Review #1,214: 'Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope' (1977)

When sitting down to pen a review of such a colossal slice of cinema as George Lucas' original Star Wars, it's difficult to know quite where to start. What can be said about this movie that hasn't already been discussed to death by nerds, or studied to no end by film historians? Chances are you'll have already seen the movie and either love it or hate it, or you're one of those strange beings who has reached adulthood without seeing any of the series and have no doubt already formed a dismissive opinion of the space opera. The best approach is to simply talk about the film from a personal point of view, as if any movie has had such a personal effect on an audience, it's Star Wars. I'll state from the off that A New Hope - Episode 4 in Lucas' sweeping epic, but released first - was never my favourite as a child. That honour went to Return of the Jedi, the movie I now consider to be the worst by far of the original trilogy.

For those who haven't seen it yet, Star Wars is set "a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away." The galaxy is in a state of civil war, and the threat of the Galactic Empire - led by the powerful Darth Vader - looms large, quite literally. Their latest weapon in the war is the Death Star; a moon-sized space station capable of destroying entire planets with the push of a button. Luckily for the Rebel Alliance, Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher) gets her hands on the plans to the Death Star, which reveal a flaw in its construction that could be exploited to destroy it. She uploads the plans to droid R2-D2 (Kenny Baker) and sends him to find Obi-Wan Kenobi, who is currently laying low on desert planet Tatooine. The rather cute robot eventually comes into the possession of young farmer Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), who believes the message may be for the reclusive old man Ben Kenobi (Alec Guinness). After locating the former Jedi, Luke starts to learn about the Force - a supernatural power derived from the galaxy's natural energy. Teaming up with smuggler Han Solo (Harrison Ford), Luke must get the plans to the Rebels before the Empire seize control.

Visiting it again at least 15 years since I last saw it, and coming off the back of watching the prequel trilogy first in my re-viewing, the film shone in a whole new light. From a cinephile's perspective, the influence of some of cinema's greats is as clear as day, something that escaped me as a child. Science fiction classics such as Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, Nicolas Roeg's The Man Who Fell to Earth and the 1936 version of Flash Gordon immediately came to mind, but George Lucas made sure Star Wars also felt fresh and new. He did this by blending space battles, humanoid droids and laser gun with an old-fashioned sensibility. This drew from the westerns of John Ford and Howard Hawks and the period adventures of Akira Kurosawa just as much as pulp science-fiction, and the result was something that audiences had never experienced before. It was a smash hit and quickly became a pop culture phenomenon, inspiring a whole generation of geeks to bring their own personal visions to the screen.

But Lucas also brings his own cards to the table in the form of some of the most bizarre and memorable collection of droids, monsters and aliens ever brought to the screen. There's the Sand People, the Jawas, Chewbacca the Wookie (Peter Mayhew), bickering robots C-3PO (Anthony Daniels) and R2-D2 (although they are clearly a rip-off of the peasants from Kurosawa's The Hidden Fortress), and of course that weird band of creatures playing in the bar. With such imagination on display, it's hard to believe that the best Lucas could come up with 22 years later was Jar-Jar Binks. The humans fare well too, with Ford on the top of his charm game, and Guinness bringing a thespian gravitas to the fantasy world. With the nightmare of the prequels over and the rights to the franchise now out of Lucas' tinkering hands, fans can now sleep somewhat easier, but Lucas will remain forever beloved for the work he did here back in 1977. He really should be remembered for that and not as the joke he became in his later career, and no doubt this cinematic milestone will continue to astound young audiences for plenty of years to come.


Directed by: George Lucas
Starring: Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Alec Guinness, Peter Cushing, Anthony Daniels, Kenny Baker, Peter Mayhew
Country: USA

Rating: *****

Tom Gillespie