Star Wars: A New Hope
Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope is the original installment in the Star Wars series of movies by George Lucas. It was originally released on May 25, 1977 under the title of Star Wars, and was re-released in 1979, 1981, 1982, 1997, and 2000. The designation "Episode IV: A New Hope" comes from the heading of the introductory text of the opening title, but it appeared only with the 1981 re-release, in order to be consistent with The Empire Strikes Back.
The movie was financially one of the most successful of all time. When adjusted for inflation, its domestic gross is second behind Gone With the Wind. It was a genuine word-of-mouth hit, having opened only on 35 screens as the studio initially had difficulty finding more screens to show it.
The film is not universally admired. Since its release, there has been a clear trend towards special-effects-driven movies geared towards a teenage audience. Many critics deplore this trend, and hold Star Wars responsible. It may be that the trend was a natural consequence of economic and technological forces in the film industry, but Star Wars, for better or for worse, is an emblem to many of that sea change. The American Film Institute listed it 15th on a list of the top 100 films of the 20th century.
It was digitally remastered (the so-called Special Edition or SE) for the 20th anniversary re-release in 1997. In its remastered form it contains additional scenes not in the original release, most notably a conversation between Han Solo and Jabba the Hutt.
A radio adaptation was produced for National Public Radio in 1981.
Sources and Inspirations
The film drew inspiration from a number of sources. This was conscious and acknowledged by George Lucas in interviews, and it is characteristic of much myth-building. Here are some notable examples.
Lucas has stated that Akira Kurosawa's 1958 film The Hidden Fortress (USA release 1962) was a strong influence.
The resemblance between the two buffoon farmers in The Hidden Fortress and the two talkative droids in Star Wars is striking. Indeed, when the droids find themselves alone on Tatooine, even the music and the style of "wipe" cuts are a clear homage to Hidden Fortress.
The climactic scene in which the Death Star is assaulted was modeled after the 1950s movie The Dam Busters, in which fighters flew down a heavily defended fjord to try to destroy an important gun emplacement at the end.
The planet Tattooine is similar to Arrakis from Frank Herbert's book Dune. To be fair, however, the notion of a desert world was not original to Herbert. The planet Mongo from the Flash Gordon comics was also a desert world. In general, the Star Wars movies have followed the convention, common in space opera, in which planets stand in for regions of the Earth, so that there would be a desert planet, a jungle planet, and so on.
The Music
Lucas wanted a a grand musical sound, with leitmotifs (specific melodic bits) for different characters and important objects, a concept used to great effect, for instance, in the operas of Richard Wagner. He put together a collection of classical pieces to give composer John Williams an idea of what he was looking for, and the music Williams composed often was distinctly reminiscent of the original classical pieces. In particular:
- The music associated to the opening capture of the blockade runner is very similar to Mars, from Holst's The Planets. In the liner notes to the original sound track recording, Williams implicitly acknowledged the connection by explaining why he didn't simply use Holst's The Planets. He said that he felt he could give the music a more unified feel if he wrote it all himself.
- The "Force Theme" has been compared to parts of the ballet Swan Lake.
- The music for the awards ceremony at the end of the movie begins with the Force Theme, and then transitions into a theme that, in the liner notes, Williams says is reminiscent of "the Coronation", which probably refers to Elgar's Coronation March.
- The opening title (the "theme from Star Wars") has been said to resemble the theme from Born Free, and also a symphony by Korngold. Later themes, such as from Chariots of Fire and ET (also by Williams) have been said to bear a resemblance to it. Listening to them together, one observes that none is identical to any of the others, but they use many of the same musical intervals to achieve similar, or at least related, emotional effects.
Analysis
Some argue that the above similarities, and others, constitute plagiarism (see, for instance, Star Wars and the theory of plagiarism). In works of fiction, however, sources of inspiration are often not cited. Certainly, the scenes most resembling The Hidden Fortress were intended as an allusion, not as theft -- knowledgeble viewers were meant to see the similarity. Homages such as this are common and often prized by critics. A moderately well-known example of this sort of thing is a reference in The Untouchables to the Odessa steps scene.
