Released 25 May 1977
Directed by George Lucas
Starring: Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Alec Guinness, David Prowse, Peter Cushing, Peter Mayhew, Phil Brown, Shelagh Fraser, Anthony Daniels, Kenny Baker, Jack Purvis, Dennis Lawson, Garrick Hagon, James Earl Jones (voice)
Rated PG for sci-fi violence and brief mild language.
121 minutes
Winner of 6 Academy Awards, Nominated for 10, Recipient of 1 Special Category Award:
Best Original Score - John Williams (Win)
Best Costume Design - John Mollo (Win)
Best Sound Mixing - Don MacDougall, Ray West, Bob Minkler & Derek Ball (Win)
Best Art Direction - John Barry, Norman Reynolds, Leslie Dilley & Roger Christian (Win)
Best Film Editing - Paul Hirsch, Marcia Lucas & Richard Chew (Win)
Best Visual Effects - John Stears, John Dykstra, Richard Edlund, Grant McCune & Robert Blalack (Win)
Special Achievement Award - Benjamin Burtt, Jr. (for the creation of the alien, creature and robot voices)
Best Picture - Gary Kurtz (Nominated; lost to ANNIE HALL)
Best Director - George Lucas (Nominated: lost to Woody Allen for ANNIE HALL)
Best Supporting Actor - Alec Guinness (Nominated; lost to Jason Robards in JULIA)
Best Original Screenplay - George Lucas (Nominated; lost to ANNIE HALL)
Box Office
Estimated Production Cost: $11 million
Box Office Gross (initial release only): $307 million
Lifetime Box Office Gross (including 1982 and "Special Edition" 1997 re-issues): $460.9 million
Worldwide Box Office Gross: $775.3 million
7th Highest-Grossing Film of All-Time (domestic)
55th Highest-Grossing Film of All-Time (worldwide)
2nd Highest-Grossing Film of All-Time (adjusted for ticket price inflation)
There's not a whole lot left to be said about George Lucas's 1977 film STAR WARS that hasn't been repeated many times over already, and it's difficult to overstate its impact across the entirety of our culture today, not only in our pop culture and entertainment where its influence is undoubtedly most significant, but has even entered our popular lexicon and politics. It has been and remains an integral piece of our cultural identity throughout the past 38 years, but beneath all the branding, it's still a film- a brilliant masterpiece of pop entertainment that has few equals in the pantheon of American cinema. It's impossible today to remove the baggage and see it through truly fresh eyes; you can't even buy it in a currently-produced format such as DVD, Blu-ray or digital without the added modifications made by Lucas since 1997. Practically everything that followed STAR WARS is informed by STAR WARS. Those of us who weren't there in 1977 can only imagine the novel and yet familiar wonder of the epic space opera, how a landscape of cynical, intellectual, New Hollywood films was suddenly interrupted by a triumphant fanfare, a Saturday-matinee-style title and scroll of words rolling out in front of a starry landscape, followed by a pair of spaceships mid-battle, and one of them is so huge it fills up the entire screen momentarily.
It is a period of civil war. Rebel spaceships, striking from a hidden base, have won their first victory against the evil Galactic Empire. During the battle, Rebel spies managed to steal secret plans to the Emperor's ultimate weapon, the DEATH STAR, an armored space station with enough power to destroy an entire planet. Pursued by the Emperor's sinister agents, Princess Leia races home aboard her starship, custodian of the stolen plans that can save her people and restore freedom to the galaxy ....
Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) is the archetypal farm boy, grounded on the desert planet of Tatooine working for his Uncle Owen (Phil Brown) and Aunt Beru (Shelagh Fraser), but dreams of leaving and having adventures in the intergalactic war. After coming into possession of a couple of droids, C-3PO (Anthony Daniels) and R2-D2 (Kenny Baker), carrying the stolen Death Star plans, Luke is thrust into just such an adventure, accompanying Obi-Wan "Ben" Kenobi (Alec Guinness), an aging but powerful Jedi warrior who uses the mystical energy called the Force, on a rescue mission to save Rebel Alliance leader Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher), held prisoner by Imperial forces led by the evil fallen Jedi Darth Vader (David Prowse, voiced by James Earl Jones), and Grand Moff Tarkin (Peter Cushing) aboard the Death Star. Chartering a flight aboard the Millennium Falcon, piloted by the dashing but cynical smuggler Han Solo (Harrison Ford) and the wookie Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew), Ben introduces Luke to the ways of the Force and reveals to him that his father was also a Jedi Knight before he was betrayed and murdered by Vader.
It's a classically-styled hero's journey, adopting elements of the "monomyth" as theorized by mythologist Joseph Campbell into a Flash Gordon-style space opera as Luke is swept up in his destiny, joining the Rebellion effort against the Empire and destroying the Death Star, while Vader survives to fight another day in the tradition of those Saturday matinee serials.
STAR WARS moves along at an incredibly fast pace, opening in the midst of the action and rapidly begins to introduce its colorful cast of characters, an series of exotic and fantastical locations, and it's special blend of science fiction concepts and the fantasy genre. It's a truly perfect example of "world-building", using familiar genre conventions and archetypes to allow the viewer to follow the narrative easily while the rich and "lived-in" universe of Lucas & Co.'s collective imaginations is packed thickly into the margins. It's an age-old good vs. evil adventure story with a hero who's pure of heart, a wise old mentor who sets him on his course, and nasty bad guys who are as evil as they look, but there's so much weird stuff poking in from around the corners from the moment from the moment C-3PO whines as Darth Vader's massive Star Destroyer brings Leia's cruiser in through it's tractor beam, "We'll be sent to the spice mines of Kessel..." In most movies, such a line would be setting up a later plot point, but in STAR WARS, that kind of thing is just dressing. The extraneous details are all so intriguing in their own ways, but instead of merely teasing, they enrich the world of the film. There are all kinds of narratives taking place behind the main narrative, the little sorts of things that have encouraged all manner of so-called "expanded universe" material ranging from literature to the parodies of Robot Chicken and Family Guy. Addressed only in moments of dialogue, the unseen Emperor dissolves the Imperial Senate, referred to as "the last remnants of the Old Republic", destroying any semblance of the democracy that existed a generation before the window that is STAR WARS was opened into this ongoing story. Not only are we introduced to this universe in the middle of a battle, but on a larger scale, we're in the middle of a massive conflict and transformation of the galaxy as our characters have known it, but these elements serve to inform the main narrative and are not irrelevant despite not being necessarily essential.
This is the real key to the success of STAR WARS; it's another universe that feels real enough to the imagination that you could reach through and peel away at the layers to discover only so much more. It is a sense of discovery distilled into movie form with a level of success that has only been replicated a few times at most in the history of filmmaking.
It's difficult to see how Lucas went from being so right to being so wrong. STAR WARS is the only film in the "Original Trilogy" that Lucas wrote and directed himself, giving the director's reins over to other for sequels and sharing writing credit while acting as an executive producer, and as an editor and second unit director in varying degrees. He resented the stress and compromising that came with on-the-ground filmmaking in the Hollywood system, and allowing someone else to direct while maintaining superiority in creative matters suited him better at the time. But STAR WARS was actually the last movie he directed until STAR WARS: EPISODE I - THE PHANTOM MENACE over 20 years later, and between that time, his involvement with a variety of projects was in a relatively low-key capacity. When he returned to filmmaking in a more active capacity in the mid-'90s, he commanded practically unchallenged creative control, as well as unlimited possibilities in the form of photo-realistic computer-generated imagery (CGI), allowing him to put almost anything onscreen where technological limitations prevented it before. Hence, the "Special Edition". The STAR WARS was first released in a Special Edition in 1997, it was a huge success, not merely for the added material, but for the chance to STAR WARS, the ultimate blockbuster spectacle, in a movie theater once more. The added material has been changed with each subsequent home video release, and when they were released on DVD, the "Special Edition" part of the title was stricken. They are the producer's cut (in the case of STAR WARS, a director's cut), but Lucas has done his damnedest to make these altered versions into the only ones, right up until he sold Lucasfilm, and with it the Star Wars films, to The Walt Disney Company. Now that the rights are no longer in Lucas's hands and the demand for a restored version of the original versions is so well-established, an eventual restored version of the film as it played in theaters in 1977 (or at least 1982, when EPISODE IV - A NEW HOPE was added) is inevitable.
