Finally! I was worried that the nightmare of the Prequel Trilogy would never end. But it's over, and now, I get to review arguably the most important film in the last fifty years of film history. The one that started it all. When adjusted for inflation, this is still the second most successful film of all time, while also changing the culture of an entire planet practically overnight. Star Wars, is a milestone in film making, and is right up there with Citizen Kane, Gone With the Wind, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, The Birth of a Nation, and The Wizard of Oz as one of the most important films in cinematic history. PLOT: During the reign of an evil Galactic Empire, a heroic band of people called the Rebel Alliance struggles to save the galaxy from hopelessness and despair. While on a special mission, the plans to the Empire's secret weapon, the Death Star, are stolen from the Empire and hidden within a robot called R2-D2. While the Empire raids and captures a Rebel freighter, R2-D2 and a protocol droid named C-3PO hide within an escape pod, the little droid carrying the plans and a message for long retired Jedi Master, Obi Wan Kenobi (Alec Guinness).
The escape pod lands on the desert planet of Tattooine, where they are bought by a family of moisture farmers, Owen and Beru Lars, and their nephew, Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill). While cleaning the droids, Luke comes across the transmission left by R2's former owner, Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher), calling for the help of Obi-Wan Kenobi. That night, R2 runs off to find Kenobi, forcing Luke and Threepio to go after him. After a skirmish with several sand people (Is that racist nowadays?), Luke meets up with Ben Kenobi (Obi-Wan), who takes them to his house and the old Jedi tells Luke of his ancestry as a Jedi Knight. He also warns Luke about the Jedi extinction at the hands of the evil Empire and the dark lord Darth Vader, and that the Empire will hunt down the droids. Luke hurries home, only to find his home destoryed and his aunt and uncle killed by the Empire. With nowhere else to go, Luke goes off with Obi-Wan to follow in his father's footsteps and become a Jedi.
In the city of Mos Eisley, the two come across the smuggler Han Solo (Harrison Ford), who agrees to take them to Princess Leia's home planet of Alderaan, while also promising his boss Jabba the Hutt to pay off his debts with the fund's he's allocating. But the team finds that Alderaan was destroyed by the Death Star, and that they are being dragged in by a tractor beam. While Obi-Wan goes off to find a way to reverse the Tractor Beam, Luke and Han go off to rescue Princess Leia.
After rescuing Leia from the detention cells, the heroes arrive in the main hanger where Han's ship, the Millenium Falcon, is docked, only to see Obi-Wan fall in his lightsaber duel with Darth Vader. The rebels escape the Death Star, and frantically fly to the Rebel Base to find a way to destroy the Death Star before the Empire dooms them all.
What's Bad?: I guess a critic of this film could say that the acting is kind of clunky. You can hear Carrie Fisher alternating between a British accent and an American one. With the exceptions of Alec Guinness as Obi-Wan, each of the actors have their moments of awkwardness. But it's a minor flaw at worst.
What's Good?: There is so much that goes right for this film that I could go for days describing the finest parts of this movie, one of the best all time and one of my all time favorites (easily cracks my Top 20 all time). Let's start with the groundbreaking special effects created by Industrial Light and Magic. Star Wars revolutionized the Special Effects used in motion pictures and made movies fun for the whole family, in an era where the feel good family films were very minimal. Every single shot in this film that uses a practical effect with camerawork and precise timing has set a standard for all special effects used in the future films (except ironically George's Prequel films). The two greatest moments of special effects in the movie are the opening shot of the Imperial Star Destroyer chasing the small rebel ship, which may be the single greatest shot in motion picture history. The second is the entire Battle of Yavin, which uses trick camera illusions and models to show the desperation and fighting spirit of the Rebels as most of the rebel fleet is annihilated in their efforts to destroy the Death Star.
All of the actors in this movie fit the bill, but the strongest performance was by Alec Guinness as the Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi. In arguably his most famous film role, Guinness is able to become the archetypal mentor figure to Luke Skywalker, that probably gave influence to Ian McKellan's performance as Gandalf the Grey in Lord of the Rings, Liam Neeson's role as Aslan in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, and Sir Michael Gambon's role as Dumbledore in Harry Potter. He is wise, powerful, and always looking out for Luke's wellbeing as a foster father to him.
The story is virtually flawless. Unlike the Prequel Saga, which was hurriedly rushed and clumsily put together, George spent nearly two years drafting the script and trying his hardest to make this film as perfect as humanly possible. When he felt that the script was too political and confusing, he changed it and simplified it down to it's essential moments. There aren't any glaring plot holes, nor are their any boring political meetings and dull moments, and all of the scenes where there could be, something important and dire to the plot is given to us. This, my friends, is how good the Prequel Films could have been had someone been there to tell George his ideas and visions were awful.
Overall: Star Wars may very well be most important film of the last fifty years. But the most important part about this film is the amount of impact this film has had on Pop Culture. It is a rare film that impacted pop culture in a truly positive way, and is one of the greatest films of all time. This film is an absolute MUST SEE for any moviegoer. It is an absolute gem.
Final Grade: A+
That is well said of Star Wars and that is my second favourite of the films. This is a very important asset to the series and I haven't watched it in its original version. I liked the part where Han shoots first and you can't forget that!
ReplyDeleteabsolutely. I have the originals on DVD nd gave away the special edition discs to my cousins
DeleteI mean, I haven't watched it for a long time! Not to mention that Fox or Disney are still thinking about it whether release and restore the old forms. Just like the way every fan would want!
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