Classic Movie Review: 'Star Wars - Episode IV: A New Hope'

(C) 1977 20th Century Fox Film Corporation

It's been over 40 years since George Lucas (THX 1138, American Graffiti) first shared Star Wars with millions of awestruck moviegoers in the late spring of 1977. Both the director and the studio executives at 20th Century Fox thought they'd have a modestly successful sci-fi fantasy film with "just okay" box office receipts.

Instead, bucking their logic and lowered expectations, Star Wars became not only the biggest hit of its time, but it also launched both a multi-movie series and a huge merchandising/multimedia "empire" that made millions for the shy, unassuming USC film school graduate from Modesto, California.

Star Wars (later renamed Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope) begins with one of the most stunning opening scenes in movie history: After the 20th Century Fox Fanfare and a moment of silence for the "a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away" card, the Star Wars logo appears with the opening chord of composer John Williams' now famous "Main Theme" -- which serves as accompaniment to a title crawl that sets the stage for a battle between good and evil. "It is a period of civil war," and Rebels have united to challenge the evil Galactic Empire. From a hidden base in the Outer Rim, the Rebel fleet has won its first victory against Imperial forces. In the heat of battle, Rebel agents have discovered the secret plans for the Death Star, a huge space station with a planet-killing super laser. Now those plans are in the hands of Princess Leia Organa (Carrie Fisher), and her starship carries her back to her home world of Alderaan with a huge Imperial Star Destroyer in hot pursuit.

It is the very climax of this pursuit that starts Star Wars: A New Hope with that indelible first scene of a small Rebel blockade runner being pursued by the huge wedge shaped Star Destroyer. The Blockade Runner is tractored into the Star Destroyer's ventral docking bay, and after a short and furious battle, Imperial troops led by Lord Darth Vader (David Prowse, voice by James Earl Jones) overrun the ship's defenses and capture Princess Leia. 

Princess Leia Organa: Darth Vader. Only you could be so bold. The Imperial Senate will not sit still for this. When they hear you've attacked a diplomatic...

Darth Vader: Don't act so surprised, Your Highness. You weren't on any mercy mission this time. Several transmissions were beamed to this ship by rebel spies. I want to know what happened to the plans they sent you.

Princess Leia Organa: I don't know what you're talking about. I am a member of the Imperial Senate on a diplomatic mission to Alderaan...

Darth Vader: You are part of the Rebel Alliance and a traitor! Take her away!

But wait! Just as the battle is ending, C-3PO and R2-D2, a pair of droids who are a comedic pair along the lines of Laurel and Hardy, have evaded capture and left the captured Rebel ship aboard a small escape pod. Below them lies the desert planet Tatooine, with its twin suns, small farming settlements, and two persons whose destiny was inextricably linked decades before.

The first of these two that the droids will encounter is young moisture farmer Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), a restless teenager who yearns for adventure and excitement beyond the confines of his Uncle Owen's (Phil Brown) struggling farm. With good mechanical skills (he modified his landspeeder on his own) and natural flying skills, Luke wants to follow his friend Biggs and enter the Imperial Space Academy. But Owen and his wife Beru (the late Sheelagh Fraser) fear that Luke's dreams are much too dangerous, and Owen does everything possible to stall his nephew's ambitions. At first glance, one might think Owen is just a stubborn man, but when Beru points out that "Luke's just not a farmer, Owen. He has too much of his father in him," his earnest gaze and simple reply ("That's what I'm afraid of.") hint at things yet to come.

The other person of great import to the struggle between Empire and Rebellion is Ben Kenobi (Sir Alec Guinness), an old hermit who lives beyond the Western Dune Sea. Considered by the locals to be a "crazy old wizard," he keeps to himself in a Spartan hut carved into the face of a cliff. But looks can be deceiving, for as Luke discovers when "Ben" rescues him from a band of Tusken Raiders, Kenobi was once the legendary Jedi Knight and General Obi-Wan Kenobi.

When Obi-Wan hands him an old lightsaber, Luke also discovers that his father had not really been a navigator on a space freighter, but had fought alongside Kenobi in the Clone Wars as a Jedi Knight. "A cunning warrior" and "the best starpilot in the galaxy," Skywalker the elder had been betrayed and murdered by a young former pupil of Obi-Wan's named Darth Vader.

After watching a holorecording of Princess Leia's plea for help, Kenobi then attempts to enlist Luke to take the droids to Alderaan with secret plans vital to the Rebellion, Luke hesitates. He wants to leave Tatooine, yes, but he feels an obligation to his aunt and uncle.

