{"id":7105,"date":"2015-12-22T01:59:41","date_gmt":"2015-12-22T05:59:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/arts.umich.edu\/ink\/?p=7105"},"modified":"2015-12-22T01:59:41","modified_gmt":"2015-12-22T05:59:41","slug":"weekend-watch-star-wars-episode-iv-a-new-hope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/2015\/12\/22\/weekend-watch-star-wars-episode-iv-a-new-hope\/","title":{"rendered":"Weekend Watch – \u201cStar Wars Episode IV: A New Hope\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

When people ask me if I\u2019ve 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\u2019t really remember much of it\u2014Star Wars is such a force in pop culture that I can\u2019t remember what I actually remember from watching the movies and what I\u2019ve just internalized from hearing about them so much. So I decided, in preparation for watching \u201cStar Wars: The Force Awakens,\u201d to rewatch the first trilogy.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m excited to talk about \u201cA New Hope,\u201d 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\u2019t tell how many of those were remastered, despite looking at online videos about it\u2014some of the more colorful explosions might\u2019ve 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 \u2018update\u2019 the movie with 2011 effects.<\/p>\n

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By far the most egregious changes, though, are the addition or changing of scenes. Everyone talks about the \u201cHan shoots first\u201d controversy, and yeah, it\u2019s 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 \u2018rogue outlaw\u2019 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\u2019t really tell.<\/p>\n

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<\/em> lags in the story, so I would\u2019ve 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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

So yeah, the remastered edition is mostly silly, and I kind of would\u2019ve rather seen the original, but it\u2019s really not that important. I got the essence of the movie.<\/p>\n

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Anyways, now we can talk about the actual movie! Let\u2019s start with the beginning. I love how the movie begins with R2-D2 and C-3PO and just follows them around for a while\u2014I\u2019d always kind of assumed it\u2019d start with a boring exploration of Luke Skywalker\u2019s 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\u2014she\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

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It\u2019s 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\u2019s no Yoda, or Jabba the Hutt (treating that one scene as a deleted scene), or Ewoks. \u201cA New Hope\u201d 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\u2019s 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\u2019s really cool, in theory, to explore that backstory.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s 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\u2014whenever 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\u2019re 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\u2019re all from such different backgrounds, and watching them come together is seeing an intersection of vastly different cultures.<\/p>\n

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I think I was a little afraid I\u2019d be underwhelmed by Star Wars. After all, it was made in 1977, and I\u2019m naturally not going to be as affected by it as kids at the time. So yeah, it didn\u2019t fill me with an evangelical zeal. I wouldn\u2019t even say that I loved<\/em> this movie; I\u2019d say I really liked it. But it still holds up. I think part of the reason younger people won\u2019t appreciate the movie as much\u2014aside from the dated visual effects\u2014is that so much of Star Wars has been ingrained in pop culture that everyone takes it for granted. Like, I can\u2019t 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<\/em>\u2026these are all references that people get even if they haven\u2019t seen the movies. But if you imagine yourself in the 70\u2019s, this must\u2019ve all been revolutionary<\/em>.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m so excited to keep exploring this world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When people ask me if I\u2019ve 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\u2019t really remember much of it\u2014Star Wars is such a force in pop culture that I can\u2019t remember what I actually remember from watching the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2178,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7105"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2178"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7105"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7105\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7108,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7105\/revisions\/7108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}