Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
Dir: George Lucas
1977
*****
Star Wars. One of the greatest films ever made or lady serendipity working over time? If you break the story down it's nothing more than the sort of thing you'd expect to find in a sci-fi/pulp magazine, which of course it was heavy influenced by. I could go as far as saying it is a tasteless and rather cheap remake of Akira Kurosawa's masterpiece, The Hidden Fortress (indeed, Toshiro Mifune was almost cast as Obi-Wan Kenobi). I'm not going to though because I love it, more so for all its faults. George Lucas has made one of the greatest sci-fi films ever made. It was called THX 1138. Star Wars is merely the greatest feel-good, adventure space-opera of all time. Can Lucas be fully praised for what has become a global phenomenon though? Firstly, Lucas was initially going to make a Flash Gordon film but then discovered the John Carter of Mars books. With both stories in mind, and because he wasn't allowed to buy the rights, he developed a very similar story structure in his own universe. The basics were there, with each character being based on characters found in other sci-fi adventure stories. It could be said that it was the great Ralph McQuarrie who really created the Star Wars that we all love, his original concept designs impressing so much that they were copied with very little further development. Nick Pemberton and Andrew Ainsworth produced the famous costumes, John Barry and Roger Christian designed and built the amazing props and sets and John Dykstra and his team created some of the most impressive effects that world had ever seen. The story's heroes are a bit uninteresting when you think about it. A naive young man looking for adventure, a princess in need of rescue, an arrogant anti-hero (who shot first!), a giant teddy-bear, a mysterious old man in his pajamas, an unfortunate stereotype made of gold and a squeaky dustbin. Yet, each character is brought to life by what is probably the most likable ensemble cast ever put together. The direction is a bit shoddy when you look at it, the composition isn't particularly good during the people scenes, the now famous editing style is actually rather brash and you really do have to question the eye of a director who doesn't notice when one of their actors bumps his head during a very simple scene. I could write at great length about what I don't like about Lucas and what he did wrong but I won't. Lucas is like a modern day Michelangelo. He's a polymath, a Renaissance director. He created ILM, he orchestrated a film made up of all the best elements available and made something magical. The Sistine Chapel wasn't painted alone, I dare say there is a tiny mistake somewhere too and while I very much doubt any of the cherubs have been painted with six finger instead of five, I think I'd like it just that little more if they had been. Phenomenon is an inadequate word to describe Star Wars.