Review: Star Wars

Directed by: George Lucas

Written by: George Lucas

Starring: Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Peter Cushing, Alec Guinness

Rating: [4.5/5]

The classic hero’s journey has its hallmarks as it lays out the path of someone unaware of their upcoming trek stepping up and fulfilling a destiny. Something integrated into many stories told in fiction and perhaps never told more famously through Star Wars. A feature helping one believe a small farm boy could step into this major galactic war and make a difference. 

Under the rule of the Empire, Princess Leia Organa (Carrie Fisher) gets captured by Darth Vader (David Prowse) and sends out a message through a droid to get some help. This droid makes its way to the planet of Tatooine where a young Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) sees the message and along with a wise old man he refers to as Uncle Ben (Alec Guinness) sets off for a galaxy-wide universe search for the princess.

Oh to have been in the first showing of Star Wars with general audiences where they first see the crawl and how it takes us all on a journey under the rule of this fascist state. Of all the things this feature accomplishes, the sense of wonder reigns supreme as we get this story through a simple farmboy in Luke Skywalker and sit along with him as this entire world opens up and displays something quite wonderful and terrifying at the same time. Blasting from the onset with John Williams’s epic score completely sets the stage for this grand adventure. Whatever happens in the later films with their massive peaks and troughs in quality, this film remains something standing completely alone as a tremendous feature film. 

Through the mind of George Lucas, we get these creative worlds and characters entering the party with none having more of an impact than Han Solo portrayed by the effortlessly charismatic Harrison Ford. In a world of Jedi, who can wield lightsabers, Han sits as a mysterious bandit who only engages in activities when a direct benefit exists for him. His introduction to the story very quickly displays the type of character we have before us and the gradual progression of this character throughout the story truly does wonders. He serves as a rebel but not one initially aligned with the larger cause of trying to take out the Empire and his attitude sits opposite to the wide-eyed and righteous Luke Skywalker making them quite the duo along with Princess Leia. 

As displayed in this feature and all other films of this franchise, George Lucas knew what type of messages he wanted to imbue about harmful ideologies and the dangers it poses to everyday people. It does not take much deep analysis to draw the parallels between the Empire and Nazi Germany through this story as this Empire seeks to terminate anyone or anything not aligning with the way they want to rule. This even gets to the point where they build a Death Star capable of destroying a whole population of people through the use of its laster. You can go on and on with the parallels, but the allegory remains quite clear making this an inherently political movie despite what others who insist the opposite. It just so happens to all be wrapped up in a world where lightsabers get swung, laser guns get employed and you have a shrieking Wookiee named Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew). 

This journey we go on with these characters proves quite engrossing as this feature sets up all of the players while also containing its own self-contained story of trying to rescue Princess Leia from the control of Darth Vader. With each step, these characters need to utilize what brings them to the table, especially when dealing with quite the foe in the Imperial forces under the control of Grand Moff Tarkin (Peter Cushing), who operates the Death Star. Not only do they need to infiltrate this deadly structure but also find Leia and get her out making for several iconic and memorable scenes. Additionally, it begins to dig deep into the religious and philosophical belief of “The Force” and how Luke must harness it if he has any hope of taking out Darth Vader and the entire Empire. Something quite mystical in its setup but also introduce some cool powers the young man begins to learn. 

As we get the unification of these three heroes and the archetypes they represent, Star Wars also introduces one of the most iconic villains in history, Darth Vader. A truly menacing presence not only through his voice but also his stature and the way he stands out amongst all the other characters. Seeing him stand between a crowd of Stormtroopers displays the contrast of his presence. Then watching him use the force further shows why no one should mess with him as well as the tone used when speaking with him must be minded as he can close someone’s throat quite easily and without giving it much thought. Definitely one individual not to get on the bad side of. 

Truly one of the most influential films in the history of the medium in both positive and negative ways, Star Wars takes us through this sprawling story and presents some well-formed characters to follow. This story of rebellion shows a small group of individuals across the galaxy daring to take on the galactic force of this Empire spearheaded by the terrifying Darth Vader. It certainly wears its influences on its sleeve like with the samurai genre even to the point Lucas originally wanted to cast Toshiro Mifune as Obi-Wan. Overall very well-crafted allowing for its cheesier aspects and some substandard acting to slip to the side because what they excel in blows everything out of the water.