In regards to the Special Edition of this film, as with the others, whether the changes "ruin" the movie on the whole depends on what you consider ruinous, but I consider them annoyances at most. Before writing this, I was able to find the film in its original form on a good ol' VHS cassette from 1987 (or '86). When I first saw the Original Trilogy, it was in their original versions, but over the years, the altered versions are the ones I'm most familiar with. I think the Special Edition of STAR WARS is interesting; it's always cool to see previously unseen material from a familiar and beloved film, and if it is truly what Lucas "had in mind" (although in regards to Lucas' claims to a full vision of the Star Wars saga from the start are incredibly doubtful, and whether he did have things in mind, they undoubtedly changed over time; it's not like writing the prequels was as an experience in auto-writing for him), it's kind of fun to see. Undoubtedly, Lucas' true crime was in withholding and attempting to wash out the original versions of the films as the played upon initial release. So we get the new scene of Han talking to Jabba after his encounter with Greedo, a scene that was filmed with an actor and meant to be finished with a stop-motion creature placed over the actor as Jabba, but due to time and budget constraints, the scene was dropped. Within the narrative, the scene is redundant and adds nothing new to Han's story and character that the Greedo scene does not, but in the third installment of the trilogy, Jabba was adequately introduced as a great big blob of an amphibian slug, created through an elaborate puppet. Adding the scene back into STAR WARS, Jabba was created in the computer, and in the version available on Blu-ray and DVD today, the visual effect has been upgraded since the 1997 version, but neither looks particularly good. Regardless of the consistency or look of the effect, the scene takes the fun out of Jabba, first showing that he can move independently (whereas in RETURN OF THE JEDI, he appears to be so fat and gross that he has to be rolled around, which is awesome) and then letting Han step on his tail, the result of the footage being shot before Jabba was designed and thus no one knew there would be a tail there when Han walks around him (keep an eye on Han as he moves up over the tail; the effect is elaborate, but he still looks pretty silly up there). This scene is the biggest alteration to the original, and while I'm compelled to complain, it's still pretty minor. STAR WARS does so much in the details though, so it may feel more consequential than it actually is. As to the question of whether Han shot first, that's silly. In the original version, Greedo didn't shoot at all.
However, it's a shame to not always be able differentiate between what they were able to achieve back in 1977 and what's been added in the age of digitally-rendered effects, because much of what they pulled off is remarkable, and without the reference, you might be left to wonder. Many of the effects are now dated, but many of them are not, and there's hardly anything quaint about them regardless. The visuals are spectacular and put to great use. STAR WARS is a deeply immersive, visceral experience, and the worlds it creates are tactile and considerably detailed, but the most noteworthy effects of the original are the space battles.
When people think of Star Wars action scenes, they almost automatically think of the lightsaber duels, but lightsabers play a surprisingly small part in this film. The one duel that takes place is far and away the most simplistic of all the Star Wars movies, and the killing blow is actually a little silly-looking (although I love the detail of Vader stepping on Obi-Wan's empty robes, perplexed at the disappearance of the body). This is the only movie in the series in which lightsabers don't even factor into the climactic action, but that's not to its detriment, because the attack on the Death Star is a worthy thrill. Modeled after aerial dogfights of old WWII films, the sequence is comprised of cockpit shots, exterior wide shots and subjective tracking shots that put the viewer right in the midst of the action, culminating with the spectacular trench run in which the Rebel one-man X-wing and Y-wing starfighters fly at high speeds through a narrow mechanical canyon to fire torpedoes into the Death Star's exhaust vent to destroy it, while Imperial TIE fighters led by Vader pursue and pick them off one by one. It's a totally unique and awe-inspiring sequence within the Star Wars series filled with exciting twists and turns, tension, triumph, and spectacular visuals.
