Star Wars: May the Force be with you

Star Wars (1977)

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away...

I watched Star Wars for the first time in a movie theater in 1977 and remember thinking - how far movies have sunk since the great old movies made under the old Star system. As an epic, there were several I could think of that beat the socks off it, but still it was a big experience when all was said and done.

If it was anything, it was fun, though, with the Muppets and robots and spacecraft with heroes like Luke Skywalker and Han Solo, in fact, Harrison Ford is the most memorable character and seems to have made the best career out of all the human actors involved in the project. But back in 1977, this was all unknown.

Later we saw as George Lucas released further movies extending the story both forwards and backwards.  The actual theatrical edition of Star Wars was tampered with and and renamed A New Hope and numbered IV as it was re-cut and the old theatrical version was lost until Lucas finally offered the original un-altered theatrical version in the 2006 Two Disk set including the original theatrical version and the 2004 re-cut version of Star Wars IV: A New Hope - the new title for the old episode that we had not seen at the theater.

Star Wars was a space opera that featured state-of-the-art analog special effects, long before the advent of Computer Generated Imagery. The space ships and space scenes were made by artists similar to the work in Kubrick's 2001. This requirement induced Lucas to make his own FX studio, Industrial Light and Magic, which has since become a mainstay in the Hollywood film industry since.  Star Wars has been the only film in the series that was made with studio (Fox) financing.  All the other 5 movies have been made independently with private financing. 

Lucas wrote and directed the movie and based his story on the serials he used to enjoy as a boy like Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon, mythology, and hero stories like the legend of King Arthur.  The Star Wars story depicts the young farm boy Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) who discovers a pair of androids from rebel Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher) who have the secret plans of the Death Star, a huge star ship weapon.  Luke meets the jedi knight Obi Wan Kenobi (Alec Guinness) and agrees to accompany him and the droids to rescue the princess.  They are joined by smuggler Han Solo (Harrison Ford) and a hairy creature named Chewbacca.  All of these actors except of course Alec Guinness were nearly unknown at the time. They have since become household words through their appearance in this movie and a few sequels.  Harrison Ford has since gone on to an enviable career starring in quite a few big movies.

The scripting is the weak link in the movie as it doesn't take much imagination to see through the plot holes yet the movie has such brilliant special effects that adults like it as much as children who love it for the characters and the various critters, robots, action, and so on.

 The Fox DVD Special Edition dated 2006 is a 2-disc set that features the 1997 reissue of the movie with 4 extra minutes of footage and many other changes as well as the 1977 theatrical cut, which is the same as audiences saw back in 1977.  There is a commentary from George Lucas and a few others on the Enhanced 1997 reissue disk as well as a couple of other extra features on the disks.

Star Wars is a history making film that everybody should see.