Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope
Director: George Lucas
Writer: George Lucas
Starring: Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Alec Guinness, Peter Cushing, Peter Mayhew, Anthony Daniels, Kenny Baker, David Prowse, James Earl Jones
Reason for watching: Showing Jane Star Wars
Number of times I’ve watched it: Ehhh…at least 10 to 12 times. I’m a little fuzzy on the original trilogy.
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NOW THIS IS STAR WARS! Literally. For my younger readers, when this movie was originally released in 1977, it was titled Star Wars. No subtitles. No weird grammar with the subtitle and the episode number. Just simply Star Wars. (From here forward in this post though I will call this movie A New Hope in order to avoid confusion. A New Hope = this movie; Star Wars = the franchise.)
Did you know that Harrison Ford was just the line reader for Han Solo in the auditions, until George Lucas just gave up and cast him? Did you know Carrie Fisher went to FAT CAMP for two weeks before this movie started production? Did you know that finding original copies of the theatrical release of A New Hope is near impossible? Sorry for all the questions, I just wanted to start this off with some facts that not everyone knew already.
The space fights. The iconic characters. The twin suns setting. Vader’s introduction. The quotes. The duel. The trench run. The fact of the matter is these movies have been examined and re-examined so much that there is darn near nothing to look over that hasn’t already been looked over 4,000,000,000 times. And yet, here I am; staring down the barrel of the tie fighter so to speak. But darn it! I paid for that domain from Squarespace, and everyone who writes or talks about movies on the internet has to talk about A New Hope eventually. So how about instead of going the traditional route, I’ll just give you a few spicy hot takes like I’m Steven A. Smith or Skip Bayless.
WHO CARES IF HAN (Harrison Ford) SHOT FIRST? I honestly can’t tell who did shoot first in the special editions (which again are all that’s usually available to the public), and I am too lazy to throw a challenge flag and figure it out. Han’s life was on the line, and Greedo clearly didn’t want the W bad enough. I have two pieces of advice for Greedo: look where you’re aiming; and the early bird gets the worm.
Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill, as if you needed a reminder) is a whiner. He whines that he can’t go into town to get the power convertors. He whines that he has to keep working and living (PROBABLY RENT FREE) with his aunt and uncle. He whines about the price for getting out of Mos Eisley when he has the empire breathing down his neck. He whines about Han not wanting to rescue the princess at first (a person Han does not know or been paid to rescue). He whines about C-3PO (Anthony Daniels) not being able to shut off the garbage compactor fast enough when he willingly jumped into it. And the only time he doesn’t whine when he would’ve been fully justified to do is when Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew) is not given a medal at the end of the movie!
Gran Moff Tarkin (Peter Cushing) is a more logical villain for the trilogy than Emperor Palpatine. I get it. We need force users in a franchise where selling lightsabers is a BIG part of the marketing. But Tarkin balances things out by giving someone for Leia (Carrie Fisher, again as if you needed a reminder) to struggle against. Think about it. Luke matches up with Vader as force users. Han has to deal with Boba Fett (criminally underused given his reputation) and his ilk in the scoundrel and bounty hunter division. But who does Leia have? No one. Let me watch her and Tarkin go a couple of rounds over tactical maneuvers.
Alec Guinness might have gotten too much credit for being Obi-Wan Kenobi. The man got nominated for best supporting actor! No disrespect, I’ve only heard great things about his chops. But what exactly is he doing in this movie that merits that nomination? He just serves as an exposition dumper for the entire time he’s in the movie. Aside from the pensive looks he gives when he takes Luke back to his hut or the little bit of fencing he does when he duels with Vader (both of which Youtube editors and fight choreographers did better here and here, respectively), that’s not a hard role.
Okay. To be serious for a moment, this a great start to the biggest movie franchise ever. You have the hero’s journey with Luke. A setup with Vader’s mysterious past with Luke’s dad. You’ve got Han and C3PO as varying kinds of comic relief. A wonderful opening scene. A dozen wonderful quotes. A thrilling final 45 minutes with the prison break and the x-wing run. There’s some gorgeous miniature work and cinematography too. The acting from our big three (Hamill, Ford, and Fisher) works well as does their chemistry. There are some issues though. It’s hard to stay awake early on during the droid journey through the desert and when Luke and Obi-Wan are looking around the desert themselves and then heading to Mos Eisley. Also, the love triangle set up with our big three clearly shows Lucas did not know where he was going with this story. But it was a different time, and not every space movie got a sequel.
You can’t hate this movie too much. It started Star Wars, and it’s a simple story of heroism and the kickoff to a 40+ years adventure.
8/10
Until I see another one.