Review of Star Wars (1977) by Chris D — 17 Dec 2015

Aah... the one that started it all. The original Star Wars from 1977. Now I just want to be clear that I'm reviewing the original 1977 cut of the film (that I happen to own a rare copy of). Not the version you would find on Blu-Ray and DVD store shelves today with all the unnecessary Cgi imagery added in, along with the infamous scene that makes Greedo shoot at Han first. I'm not going to bring up the edits and changes made by the newer versions and releases. I'm simply sticking with the original so lets dive right in.

Now keep in mind, when Star Wars came out, audiences had never quite seen a film like this. One that takes the best elements of classic fairytales, myths, and even older movies and put them into one. So when I say people's minds were blown by this movie, that's a huge understatement. For its time, (heck, even today for that matter) it was really refreshing to see a new myth come to the big screen. Everyone took it as a masterpiece of our time, and one of the greatest things ever. Then the internet came around and totally slapped that in the face. I bring this up because people who've never really got into Star Wars today are seeing all of the, admittedly overblown, hype for the new movie and are most likely getting the wrong impression. They would think that with something as hyped up as this, the film that it originated from would be a highly impactful masterpiece of modern cinema and be worthy of all the praise and cultish worship. In reality, is it impactful? Undoubtedly. Is it a perfect masterpiece? Absolutely not! *Takes cover from hailstorm of angry overreacting fans*.

The Good.

The first notable element about Star Wars is how wide of an audience it can appeal to and entertain from start to finish. Kids can watch it, adults can watch it, you can stay for mind numbing acton or study the amount of literary symbols, admire how original the world and environments are or take guesses at what passed work it's paying homage to, or just simply get lost into the detailed mythos of this huge world.

Most of this is done from the start when you're introduced to all of the relatable characters. You have Luke Skywalker, played by Mark Hamill, who is an everyday farm boy who dreams of leaving his family responsibilities for a life of excitement and adventure and join the rebel alliance against the empire. Princess Leia played by Carrie Fisher, who is smart and determined leader of the rebel alliance who takes no crap from anybody and always strives to do the right thing and get the job done. Then you got the most smug badass in the Galaxy who will always shoot first, Han Solo, played by Harrison Ford. Not to mention you also have the wise old mentor Obi-Wan Kenobi, played by Alec Guinness, the bumbling sidekicks of R2-D2 and C-3PO, Kenny Baker and Anthony Daniels respectively, and the evil villain with a mysterious past Darth Vader voiced acted by James Earl Jones and body acted by Frankenstein himself, David Prowse. Each of these characters have their own distinct personalities and character traits that engage you into the story and you remember every single one of them weeks after you've seen the movie. They stick with you, and you can't get enough of them.

The original Star Wars also pulls off a great ability to immediately invest it's viewer into the overwhelmingly huge world and story by simply giving visual details. In the opening scene when you see this giant Star Destroyer waisting this little rebel ship with lasers, the conflict and situation hits you almost immediately. You understand that there is an overpowering force in this world that will do anything to take out any form of resistance. And that's just one example out of countless others. What a Jedi is, what the force is, how the Empire came into power, the amount of Alien life in this far away Galaxy, how the rebellion works, and many others that you have to experience and figure out for yourself given the visual clues. All of which can be up to your interpretation and thus it just keeps your imagination going. Around every corner you discover something new about this world and it just adds to the sense of awe, wonder, and amazement for anybody no matter how old they are.

The special effects for this movie are pretty damn impressive, even to this day. This was back before the innovation of Computer generated effects so every effect in this movie was done practically. Every ship is a small model flying in front of a blue screen or a space backdrop. But whether it was a miniature or not, you still feel the size and weight of these ships whenever they're on screen. To this day there are still some effects in here that I still don't know how they pulled them off, and honestly don't want to find out just to add an element of mystery.

If someone were to come up to me and ask me to describe Star Wars in three words I would say "simple but detailed." Meaning that for a pretty simple story of a down on his luck hero working to save the day, you still admire all the attention that was put into every single element of it. From what each ship looked like to who the characters are to what kind of aliens there and so on. You can see all the time, effort, and devotion put into this movie and its world. This is what gives Star Wars its unique personality. When you get down to it, it's pretty simple, but when you really look at it, you can see how expansive it is, and how it has stuck with so many people for so long.

Also, here are some points that are no brainers. Darth Vader, John William's score, amazing sound design.

The Bad (I am going to get so much crap for this).

I believe it goes without saying, but this movie is stupid as hell. Like, cheesy adventure serials stupid. Thankfully that's where it gets its fun tone from, but it also comes at the cost of some pretty odd and downright cringe worthy moments and elements that some extra thought would've been nice to have. For example, The Death Star. Why do the rebel pilots have to go down that giant trench every time they want to fire the bomb? Can't they just fly straight to it's location and just drop a bomb in the exhaust port? Hell, why the fuck is there a small open hole that leads directly to the core of the Death Star? And if it was necessary (somehow), couldn't they just guard that hole a lot stronger with like a shield or some shit? The Death Star sequence is basically a final boss fight of any video game ever. Stupid, overblown, but still a lot of fun to watch in the end.

The acting in the original Star Wars also has its cringe worthy moments. Most notably Luke's overly whiny voice, Princess Leia constantly going in and out of a British accent (not as noticeable at first, but it's there), and Han annoyingly complaining half of the time. Although, Luke's and Han's moments probably wouldn't be as bad had the dialogue been written better. Yes, even before the prequels, Star Wars had trouble giving believable dialogue from the start. Spouting off small bits of exposition here and there while also dishing out lines and insults that would never be said in any situation. For example, Leia's dumb line "I recognized your foul stench when I was brought on board." Oh good one. I'm sure he'll lose some sleep over that one. Maybe next time you can point out how dirty his shoes are.

Lastly, the Stormtroopers. Holy shit, these guys suck. No matter what the movie does or how hard it tries, it cannot make these guys look like they pose a threat to our heroes.. They're duped multiple times, the look goofy as hell, and they constantly miss their targets. You know you've represented your villains bad when the general public mainly sees them as meme material. How are we supposed to find them intimidating when they keep screwing up half the movie?

Verdict.

Overall, the original Star Wars may be silly, stupid and incredibly overblown, but believe me when I say that that's part of the fun. Sure it has a lot of genuinely good thematic moments and a lot of overly dumb ones, but that's what makes it so enjoyable. It's silly, but it's also endearing. It's literally the definition of a fun popcorn summer blockbuster. It's all the cliche's, themes, and plot elements of every story ever told all rolled up into one while also trying to tell and original story on its own. Now is it one of the greatest stories ever told? Probably not, but it's a good starting point for introducing someone to a world full of great stories. It's not perfect, and it is most definitely overplayed, but it does have enough good in it to warrant justification. Grab your popcorn and ignite your lightsabers because this 70's classic is here to stay.