STAR WARS

[Derrick]

STAR WARS

1977
20th Century Fox

Produced by Gary Kurtz
Written and Directed by George Lucas

Note The First: I had intended to post this on Star Wars Day but I simply was up to my ass in alligators and just didn’t get around to it. Apologies for it being up late.

Note: The Second: Before you start bawling that the name of the movie is “Star Wars IV: A New Hope” be advised that I’m reviewing the original 1977 theatrical version that’s available on DVD along with the 1997 enhanced version. I asked my friends which version they would prefer I review and they all overwhelmingly gave thumbs up for the 1977 version. So I’m following the wishes of my loyal readers. If you had come to class that day you would have been able to vote for the 1997 version. And now sit back, relax and enjoy the show…



I’m not an especially religious person. Mainly I just try not to screw over my fellow man (well…not too much, anyway) honor my mother and father, refrain from coveting my neighbor’s wife, mind my own business and say my prayers in the morning and at night. I was raised Baptist and as a young man going to church I regularly saw men and women ‘catch the Holy Ghost’, start speaking in tongues and collapse on the floor, twitching and writhing like serpents having an orgasm. More often than not, a woman sitting next to me would ‘catch the Holy Ghost’ scream, leap to her feet and immediately collapse right on top of me. Such women usually were in the vicinity of 200 pounds and then some. This never happened to me and I used to worry about it but as time went on and I got older, I just chalked it up as something I just wasn’t meant to experience.

And then I saw STAR WARS.

I’m not going to claim that I consider my very first viewing of STAR WARS a religious experience but I will say that it came pretty damn close. I sat in the movie theatre with my friend John Aiken and we were absolutely and totally blown away. I freely admit my mouth was open in amazement and I wasn’t the only one. There are a lot of moments in my life I remember with crystal clarity and seeing STAR WARS back in 1977 on the big screen is one of them. I was there Opening Day along with a lot of others. And we weren’t sure of what we were going to see but we had seen enough to know it was going to be something special.

You see, back in 1977 we didn’t have The Internet to leak every detail of a movie’s plot, special effects, budget, who the director was sleeping with, all eighteen rewrites of the shooting script, the producer’s underwear size, the screenwriter’s YouTube video diary and the catering list for every day of location shooting. Not to mention the entire cast updating their blogs on the movie’s progress every eight hours. We had some movie and sci-fi magazines and that was it. Back then you simply just didn’t know a lot about a movie until you actually went to see it and truth to tell, I prefer it that way. Part of the impact of seeing STAR WARS for the first time was not knowing what you were going to see. And when you finally did, your life was forever changed. I know mine was.

Princess Leia of Alderaan (Carrie Fisher) is racing home in her diplomatic starship, carrying the plans for The Death Star, a space station of terrifying power, as large as a moon and capable of destroying whole planets. It’s vital that the plans get to The Rebel Alliance if they’re to find a way to stop The Empire from using The Death Star to subjugate the galaxy. But Princess Leia is captured by the majestically evil Dark Lord of The Sith, Darth Vader (David Prowse/Voice by James Earl Jones) who slaughters her crew, blows up her ship and takes her to The Death Star for ruthlessly barbaric torture at the hands of Grand Moff Tarkin (Peter Cushing)

Leia has managed to download the plans into R2-D2 (Kenny Baker) a plucky, barrel-shaped droid with a taste for adventure that escapes in a shuttle with his sidekick, the protocol droid C-3PO (Anthony Daniels) to the arid desert planet Tatooine. They’re captured by Jawas, scavengers who sell junk to the farmers scratching out a meager living on the frontiers of The Jungland Wastes. Fortunately they’re sold to a farmer named Lars whose nephew is a young man who dreams of adventures on far off worlds: a young man named Luke Skywalker.

R2-D2 runs away, insisting that he is the property of someone named Obi-Wan Kenobi (Alec Guinness) and has a message for him. That message turns out to be a hologram of Princess Leia imploring Obi-Wan to see that R2-D2 gets to The Rebel Alliance with the plans for The Death Star intact. During the search for R2-D2, Luke meets up with Obi-Wan and learns that Obi-Wan was once a Jedi Knight like Luke’s father. The Jedi Knights were the custodians of peace and justice in the Old Republic before The Empire came into power but were betrayed by one of their own, a young Jedi with a thirst for power named Darth Vader and hunted into near extinction.

Luke’s aunt and uncle are killed by Imperial Stormtroopers hunting for the droids and Luke goes with them and Obi-Wan to the spaceport of Mos Eisley to hire a starship to take them to Alderaan. They meet up with the sardonic rogue Han Solo (Harrison Ford) and his partner, the eight foot tall Wookiee Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew) who fly the souped up Millennium Falcon. This strange group of heroes escapes from Tatooine barely ahead of the Stormtroopers still chasing the droids. Their victory is short-lived, however. Upon arriving at Alderaan they find that the planet has been totally destroyed and The Millennium Falcon is pulled inside of The Death Star itself. Our heroes manage to escape immediate capture but the situation looks hopeless. Until it is learned that Princess Leia is held hostage on the space station. Our heroes come up with a desperate plan: Obi-Wan will disable the tractor beam so they can escape while Luke, Han and Chewbacca rescue Leia and the droids provide technical backup. But even if they can escape The Death Star and Darth Vader can they get the plans to The Rebel Alliance in time for them to mount a last ditch attempt to destroy The Death Star?

