by Lichfield1979

Created on: November 19, 2008

Star Wars (1977)

"A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...." says the first title card. A Saturday matinee scroll says it's a time of civil war and rebels have stolen the plans to a weapon called the Death Star from an evil galactic empire.

Above a large planet, a huge spacecraft is chasing a small spacecraft, and this visual impressively demonstrates the scale of what is at stake and what the odds might be. On a human scale, a black clad masked villain is chasing a princess dressed in white robes and a revolutionary hairdo across the galaxy. Resourcefully, she passes the stolen plans to her two mechanical servants before she is captured. They flee in an escape pod to the planet below, but waste much of their head start bickering with one another during a series of misadventures.

Eventually, the family of a teenage farm boy takes them both into service. The farm boy feels frustrated by his upbringing in the desert on this backwater planet, in the orbit of twin stars. In one memorable scene, the wonderfully swelling orchestral score underlines his yearning to be called to adventure as he watches the sunset over the sand. He might get his wish. One of the servants, a prissy gold plated robot, is content to work as a translator on the farm. His resourceful companion, a short blue and white robot, who talks in a series of beeps and whistles that occasionally resemble the sound of a creaky door hinge, has other ideas.

He leads them to an old hermit, who lives out amongst the cliffs and dunes, and who rescues them from marauding bandits. In a holographic message, the princess appeals to the hermit to safeguard the stolen plans and to help her save her people from the empire. The hermit used to be a general, and a lot else besides. He tells the farm boy the villain in black murdered his father years ago, and he must learn the rites of an ancient warrior religion if he is to help the rebels.

The farm boy sceptically rejects the call to adventure, but returns home to find the farm scorched and his family slain by the soldiers hunting the stolen plans. Urgently, the servants, the farm boy and the hermit seek passage off the desert planet. In a bar full of lowlifes, they barter with a cocky smuggler who boasts to be the pilot of the fastest ship in the galaxy, but who also needs money to pay off his debts to the local crime syndicate, having previously ditched his cargo at the first sign of trouble.

Together with his tall and furry co-pilot, Chewbacca, the smuggler, Han Solo (Harrison Ford), the farm boy, Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), the hermit, Obi-Wan Kenobi (Alec Guinness) and the servants, C3P0 and R2D2, all set off aboard the Millennium Falcon to rescue Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher) from the villainous Darth Vader on the Death Star...

Written and Directed by George Lucas.

Also starring Peter Cushing as Governor Tarkin.

Star Wars ushered in a new era of special effects blockbusters and was a cultural phenomenon in 1977. The iconic production design of the galaxy far, far away looks and sounds suitably dishevelled and lived in, as befits a space western set in the past and not the future. The enduring appeal of this family friendly film and its two action packed sequels remains unquestioned, although a second trilogy of movies failed to recapture such universal love at the turn of the century. And even though Star Wars undoubtedly stands as one of the most successful works of popular fiction in history, it's the majestic film score by the composer John Williams that stole the day, and set a whole generation of young imaginations soaring towards the stars.

Summary: May the force be with you, always.

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