A Star Wars Retrospective: Star Wars: A New Hope

What can you say about the original Star Wars movie?  It's a film that is so beloved and was such a phenomenon upon its release and is such a classic with an amazing legacy that it is easy to forget George Lucas' somewhat quaint movie amidst a host of trilogies and spin offs.  But, at the time of its release, Star Wars nestled itself into world consciousness and the imaginations of a generation of people. It's easy for people to forget that there is a movie in the middle of the maelstrom that is the larger Star Wars phenomenon.

One of the remarkable things about Lucas' first trip to the Galaxy Far, Far Away is how it succeeds as an effortless bit of world building. Modern movies tend to feature clunky world building in service to profitable "shared universes" and "connected franchises" but the universe of Star Wars seems to have sprung out of George Lucas' weird preoccupations and unexpected genre mash-ups and the result is visionary and compelling and unlike anything before it (despite its clear debts to other movies).  It's a movie that starts in the middle of a larger story, throws you into a credible pre-existing world and trusts you to understand what is going on in a universe that is much more complex and rich than the simple narrative that unfolds.

Of course, much of the uniqueness of Star Wars rests with its bold and unexpected design thanks in large part to people like Ralph McQuarrie who were largely responsible for the movie's look.  We are so used to the imagery now but so much of the Star Wars visual style was just completely weird and unprecedented in 1977.  Ships like the Millennium Falcon, Imperial Star Destroyer or TIE Fighter would not have even been recognizable as spaceships.  Darth Vader is a bizarre asthmatic samurai robot thing who fights with a laser sword.  R2D2?  A trash can robot on wheels,  Jawas? Sandpeople? Space apes? It's no wonder they had a hard time getting this made.  It's a really weird movie with an iconography that is almost completely fresh.  Very few movies achieve this level of clear visual originality.

So it's no wonder that people went crazy for Star Wars when it was released.  It was completely different and therefore compelling.  And the story was fun and fast-paced and sweetly good-natured. Like Rocky the year before, it was the perfect remedy for late 1970's malaise and a contrast to the dark complex movies that dominated the decade. 

How does it hold up now, almost forty years and five movies later?  I'd say pretty well.  It still presents a unique world and for the most part the 1990's Special Edition changes have added to the movie's visual world through opening up some environments and subtly fixing some effects issues. The only addition I find objectionable is the added Jabba scene which presents a weirdly fatherly and mellow Jabba the Hutt.  

Now, the movie has its characteristic George Lucas flaws: poorly directed actors and painful dialogue.  While fans are quick to point these out in the prequel movies they are all over the original trilogy as well.   People tend to look at these movies with nostalgia blinders.  They are classics and wonderful movies but not perfect by any means.

For example, the character of Han Solo has not improved with age.  While many fans are Solo cultists, the character is grating to modern sensibilities.  It's kind of like going back and watching Friends and realizing that Chandler is kind of an awful person.  Han definitely comes off as kind of a douche.  He's basically rude to everyone around him and disrespectful and dismissive.  I mean, he literally refers to Obi Wan as an "old fossil."  He's blatantly sexist to Leia and treats C-3PO with vaguely homophobic disdain.  His wishie-washiness about participating in the Death Star attack also causes Biggs and a bunch of Rebel pilots to be killed. So, yeah, douche.

In terms of its place in the now six-film narrative, A New Hope jumps ahead twenty years after Revenge of the Sith.  The Empire is now ascendant and we hear the the Senate which was such a big part of the prequels has now been disbanded.  While the Emperor is given a shout out, this is the only Star Wars movie in which he does not appear.  

The now-adult daughter of Padme and Anakin, Princess Leia has been dispatched by her father Bail Organa to Tattooine to find Obi Wan Kenobi, who is hiding out there and watching over Luke Skywalker.  Upon her capture, Leia sends R2D2 and 3PO to find Kenobi, who has aged A LOT in twenty years (those suns, though) and doesn't seem to remember either droid despite having important interactions with both of them (although he does give R2 a rather knowing look.) Obi-wan's character is one that I feel is enriched by the prequels.  Watching the movies sequentially it almost seems that Alec Guiness has some of MacGregor's twinkle in his eyes, although obviously it is the other way around.  Anyway, Obi gives Luke a cursory Jedi training aboard the Falcon which is interrupted but their capture at the Death Star, last seen at the end of Sith under construction.  I guess it takes twenty years to build a Death Star.

Leia is rescued and Obi-Wan and Vader engage in what is a strangely low-energy lightsaber duel during which Obi-Wan is killed and vanishes into thin air, the trick to which Yoda referred right at the end of Sith.  Luke and the rebels attack the Death Star, blow it up and Vader escapes.  Chewbacca doesn't get a damn medal.

I was just a baby when Star Wars came out and didn't actually see it until years later on home video after having already seen at least The Empire Strikes Back and possibly Jedi (back before VHS really caught on, you had to see movies in the theater or catch them when they ran on TV).  I didn't have the experience of seeing the movie in the theaters until the Special Edition came out in 1997 but I definitely caught a lot of the Star Wars mania in the ensuing years, I just didn't have any context for it until I saw Empire but like many people my age, Star Wars was a huge part of my childhood even if it took me a while to catch up to the actual movie.

Patrick Garone
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