Hello again! Welcome back. Today, it dawned on me. While the Star Wars films are some of my favorite films in the history of everything to watch, I've never done an in-depth retrospective on any of them. I know I've tried in the past, but the reviews only ended up as audio files that lasted two or three minutes. Instead, I decided to try my hand at tackling Star Wars in this format here.
The next thing I wondered is how to review Star Wars effectively. At first I thought just touch on the six movies and be done. However, then I started thinking that everyone will want to hear my opinions on the 1995 LaserDisc films, 1997 special editions, the 2004 DVDs, the limited edition 2006 DVDs, and of course the 2011 Blu-rays. So, I'm going to do just that, I'm gonna tackle all the major releases of the six films that I at least acknowledge as such. First off, let's start with the actual review of the films, in their theatrical glory.
"Star Wars", 1977
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...
The first Star Wars film took the world by storm. No joke. We think movies today have giant releases with well-hyped media outlets, Star Wars created that vibe. Not at first, however. Before Star Wars, the indignities of the Vietnam War coupled with the American people's lacking of trust in their leaders and their government had the country in a dark place in time. It was a time when movies in Hollywood were more realistic and featured grim displays if then-modern day America.
Coming from California, a young filmmaker by the name of George Lucas had just finished his film American Graffiti and was shopping a new screenplay around to execs all over Hollywood. Alan Ladd, Jr. at 20th Century Fox funded Lucas's vision and the legendary film was created. May 25th, 1977 was a day the world will never forget.
The Characters
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| L-R: Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker, Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia, and Harrison Ford as Han Solo |
The second main character, Han Solo, is played by Harrison Ford, also an unknown at the time. He's a smug space pirate who only worries about himself and gets in bad dealings and apparently has a price on his head. His Wookie pal Chewbacca is played by Peter Mayhew, who has played Chewbacca in every live-action instance of him since. Princess Leia, the third main character of the film, is played by Carrie Fisher. She's another main focus of the story, seeing as how R2's mission is one she gave to him and the plans could be hers.
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| Sir Alec Guinness as Obi-Wan "Ben" Kenobi |
On the other side of the spectrum, there's the evil Darth Vader, played by David Prowse and voiced by James Earl Jones. He's a mysterious figure in all-black armor who appears to have once been a Jedi Knight, as Obi-Wan reveals that Vader was once his apprentice who betrayed him and helped the Empire hunt down and destroy all the Jedi Knights, including one who was Luke Skywalker's father.
Then you have Vader's boss Grand Moff Tarkin, played by Peter Cushing. He's nothing more than a stock lead bad guy, but he's more memorable because of Peter Cushing's performance.
The Story
"The story of Star Wars is that of farm boy Luke Skywalker who essentially dreams of being among the stars and fighting the war against the evil Galactic Empire. When two droids, C-3PO and R2-D2, crash land on his home planet of Tatooine carrying secret plans to the Empire's ultimate weapon, and are then purchased for work by Luke's uncle on his farm, Luke goes with them to seek out an old sage on his planet by the name of Ben Kenobi. After learning of Kenobi's whereabouts, Luke's aunt and uncle are killed by the Imperial forces in search of the droids. Luke decides to go with Kenobi to Mos Eisley spaceport to hire a pilot to take them to Alderaan, the home planet of Princess Leia Organa, custodian of the stolen plans who programmed R2-D2 for his mission. Here, they meet smuggler Han Solo and his co-pilot Chewbacca. Together, they take Han's ship, the Millennium Falcon, and travel to Alderaan. Along the way they are intercepted by the Empire's weapon, the Death Star, a giant space station capable of destroying a planet with one use of its super laser. On board, they encounter Darth Vader, a mysterious enemy who was once himself a Jedi and know a Dark Lord of the Sith for the Empire. Obi-Wan sacrifices himself to save Luke, Leia and Han and together with the Rebel Alliance, they launch an assault on and destroy the Death Star. Luke and Han are praised as heroes and the film ends."
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| Darth Vader, played by David Prowse and voiced by James Earl Jones |
This was a lot for 1977 audiences to take in, and here's why. When Star Wars begins, there's an opening crawl that fills us in on events on what has occurred prior to the start of this film, whether they immediately occurred before the film or occurred many years prior. So in 1977, when you watch Star Wars, the crawl is your back story, and then you're thrown directly into a raging battle between the Galactic Empire and the Rebel Alliance. I'm not saying its impossible to follow. In fact, its brilliant! Lucas didn't wanna waste anyone's time telling a back story to the events of the film. Throwing them in the middle of the action and creating a story out of a war that is already raging is a great tactic for story-telling. Having to set up the Galactic Civil War setting and warring factions for the story to take place in would've taken at least 3-4 films prior (wink, wink)...
Think of it this way. Imagine no expanded universe. Imagine no prequels or TV shows or comic books. On May 25th, 1977, this is the ONLY form of Star Wars related material you have. The only source of story. Now, today I'm sure there are literally millions of story entries in the saga, and its almost impossible for one person to memorize and therefore encompass into their viewing.
The Special Effects
Two other aspects of the original 1977 Star Wars film I wanted to touch on were its special effects and its soundtrack. I'll start with the former.
The special effects for the original Star Wars film were the result of an $11 million budget and a lack of time for production. It also came from the fact Lucas wanted to do all the special effects for the film with his own company, and thus came Industrial, Light and Magic. The majority of, if not all of, the special effects were done with models of various animals and ships. The lasers and lightsabers were done in post-production with computers. Some of the ship relays and setups were so magnificent that when coupled with the score and the sound effects, are mesmerizing. All the shots of the ships in space, they had to rig with special relays to get it to move in the way you see it on screen.
The Soundtrack
Obviously, Star Wars was envisioned as being a space-opera film, so the opera portion was severely lacking until Lucas was able to recruit the industry's best in John Williams. Williams had recently won an Oscar for his work in Steven Spielberg's Jaws. For the film, Williams composed several themes for different characters, the most memorable being Luke's them and Obi-Wan's theme. The main title crawl for Star Wars is a rendition of Luke's theme with an interlude, but it has become one of the most recognizable film theme pieces in motion picture history. Just reading "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away..." and then having "STAR WARS" blast through the screen and hear his triumphant march begin...all of the film's score is fantastic. Fully recommended to anyone looking for film soundtracks.
The Verdict
Fantastic. It seems like all the stars were aligned when George Lucas became intent on creating Star Wars. Everything came together perfectly, and it shows. Star Wars is not only just perfect in my eyes, but it was one of the first twenty-five films inducted for preservation in the Library of Congress' National Film Registry for being "culturally significant". It has spawned almost forty years of just wave after wave of Star Wars related media coming our way. Will there be a time when Star Wars becomes unpopular and eventually die off? I doubt it, honestly. The universe is just far too big. It has too much to encompass and even after all the loads of stories many have told using its universe, there still millions more stories to tell...and all the pages of books and comics, all the plastic going into building the toys, all the airtime used for television and especially the all the work that has gone into making the films...it all stared with this simple "space movie" that came out in 1977, and whisked audiences away to a galaxy far, far away...
Rating: ***** 5 stars out of 5 = Nothing short of a masterpiece
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