With full confidence, I can now point to the exact moment I became a movie nerd. As Star Wars’ famed opening crawl faded into the star field, and two warships dueled above the sand swirls of a distant planet, I was hooked. I fell in love with movies, science fiction, and fantasy, all in the span of one scene. It activated my imagination in a way no movie has done before or since.
Of course, I was not alone in my awestruck nerd glory. Star Wars has endured as a socio-cultural landmark, inspiring countless prequels, sequels, tropes, and rip-offs. I can’t imagine my life without it, but I also can’t imagine what the world would be like without Star Wars. The true impact of George Lucas’ magnum opus could be the subject of entire film school semesters, or an epic master’s thesis. All I can say here is that its influence must be geometric and ever-expanding.
Brush aside that cultural significance, and you can burrow down into an inevitable truth: Star Wars is just a movie. And a really good movie, at that. It’s ambitiously epic in scope, with nimble performances and thrilling special effects. The space battles are brilliant for their time, and Lucas presents them with the intensity and sweep of an intergalactic Guadalcanal. John Williams’ score becomes a supporting character in of itself, with big, brassy motifs bursting from the speakers.
Within that simple movie lives an achingly simple plot: Long again in a distant galaxy, the cruel, repressive Empire has brought hundreds of planets to heel. Among the Empire’s leaders is Darth Vader (body by David Prowse, voice of James Earl Jones), a terrifying cyborg distinguished by his shiny suit of black armor and relentless mechanical breathing. Vader storms through the movie with the fury of a cosmic fascist, crushing enemies with his bare hands or attacking them with his blood-red lightsaber.
As the glow of freedom dims throughout the galaxy, an organized rebellion begins. One of its fiercest champions is Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher). Turns out, the Empire has a built a planet-killing weapon, the Death Star. As the film opens, young Leia has stolen the schematics to beat the Death Star. Before she gets captured by Vader, the Princess hides the blueprints in R2-D2 (Kenny Baker), her plucky droid companion. She sends the droid down to the desert planet of Tatooine and becomes Vader’s prisoner.
On Tatooine, R2 eventually falls into the hands of Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), a teenaged farm boy. Cocky, callow, and earnest, Luke desperately wants to break away from his moisture farm and get a taste for galactic adventure. Of course, his strict Uncle Owen (Phil Brown) insists that Luke stay and work the fields. “He has too much of his father in him,” Luke’s Aunt Beru (Shelagh Fraser) notes ominously.
Luke cleans up R2 and C-3PO (Anthony Daniels), Leia’s jabbering, high-strung interpreter droid. In the process, he discovers a hidden message: The droids are the property of Obi-Wan Kenobi, a wizened Jedi Knight rumored to be living on Tatooine. Luke suspects this person might actually be Ben Kenobi (Alec Guinness) an eccentric hermit who lives nearby. With that, Luke strikes out to solve the mysteries of R2’s message and its intended recipient.
When Luke finally meets Kenobi, the old man has conveniently bundled a sales pitch of everything the boy wants to hear: Not only is Luke destined for a life of adventure and purpose, but his father was Anakin Skywalker, a powerful Jedi Knight. The Jedi were a monastic order of intergalactic badasses with a special connection to the Force. The Force is a mystical energy field that surrounds every living thing and–
Wait, did I say this plot was simple? Holy shit, let me walk back that statement. A New Hope might a have a straightforward story, but there’s a lot of content packed into it. If this was a standalone movie, that wouldn’t matter so much, but so much of this movie sets up payoffs in later movies. (The Death Star’s design flaw inspires an entire spinoff movie, Star Wars: Rogue One.)
With that in mind, let’s TL:DR the rest of this. Kenobi engages Luke on the epic quest of a lifetime: They must rescue Princess Leia from the vile clutches of Darth Vader, Kenobi’s former apprentice. After that, they can safely put the Death Star schematics into the proper hands. As a cherry on top, Kenobi can train Luke to master the Force and become a Jedi Knight like his father.
This quest will take them to Han Solo (Harrison Ford), a cocky young smuggler. Solo is the captain of the Millennium Falcon, a plucky little ship with a deceptive punch of stealth and speed. With his first mate Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew)–who looks like a Yeti and howls like a walrus–Solo promises to deliver Kenobi and company to their destination…for the right price. Turns out, Solo has more hero to him than anyone thought possible.
Needless to say, Star Wars sets up a sweeping mythology. Despite its self-contained storyline, Lucas also leaves many arcs open-ended, betting big that this movie would become a franchise. As with most classic movies, it will take multiple viewings to process all the content here.
Beyond its world-building, there’s much to enjoy. Ford is note-perfect as the smirking, swaggering Han Solo. Guinness strikes the right balance between greatness and grouchiness. And then there’s Jones, whose thundering baritone would become the stuff of nightmares for an entire generation.
Star Wars also gives us an iconic look and feel. Even people who’ve never seen the movie can identify Leia’s cinnamon bun hairdo or Vader’s flowing black cape. That goes ditto for John Williams’ score, which delivers at least three motifs you can never unhear: “The Rebel Fanfare,” “The Theme of the Force,” and “Princess Leia’s Theme.” Williams would win five Oscars in his life, but this might be his finest hour. Underneath the music, Ben Burtt’s sound design was so incredible, they went ahead and gave him two Oscars for it. With this film, Burtt invented the sounds we now take for granted, including blasters, lightsabers, Wookie growls, and the Stuka howl of the TIE fighters.
But I can’t give Star Wars all the hype it deserves. It’s only a movie…until I start trying to describe it. In that moment, I always become a little kid again, blown away by the space battles and saber duels. It’s impossible the be objective. I’ll give this movie five stars, only because I can’t give it six.
121 min. PG. Disney+.
