Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
"That's no moon. It's a space station!" - Obi-Wan Kenobi
release year: 1977 (with 1997 special edition)
genre: sci-fi/action/adventure
viewing setting: home Bluray 6/15/22 and 8/22/13 and home DVD, 4/12/09 and theater 2/9/97 and 6/17/97, original version webcast 6/11/98, theater and HBO many times in the 1970s and 1980s
synopsis: A young kid with dreams of adventure teams up with an old warrior, a cocky smuggler, and others to defeat the evil Empire and bring peace to the galaxy.
impressions: I'm not going to go into much detail about this movie, since there's no need. It was the first of its kind: a big space/adventure spectacle with memorable characters, aliens, spaceships, and special effects. The new scenes were fine, especially the Jabba one, Boba Fett's cameo, and the stormtrooper multiplication. I guess I can see why George Lucas re-worked his original film once he had the money to do it; the special effects don't look so dated now. This was groundbreaking stuff in 1977 - no one had ever seen space action on this scale, with this ambition. Lucas took his vision, put in a lot of hard work and took a lot of chances, and more than four decades later he's got billions of dollars to show for it.
something this movie has that no other movie has: the Death Star!
acting: Again, there's no need to go into this - I can't tell you anything you don't already know. This movie made the careers of several people, most notably Harrison Ford, who went on to anchor the Indiana Jones franchise among other successes.
final word: A classic of sci-fi adventure.
back to the main review page