Review: Star Wars Episode IV - A New Hope

So now that I'm done with the prequels it's time to go back to the beginning with Episode 4. Fuck sake that's annoying. Any way back when the saga was just a single film with no or at least little reason for a sequel never mind 8 of them Star Wars gives a simple but memorable tale of good VS evil in a Galaxy far, far away and the rest is history.

So yeah this is the simplest of the Star Wars stories but after the Trade Federations and Tax Embargos of the first three I'm more than happy with simple. It's a story that works on a number of levels, it's good VS evil as stated above, it's the journey of a young man into adulthood and discovering there's more to him than first expected, it's a story that takes that simple, familiar narrative and puts it into a unique setting and builds up the world around it, focussing on the places and the characters rather than a complex narrative.

The story - as if you don't know - goes as such, Princess Leia, a prominent member of the Rebel Alliance is captured by Lord Vader, a commander of the dark and oppressive Galactic Empire, before her capture she sends the plans to the Empire's main space station, a super weapon called The Death Star, hidden inside a small robot called R2-D2 and jettison him, along with his friend C3PO, off the captured ship to look for a friend of her father's called Obi-Wan Kenobi.

R2 and C3PO land on the desert surface of Tatooine and after some slight trouble they are bought by farmer Luke Skywalker and his aunt and uncle, hearing of R2's quest to find Obi-Wan he takes them to see Ben Kenobi, an old hermit who it turns out is Obi-Wan, a Jedi Knight who fought in a Galactic War many, many years earlier alongside Luke's father. Sensing the importance and the danger of their mission Obi-Wan asks Luke to come along with him and learn the ways of the force, Luke is reluctant but after his aunt and uncle are killed by the Empire he joins Obi-Wan. Picking up a space pilot called Han Solo and his partner, a walking carpet called Chewbacca, the group head off on their quest to save the princess and defeat evil.

See simple stuff, but it works because of how Lucas tells the story, letting the visuals and the world be shown as much as the plot and characters, it's an effective technique and the stories, both defeating the Empire and Luke's personal journey, are engaging enough to keep us interested.

The characters are well developed and its easy to see why they are iconic, yes they fit into the typical types of Hero, Princess, Rouge, Villain, etc but it's what they do with those types and how they are shown that make the difference.

Luke, played by Mark Hamill, is the main character and the one that goes through the biggest change, he's essentially a teenager on the brink of adulthood (his true age is never fully revelled) and wants to go out and see the Galaxy, join the rebellion and fight for good, however he's too headstrong, he wants to go diving into the adventure and it isn't until Obi-Wan slows him down and teaches him about control and about learning the force that Luke starts to become more than just the farm-boy. What's great is that we spend a good amount of time with look, following through his frustrations, his anger and then into his joy and his friendship, it's shown to us and we're able to connect with him more as opposed to the characters just saying 'this happened, you like this guy'.

That was a dig at the prequels, there may be a few of these.

Alec Guinness takes on Obi-Wan and creates the wise, old sage character, his knowledge of the world and how it is effected by the force makes him a great teacher and father-figure to Luke, he leads him with a kind hand, keeping patience with the boy, after watching the prequels there's a sense that Obi-Wan blamed himself for pushing Anakin to the dark side so he took a much gentler approach to teaching Luke because he saw what the opposite did to his father.

Harrison Ford plays Han 'I Fuckin Shot First' Solo and takes to the character with ease, he's a rogue, a bit arrogant, a bit cocky, a bit of a dick at times but he sticks with Luke, he says for the money but there's more to it than that. He has honour but it's his own honour, he'll kill to stay ahead of the game but he doesn't go around blaster crazy, he's a good man with an edge. His friendship with Luke takes time to build up, it isn't instantaneous and we watch the relationship between them build and grow alongside the main storyline.

Princess Leia, played by Carrie Fisher, gets probably the least work to do but she's still great in the role, a leader to her people her importance is never overstated and she puts the plans of the Rebellion above all else, even her own life. But she's not some emotionless tough chick, when her home planet is threatened she shows fear, weakness, emotions that bring more to the character and develop her as a character and as fair and friendly leader of the Rebellion.

Finally there was Darth Vader, the dark lord of the Empire. Despite only 12 minutes of screen-time Vader's impact is felt through his menacing, sinister outfit and his deep, booming voice. He's a ruthless villain, willing to go to any means to get what he wants and most of the time he's willing to do the deed himself. However he's also a keen tactician, his ability to use the Force - a practise thought ridiculous by his comrades - allows him to tap into hidden areas and plan accordingly. He's a solid villain and memorable through his actions as well as his appearance.

Regardless of how good the cast are - and they are pretty great - this is Lucas' show, he creates this world, he builds it up and he brings it to life. Of course this was the days before CGI made everything easier so Lucas had to use physical objects to get, not necessarily the best job but the best he could which at times was quite stocky, quite stiff but it worked perfectly, it gave the universe a bigger feel, less of the sleek nature of traditional sci-fi and a more used, rusty, lived in setting, it made the world actually look and feel real. It's the biggest compliment I can give and especially after watching the Prequels and seeing how taking the easy route led to a lot of disconnection, this se of practical FX, puppetry, stop-motion, everything together, working hard to make it as real as they could get make places like Tatooine feel like a deserted wasteland, like the Mos Eisley bar the most wretched hive of scum and villain, the Death Star brims with evil with it's cold, clean appearance while the Millennium Falcon is homely and cool in it's dirty, rugged, junk-like state. A bit like its owner.

Still keeping that mind-set of low-cost, high-value, the film boasts a good number of action moments that carry a lot of weight with them, partly cause we're following people we actually care about now but mostly because of what Lucas is able to squeeze out of his limited resources. The space battles are usually short, sweet, focussing more on the characters and camera work to create tension instead of fancy tricks out in space, fire-fights are more used with reaction shots, often being quite messy because Luke and the group aren't trained soldier and the stormtroopers... well they're stormtroopers. It's this reason why the Obi-Wan/Vader light-sabre duel isn't a fancy, jumping around battle but it works all the better because this are two old men, both having lost their better days, fighting not out of anger or hate but out of their history, their lost friendship and the knowing that one of them was always going to be the death of the other. Obi-Wan killed Anakin a long time ago and now Vader has returned and killed Obi-Wan.

This all culminates in the final assault on the Death Star, a well-shot sequence using a combination of miniatures, models, and camera tricks to create this all-out battle behind enemy lines, tension created through the impossible odds and the limited time, excitement through the fast-pacing and swooping shots of the Death Star trench and the ships, both X-Wings and TIE Fighters, zipping around or at least given the illusion of zipping.

Star Wars might have aged slightly but it has a timeless quality and the hard-work put into not-all-that-perfect effects creates a far more realistic and preferably environment to an easy computer job. The story is simple but done in a way that engages and interests the audience, the characters diverse and iconic in their performances and the whole thing just confirms why it's one of the most respected and influential films of all time. A definite must-see, even on its own with its self-contained storyline.

8/10