"Star Wars IV - A New Hope" (1977)

Rating: PG

Genre: Action, Drama, Science Fiction & Fantasy

Directed By: George Lucas

Written By: George Lucas

Released: March 26^th, 1978

Runtime: 125 minutes

Studio: 20th Century Fox

Summary:

Directed and written by George Lucas. The evil galactic empire rules over the galaxy but there is a repellion lead by Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher), who has stolen the plans to the empire’s huge space station, the Death Star, which has enough power to destroy an entire planet. She places the plans in her droid, R2-D2, before being captured by Darth Vader (voiced by James Earl-Jones), an evil agent of the Empire, who is “more machine than man”. R2-D2 and his friend the droid C-3PO (Anthony Daniels) escape onto the desolate desert planet, named Tattoine, where they meet Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) and Obi-wan Kenobi (Alec McGuiness). Princess Leia’s meesage is dictated to Obi-wan, a former Jedi Knight who fought alongside Luke’s deceased father. They enlist star-pilots Han Solo (Harrison Ford) and Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew) to fly them to Alderaan and the big adventure begins…

Review:

I have never been a fan of this franchise and had unconsciously decided it was a series of films I was never going to watch, convinced I wouldn’t be into them. I appreciated how fantastic the early ones were for their time. I still could not for the life of me understand the enormous hype that has always seemed to revolve around Star Wars. The excitement around the newest edition to the series seemed phenomenal. My brother, for one, couldn’t wait to see it.

It wasn’t until just a few days ago that my friend was telling me about the movies and sharing her thoughts on the films. Having appealed to my love of 80s movies, my admiration for Michael J Fox’s acting (liking his mannerisms to that of Mark Hamill) and reminding me of the impressive special effects they were able to achieve, I realised that not only did this girl well know her audience, but maybe these films might not be as out of my realm of enjoyment after all. Even though the first one came out in 1977 and not actually during the 1980s, there was no better place to start than where it all began! 

I have to be honest in saying that I did actually enjoy watching this film. Having my friend with me explaining everything that would have otherwise been lost on me, and offering an interactive commentary as the film rolled on, made the experience far more enjoyable than if I had been to watch it on my own. The fact that she’s not one of the huge super fans of the series was also a bonus.

I wasn’t expecting the character of Princess Leia to be as bad-ass as she was in this film. She was clever, cunning and took the fighting and battles into her own hands on many occasions where Luke and Hans Solo shied away. This was rare but it happened. She stood up to Darth Vadar with more balls than many of the other characters. I honestly assumed she would be more of an older-Disney-Princess type of character. I was pleasantly surprised I have to be honest. Particularly so given that she is the only female character (bar Luke’s aunt at the very beginning).

Luke Skywalker as a character to have at the helm of a film is quite interesting. For a hero he does and knows very little. That is until a pretty girl is at stake of course when he decides he must save Princess Leia. One of the reasons my friend gave for watching the film was that Luke wasn’t “the perfect hero”, there wasn’t a certainty that he was always going to do the right thing. It makes for a more interesting lead.

Hans Solo is the man – or at least he likes to think so. The similarities to Indianna Jones are very evident. Similar type of character, as my friend had pointed out, and I’m inclined to agree. Given that they’re both played by Harrison Ford at much the same era, I guess this shouldn’t come as too big of an assumption to make. Chewbacca was kind of cute and I liked the friendship of these two characters.

I loved C3PO and R2D2. I think C3PO is a lovely little fellow! He’s so polite. He is not done through CGI but rather, actor Anthony Daniels wears a suit. For the Prequel Trilogy they had to make him a new one! He is the only actor to appear in all the movies. I loved the friendship between C-3P0 and R2-D2. Their frequent bickering is amusing to listen to. In all episodes, except Episode III, R2-D2 is played by actor (Kenny Baker). In Episode III he is CGI. In the Prequel Trilogy R2-D2 was apparently given the ability to fly, which understandably annoyed fans due to the fact he is not able to fly in the original trilogy! 

As for the man of the hour, Darth Vadar, well…Honestly? With all his deep breathing throughout the film he just sounded to me like he had a very heavy sinus problem and with that in mind it was hard to take him seriously. I don’t think you were supposed to find the villain of the story particularly funny, but I did…

The fight sequences.. There is no blood or gore or much to show for a wound during these epic battles and fights. I mean, given that they’re using Lightsbars you’d think they’d do some serious damage. Well, they do take off a few limbs to be fair but however painful that might be the physical impact doesn’t seem to be too shocking… As a whole the film does include its few fair explosions but they’re limited in these areas given that they are in space and oxygen is of course on the limited side therefore fires are not exactly going to be at the top of the list for special effects usage. Darth Vadar’s entrance includes some smoke (as you do) but he kind of just walks in, in a surprisingly undramatic fashion given who he is and what he’s been built up to be. 

In all honesty I think the plot could and should be very simple but it’s expanded and made to feel far more overcomplicated than it actually is. At the end of the day, like many films, it is the tale between good and evil. Many events and characters just happen to come into play in the process. I’m struck by how similar it actually is to Harry Potter. Luke Skywalker, like Harry, was introduced to this whole new world he never knew he was a part of following the death of his parents or guardians and he must be the one to somehow save it. Darth Vadar is very similar to Voldemort in that like many villains he happens to have a desire to take over the universe (as you do) and in his way seems to this kid it is ultimately revealed he shares some kind of connection with. We all know the infamous spoiler I’m referring to. Darth Vadar was also supposedly quite handsome in his day and now he wears his big mask and black get-up to not only look the part but to hide his new disfigurement. Voldemort came back to life bald, nose-less and resembling the snake that he is. 

Another film that came to mind surprisingly was Top Gun of all films. During the scene towards the end of this film when they are flying around in their spaceships during the battle of the Deathstar, I immediately likened it to the moments in Top Gun when they are flying the jets. Same type of shots, same type of communication going on between one fellow flyer to the next, and the same type of sequences - except one is set in the real world while the other happens to be set in space. Highway to the danger zone...

Oh, my Lord the transitions – how cheesy could you get? It was kind of great! As said by my friend, it was like something on a Power Point presentation. And frankly, nowadays we wouldn’t even use them in that because it would be considered too cheesy… You have to laugh. At least they weren’t taking themselves seriously. It’s all part of the fun. I found a video compilation of them that I'll just leave here for you... 

Ironically enough, no one wanted to make the Star Wars films originally, so George Lucas set up his own production company named Lucasfilm. Just goes to show, because look how successful the franchise has become! There is very few who are unfamiliar with the characters in some way! He has since sold his company, however, to Disney just a few years ago. He originally planned for their four trilogies with twelve movies in total. George Lucas has been extremely successful, going on to write the infamous series Indianna Jones which was directed by Stephen Spielberg. Something I found really interesting was that in the original draft of Star Wars, Luke Skywalker was actually a girl! And Han Solo was originally an alien! 

Interestingly this particular Episode is the only episode which does not feature the character of Yoda. I would consider him one of the more famous characters as I’d hear a lot of him, so I found this interesting.

This film received quite a few Academy Awards: Best Art Direction-Set Direction, Best Costume Design, Best Effects, Visual Effects, Best Film Editing, and Best Music, Original Score. All of which it deserves really because it is quite a remarkable film considering the time it was made.

I don’t think I’ll ever be one of the die-hard fans of this series but I am much less closed minded about the hype than I was before. 

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