When people ask me if I’ve seen the original Star Wars trilogy, I always say yes, because I did when I was pretty young. But I realized recently that I don’t really remember much of it—Star Wars is such a force in pop culture that I can’t remember what I actually remember from watching the movies and what I’ve just internalized from hearing about them so much. So I decided, in preparation for watching “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” to rewatch the first trilogy.
I’m excited to talk about “A New Hope,” but it first needs to be acknowledged that I watched the 2011 remastered edition, which is a mixed bag. The whole movie is touched up to look better in graphic quality, and the effects are better, particularly some really cool explosions (I couldn’t tell how many of those were remastered, despite looking at online videos about it—some of the more colorful explosions might’ve actually been the original ones). Still, is it necessary to correct everything? In 1977, when the movie first came out, it won the Oscar for best visual effects. In a way, it takes away from that accomplishment to ‘update’ the movie with 2011 effects.
By far the most egregious changes, though, are the addition or changing of scenes. Everyone talks about the “Han shoots first” controversy, and yeah, it’s pretty silly that they would change a scene to have Greedo shooting at Han and him dodging it prior to shooting back. To begin with, Han shooting first fits with his ‘rogue outlaw’ type of personality. Even ignoring that, though, Greedo had his gun pointed at Han the whole time, so shooting is pretty justified in the first place. At least it all happens so fast in the 2011 version that you can’t really tell.
There are many scenes that are extended, like an interaction with Luke and his old rebel pilot friend. None of these are particularly terrible, but they add to the runtime, and there are lags in the story, so I would’ve rather had it without them. The most annoying changes are with the graphics that look so obviously different from everything else. That Jabba scene was pretty unnecessary (I believe it was originally a deleted scene in the 1977 version) in the first place, since Jabba is introduced later, and it’s unnecessary table-setting for the next movie. It mostly just looks bad, though, too computer-animated and silly. Same goes for the unnecessary aliens added in the background of certain scenes that are just distracting.
So yeah, the remastered edition is mostly silly, and I kind of would’ve rather seen the original, but it’s really not that important. I got the essence of the movie.
Anyways, now we can talk about the actual movie! Let’s start with the beginning. I love how the movie begins with R2-D2 and C-3PO and just follows them around for a while—I’d always kind of assumed it’d start with a boring exploration of Luke Skywalker’s home life, but his first appearance happens when the droids meet him, oddly enough. I just like how the movie immediately throws you into its world without explanation (well, besides the scrolling expositional narration, which is cool in and of itself). I also completely forgot how cool of a character Princess Leia is—she’s kind of the leader of the rebels! Luke might be the ostensible protagonist, but a lot of the plot hinges around Leia, as evidenced by her name being the only name in that opening narration.
It’s also interesting to see how each element of the Star Wars mythology is rolled out over the course of the three movies. In this one, for example, there’s no Yoda, or Jabba the Hutt (treating that one scene as a deleted scene), or Ewoks. “A New Hope” is a pretty contained story. Luke stumbles upon some droids, who lead him to Obi-Wan, who trains him and makes a deal with Han and Chewbacca to basically save Leia. They get the Death Star architectural plans and blow it up. It’s pretty simple; there are plenty of opportunities for future world-building, but most of it is just hinted at. There are cool hints, like when Obi-Wan tells Luke about how his father fought in the clone wars, and how Darth Vader trained under Obi-Wan before turning to the dark side. The prequels may have turned out poorly, but it’s really cool, in theory, to explore that backstory.
It’s pretty great just watching the relationships developing between these characters. Han Solo is by far the most interesting character, the necessary sarcastic skeptic critically missing from the prequels, and he and Leia have a great antagonistic relationship that hints at flirtation. Even Luke, who can be pretty damn whiny and boring sometimes compared to the others, has some good moments—whenever the characters are all happy together, I become way more attached to them. I particularly like the scene when they just barely escape death from being crushed by walls, and they’re all laughing and cheering. I also really like how each character is so different, each representing a completely different galactic milieu. Luke is a poor farm boy with latent mystical powers. Han is a self-absorbed money-hungry lone wolf. Leia is a rebel princess. Obi-Wan is a wise old Jedi Knight. Chewbacca is, well, an animal! They’re all from such different backgrounds, and watching them come together is seeing an intersection of vastly different cultures.
I think I was a little afraid I’d be underwhelmed by Star Wars. After all, it was made in 1977, and I’m naturally not going to be as affected by it as kids at the time. So yeah, it didn’t fill me with an evangelical zeal. I wouldn’t even say that I loved this movie; I’d say I really liked it. But it still holds up. I think part of the reason younger people won’t appreciate the movie as much—aside from the dated visual effects—is that so much of Star Wars has been ingrained in pop culture that everyone takes it for granted. Like, I can’t imagine seeing this movie when it first came out, seeing all those amazing costumes that would become iconic. R2-D2, the Darth Vader mask with the breathing, the Stormtroopers, the whole concept of the Force, the lightsaber…these are all references that people get even if they haven’t seen the movies. But if you imagine yourself in the 70’s, this must’ve all been revolutionary.
I’m so excited to keep exploring this world.
Leave a Reply
Be the First to Comment!