Alas, the long arm of the Empire has reached Owen and Beru first. Having tracked the robots to the jawas who had sold them to Luke's guardians, stormtroopers have slain the couple and orphaned Luke. Now, fate -- or the Force -- has taken a hand, and Luke Skywalker vows that he wants to learn the ways of the Force and become a Jedi.

Star Wars' second half, starting with the fateful meeting in the now famous Mos Eisley cantina with Han Solo (Harrison Ford) and culminating with the climactic space battle over the Death Star, is a fast-paced chain of cliffhangers intended to be an homage to the cheesy-but-thrilling movie serials of the Thirties and Forties. Will the Rebels get past the detention cell? Will the droids stop the trash compactor in time? Will Darth Vader face off against his former Master? Will Han Solo and Chewbacca go off to pay Jabba the Hutt, or will they save Luke during the last attack run down the Death Star trench? 

[Han answers the intercom after taking over a detention center station]

Han Solo: [sounding official] Uh, everything's under control. Situation normal.

Voice: What happened?

Han Solo: [getting nervous] Uh, we had a slight weapons malfunction, but uh... everything's perfectly all right now. We're fine. We're all fine here now, thank you. How are you?

Voice: We're sending a squad up.

Han Solo: Uh, uh... negative, negative. We had a reactor leak here now. Give us a few minutes to lock it down. Large leak, very dangerous.

Voice: Who is this? What's your operating number?

Han Solo: Uh...

[Han shoots the intercom]

Han Solo: [muttering] Boring conversation anyway. LUKE, WE'RE GONNA HAVE COMPANY!

After all, it's my favorite film of all time, even though I am far older than 14, the age I was when I first saw it in a Miami (Florida) theater. (The Dadeland Twin, actually!)

Star Wars is, in a nutshell, a Flash Gordon serial from the 1930s all gussied up for a 1970s audience with dazzling state-of-the-art (for its time) special effects, and given its own identity by adding a mix of elements that include:

• Thematic references to Akira Kurosawa samurai films, including Seven Samurai and The Hidden Fortress
• Visual and thematic influences from World War II movies, including The Dam Busters, 633 Squadron, and The Guns of Navarone
• A "used universe" visual sensibility that gave Star Wars' imaginary settings a lived-in, worn look that gave audiences a heightened sense of reality.
• A cast of main and supporting characters drawn from archetypes found in myths and legends from various cultures
• John Williams's symphonic score, composed in the style and idioms of 19th Century Romantic era classical music
• Brilliant casting that joined two veteran British actors (Alec Guinness, Peter Cushing) with three relatively unknown American actors (Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, and Harrison Ford)

And even more important than any behind-the-scenes magic (such as the contributions made by Gloria Katz and Willard Huyck to the screenplay or the editing prowess of Paul Hirsch, Peter Chew, and Marcia Lucas), Star Wars is fun, sheer escapist fun. 

The tongue-in-cheek narrative tone and deliberate use of the 1930s serials' cliffhanger structure were only two of the techniques Lucas and the creative team led by producer Gary Kurtz used to make Star Wars distinct from films that used futuristic settings or were set in space or alien worlds. 

When Star Wars was made in the mid-1970s, most science fiction fare tended to consist of dark, foreboding tales of doom and gloom about humanity's future. Technology and societies of the future were often portrayed as threats to our psyches and cultures. Computers were often "cast" as villains (the HAL-9000 of 2001: A Space Odyssey and the locked-in military hardware showcased in both Fail-Safe and Dr. Strangelove are good examples), and the only good robots shown in mass media were Robby the Robot from Lost in Space and Huey, Dewey, and Louie in Silent Running.

Even Lucas himself fell into this pattern with his first film, THX-1138, a film set in a future where human emotions and sex are forbidden and conformation with a cold, authoritarian society is the norm.

Star Wars is an antidote to all this. By making his story a galactic fairy tale set "a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away" and eschewing most of the sci-fi tropes that said humanity was doomed, Lucas achieved his goal. He created a modern myth that harked back to the basic themes of "good vs. evil" that he and his fellow filmmakers born in the 1940s had grown up with in the postwar era.   

George Lucas' clever mix of various movie genres, his pioneering advances in special effects, and John Williams' Academy Award-winning score are just a few reasons why movie audiences embraced Star Wars so fervently that it became a part of American culture. It's not perfect and it's hokey, yes, but it allowed many of us to forget (for two hours, anyway) all the troubles of the world.