Star Wars (1977)
(Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope)
Country: US
Technical: col/scope 121m
Director: George Lucas
Cast: Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Harrison Ford, Alec Guinness, Peter Cushing
Synopsis:
In a distant galaxy the legitimate Rebel Alliance struggles against the usurping Imperial forces and is lent invaluable help by an orphaned farm boy, a smuggler, his wookie friend and a pair of 'droids.
Review:
The movie phenomenon of the latter quarter of the twentieth century and - who knows? - the first quarter of this one. Together with Jaws it changed American film production irreversibly: thenceforth Hollywood studios thought only of the big bucks that one picture a year maybe would bring. On the plus side it brought in Dolby Stereo for good and revolutionised special effects, galvanising movement in front of a blue screen so that scenes of space combat had an involving, 'coming at you' quality they had not known before. Less happily, the dialogue and acting are creaky in the extreme (by the second film Lawrence Kasdan had added some class and the principals were less callow). The story is part Western, part fairy tale, an amalgam of everything from Roman history to Arthurian legend, but so artfully disguised by the creation of a new universe that cinemagoers felt they had discovered sliced bread. It is also a supremely slick piece of film narrative, inspired by the Flash Gordon serials (cf. the Death Ray) with Lucas resurrecting more or less obsolete wipes and dissolves and Williams providing a symphonic accompaniment that re-established the format for decades to come. In 1997 Lucas began a process of tampering with the original trilogy, adding alien detail and VFX elements to little overall gain, and altering or removing lines of dialogue and the sound mix.
(Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope)
Country: US
Technical: col/scope 121m
Director: George Lucas
Cast: Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Harrison Ford, Alec Guinness, Peter Cushing
Synopsis:
In a distant galaxy the legitimate Rebel Alliance struggles against the usurping Imperial forces and is lent invaluable help by an orphaned farm boy, a smuggler, his wookie friend and a pair of 'droids.
Review:
The movie phenomenon of the latter quarter of the twentieth century and - who knows? - the first quarter of this one. Together with Jaws it changed American film production irreversibly: thenceforth Hollywood studios thought only of the big bucks that one picture a year maybe would bring. On the plus side it brought in Dolby Stereo for good and revolutionised special effects, galvanising movement in front of a blue screen so that scenes of space combat had an involving, 'coming at you' quality they had not known before. Less happily, the dialogue and acting are creaky in the extreme (by the second film Lawrence Kasdan had added some class and the principals were less callow). The story is part Western, part fairy tale, an amalgam of everything from Roman history to Arthurian legend, but so artfully disguised by the creation of a new universe that cinemagoers felt they had discovered sliced bread. It is also a supremely slick piece of film narrative, inspired by the Flash Gordon serials (cf. the Death Ray) with Lucas resurrecting more or less obsolete wipes and dissolves and Williams providing a symphonic accompaniment that re-established the format for decades to come. In 1997 Lucas began a process of tampering with the original trilogy, adding alien detail and VFX elements to little overall gain, and altering or removing lines of dialogue and the sound mix.
(Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope)
Country: US
Technical: col/scope 121m
Director: George Lucas
Cast: Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Harrison Ford, Alec Guinness, Peter Cushing
Synopsis:
In a distant galaxy the legitimate Rebel Alliance struggles against the usurping Imperial forces and is lent invaluable help by an orphaned farm boy, a smuggler, his wookie friend and a pair of 'droids.
Review:
The movie phenomenon of the latter quarter of the twentieth century and - who knows? - the first quarter of this one. Together with Jaws it changed American film production irreversibly: thenceforth Hollywood studios thought only of the big bucks that one picture a year maybe would bring. On the plus side it brought in Dolby Stereo for good and revolutionised special effects, galvanising movement in front of a blue screen so that scenes of space combat had an involving, 'coming at you' quality they had not known before. Less happily, the dialogue and acting are creaky in the extreme (by the second film Lawrence Kasdan had added some class and the principals were less callow). The story is part Western, part fairy tale, an amalgam of everything from Roman history to Arthurian legend, but so artfully disguised by the creation of a new universe that cinemagoers felt they had discovered sliced bread. It is also a supremely slick piece of film narrative, inspired by the Flash Gordon serials (cf. the Death Ray) with Lucas resurrecting more or less obsolete wipes and dissolves and Williams providing a symphonic accompaniment that re-established the format for decades to come. In 1997 Lucas began a process of tampering with the original trilogy, adding alien detail and VFX elements to little overall gain, and altering or removing lines of dialogue and the sound mix.