STARRING: Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Alec Guinness, Peter Cushing, Peter Mayhew, Anthony Daniels, and that bloke you always see at comic conventions who played third storm trooper from the left. Written and directed by George Lucas, produced by Gary Kurtz, music by John Williams. Budget $11 million. Running time 121 minutes.
Set in a galaxy far, far away, a long time ago. This sees a snot-nosed kid run away from his home with a strange old man, get involved with a drug smuggler, snog his sister and kill tens of thousands of people just so he can win a Jim'll Fix it Badge.
It's the film that changed the shape of cinema for all-time, created a whole new genre, spawned a million knockoffs, and birthed the modern era of special effects. After this cinema would never be the same again. Indeed, it must be considered to be one of the most significant movie ever made. During its life I've both loved and hated it in equal measure. Obviously I'll never get to watch the original un-tinkered version on the big screen again but the last time I saw this, the digital remastered version, was back in 1997.
So, how does it far...
What a delight, simple, well structured and charming. Sure it's slow in comparison to modern films and it's a tad clunky in the plot department, but boy is it special. Trying to remember what it was like first seeing it, and how original it seemed back then. Even with the wretched added CGI extras, which have dated very badly, indeed they've dated worse than the original analogue effects this is still a delight to rewatch. Shame Georgie Boy couldn't leave it alone. That said, boy was this print crisp, you could see every blemish, every bit of sticky back plastic and just how crappy Darth Vader's helmet is.
It's great to see this on the big screen again and to see the likes of Peter Cushing and Alex Guinness acting, what a shame they didn't share a scene. The first arrival of Vader is amazing and what a delight to match the actors line-for-line with the dialogue. The structure is terrific as each of the main characters are introduced, there's a sense of the vastness of the galaxy these people inhabit, but it's also funny to rewatch all those plot holes that he'd have to navigate around in the later instalments. Visually, Star Wars is deeply impressive, big practical sets, or a well done matte painting and little twinkling lights, the hanger and interiors of the Death Star with the Millennium Falcon are amazing. Likewise, clever use of locations hark back to the good old days of the Republic Serials while working to create the notion of alien planets. It's little wonder the world lost its collective mind over it. I can still remember my stunned mind as I staggered out of the Northfields Odeon after watching this for the first time. I lined up with the back of the queue to see it again and watched it three times in its first week of release. Tiny mind. Blown.
All in all, this was great fun, a delight to see it again and roll on the next two Sundays and Empire followed by Jedi.
9/10
No comments:
Post a Comment
All comments, unless they're how to make money working from home, are gratefully received.