- George Lucas’ exhilarating Star Wars opens in medias res with the instantly memorable Darth Vader chasing around Princess Leia after the famous scrolling yellow prologue.
- Like The Hidden Fortress from Kurosawa, Lucas centers much of the narrative deliberately (especially in the beginning) on two non-heroes if you will- in this case, two droids. Lucas borrows from many inspirations (including the Saturday morning serials, the burned-out massacre of Uncle Owen and Aunt Peru from John Ford’s The Searchers), but make no mistake, with The Hidden Fortress and the unmissable wipe edits (which I adore the use of here)—the main source of inspiration is Kurosawa.
signature wipe editing
the burned-out massacre of Uncle Owen and Aunt Peru from John Ford’s The Searchers
- Parts shot in Tunisia – this may have been the lowest budgeted Star Wars film of all-time. Every subsequent film would have more money to work with) but this was still one of the bigger productions in 1977.
like Kubrick’s 2001– an achievement in world building with miniatures
just one of the many detailed sets
- Adjusted for inflation, this is still the second biggest US domestic box office smash behind Gone With the Wind – unlike GWTW there’s a rewatchable lightness to this entire enterprise. Lucas succeeds at walking that fine line between hangout film and epic. The stakes are high, but you enjoy the ride as well.
Lucas’ instincts (which would often betray him in the prequals decades later) were almost always right on Star Wars. I mentioned the scrolling yellow prologue, but add the iconography of the Vader mask, his asthma, James Earl Jones with the voice. Lucas (who has always cared about audio as much as visual- maybe more- in his two strong previous films) taps the shoulder of John Williams for the score here and what a decision that turned out to be.
- And it isn’t just Lucas’ filmmaking instincts that need to be praised- if we’re talking about his creativity, there have been very few films that equal Star Wars on this level. The folklore creation and the depth of the back story for the characters and the world-building inspire awe.
Pauline Kael, who was wrong just as often as she was right about the great films, isn’t crazy for saying “the only attempt at beauty is in the double sunset.” https://scrapsfromtheloft.com/2017/06/23/pauline-kael-star-wars/ – indeed that shot at the 25-minute mark with the purple sky is the greatest cinematic painting in the film. This is not Ridley Scott’s Alien from a visual perspective.
- There’s an easy control in the performance of Alec Guinness as Ben Obi-Wan Kenobi. I’d listen to an argument that’s too understated—but I think it hits just the right notes.
It is 47-minutes before Harrison Ford shows up as Han Solo—a science fiction version of a gunslinger in a saloon or a samurai warrior with enough energy and swagger to lift the entire film up a level. All the performances are very good -even if Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher start out a little timid.
The inevitable duel and the unspoken samurai code between Vader and Guinness’ Obi-Wan- magnificent
- I find it fascinating to think about how this one film changed the projection of Lucas’ career. Was he so invested in this world that making a bunch of these was always the plan? Or is this the same auteur/gambler who made two excellent films prior to this (THX, American Graffiti) and without the financial and cultural impact of this film would Lucas have gone on to have the career that mirrored someone like Spielberg? I see no reason from a filmmaking and stylistic standpoint he couldn’t have been Spielberg.
- The final attack is an impressive Eisenstein-lite montage just like the chase in THX.
- The formation of the troops at the finale is a small flaw. Yes, it echoes Riefenstahl’s work—but my beef is that Lucas doesn’t assign this type of military rigor to a scene with the empire. That would have been more fitting. It seems out of character that the rebels here call back to the Nazis’ strict order and militarism.
- A Must-See / Masterpiece border film
Hey @Drake , are you the same guy who has a twitter account of the same name (@cinemaArchievs). I joined twitter 30 minutes ago and then I searched your site on google to see if new reviews are posted and that twitter account came.
That’s you, there’s a link to this page in your bio.
@M*A*S*H- yes, though I’m not very active,
A fun fact (some may already know this):
George Lucas and Steven Spielberg obviously happened to both make major science fiction movies in the same year. From an audience perspective, there really was no way to predict whose project would be more successful before they were released. Nonetheless, Spielberg invited Lucas to the Close Encounters set one day, and Lucas became certain that it would be a bigger hit than his Star Wars. Guessing that he decided would make less money than his friend, Lucas decided to make the proposition that each director would receive 2.5% of the earnings from the other person’s production. If he was correct in his belief that Close Encounters would receive more, the bargain would be slightly lucrative for him. Spielberg gladly accepted, guessing that his friend was wrong and Star Wars would earn more. We all know the result, of course.
Nice move, Steve.
@Graham- Wild- I had not heard this one before. Thanks for sharing.
I have one question and one comment about the Star Wars score.
Do you think the Star Wars series is John Williams’ best work? I would argue that it is, but a few of his other scores could be advocated for the win instead.
Also, the world has been, in my opinion, remembering the wrong Star Wars theme song. I’m not talking about the famous Imperial March from The Empire Strikes Back, which is the greatest musical motif from the franchise. I’m referencing the “Main theme” that everyone knows… which I’ve realized isn’t really the main theme. It’s the overture. I noticed during my recent viewing of the trilogy that the song playing during many of the most important moments (which ought to be considered the main song of the series) is the “Force Theme.” That includes the great double sunset scene of the original, with the main Force Theme melody playing in this video from 0:05 to 0:20: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gpXMGit4P8 .
