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Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audience Rating: Unrated
Binding: DVD
EAN: 0799898200295
Format: Color, DVD-Video, Full Screen, NTSC
Label: Michael Wiese Productions
Manufacturer: Michael Wiese Productions
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Michael Wiese Productions
Region Code: 1
Release Date: April 23, 2002
Running Time: 60 minutes
Sales Rank: 35224
Studio: Michael Wiese Productions
Theatrical Release Date: 1978
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Editorial Review:
Amazon.com:
San Francisco filmmaker Ernie Fosselius made the most successful short film of all time in the 1978 Hardware Wars, an inspired, mock-trailer for a nonexistent, cheapo rip-off of Star Wars. It worked like this: instead of Chewbacca, Fosselius offers the Cookie Monster. Instead of Darth Vader's breathy, slightly echoed voice emerging somehow behind that black-mask helmet, we get a villain whose every ranting utterance is so muffled even this film's Princess Leia equivalent beseeches him, 'What? I don't understand you.' And so on. Part of the joke is that George Lucas's revolutionary special effects are supplanted by common kitchen gizmos--mixers, toasters--that serve as spaceships and weapons sources. The updated special edition contains 20 computer-generated 'special defects' that don't--the distributor boasts--at all match Fosselius's earlier version. Um... right on? --Tom Keogh
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating: - May the Farce Be with You
Decent copy. Highest grossing short film in American history, if my facts are correct. I found it very amusing.
Rating:  - Great spoof
I bought this for my nephew,(who's a hardcore Star Wars fan) as a Christmas present. The whole family watched it that day and couldn't stop laughing. It's silly but it's great fun. There is one brief showing of female nudity so I would be careful around young children. I recommend this spoof for anyone that is a Star Wars fan.
Rating:  - Strange....
This is the strangest parody I've ever seen. I thought it was funny enough. Modern appliances as vehicles and weapons.... and the names are very clever. I'd watch this again.
Rating: - Great film, misleading packaging
For the film itself, I would give 5 stars. But the packaging is misleading, listing several things that you honestly don't get:
1. "A rare look at a pirated version from 1979": Nope. They just took the film and dubbed some other language over it as a joke.
2. "The never-seen-before director's cut": Nope. They just threw a bunch of extra footage together, such as outtakes, and left the existing soundtrack. For example, you'll see a certain scene repeat multiple times (because the outtakes are now included), but the soundtrack remains the same, so as you are watching one scene, you may be hearing the next. Not a director's cut by any stretch of the imagination.
3. "The shooting script and other original work by Ernie Fosselius": I looked all over the disc for this -- there MIGHT be a picture of part of the script on one screen, but that's it. You do not get the script. Not here. Sorry.
Oh, and the commentary track is a joke. Instead of actually talking about the film, and answering questions that fans have had for years (such as "Who were these people", "How did he get them to be in this film", and "Why such bad hair?"), Fosselius just goofs off the entire time, saying absolutely nothing of interest (or humor for that matter). Great film Ernie, but horrible, horrible commentary, you naughty person!
Recommended for the film itself, but not for any of the things the packaging promises you that you don't acutally get. How about ... Read More
Rating: - The epic space saga lightyears ahead of its time
If Star Wars inspired a generation of kids to become film directors, Hardware Wars probably inspired them to just get on with it. Although it was really a professional production made to look cheesy, HW in fact has a wonderful DIY, indie vibe to it. Seeing an iron fly overhead on wires is the film equivalent of the famous "Here's three chords; go start a band" zine page from the early days of punk rock.
And dang if it isn't still funny. Most of the jokes hold up, and a few have even improved with age ("You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll kiss three bucks goodbye" now elicits a nostalgic snort in a world where 1977's ticket prices buy a gallon of gas today).
HW on DVD is definitely worth the money--you get a bunch of oddball additions, including Ernie on a local cable show in 1980 obstensibly talking about the movie but just kinda going off on some goofy comedy (oh, and he IS involved with this rerelease, unlike the Special Edition version a few years ago; his stamp is all over it!). Some of the additions like the director's cut fell flat for me, but humor is subjective.
My only complaint is that I greedily would have liked to get the Special Edition version on there, too, but it is MIA. Since the DVD only runs an hour, certainly there was room, but perhaps since it was done without Ernie's input, it got canned. A shame, but otherwise, this is a lot of fun and easily worth kissing three bucks-plus goodbye to get it.
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