They say that in filmmaking, one should "show, not tell", and in the essentially perfect case of STAR WARS, the story would unfold just as clearly. The Imperial forces have a clearly fascism-inspired appearance with rigid structuring, imposing architecture and even their uniforms borrow elements from those of the Nazi military. Darth Vader in particular is a masterpiece of character design, inspired heavily by Japanese samurai culture with a fearsome mask (in this case, and angular design resembling a skull face) and assorted pieces of dress that resemble samurai armor, and a helmet fashioned after those of Nazi Stormtroopers. The heroes are more ragged and simple in their dress and appearance, more traditional and 'pure'. The elements of the conflict are clearly, visually established from the start to the finish, but the sound design is no mere courtesy and is possibly the best, most unique sound aesthetic for any movie ever. Created by Ben Burtt, who received a special Academy Award for his achievements on the film, the collection of sounds shuns the typical reliance on electronic-synthetic sounds of science fiction for weird and distinctive blends of recordings such as various animal sounds (Chewbacca), steel cables struck under tension (blasters), elephant calls and cars on wet pavement (TIE fighters), and other such combinations. Two of the major characters, Chewbacca and R2-D2, don't even speak English, but rather entirely in the sounds created by Burtt.
I have very distinct memories of when I first saw STAR WARS, although being at a very young age at the time, certain details have become jumbled in my long-term memory. I would have been around 4-5 years old at the time, probably 1995 or '96, when I first became aware of it in the form of a TV advertisement. I don't know if it was for a new home video release, the Special Edition re-release into theaters or an upcoming airing on the station, but what I do remember vividly was who I later learned were Obi-Wan Kenobi and Darth Vader crossing lightsabers in a duel. That really stuck with me, not only for the natural excitement a little boy would have for a fanciful swordfight, but also for the curiously strong relationship small children have to colors, the blue sword for the old man and the red for the sinister villain. It wasn't long after that my dad borrowed a trilogy box set from a friend so that he could show the movies from his youth to myself and my brothers, the first of a series of special occasions in which he would introduce us to hit movies from the '60s and into the '80s that he enjoyed as a kid, including PLANET OF THE APES and its sequels, RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK (he made frequent use of the fast-forward button that night), and THE KARATE KID and two of its sequels, as well as some lesser known, fairly racist westerns like AGAINST THE CROOKED SKY and PONY EXPRESS. I remember looking at the sleeve art for those Star Wars video cassettes which made a deep impression on me, even before I knew what any of it was about. The sleeve for STAR WARS showed half the face of Vader's mask and a couple of starfighters in the corner. The sleeve for THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK showed a similar style with half of a stormtrooper's helmet, and a battle on an icy terrain taking place in the corner. For RETURN OF THE JEDI, an admittedly less striking but still fascinating image, half the face of Yoda, and a lightsaber duel taking place in the corner. These were of the 1995 home video release, the last time that the so-called "Original Trilogy" was released without the 1997 Special Edition alterations. My dad worked at a small office building with a rec room where he could sometimes take us to watch movies on the big-screen television, and that's where I watched STAR WARS for the first of many times. Before that it was all THE LAND BEFORE TIME and THE LION KING. After that, it was all STAR WARS.
