Review Tuesday: The Star Wars Holiday Special (1978)

 

 

The Star Wars Holiday Special

(1978)

The Star Wars gang go to visit Chewbacca's family for LIFE DAY. 

This made-for-TV-movie is legendary and not for good reasons. Back in those days Holiday Specials were very much a thing, and right after the huge success of STAR WARS, why not slap something together? Famous last words...

 

For the Holiday Season of 1978 I was 7 years old. I remember the massive media blitz for The Star Wars Holiday Special. Legions of fans were DYING for any sort of new content. This was decades before the internet and it was much harder to get new content. This was something HUGE. You can watch it it in the comfort of your own home on your own TV and even listen to it on stereo simulcast over the RADIO. As a 7 year old boy, I have never dreamed of so much going on at once in OUR OWN LIVING ROOM! It was like a huge occasion, like an inauguration or a new king getting his crown!

 

 

 

And then something terrible happened. We all got to see THE STAR WARS HOLIDAY SPECIAL. How did this happen? It had a huge cast! Must've been a big budget. It seemed to consist of several skits tied together with the basic theme of the movie, which was, the Star Wars gang was traveling across the galaxy to spend Life Day (basically Christmas in a galaxy far far away) with Chewbacca's family. Only, hi-jinks get in the way. Almost every scene seemed drawn out, making it tedious to sit through. There were song and dance sequences that didn't work. There were jokes that fell flat. There were scenes of wookies grunting at each other that went on way too long. The official runtime for this film is one hour and thirty seven minutes, but on television it must've run at least two full, painful hours of boredom, with commercials included. 

 

After hearing people rant about how awful this movie was, out of curiosity I obtained a copy to view. I was a mere boy when this came out and my memory of it was foggy at best. Indeed, after watching it again, more recently, I can see what the hubbub was all about. Yeah, it WAS pretty bad.  

There is no official way to obtain this movie. After the resounding bad reviews the day after this hit the small screen, George Lucas made this vanish. There are, however, all sorts of other avenues to find this, should you choose to do so, with a simple Google search.

 

IMDB