I relate the above simply as a courtesy because I hardly think that there’s anybody alive today who doesn’t know the story of STAR WARS. Even my wife Patricia, who absolutely detests STAR WARS, knows the story. And why not? In my opinion there hasn’t been a movie since “Citizen Kane” this influential. STAR WARS has been responsible for a generation of filmmakers, writers, special effects experts, directors, and actors. Everybody who saw this film in 1977 were shaken to their core by what they were seeing. And then they wanted to do something just like it. It’s an influence that continues to this day.

George Lucas drew on so many influences it’s not funny. STAR WARS is made up of equal parts of the Saturday morning serials of the 30’s/40’s, Westerns, Samurai movies, science fiction, comic books, Lord Of The Rings, Dune and who knows all what else. It was as if Lucas threw everything he liked into a huge pot and let it cook real well. Lucas as a director really does not impress me. I’ve never been able to say awake through “American Graffiti” and “THX-1138” was a snooze fest for me until Lucas recently went back and enhanced the movie with CGI effects. But he got it right with STAR WARS. In fact, if he had never directed another movie his place in movie history would have been cemented with this one.

The genius in STAR WARS lies in the story. “A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away” has become as honored and respected as “Once upon a time…” It’s got a princess being held in an evil fortress by a Dark Lord. It’s got a great pair of heroes in Luke Skywalker and Han Solo. One’s a naïve farm boy thirsting for adventure and glory trying to do the right thing and the other’s a cynical mercenary trying to stay alive in a galaxy that he knows is out to kill him. It’s got a good wizard. It’s got R2-D2, who for me is the real hero of the movie. It’s got worlds we’ve never seen before and dogfights in space with starships that handle like 50’s hotrods and aliens by the ton. STAR WARS was the perfect movie to come along in 1977 as so many of us wept with joy at seeing on the screen for the very first time what we had been seeing in the movie screens of our minds as we devoured our science fiction/fantasy novels and comic books.

The performances are just right for the tone and style of a story like this. Although I’ve read that Alec Guinness was embarrassed by this movie you’d never know it by his performance on screen. He may have thought the movie was utter tommyrot but damn if he doesn’t sell Obi-Wan Kenobi on screen as well as his explanation of The Force. There’s never a moment when you don’t believe in Obi-Wan as much as Luke. Mark Hamill’s inexperience as an actor works in his favor as Luke Skywalker. After all, Luke is supposed to be an innocent, naïve farm boy and Hamill does it well here. And man, nobody could pull off that scene where he’s gazing into the double setting suns of Tatooine as well as he does. That scene still brings a lump to my throat every damn time I see it.

Carrie Fisher I find somewhat goofy as Princess Leia. She’s an overgrown tomboy who’s much more at home getting down and dirty with the badguys and seems to have more fun during the laser gun shootouts and trading insults with Han Solo than anything else. Which brings us to Harrison Ford. This is the movie that made him a star and it’s easy to see why. We’ve seen this type of character before. If STAR WARS had been made twenty years before, Steve McQueen would have played Han Solo. Twenty years before that, Humphrey Bogart. It’s just that cool a character. And Harrison Ford plays Han Solo to the bust. He’s hard, cynical, shrewd, wily, dangerous, reckless and downright greedy. But when the chips are down he also shows that he’s a man who stands by his friends.

I found it most appropriate that Peter Cushing is in STAR WARS. He’s the type of actor who gives weight to this material and he can say the dialog without a problem and make it sound convincing. After all, he’s a guy who’s done Hammer horror films and once you’ve done those, everything else is a snap. Like Alec Guinness, James Earl Jones was as first reluctant to be identified with STAR WARS but his incredible voice matches with the physical acting of David Prowse (who was actually inside the suit) so well that now I can’t see how it could have been done any other way.

So should you see STAR WARS? Need I even ask? Chances are that 99% of you reading this review have seen it already so there’s no real need to answer that question. All I’d like to add is this: I saw STAR WARS in 1977 and like a handful of books and movies I’ve seen in my life, it changed me irrevocably. It’s a movie that made me want to be a better writer. It made me want to be a better storyteller. It’s among the 20 or 25 movies that I would say unless you’ve seen them; you can’t call yourself a movie fan. It’s the movie that has spawned a modern mythology. And more importantly it puts me back in touch with the kid in me who devoured science fiction and fantasy novels and dreamt of the day when I could tell my own stories. It’s STAR WARS. No more needs to be said.


121 minutes
Rated PG

[Melvin Smif]

I have to say I'm envious, as I am of everyone who was able to catch the first three Star Wars movies in theatres when they were first released. Considering I was born 8 years after the initial launch of the first movie I had no chance to experience that feeling. I do remember watching The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring, and having a similar reaction to the one you describe above, but since LoTR doesn't hold a candle to Star Wars I still wish I could have been there.

[freqflyer]

I remember quite vividly the first four movies I ever saw in a theatre:

Fantasia
The Spy Who Loved Me
Moonraker
Star Wars

It was profound for me because it pretty much set the bar for my expectations of what kind of impression an awesome movie in a theatre setting could make -- yes, those were the days (sob)