REVIEW:
The best Star Wars movie ever made is also the very first. This is the only movie that doesn’t feel like it has an agenda or a secret plan that extends past one film. Which is to say that it is a complete movie and a complete story from start to finish (unlike Empire which leaves us hanging on a cliffhanger, or Jedi which begins as a continuation from that cliffhanger.) But this original Star Wars film is fresh, creative, and complete, from start to finish.
It’s also incredibly unique. Not just because of its elaborate sci-fi details in creating a whole complex world, but also in its storytelling approach. You see, we don’t even meet the movie’s protagonists until a solid-ways into the film. And in the first part of the movie, the protagonists keep changing. We don’t follow Luke Skywalker, or even meet him for a while, but instead, stay with two robots (called droids.) We follow R2D2 and C3PO, from a spaceship that they escape off of, when under attack. After that, we head down to a planet with them, and then continue on their adventures, as they get captured and then sold off.
It is Luke who they are sold to, as he looks to buy robots to support his Uncle’s farm. That means we only meet Luke because these two droids bring the story to him. Changing protagonists like that is a gutsy move and one that calls to mind what the great Alfred Hitchcock did with Psycho, killing off his protagonist, Marion Crane, halfway into the movie. Here, it is just one example of what makes Star Wars so special… the way the story constantly stays ahead of the audience.
The beauty of this movie, and of this story is how the mission keeps changing and evolving. It all feels very natural, as opposed to one macguffin (an object,) just leading to another one that the characters need to find (like what ironically happened in the ninth and final Skywalker Saga film… the Rise of Skywalker.) So, for example, the first mission here in A New Hope, is to find Obi Wan Kenobi and deliver a message to him, that we see part of. Once they find him, the full message is played, and it is accompanied by secret plans which need to be delivered to a specific person. In this way, a new mission is established, but at the same time it is organically a continuation of the last one.
Not only does the mission continue to change, but so does the entire focus and surroundings of the characters. And like clockwork it happens every thirty minutes or so. That means the first mission of the movie is to find Obi Wan Kenobi, and by thirty minutes in, Luke has found him. At that point the new mission becomes about getting the Death Star plans (hidden inside R2D2 just like this message to Obi Wan was,) to Princess Leia’s father, on a planet called Aldoran. Which means Luke and Obi Wan need to find a pilot who can take them there. Enter Han Solo.
By the end of the first hour, they have found and struck a deal with Solo, and are all set to fly to Aldoran to deliver the plans. That’s when we get hit with the biggest twist in the movie. The Empire destroys Aldoran. Right in front of us, they decide to blow up the entire planet. Suddenly, we are an hour in, halfway through the movie, and it seems like the entire mission is thrown out the window. Talk about keeping the audience on their toes.
Now, throughout all this time, we have really been watching two stories. There’s the main story about Luke Skywalker and the robots and the message, and then there’s a secondary story about Princess Leia who was kidnapped at the start of the film. We keep cutting back to her, and her interactions with Darth Vader, throughout the movie. Only they are really part of the same story, since Leia started it all with her message, that was passed on to the robots and then passed on to Luke. And that singular story then split into two paths, of which we have been following both. Well, now it’s time for the two paths to come together, as one.
And once again, this all happens organically. You see, it is because the Millennium Falcon, (the ship that Luke and Han are on,) was trying to get to Aldoran and Aldoran was just blown up by the Death Star, that the Death Star ends up being so close. The Falcon travels to where Aldoran was, only to find the Death Star sitting there. And that leads to the third part of the film, where the Falcon gets taken in by the Death Star, and our heroes roam around on board, trying to rescue the Princess. It’s probably the best thirty minutes of the movie, where our three heroes come together for the very first time. It also includes the first and only light saber fight in the movie, between Darth Vader and Obi Wan.
At the end of the hour and a half mark, our heroes have escaped the Death Star, and have brought the plans to the rebel base, where they are gearing up for a final climactic attack. Another movie might have been over by now, with the accomplished missions being that the heroes rescued the Princess, and escaped the enemy base. A New Hope has even more up its sleeve. Once again we have a new mission, and it’s the biggest and most exciting yet. This time the mission is to blow up the Death Star. Considering the way the final thirty minutes starts with the plotting of how to do this, and ends with accomplishing the mission, it’s as if these last thirty minutes are almost like their own self-contained movie.
At the same time, there’s another way of looking at it, and instead of viewing this path like there have been four different missions, simply looking at them as one singular mission carried out through the entire movie. The four missions approach is 1) get this message to Obi Wan, 2) find a pilot who can take these plans to Leia’s father on Aldoran, 3) Rescue the Princess and escape being held by the Death Star, and 4) destroy the Death Star. The singular mission angle looks at the entire movie as an attempt to destroy the Death Star, starting with a message which is about the blueprints or plans that can destroy the giant space station. In that sense, we follow the plans and the message about the plans, through the entire movie, until eventually they are used to blow up the enemy base.
The final thirty minutes are a thrilling dogfight sequence. Luke pilots his own spaceship for the very first time in the movie, which is really his second hero moment. If Luke’s story is told in three parts, then the first one is him before the mission, and the circumstances that would enable him to accept it. There’s no doubt, for example, that if his Aunt and Uncle were not murdered (we see their burnt corpses lying on the ground,) Luke would not have gone with Obi Wan. Luke even tells Obi Wan as such, saying he can’t go because his Uncle Owen needs his help on the farm. The second part of Luke’s hero story is the whole middle part of the movie, where the torch is essentially passed from Obi Wan to him (and literally passed, in the form of a light saber as well.) Luke gets his big hero moment here, in the second part, when he and Leia swing across a giant pit on the Death Star. Then, in the third part of the movie, Luke destroys the Death Star with a little help from his friends. Well, friend. Han Solo. He does this by turning off his sight-visor to isolate his senses and allow him to fully concentrate on using the force. It’s a fantastic ending to an overall truly excellent film.
A New Hope is special for a whole bunch of reasons. One is the way that it switches protagonists in its first act, starting with us following a pair of droids through multiple scenes, all the way until they cross paths with the real protagonist of the movie, Luke Skywalker, Another clever tactic is the way there are actually four different missions here, each one occupying about thirty minutes of the film, and each one evolving, or leading to the next. A third way this movie is special is by ending one of the missions with an unexpected surprise that makes it impossible to accomplish. Specifically I’m talking about the third mission… to deliver the plans to Aldoran. Everything seems to be on course to accomplish this mission, including having found a pilot who will take them there, and being on the way, and then suddenly Aldoran is destroyed… blown to bits. And we are left with a “what now?” feeling. The mission is blown up before our eyes, leaving the audience with no idea of what will happen next. And that’s what is really most fantastic about the movie. The way it stays ahead of the audience at all times, and constantly keeps the audience on their toes. What a truly smart, creative, and remarkable film.