03 Aug 2006 :: 'Return of the Jedi' New Zealand Premiere, 1983

1983. The year McDonalds introduced the Chicken McNugget. The year Microsoft Word for MD-DOS was released. Swatch watches are born; IBM XTs came with 128kB of memory and a 10MB hard drive; M*A*S*H ends after 10 years, becoming the longest running TV series of its time. The year Luke Skywalker learns Princess Leia is his twin sister.

A couple of newspaper clippings conclude our trilogy of monochrome flashback articles. New Zealand Herald archive research confirms the NZ opening date for 'Return of the Jedi' as being 25th November, 1983 (newspaper scan). Again, this is a little earlier in the year, and a little closer to the original US release, than its predecessor. Seat purchases could be made well ahead of the screening date, making the third Star Wars film "the biggest advance booking in NZ cinema history" (newspaper scan).

On other screens, you could catch 'James Bond: Octopussy' (with Roger Moore - who had a movie on the screen at the same time as each of the original trilogy releases in New Zealand), 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' (with Harrison Ford, of course), 'The Black Stallion Returns' ('The Black Stallion' was a peer of 'The Empire Strikes Back'), and Roy Scheider in 'Blue Thunder'. 'Jaws 3D' starred Dennis Quaid...but that franchise was well past its prime.

To say that the maiden releases of the original trilogy films hold significant memories for many of us would be a vast understatement. Scanning through the newspapers to secure the images for these articles, I was taken back to an arguably simpler time - advertisements for micronauts, Atari games and cassette tapes; new car number plates in the "I" to "J" range; a mere couple of television channels, with programming that started at midday and was closed down before midnight ('Dr Who' was on at 6pm, followed by 'Grange Hill'). And therein lies the magic - the timing and the environment in which Episodes 4-6 made their debut, and the younger eyes through which we viewed them, render the original trilogy incomparable...pristine in our memories, and inimitable under any other conditions.

Related article: 'Star Wars' New Zealand Premiere, 1977.
Related article: 'The Empire Strikes Back' New Zealand Premiere, 1980.
Related article (section): Trilogy Special Edition Premieres, 1997.

Matt G