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Star Wars(aka Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope)
A Techtite ReviewAs Always, a review of The Film and The DVD (extras)! The Film: Forget every cafe philosopher who pooh-poohs what this film did for sci-fi. Forget in particular all the Woody Allen fans who high-five themselves when remembering how Annie Hall stole Star Wars' deserved Best Picture of 1977 Oscar. Even the most stouthearted Woody Allen fan must admit it: Annie Hall lacked the impact on its genre that Star Wars had. Over a quarter century after the fact, romance comedies still look as hokey as they ever did. Science fiction was changed forevermore. That's what Best Picture of the Year is all about. This opinion is driven home by the first brilliantly crafted seconds, alone. After the prologue text sprawls onto the screen and out into space, we see a small rebel ship as it's chased by one of the Empire's many "Star Destroyers." What makes this scene so cool is how the first shot of the rebel spaceship makes it actually look pretty huge by sci-fi standards. Then the ship that's chasing it comes into view, and it literally engulfs the screen. In fact; it's so huge it has its own cargo bay, which the tiny rebel ship is engulfed right into. There doesn't seem to be any hope of the rebellion surviving such an onslaught...yet in classic action film thrills, you know they will. That's one cool opening to a film; it's one of those classic movie moments that cannot be denied, no matter how much one loves Diane Keaton in a tie. Here's what I love about cool movies; you can remember all of two major scenes, and it illustrates the hero's motivations all by themselves. In one moment, Luke ponders his possible future as he looks to the horizon at his planet's twin suns, wondering if he'll ever reach his dream of being a pilot, somewhere beyond the nothingness surrounding his Uncle's desert farm. His fate is sealed, however, when later in the movie the evil empire traces a pair of rebel droids to his home. Speeding back to try and save them in time, Luke sees only piles of debris and rubble, with the smoldering skeletons of his Uncle and Aunt nearby. What an emotional scene that was. It's these two scenes --in just the first few minutes of film-- that are just one droplet of why I love this film. I could mention every cool moment of this film, scene by scene, and basically wind up telling you the whole story, minute after minute. The Creature Cantina. Han Solo. Greedo. The Millennium Falcon. The Death Star. The Prison Escape. The Tie Fighter Dogfight. The Final Battle. I could go on and on...and I've barely scratched the surface here as it is. "Best Picture of 1977." Period. Worthy of a paragraph all their own is C3PO and R2D2. They are arguably the first time that robots were actually lifelike characters to sympathize with in themselves. Who else but R2D2 could make you care for a tin can of circuits when zapped by the scavenger Jawas, only to have R2 offer a whimper as he was kidnapped by them? The banter between him and "best buddy" 3PO was vintage sci-fi gold; even more so, when you consider how half of the conversation was mere beeps and tweets. Kudos, then, must go to both Kenny Baker for making every movement of R2 look so lifelike, and Anthony Daniels, for handling every conversation between C3PO and his beeping buddy all on his own, so that we knew exactly what R2 had just said. They are the definitive robot duo, and the definitive comic duo of sci-fi, all rolled into one. Take heed, kids; if your parents scoff at your laughter when seeing these two guys, only to say that they "didn't think they were funny" back in 1977; they're lying. These guys were a total riot. This only compliments the other characters even more. I mean, come on: if the robots of a sci-fi film are so human, you can only imagine how three-dimensional the other characters were. Luke Skywalker was a great young hero; not too old to be unattached to the young boys who yearned to be Jedi like him, and yet not so young that he looked immature when going on such a mature mission as this. Han Solo was the definitive modernization of the classic pirate rogue. Princess Leia, similarly, was the definitive modernization of the Princess in distress; a princess so spunky, it is her own skill and cunning that helps the heroes to escape, as soon as she's freed from her prison cell. Then there's the definitive sci-fi villain Darth Vader, and the definitive old knight ready to train his new pupil, Obi-Wan Kenobi. Again; I'm rambling here. There's just so much to cover, in so very little review space. The bottom line is: this is not only classic sci-fi. It is a classic film itself. As little as a few years after the fact, people often seem to wonder what they were thinking, when considering last year's "big movie" as a classic. Star Wars is one of the few instances when this is not the case. Even 27 years later, it is one of the best movies I've ever seen in my lifetime. There are very few movies, in the past quarter century, that have left me with the same emotions I felt when seeing Star Wars the first time. Maybe in another quarter century, Hollywood's luck will improve. As Obi-Wan may put it: May the Force Be With You.
The DVD: This is currently sold only in Trilogy form, in a four-disc DVD set. While it seemed only proper to review the films themselves individually, it seems equally proper to review the extras in the review of the trilogy DVD set, since upon the movies ever dividing into individual DVDs, the extras may change. Click here for the full review.
Currently available only as a trilogy set on DVD; click picture to order.
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