Summer of '77

30 Years Ago I saw a movie that changed my life in a way you might not expect. It was the summer of 1977 and I was 7 years old. I had been going to movies for a chunk of my life already and considered myself, already, to be somewhat of a movie buff. But the movie I saw that summer made me think that I, too, could be a film maker - though it wasn't readily apparent for some years after the fact.

Now, I should note one thing to those of you who think you know what I'm talking about - I didn't see Star Wars until January of 1978.

The movie was Laser Blast. It was a low budget film about a guy who finds an alien artifact in the desert and decides to start using it. The artifact in question is an alien gun. It blows stuff up. But the use of it exacts a terrible price - those who use it are slowly transformed into evil monster like creatures themselves. This normal teenager with normal problems quickly finds himself becoming a homicidal monster with an alien gun. Really cool. The special effects were good and the alien work at the end of the film was done by a stop motion animator by the name of Phil Tippet. Phil went on to bring most of the original Star Wars stop motion creations to life, but is perhaps most noted for the Velociraptors in Jurassic Park (which were not done with CGI).

The movie was cornball. The movie was low budget. But, interestingly enough, its the only other movie listed with Star Wars in the Cinemafantastique Star Wars Special Double Edition (the magazine of that era that looked especially at Special Effects). To think that Laser Blast which was low budget, cheesy, and still entertaining, is a direct contemporary of Star Wars which was mid budget and ballstothewalls fun is not only mind boggling, but also a perfect example of how much Star Wars changed the film universe. Up until Star Wars, Laser Blast was a perfectly acceptable bit of special effects fluff entertainment. After Star Wars, only Roger Corman could get away with doing Laser Blast type stuff.

The reason this movie changed my life is that I remember it. I remember liking it. I was 7 and I knew it wasn't the greatest movie I'd ever seen, but I remembered it all the same. It was a perfect example of what someone who didn't have ILM in their back pocket could do with film.

Star Wars created a whole generation of film makers. But Laser Blast reminded us all that we didn't have to be George Lucas in order to make films. Star Wars made us believe, Laser Blast kept our dreams down to earth.

So, on the 30th Anniversary of the launch of Star Wars, I've got to give a shout out to the film that really made the summer of '77 special to me... Laser Blast.