I can say without reservation that I enjoyed it better the first time. Not because I came to dislike the first movie, but because I came to like its sequel so much better. I was probably the perfect age to enjoy Star Wars in 1977. As science fiction until that time suffered from cheap special effects (2001: A Space Odyssey excluded, of course), I was blown away by what I saw in that theater. A starscape, a planet, a small spacecraft being fired upon, and then a huge spaceship. Heady stuff for a child at that age.
The plot and characters mad an indelible impression on me, as they did for millions of other kids my age. After having seen too many horrible kiddie matinee movies, Star Wars was instantly my favorite (and remained so until Raiders of the Lost Ark). I still think that Star Wars is one of the finest children's movies ever made. Sure, it contains death and powerful emotions, but I think most children can handle it. Why feed them cinematic pablum when they can digest this meat?
As the plot of Star Wars is almost universally known, I won't waste time and resources by recounting it here. George Lucas does a fine job directing this, his third (and to day, last) feature film. Besides constructing a plot which matches writer Joseph Campbell's studies on "the hero", Lucas also creates a new world, not where technology rules all as in various lame 50's science fiction films, but where machines and robots are merely tools in a workaday existence. He creates villains with identical sinister white faces, and the hero's nemesis, a tremendously tall black figure, whose presence is betrayed by his eerie wheezing. All these creations seem old-hat to us jaded viewers today, but they came out of a fertile imagination, that is certain.
The Anglo-American cast is quite good. A pair of hammy British actors (Alec Guinness and Peter Cushing) as the overseers of good and evil, and a trio of young Americans (Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Harrison Ford) as the scions of good. Ford, one can tell, is destined for stardom, in the easy way he moves around the strange future (Boy, I'm walking out on a limb here, predicting stardom for Harrison Ford in 1997). Fisher is perhaps a bit on the spunky side as the princess (and like Lou Grant, I hate spunk), and Hamill overplays the petulance early on, but criticism fails me. How can I critique icons?
As the main vocal actors, I love James Earl Jones as Darth Vader: he's like a pissed-off Barry White. Anthony Daniels is a bit over-the-top. Was he portraying a robot, or trying out for La Cage aux Folles? Again, however, what is criticism against the most-watched film of all time?
The 1997 special edition adds nothing really special. The new views of Mos Eisley are nice, but rather unnecessary. Myself, I was just glad to see it in the theater again, along with many a younger movie lover.
Three and a half stars
Copyright 1997 by Dale G. Abersold
