I was first introduced to “Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope” (originally just titled “Star Wars” upon his release) around 1994 when the toy line was reintroduced. The toys looked nothing like the characters in retrospect but they captured my imagination. I wanted to see the movies which inspired the awesome looking action figures. Unfortunately, this was back when you had to go to the video store to rent a movie so it took some time for me to watch “Star Wars” but when I did, wow, was I hooked.
It’s no secret that as a kid, I loved everything Star Wars. It seems so silly looking back but I remember asking my mom so many questions after watching the movie. What happened to Darth Vader? Will he be back? Where was Yoda? He had a figure and I just assumed he was in the saga from the beginning. I remember my mom telling me to wait until I saw the next movie. I remember rewatching the original trilogy so many times as a kid. So much of my young life wasted on a movie series.
That is the power of Star Wars though. It boils down the hero’s journey into a fun science fiction fantasy. By all intensive purposes, the movie shouldn’t have worked. The movie was plagued with production issues. Lucas would also be forced to create most of the film’s special effects in house (thus giving birth to Industrial Light and Magic). It has an odd script with seemingly bizarre dialogue and most of the cast and crew were convinced the film would be a flop if it even saw the light of day. There are numerous sites and videos that will say the film was saved in the editing, one could almost make that case about any film.
The film is simple, a simple farm boy aspiring for a life less ordinary is thrust into a situation where he must rescue a Princess and finds out he might be the key to stopping the Death Star which is a weapon of mass destruction capable of destroying planets.
The film starred Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Alec Guinness, Peter Cushing, Peter Mayhew, Anthony Daniels, Kenny Baker, and the voice of James Earl Jones. All of these actors play such iconic characters that it is almost impossible to imagine anyone but them being capable of doing anywhere near as good of job as they did. They just meshed so well together and had an incredible chemistry that you can’t fake.
The film would go on to become one of the biggest blockbusters of all time and one of the most successfully merchandised movies in existence today. Money doesn’t equal quality but it also doesn’t exclude quality either.
The film had so much going for it. It had an innovative style, making what was essentially a movie serial into a large budget movie. It may be hard to imagine by today’s standards, but George Lucas also got in trouble for refusing to put opening credits in his movie, opting instead to tell a story with the now infamous opening crawl. Up until then, most movies had some form of opening credits.
The special effects were extremely innovative and still stand the test of time some forty years later. Thankfully George Lucas wasn’t about to sacrifice his vision. The movie also is famous for having the most iconic movie scores of all time by the great John Williams. No other movie has featured so many iconic musical themes.
Now, I think this should go without saying, but if you can’t sink your teeth into science fiction films, regardless of the quality, this isn’t a film for you. If you are interested in that genre though, there is little you can find fault with in regards to this film. It is about as perfect as a movie can get and I don’t say that lightly.
Grade: A+
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