Star Wars
released 1977
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“Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope” is an American, scifi, adventure, classic that set off the hugely successful franchise of books, movies, comics, digital comics, blog content creators, theme park rides and the list goes on. The `Star Wars´ franchise, as it´s called, is one of the most successful franchises in American Hollywood history in terms of dedicated fans, generated income and artistic impact on the world movie industry. It was produced by Gary Kurtz, Rick McCallum, James Nelson and the great George Lucas who also wrote and directed it. It stars Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Peter Cushing, Alec Guinness, Anthony Daniels, Kenny Baker, Peter Mayhew, David Prowse, Phil Brown, Shelagh Fraser, Jack Purvis, James Earl Jones and many more.

Star Wars website

Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope IMDb webpage

“Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope” is a scifi classic among scifi classics that has aged well and takes place … in a galaxy far, far away, as the story goes. This universe is one embroiled in war and conflict with an empire tightening its hold on the universe it has conquered. The defenders of freedom, called the Jedi Knights, have mostly been exterminated (with the last remnants of them sent into hiding) by the Empire which is ruled by an order known as the Sith. The purge of the Jedi continues with the Sith Lord Darth Vader leading the extermination under the command of the evil Darth Sidious, born Sheev Palpatine. It is in this world that the protagonist Luke Skywalker, played by Mark Hamill, is born into. He is the adopted son of simple farmers on a remote dustball of a world. He longs to leave his planet and ends up not only leaving but getting more than he bargained for with adventure and intergalactic war.

This film has it all, action, adventure, a great story with elements like rescuing a princess, strange aliens, neat robots, cool alien worlds, spaceships, space battles and a very menacing villian. There is also light saber duels. Yes, light saber duels in a film for the first time. Princess Leia Organa, played by Carrie Fisher, is a great princess/ hero and really adds much needed help to the team of heros in their fight against The Empire.

The oh so good villian in “Star Wars” is a Sith Lord called Darth Vader, played by David Prowse with the voice of James Earl Jones, is a sinister, mysterious figure where we only learn more about him and his origins in later films. He is menacing, a very powerful force wielder and the right hand of the very the Emperor of the galaxy. He has, almost single handedly, destroyed The Old Republic and hunted most jedi into exctinction. His weapon of choice is the light saber which he wields with incredible grace and deadliness. Sadly enough though, he is consumed by anger and hatred and it is those emotions that fuel his supernatural drive to exterminate all jedi. We learn in books and later films that Darth Vader was once a jedi who got noticed as a child because he was said to have the highest potential of any jedi who has ever existed. It was that potential that lead him into the hands of envious forces to be control, watched over and eventually turned into the sinister villian that he is known for. That is the sad truth of Darth Vader. Many people have called Darth Vader the best, most frightening villian in the Hollywood pantheon of villians and I think that I agree, if you add Hannibal Lecter from “Silence of the Lambs”.

This movie is the first incredibly successful scifi movie. I’ve talked to people who saw it in theaters and all of them, without exception, went back to see it over and over again, as many as 10 to 15 times. This is before the days of streaming channels and the like when movies could only be seen in theaters. Needless to say, most people only saw movies once. This is the film that started the idea of a blockbuster film. That is to say, a single film that could make most of Hollywood’s profits for the year. The movie industry would settle on a pattern of having several blockbuster films a year but “Star Wars” was successful behind all expectations. The scifi genre was never taken too seriously up until “Star Wars”.

John Ink2Quill

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