Where the Old and New Meet
STAR WARS was the biggest turning point for American cinema since the advent of "New Hollywood" in 1967, and for better or worse, reset the course from the markedly 'sophisticated', 'adult' and cynical trend of New Hollywood toward a more youthful (or juvenile, according to some), commercial brand-driven, high concept blockbuster landscape that persists today in the form of superhero movies, science fiction, fantasy adventures and the like. You can blame STAR WARS for developing the market for Michael Bay's Transformers series, but without STAR WARS, you wouldn't have Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy, THE DARK KNIGHT, ALIEN or most other celebrated blockbuster movies. It was curious move for Lucas, who had made AMERICAN GRAFITTI almost spitefully as a response to the failure of his pessimistic, dystopian earlier work, but STAR WARS made movies about 'fun' again. It was a pastiche of cinema's greatest hits, drawing from THE WIZARD OF OZ (is it just me, or is Chewbacca the Toto of STAR WARS?), the samurai films of Akira Kurosawa, the westerns of John Ford and Sergio Leone, the fantasy worlds of Walt Disney, the war films of the 1930s and '40s, and more. The U.S. had just pulled out of Vietnam, a war that disillusioned the country and with the noted exception of a real howler from John Wayne, movies were decidedly against it. Prior to starting work on STAR WARS, Lucas was even planning to direct APOCALYPSE NOW as a sardonic DR. STRANGELOVE-esque comedy, but instead, he made war a fantasy again (it's really "Star Adventures", to be fair), an ennobling and thrilling opportunity for heroes to rise in. The adventure story was reborn, and with it, Hollywood filmmaking. Science fiction was typically the territory of b-movies, with only a couple of real exceptions like Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (1968) and PLANET OF THE APES (1968; the sequels to which quickly devolved into b-movies anyway), but after STAR WARS, it suddenly became the most popular genre in the business with hits like SUPERMAN: THE MOVIE (1978), STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE (1979), ALIEN (1979), and even Agent 007 went to the Moon in MOONRAKER (1979). Ironically, STAR WARS isn't really a science fiction movie.
It's a fantasy film, a fairy tale in sci-fi trappings. It evens with a variation on the familiar fairy tale opening, "Once upon a time, in a land far, far away...". Science fiction, while usually more outlandish than direct cases like 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, speculates on the potential of human experience based on technological advancements, social or environmental changes, but STAR WARS doesn't appear to exist within time as we know it. It takes place on another plane of existence, one with princesses and knights ("Jedi Knights"), wizards (again, Jedi), magic (the Force), and monsters (aliens). The laser guns are just really awesome set dressing.
In contrast to the usual fairy tale princesses however, Leia is a surprisingly strong, feminist character. She isn't captured because of her virginal purity or royal status, but because she is a high-ranking commander of a revolution and until recently had been acting undercover as a member of the Imperial Senate. She's a real leader, taking command of whatever situation she's in, including the rescue mission planned for her, but she's also a delightfully impudent smart-ass at times ("You came in that thing? You're braver than I thought!", "Governor Tarkin, I should have expected to find you holding Vader's leash. I recognized your foul stench when I was brought on board," and "Aren't you a little short for a stormtrooper?" are a few of my favorites).
Even as rapidly paced as the movie is, there some great character moments building the relationships between Han, Luke and Leia, such as the scene following the escape from the Death Star and the battle with the TIE fighters, where they finally get a moment to relax. Han already exhibits a love-hate dynamic with Leia, while Luke has an earnest and innocent interest, so Han takes a moment to tease him about it.
"You think a princess and a guy like me...?"
To which Luke shortly and coldly retorts, "No."
Don't get me wrong, it's not like STAR WARS is any sort of character piece that stops to linger on these moments, but by using familiar character types and spot-on casting, the margins are ideally filled in. While so much comes together to make this one of the greatest landmarks in not only cinema but in pop culture altogether, the most crucial key to its success as a whole is its success in rejuvenating the old familiar with brave new imagination.
Mixing Worlds
STAR WARS, as well as its sequels and prequels, is stuffed to the brim with familiar tropes and conventions drawn from a wide variety of genres and films.
