Star Wars (1977)
Writer/Director: George Lucus Cast: Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Peter Cushing, Alec Guiness.
I saw this at the cinema at its original release in 1977. The main thing I remember is stars spinning around the entire cinema at the start of the film - very futuristic for then - and some great fighting scenes. There was little else to the film through the eyes of an eleven year old.
Twenty years later I decided the time was right to give it a second chance. Though this time the reissued special edition on video.
The story is basically good against evil, Luke Skywalker versus Darth Vadar. This is blatantly obvious; pure young boy in white (who walks on clouds - Skywalker) opposes nasty older guy in all black (death invader). Darth Vadar takes Princess Leia (damsel in distress) from her space ship. Luckily, because without this link the story would not work, two robots escape from the ship. They end up recruiting Luke Skywalker; who soon has three reasons to help, namely: he sees an image of Princess Leia and feels the urge to rescue the damsel in distress; is guardians are killed by Darth Vadar's evil forces; and he romanticises about being a fighter. They are then joined by Obi-one Kenobi a Jedi Knight (an up to date samurai). Next the four get help from Han Solo (Harrison Ford) and his pal, borrowed from the 'Planet of the Apes', Chewbacca. All six end up at the home of Darth Vadar and his equally bad cronies on the Death Star, a grand battle commences and our good guys kick ass.
There are, in my opinion, two bad points in this film: firstly, the Characters, all but one, are definitely not Dickensian they are flat, non-dimensional, unemotional and never develop. Though there is one saving grace, namely Han Solo played by Harrison Ford who never makes a bad film (note - he remained the successful actor out of the main three). He plays the likable rogue that everybody knows is going to come good at the end. Having said this there is some interesting character contrasts and relationships: There's the obvious Darth Vadar/Obi-one Kenobi battle, and Luke Skywalker/Darth Vadar good versus evil relationship. And also Princess Leia/Han Solo feminist versus chauvinist relationship, and Darth Vadar/Han Solo good turned bad/bad turned good.
The second failing of this film is its lack of keeping the viewers attention in parts, admittedly most of the film is action and has enough plot to make you want to watch it unfold. The main scene in question is where they are on Planet Tatooine, this planet is like the film at this stage, desolate. The robots are all we have on offer for approximately 15 minutes, I even considered somebody had taped 'Lost In Space' over the top of this copy of the video.
However, there are many good points: My favourite being the futuristic chess type board game, this looks brilliant, fits the film perfectly and produces good humour when Han Solo points out what happens if Chewbacca loses.
The bar scene is also good, it again shows good special effects and provides the perfect opportunity to introduce Han Solo in a natural habitat for his character.
The 'Force' provides an element of intrigue and mysticism to the film. It nicely lurks in the background and is never overplayed. Without the Force the film would not work as well, it would become too real, instead of a fantasy.
The scene in which Princess Leia, Luke Skywalker and Han Solo end up in the garbage should have been another high point of the film, perhaps in the hands of Hitchcock it would have been. The scene itself represents a low point for our heroes, with a rare piece of symbolism, i.e. getting crushed, thrown away like rubbish, which works well because it further emphasises the film moments later when in contrast they defeat the Death Star.
I think it may be another twenty years before I watch this film again and who knows it may be even further enhanced - a kind of special, special edition.
Dean Jones Burton on Trent U K
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