Star Wars opens on a claim about distance — “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…” — and then spends 121 minutes closing it. George Lucas wrote and directed the film, his third feature after THX 1138 and American Graffiti. It is the first entry in the Star Wars franchise and the fourth chapter of the “Skywalker Saga.” Twentieth Century-Fox distributed it. Lucasfilm Ltd. produced it. The picture is an adventure, an action film and a science fiction story at once, and it earns all three labels.
Trailer, via Star Wars.
A Princess, Two Droids and a Farm Boy on Tatooine
The plot is a rescue wrapped around a weapon. Rebel Alliance spies have stolen blueprints to the Death Star, a colossal space station the Galactic Empire built that can destroy entire planets. Princess Leia Organa of Alderaan, secretly a rebel leader, has the schematics. Darth Vader’s forces intercept and board her ship. Leia is taken prisoner.
The droids R2-D2 and C-3PO escape with the plans and crash-land on the desert planet Tatooine. Jawa traders capture them and sell them to moisture farmers Owen and Beru Lars and their nephew, Luke Skywalker.
While cleaning R2-D2, Luke finds a recording of Leia asking a former ally, Obi-Wan Kenobi, for help. R2-D2 runs off. Searching for him, Luke is attacked by Sand People and rescued by the elderly hermit Ben Kenobi, who reveals himself as Obi-Wan.
Obi-Wan Kenobi and the Force
Obi-Wan tells Luke about his past as one of the Jedi Knights, peacekeepers of the former Galactic Republic who drew mystical abilities from the Force, an energy field connecting all living beings. The Empire all but exterminated the Jedi.
Luke’s father was a Jedi too. He and Obi-Wan fought side by side in the Clone Wars. Then Vader, who had been Obi-Wan’s own student, went over to the dark side of the Force and killed him.
Obi-Wan hands Luke the lightsaber that belonged to his father — the weapon that marks a Jedi. R2-D2 plays Leia’s full message: she begs Obi-Wan to take the Death Star plans to Alderaan and give them to her father, a fellow veteran, for analysis. Luke first declines to go. He changes his mind quickly.
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…
Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher
Lucas cast relative unknowns in the leads, and the choice holds up. Mark Hamill plays Luke Skywalker, a young adult raised by his aunt and uncle on Tatooine who dreams of more than his current life. Carrie Fisher plays Princess Leia Organa, princess of Alderaan, member of the Imperial Senate and a leader of the Rebel Alliance. Harrison Ford is Han Solo, a smuggler and captain of the Millennium Falcon.
Lucas initially resisted Ford. Ford had worked with Lucas on American Graffiti, so he was not unknown, and Lucas asked him to read lines with other actors during auditions instead. Ford won him over. The result is the film’s best piece of casting.
Alec Guinness plays Obi-Wan “Ben” Kenobi, the aging Jedi Master who introduces Luke to the Force. Peter Cushing is Grand Moff Tarkin, commander of the Death Star. Anthony Daniels plays the humanoid protocol droid See Threepio, C-3PO. Kenny Baker plays the astromech droid Artoo Detoo, R2-D2. Peter Mayhew is Chewbacca, Han’s Wookiee friend and co-pilot of the Millennium Falcon.
David Prowse performs Darth Vader; James Earl Jones supplies the voice, uncredited. Phil Brown and Shelagh Fraser appear as Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru. Jack Purvis plays the Chief Jawa.
The Death Star, the Falcon and the Trench
The supporting cast fills out two factions. Alex McCrindle is General Dodonna and Eddie Byrne is General Willard among the rebel leaders. Don Henderson plays General Taggi, Richard LeParmentier is Admiral Motti and Leslie Schofield is Commander #1 on the Imperial side.
The rebel pilots carry much of the final act: Drewe Henley as Red Leader, Denis Lawson as Red Two/Wedge, Garrick Hagon as Red Three/Biggs, Jack Klaff as Red Four/John “D”, William Hootkins as Red Six/Porkins, Angus MacInnes as Gold Leader, Jeremy Sinden as Gold Two and Graham Ashley as Gold Five. Paul Blake and Maria De Aragon appear uncredited as the bounty hunter Greedo. Alfie Curtis is the outlaw who confronts Luke in the cantina.
Lucas formed the visual effects company Industrial Light & Magic to build the film’s effects. Principal photography began in March 1976 in Tunisia and at Elstree Studios in Hertfordshire, England, after numerous rewrites. The production had real difficulties, and the cast and crew bore them.
What Star Wars Gets Right
The world-building is the achievement. Tatooine, the cantina, the Death Star trench — each is a place with rules, and the film never stops to explain them. The Force arrives as a metaphysical power and stays metaphysical. Nobody measures it.
The droids are the smartest decision in the script. R2-D2 and C-3PO carry the stolen plans, the comedy and the continuity between the desert and the station. They are also the only characters who never change sides or waver.
Ford’s Han Solo is the film’s engine. He is a smuggler, and the film lets him be one. The picture does not sand him down into a hero on schedule.
The weakness is pacing in the middle. The rescue machinery takes time to assemble, and the film spends it on exposition about the Jedi, the Republic and the Clone Wars that it delivers in conversation rather than action. It is necessary. It is also the slowest stretch.
The Verdict on Star Wars
Star Wars is an adventure film that behaves like a serial and a science fiction film that behaves like a myth. Lucas wrote it, directed it and built the effects house to finish it. That combination — writer, director and effects infrastructure in one person’s hands — is why the film looks like nothing else from 1977 and why the franchise exists at all.
The film’s reputation rests on things that are hard to fake: the design of the droids, the weight of the lightsaber as an object, the decision to cast Guinness as the man who explains the Force. Those choices are load-bearing. They are also the reason later films in the series keep returning to this one.
What matters most is the restraint. The film shows the Empire destroying a planet and does not linger. It shows Vader and does not explain him. It gives Luke a father’s lightsaber and a dead father and lets both sit. That withholding is the film’s real effect, and it is why the ending lands as a victory rather than a conclusion.
The noise around Star Wars is the merchandise, the sequels and the retitling to Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope. The signal is the 121 minutes themselves: a rescue, a weapon, a farm boy and an energy field. This is the part worth watching, and it still holds.
KEY FACTS
– Release year: 1977
– Director and writer: George Lucas
– Runtime: 121 minutes
– Distributor: Twentieth Century-Fox
– Production company: Lucasfilm Ltd.
– Principal photography began: March 1976
– Locations: Tunisia; Elstree Studios, Hertfordshire, England
– Score: 8.2 of 10
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