Rumour has it that this movie had three different titles, the original one was Blue Harvest, or just Star Wars all by itself. Finally, the agreed title is ‘Star Wars: A New Hope’ written by George Lucas this was released in 1977 and launched a whole new universe for people to love. After having the writing duties Lucas also went on to Direct the movie as well. Produced by Gary Kurtz and the legendary music created by the genius that is John Williams and distributed by 20th Century Fox. It stars iconic names such as Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Peter Cushing, Alec Guinness, David Prowse, James Earl Jones, Anthony Daniels, Kenny Baker and Peter Mayhew. Who all became famous on the back of Star Wars as few of them did much more after this movie. Made on a budget of $11m which for 1977 is none too shabby it went on to recoup $775.8m which then set up the universe for the next two movies. Followed by the prequel trilogy and then the shambles of the last three movies. Lucas sold the rights to Disney for billions, so he has made himself from this franchise. Most importantly it makes an entry in the Tri-Critic Sync Challenge as its not just me and millions of others out there that liked this movie as the critics did too with IMDb giving this movie an 8.6 out of 10 IMDb, followed by a 92% from Rotten Tomatoes, meaning that there is 6-points between us and gets an entry onto the scoreboard and here was I thinking that the top 50 would not get one! Onto the plot, if you need it? Nah didn’t think you would.
During a galactic civil war, the Rebel Alliance have stolen plans for a gigantic planet blower upper gun. The Galactic Empire are none too happy about this and are in pursuit of who they believe have them. Princess Leia of Alderaan’s ship is captured by one of the Empires massive Star Destroyers spaceships. She secretly hides the plans in a R2 droid and sends it off to find a former Jedi Knight called Obi-Wan Kenobi. The droid called R2D2 and its colleague C3PO escape to the planet where Obi-Wan was last seen. Not finding him they are captured and sold to a farmer whose young nephew Luke Skywalker works on the farm. He stumbles onto part of the message hidden in the R2 unit and C3PO translates and says who the message is for. He assumes it might be for Ben or Old Ben as he knows him. Old Ben turns out to be Obi-Wan and convinces Luke to escape the farm and join the rebellion and fight against the most powerful force in the galaxy namely the Empire. They hire a rogue pilot smuggler called Han Solo who’s co pilot is a walking carpet called Chewbacca. When flying around in space they get caught in a tracker beam of a small planet that turns out to be the Death Star Space station which is the giant planet blower upper gun. Using the smuggler elements of the ship they hide onboard and survive the search. Ignoring the fact that they have brought the plans back to the Empire they decide to try and rescue the Princess. So, three men (no baby), two droids and a Wookie go searching a space-station the size of a planet to find and rescue the Princess. What could possibly go wrong?
Nothing! This is arguably the greatest movie ever based on what was to follow. The fanatical following this movie got should be enough to tell you just how good it was. Now do not get me wrong this is a fantastic movie, and it is one of my favourite movies ever. It keeps returning to my screen and I must have seen it at least a three figure number. To the point where I haven’t watched it in years, and I can still make random quotes from it or if it’s on I will watch it and its been on Sky Movies many MANY times. It is a classic its not an 80’s movie but I still love it. It shaped my childhood and I fell in love with the characters and the toys and the posters and the music and anything to do with it. Just like the youngsters of today that I speak to and point out how shit the new ones are. BUT THEY DON’T WANT TO LISTEN!! So, here is my chance read very carefully Disney Star Wars is arse dribble of the highest order. When a movie that is 42 years older than the one released is five hundred times better then you have made some serious mistakes. This movie ruined nearly everyone starring in it careers as most of them did not go on to do much else except for Harrison Ford who made a great film followed by another then another. Mark Hamill went on to be in that other movie. Carrie Fisher on the other hand did do some other movies such as Blues Brothers, The Burbs, When Harry Met Sally, Drop Dead Fred, Scream 3 and Wishful Drinking. Peter Cushing & Alec Guinness were already famous so they can’t count but if you look at the movie roles they had after this movie include Biggles and Top Secret. David Prowse, Anthony Daniels, and Peter Mayhew are all household names because of any other movie? Well no. This all begs the question why the hell is this movie so popular well its because of the combination of all those elements and the length of time between each of the trilogy with each holding a grip of what could possibly happen next. The bombshell of the second movie left on the edge of was it true or not. You just had to wait for the final episode to get the actual truth. OK there are elements that the prequel and sequels have trashed like you are trying to hide a child from its killer psycho father but keeping the same surname as his dad. Good thinking! I won’t get started on the sequels as you might as well go stab the previous movies with a fire axe for what they did for the original movies which is why so many people have turned their backs on those three piles of steaming – wastes of time and return to the one true trilogy which is the original Star Wars trilogy. It had a thread running through the three a story that flowed and left everyone desperate for more. Unfortunately, they got what they wished for. This is the original movie that sparked all that other business including the good, the bad, and the television special. Not mentioning the Caravan of Courage. No, seriously I am not going to mention it. There have been toys, cartoons, tv series, spin off’s here there and everywhere and it all started because George Lucas created this gem. This is why I love this movie this is the original and reason that all of that other business happened love it or not you would have heard of this movie franchise somewhere down the line. It’s taken over the world and fair play to Lucas for making it happen.
Next up is another sci-fi type movie which is labelled as a horror but could be easily pigeonholed as action and adventure. Go read my review and make up your own mind…
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