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Star Wars as it was originally called is a film that I didn't really grow up with like I did the other five films in the series. I think that might have been because I found it quite cheesy compared to the others but I still really liked it. During my teen years, I re-watched it again and loved it and appreciated it a lot more. This might sound a bit weird but I have only watched this Star Wars film about 3 times whereas I have watched the others about 20-30 times! This is the one film that defined a generation and was the first film from the first blockbuster franchise so therefore this changed cinema forever and I guess one could say that this was the dawning of the word 'geek' which did lead to geeky science fiction franchises Star Trek and Doctor Who (that came before Star Wars but Doctor Who became more geeky after the release of Star Wars.
Set "a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away", the film follows a group of freedom fighters known as the Rebel Alliance as they plot to destroy the powerful Death Star space station, a devastating weapon created by the evil Galactic Empire. This conflict disrupts the isolated life of farm-boy Luke Skywalker when he inadvertently acquires the droids carrying the stolen plans to the Death Star. After the Empire begins a cruel and destructive search for the droids, Skywalker decides to accompany Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi on a daring mission to rescue the owner of the droids, rebel leader Princess Leia Organa, and save the galaxy.
The acting from the entire cast was really good. After recently thinking about it, Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker is perhaps what Elijah Wood was like in The Lord Of The Rings trilogy: very good acting and made the character realistic but slightly lacked the emotion and pain they feel in the trilogies. A New Hope and Fellowship Of The Ring do, in a lot of ways, have similarities. Harrison Ford as Han Solo was just amazing! For me, he is the true hero of the original trilogy over Luke because he has a stronger personality; I like the chemistry he has with Leia, with Chewbacca, with Obi-Wan 'Ben' Kenobi and even with C-3PO. Carrie Fisher is obviously gorgeous as Princess Leia and we learn more about her as a woman not just a princess in Episode V and Episode VI. Sir Alec Guinness reportedly hated working on this film so much that he threw away all Star Wars-related fan mail without even reading it. To be fair, I can understand where he's coming from. He has won Oscars and done really well for himself in the past and the fact people will know him best for a sci-fi film? Despite it is Star Wars, fair play to him, to be honest. I appreciate his acting in this film despite he hated it so much because he still tried his best and still gave us an incredible performance. He was nominated for the Best Supporting Actor Oscar (he probably would've rejected it if he won it) so gotta give him credit doing well in something he hated.
George Lucas earned good acclaim earlier in this career before Star Wars when he made American Graffiti which is something totally different. I guess, one could say that Lucas merged the Star Wars series like the earlier days of Doctor Who mixed with Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. This was at the start just an ordinary science fiction film but when Empire Strikes Back was released, it became a franchise with raw emotion and moments of tear-jerking and shocking twists and turns (hence why that is my favourite Star Wars film and perhaps the most famous) and showed that it is quite a personal franchise. The script was quite cheesy at times but I think he did do a good job writing it but its too bad that George didn't direct or write the prequels (specifically The Phantom Menace and Attack Of The Clones very good) like he did with the original trilogy and Revenge Of The Sith.
Overall, Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope is an absolutely amazing classic that became the start of such a legendary franchise. Prefer Empire Strikes Back, Return Of The Jedi and Revenge Of The Sith over this but better than Phantom Menace and DEFINITELY better than Attack Of The Clones. George, you have created a landmark of cinema but Episode I and Episode II should have been like this.