In many ways, Star Wars was a very original movie, as it had a distinctly different feel from other movies of the day.
Plot Summary
Two seemingly undistinguished droids, the effeminate C-3PO and the feisty R2-D2, come into the possession of a young, frustrated resident of a remote settlement on the planet Tatooine, Luke Skywalker, on the largely ignored frontier regions of the tyrannical Galactic Empire lead by Emperor Palpatine. Luke discovers that the droid contains a video message and plans for a huge terror weapon, The Death Star from a mysterious, attractive woman Princess Leia, to be passed to Obi-Wan Kenobi. A sequence of events leads to the droid, and Luke, meeting up with Kenobi, who asks for Luke's assistance to take the droid and the plans to the planet Alderaan as requested by Leia. Luke is reluctant at first, and returns home to find his family murdered and his house destroyed by Imperial Stormtroopers, decides to come with Obi-Wan.
Meanwhile, Darth Vader, on the Death Star where Leia is imprisoned, attempts to use the ways of The Force to extract the location of the Rebel Base - however she has managed to resist the interrogation thus far. The commanding officer of the station, Grand Moff Tarkin, decides on a different approach and threatens Alderaan with destruction if she will not reveal the location. Leia gives in and reveals the base's location, whilst the admiral blows up Alderaan as the first public use of the Death Star anyway.
Obi-Wan, Luke, and the droids (after Obi-Wan mysteriously convinces Imperial Stormtroopers that the droids "are not the droids you're looking for") meet up with boastful smuggler Han Solo in a seedy spaceport bar. He agrees to take them to Alderaan on the promise of a large financial reward. However, the Storm Troopers come back in numbers and the party just makes it to Solo's ship, the Millennium Falcon, in time to escape.
En route to Alderaan, Kenobi begins instructing Luke on the ways of the Force. Solo is sceptical, but a blindfolded Luke is able to sense the location of an attacker whilst practising with a light saber.
Arriving at Alderaan, or, at least, where Alderaan should be, the crew of the Falcon are surprised to discover it is no longer there except for a hail of debris. They are even more surprised to be hauled aboard a moon sized space station which is the Death Star by a tractor beam. Hiding in the secret smuggling compartments of their ship, they manage to evade personal capture, and decide to attempt to disable the tractor beam holding them there, and in the process discover Leia is being held in a cell nearby. Kenobi volunteers to disable the tractor beams, whilst Luke and Han (with some persuasion) go to rescue Leia.
After switching off the tractor beams, Kenobi encounters Vader, who attacks him. It is clear that they have met before, but not how. Kenobi tells Vader in the clash that "If you strike me down, I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine". When Kenobi sees that he has distracted the guard around the Falcon which allows his friends to board it and his own escape is cut off; he allows himself to be cut down by Vader, only to mysteriously disappear at the fatal instant.
Meanwhile, after various pieces of derring-do Leia, Luke, Han and Chewbacca make their way back to the Falcon, and escape, fighting off Imperial Starfighters, finally reaching the Rebel hideout where they pass the plans on to the Rebel leadership. Unknown to them but suspected by Leia, The Empire allowed them to escape in order to track the ship to the Rebel Base which turns out to be the forest moon of Yavin.
The film then abruptly shifts to a briefing to a group of pilots about the Death Star, and the Rebel plans to attack it by flying along a canyon-size groove in the Death Star's surface, firing a torpedo down a narrow ventilation shaft which will travel down to the reactor and destroy it. Luke is amongst the X-Wing pilots of Red Group - Han, despite Luke's pleadings, decides to leave with his reward.
The rest of the film depicts the attack by the Rebels on the Death Star. Luke and a few others make it down to the canyon, with Darth Vader in an unusual-looking TIE Fighter in pursuit. Instead of using the electronic aiming gear of the others, Luke is advised by the unearthly voice of Kenobi to "use the Force" to aim his torpedoes. With the aid of Solo coming back and attacking Vader's fighter, Luke successfully launches a torpedo down the shaft, destroying the Death Star and striking a huge blow for the Rebellion against the Empire.
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