Samurai Movies, Kurosawa & THE HIDDEN FORTRESS
George Lucas has famously cited Akira Kurosawa's 1958 THE HIDDEN FORTRESS as a major inspiration for the plot outline of STAR WARS, showing the story of a grand adventure from the perspective of two bumbling, bickering peasants (translated to C-3PO and R2-D2) and the rescue of a princess (as of this writing, I have never seen THE HIDDEN FORTRESS). The character of Obi-Wan Kenobi also draws on the trope of an aged samurai warrior, familiar to others of Kurosawa's films including SEVEN SAMURAI, called upon for one last quest and taking on an apprentice. The scene of Kenobi cutting off the thug's arm in the cantina is reminiscent of scenes in some samurai movies, and Vader's costume design with tunic and mask is partially inspired by samurai armor. The practice of holding the sword with both hands is also common practice in samurai tradition.
Westerns
STAR WARS features many elements inspired by the western movie genre, primarily in the scenes taking place on Tatooine, most prominently involving the Mos Eisley cantina, a space-fantasy adaptation of an old west saloon full of tough characters and bandits, and Han Solo's standoff with the bounty hunter at the table. The Skywalker farm is an obvious genre nod, while Luke's encounter with the whooping and hollering Sand People brings to mind less than politically correct portrayals of American Indians in westerns from old serials and Golden Age westerns.
WWII
As previously described, the star fighter battles are specifically modeled after footage of WWII aerial dogfights, while the villainous Empire's costumes and architecture are drawn from fascistic traditions, including Vader's helmet with its resemblance to Nazi infantry helmets and the term "stormtrooper" for the Empire's soldiers, a translation of the Nazi specialist soldiers called "Sturmmann".
Top 5 of STAR WARS
- Battle of Yavin- The assault on the Death Star sequence, referred in Star Wars lore as the Battle of Yavin (referring to the film's unnamed moon to the planet Yavin where the Rebel Base is located), is one of the greatest action set-pieces of the series, and probably the best action sequence in the original trilogy. The visual effects are stark and vivid, blended with Ben Burtt's perfect sound design, employed in the service of a tense and marvelously exciting story climax.
- Darth Vader- Even ahead of his further development in the later films, Darth Vader is an awesome villain in this film, used to simple perfection as the muscle in the villainous hierarchy. His introduction as he steps out of the smoke into the aftermath of the firefight aboard Leia's ship, breathing mechanically and stopping to observe his surroundings briefly before marching forward full of purpose, still gives me chills, and James Earl Jones' voice work is a stroke of genius.
- Princess Leia- Leia is never better than she is in the original film, sharp, deft and unexpectedly funny. Carrie Fisher is a commanding, strong-jawed and even a little impish, and the movie never feels the need affirm her sex appeal outright because she's already the complete package. None of the sequels does her the same justice.
- Orchestral Score- The American Film Institute declared the music score composed for the film by John Williams as the best film score of all time, and if one has to be named the best, it ought to be STAR WARS. From the big, brassy, grandiose opening titles to the sweeping "Force Theme" over the binary sunset to the kooky jazz of the Cantina Band, it's the probably the most recognizable film score of all time.
- Design- It doesn't seem right to go with either "production design" or "sound design" without the other. They're both integral parts of the same world rendering that is unparalleled in its organic potency in the history of filmmaking. The terms "used" and "lived in" are the most commonly applied to John Barry's production design and Roger Christian's set decoration, but what it really comes down to is the realness and accessibility of a fantasy world that makes the unfamiliar familiar. Ben Burtt's sound design is as recognizable and crucial to the film's identity as is Williams' score, from R2-D2's electronic vocabulary to the creatively elaborate weapon and creature sound effects.
I don't have a Bottom 5 for STAR WARS. There are little bits that are kind of silly, like Mark Hamill's and Harrison Ford's feathery 1970s hairstyles, or Luke's whiny moments ("Oh, it's just Han," so Leia consoles him, and he jumps right next to "I miss Ben." Maybe you should just decide what's really bothering you Luke, like wanting to plant one on your not-yet-revealed sister), but there's nothing that I would consider a significant detriment to the film in its original version.
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