@Graham- thanks for sending this. I saw the movie a month ago and it has already been too long since hearing this. What a theme, what a scene! There are a bunch of these (I swear I’ve seen one with Superman as #1) but John Williams is a genius- I’m not sure there is a right answer https://collider.com/best-john-williams-scores/
I may have shared this here before but I highly recommend the podcast The Soundtrack Show, which breaks down in such great detail some of the best musical scores of film history. The guy who hosts it has such an astounding in-depth understanding of music theory. He especially focuses on a lot of John Williams scores, but after listening to all his breakdowns I believe Star Wars (or The Empire Strikes Back, take your pick) may be Williams’ biggest achievement (though admittedly not by much).
I would also highly recommend his episodes that look into Howard Shore’s The Lord of the Rings score – you will never watch those movies the same way again.
Is this the current rating? A MS/MP?
@Matthew- I go back and forth – either a lower tier MP or MS/MP
I see… (late response cause it’s finals week for me) I would usually say that “artistry prevails and this will rightfully return to undeniable MP status!” but this is one that you have probably seen enough that – if it was gonna do it for you – it would have probably already done it by now
With that said, this is a great review and I love the point about the “formation of the troops”. Never considered that and you are right. I also agree 100% on Guinness. He’s instrumental to the tone of the film and really grounds it in moments it needs it
The part where I differ from the points being made here is in you agreeing with Kael saying that the Binary Sunset scene is the only moment or attempt of beauty. I think even some of the screenshots on this page disprove that. Such as the wide shot of Luke watching his homestead being burned in front of the cloudy pink-blue sky and the space image above the “like Kubrick’s 2001– an achievement in world building with miniatures” text. I don’t think those two images are one-offs though. There are many other beautiful images of landscape work on Tatooine (including images of the droids wandering the desert and Luke/Kenobi/Droids overlooking the civilization) and miniature-space-exploration work that would fit into Space Odyssey. Off the top of my head there is also quite a beautiful frame of Leia giving R2D2 the message in red neon lighting and smoke (it is strongly framed too). And the images I’m referencing are on here https://film-grab.com/2014/07/21/star-wars/
I bring this up because I imagine the “lack of beauty” is playing a part on why it’s potentially not a MP or atleast a sure-fire MP. And I do think that the entire film is a strong visual effort. Something can be framed/staged/lit greatly, and contain incredible set pieces and overall production design without “beauty” necessarily being the word that comes to mind when seeing it (and I don’t think it takes away from the strength of the visuals either). I believe this strongly applies to the non-beautiful images/moments here in this film
The only downside to this film to me is that I feel it can occasionally be a little too much about the “what’s being filmed” (I think this is some of the best, and certainly most imaginative set design, costume design and miniature work in the art forms 100+ year history) as opposed to the “how it’s being filmed”. But I think it would be inaccurate and unfair to Lucas to suggest that the framing, shot choices, and editing direction (wipe transitions, exhilarating montage editing during the ship battles) aren’t super great here as well. Add on the absolutely rolling narrative, the genius scrolling title, arguably the greatest composer’s greatest work, monster performances from Harrison and Guinness, and the justifiably iconic/influential mythos world building and this is an unequivocal MP in my opinion!
@Matthew- Great work here- plenty of food for thought for me on my next viewing – even on a film I’ve seen 20 times. Question- how far up is this on your list? Top 10? top 50? I’m just curious. My only real pushback here is that I consider a MS/MP to be very high praise. As you may have noticed, about 19 out of the 20 comments here are from people who think I’m underrating a film- not the other way around. So I think I am a bit more protective of those “masterpiece” grades than most.
No, certainly not even remotely close to top 10. I mean, I love this film but I like to think I’m much less biased (and much more knowledgeable) than to say something like that. It wouldn’t make my top 50 either. I’m not exactly sure where it would land, but I don’t think it would be a very good or accurate exercise cause I probably haven’t even seen over half the films you have graded as MPs.
Since you use the term “lower tier masterpiece”, I could try to break down the MP grade into sub-grades and then place Star Wars on that to get you to understand how I view it. And it would probably be a “mid-tier” MP. On the same level as I hold something like Fargo, Alien, or The Conversation. To go even further I think a high-tier MP would be the obvious ones like a Raging Bull or Once Upon a Time in the West; a low tier MP would be something like The Silence of the Lambs or The Dark Knight; and a MS/MP would be Reservoir Dogs or Yojimbo
But honestly looking back my long message was probably unprovoked. We probably do disagree a bit (or maybe we are mostly splitting hairs), but a mid-tier MP vs a Fringe MP discussion probably didn’t warrant that big of an argument on my part haha. Like you said, a MS/MP is a phenomenal grade
On a semi-related note: what’s the latest viewing number that you gave a film that significantly impacted its grade? Did you ever watch something for an 12th time and bump it up an entire grade or two from that viewing?
@Matthew- It’s all good – been a fun discussion.
Hmm- good question – I think rewatching and close study is a must (I think the first viewing is the least important one) but I’m not sure there is that much movement typically on the 4th, 5th and subsequent viewings. It happens – the very best films have more and more to reveal and appreciate it seems.