"origin":37957,"position":1},"title":"Slaves to Star Wars","author":"Joe","date":"December 18, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Star Wars' place in the annals of film, fantasy and fandom history is undeniable, and I have no doubt that the film has inspired countless careers in the arts and generated more breathtaking illustrative and sculptural works than any other movie, but when is enough going to be enough? As\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;News&quot;","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Cereal Box C3P0","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm6.staticflickr.com\/5647\/23736623461_b702fef836.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":37677,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2022\/06\/02\/everything-is-better-than-star-wars\/","url_meta":{"origin":37957,"position":2},"title":"Everything is Better than Star Wars","author":"Joe","date":"June 2, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"This is a scan of an insert from the DVD package of Shock Waves, a movie originally released the same year as Star Wars which also starred Peter Cushing. Star Wars was a huge success and it did change the way that movies are financed, made and marketed, but it\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Stuff Joe Likes&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Stuff Joe Likes","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/stuff-joe-likes\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Shock-Waves-dvd-insert.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Shock-Waves-dvd-insert.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Shock-Waves-dvd-insert.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":37871,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2022\/06\/16\/everything-is-better-than-star-wars-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":37957,"position":3},"title":"Everything is Better Than Star Wars","author":"Joe","date":"June 16, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Olivia Newton John in Xanadu (1980)","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Stuff Joe Likes&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Stuff Joe Likes","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/stuff-joe-likes\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/xanadu.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/xanadu.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/xanadu.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2125,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2010\/12\/28\/the-geek-cred-holiday-special\/","url_meta":{"origin":37957,"position":4},"title":"The Geek Cred Holiday Special","author":"Joe_Williams","date":"December 28, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"In between Christmas and New Year's still counts as the holidays, right? I uncovered the first patch that came with the package of swag from The Star Wars Fan Club. You can see what you got in glorious black-and-white halftones HERE. I was amazed at how crude the embroidery was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Holiday&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Holiday","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/holiday\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/1st-SW-patch.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":8298,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2012\/06\/06\/tense\/","url_meta":{"origin":37957,"position":5},"title":"Past Tense?","author":"Joe_Williams","date":"June 6, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Sorry, Parker Stevenson! The joke was too obvious to pass up! This was another poster from the FULL COLOR POSTER SPECTACULAR. This appeared in Marvel Comics' Godzilla: King of the Monsters No.18 published in 1978. At that time, Parker Stevenson and Shaun Cassidy were pretty popular with the teeny-bopper\/Tiger Beat\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;What I Miss About Comics&quot;","block_context":{"text":"What I Miss About Comics","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/what-i-miss-about-comics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/COMICS-HEAD.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/COMICS-HEAD.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/COMICS-HEAD.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37957","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37957"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37957\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}