What's left to say?

Rating: 10/10 (28 June 2005)

It seems that the honoring of George Lucas with the Lifetime Achievement Award could not have come at a better time for the visionary and imaginative filmmaker. With "Episode III" still raking in sold-out crowds six weeks after its release, Lucas is pretty much on top of the world. But what about the film that started it all, "Star Wars" (1977)? What's left to say about it? Every good thing that has and can be said about it has been said already, ever since it debuted in the summer of '77 and changed the way we looked at movies, and the way people made them. "Star Wars" is sheer imagination run amok, taking place a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, with farmboy Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) discovering the two droids C-3PO and R2-D2, the latter droid of which contains a holographic image of a distress call from Princess Leia Organa (Carrie Fisher). The Princess is being held captive by Grand Moff Tarkin (Peter Cushing) and his fearsome military commander Darth Vader (played by David Prowse and voiced by James Earl Jones), the dark lord of the Sith, on the newly constructed Death Star battle station. Skywalker, taking advantage of an opportunity to leave behind boring farm life, seeks out the mysterious Obi Wan Kenobi (the late Alec Guiness, in an Oscar-nominated performance) and the two journey to a Mos Eisley watering hole to enlist the aid of swashbuckling space pirate Han Solo (Harrison Ford), pilot of the Millennium Falcon, and his Wookie sidekick Chewbacca - their adventures resulting in them joining the Rebel Alliance - culminating in one of the greatest screen battles, which is the Rebel assault on the Death Star at the film's climatic conclusion. Lucas brought forth this ambitious vision to stunning reviews and a devoted fanbase that has established "Star Wars" as a subculture within pop culture. It's impossible to call this film dated in any fashion, given that Lucas often had to resort to imagination to get things done on this project since budget constraints allowed for such creativity. When I saw "Star Wars" for the first time when I was kid, it took my breath away, as I'm sure it did to everyone else that saw it for the first time. That initial viewing sticks with you, and as a result the film never looses its impact. "Star Wars" was of course followed by the somber "The Empire Strikes Back" (1980) and the triumphant "Return of the Jedi" (1983), both of which are also considered classics in themselves. And with the prequel trilogy (1999's "The Phantom Menace," 2002's "Attack of the Clones," the aforementioned 2005 conclusion "Revenge of the Sith") out of the way, there is word out that Lucas isn't done with "Star Wars," and may be looking to start a new trilogy. But with all this, we still need to look back at the film that started it all, the film with nothing left to talk about, the original "Star Wars" (1977).
10/10