Plot Details: This opinion reveals minor details about the movie's plot.
Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. (1977) Directed by George Lucas
A Long Time Ago, In a Galaxy Far, Far Away….
This is the movie Star Wars. If you don’t include another title, or episode number, this is the one they mean.
It was a different world back then. In the wake of Viet Nam, Watergate, the Flower Generation, the world no longer saw anything in shades of black and white, good and evil. Cultural Relativism was the new word. You couldn’t trust your government and Madison Avenue was lying to you, and the world was really waking up to what a complicated place it really was.
Then Star Wars burst upon the scene. It was a classic battle between Good and Evil, with no fuzziness, no doubt, and no shades of grey. Luke Sky Walker wore White (dingy, but white) Darth Vader wore black, and everyone knew who was who, and what was what.
This movie is a mythic journey. As I wrote earlier, much of Star Wars owes its existence to Joseph Campbell’s The Hero With a Thousand Faces (1949) a book that defines the Heroes’ Journey. The hero, Luke, starts out young and innocent (and Whiny). He gains a mentor, Obi-Wan Kenobi (Who even looks like the Hermit from a Tarot Deck) He is shown the bigger world, but fears to enter. Evil then enters his world, destroying his ties to his past, and he is off on his journey.
The movie is about the fight for liberty, the rights of self determination, and becoming something more that what you were.
It also almost didn’t make it. Originally, no one wanted to make it. They couldn’t see it being a commercial success. Finally, Alan Ladd Jr at 20th Century Fox green lighted it on the strength of Lucas’ earlier film American Graffiti. When 20th Century Fox attempted to distribute the film in the U.S., fewer than 40 theatres agreed to show it. Fox threatened that any cinema that refused to show Star Wars would not be given the rights to screen the potential blockbuster The Other Side of Midnight which ended up grossing less than 10% of what Star Wars did. Prior to the release of this movie, the greatest profit 20th Century Fox had every made in one year was $37,000,000. In 1977, because of the film, their year-end profit was $79,000,000. Further Lucas waived the normal director’s fee, instead, accepting a paltry $175,000…and 40% of the marketing of merchandise. As we all know, this franchise has made billions in merchandising, allowing Lucas to be rid of the studios’ control for all his later projects, the Force be praised.
Lucas stole from all the best sources to make this; R2 D2 was based on Huey, Dewey, and Louie, from the film Silent Running (which still can make me cry) C3PO was based on the Maria Robot from Metropolis. Their personalities were stolen from The Hidden Fortress (Kurosawa Akira, 1958) and the bit about cutting off peoples arms was lifted from Yojimbo (Kurosawa Akira, 1961).
Loss of limb is a recurrent theme. Phantom Menace is the only one where no one looses a hand. In Episode II, it is Anakin, in Episode III it is Anakin again, and two legs, and Mace Windu. In episode four, C3PO looses his to the sand people, though it can be reattached easily, and the walrus man, looses his in the Cantina (directly ripped from Yojimbo, the entire scene.) In Episode V, Luke looses his hand in an eerie echo of his father, and of course, in Episode Six, Darth Vader looses another hand again. (A total of five lost limbs for Anakin/Darth.)
Several decisions were also important to its continuing success. Lucas had thought of using classical music for the score, like 2001 did, but that did not have an alien feel. Fortunately, John Williams thought a classic inspired theme would help give the audience a familiar feeling. I thought the use of ragtime in the Cantina was brilliant. Obscure enough to feel alien, yet still recognizable.
Other Sci Fi pieces from the same era used synthesizers and techno to give that alien feel to their movies. It worked. But disco is dead, twice, and now those soundtracks just grate on the nerves, they are so dated.
So this little 14 page space opera that no one wanted became the highest grossing movie of all time, being beat out by E.T. in 1982. It retook top honors briefly in 1997 when it was re-released, until bumped later that same year by Titanic. It won 6 Oscars, and a further 29 awards, and 18 nominations.
And it changed movies. Merchandising was suddenly big business. Countless movies and television have ripped off Star Wars, to one degree or another. The current success of Sci Fi can trace its roots back to the Star Wars saga. Honestly, would Star Trek, the Motion picture have been made in 1979 if Star Wars had not paved the way?
An entire generation has grown up with this iconic phenomenon. The twins played with Star Wars action figures, even though they were not born until the next year. They grew up with the concept of going over to the Dark Side as a synonym for giving into your baser instincts. They learned more about rebellion from Yavin 4 than from Valley Forge. And they learned to trust their feelings, something that has served them well in law enforcement.
There are few movies that have crept into our cultural conscience like this movie and its five siblings. There are few franchises that can rival it. From toys and video games, to books and comics, to sheets, and posters and lunchboxes, Star Wars is everywhere, in everything. And if you think you are personally immune, let me ask you this: how many of you out there want a light saber?
Lucas has suffered for the greatness of the original. Everyone feels they have the right to say how he could have done this part better, or left that part out, or shot Jar Jar Binks. The worst movie of the franchise (Phantom Menace) is still a masterpiece. How many people can say that?
In closing, let me say just a few things; Wookies rule, Han shot first, and May the Force be with you.
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