A Film that hasn't dated in terms of style and more remarkably; modernity. Still compelling when watched now.

Rating: 7/10 (2 November 2007)

Some frown upon Star Wars, labelling it a fad and being equally unkind to that of its fans. Others praise Star Wars, living by it and its ideas that it garnished to do with 'The Force'. I never had any hostility towards Star Wars but I did toward the genre. Science Fiction has never been my favourite genre of film and likewise, blockbusters usually leave me underwhelmed and confused more often than not. The fact that Star Wars compelled me, kept me interested and above all entertained me then, is a fantastic achievement in itself.
I just mentioned the word 'compelling' because that's exactly what the film is. Star Wars may be look upon as a 'fad.' or just one of those things where someone has come up with an idea that no one else has done before and then got rich off it through money and fans (Tarantino's Pulp Fiction may be a good recent example) but Star Wars is something more than that; it's a lesson in good and engaging story telling, interesting characters and fantastic settings. I remember seeing the recent prequels several months ago because they were available to me with the logic that if I watch Star Wars in chronological order, maybe I'll like the more critically bashed recent efforts more. Alas, Episode 1 was pretty good in my opinion but the second and third episodes stunk in terms of story telling, good characters and general interest. Seeing Star Wars now, I have come to really appreciate and acknowledge what this must've been when it first came out, what it must have been like to see something like this and be a part of it.
It is clear Lucas had an idea in his head from the beginning which gives you an idea of the scope of his vision. There are numerous references to the previous episodes in the opening half an hour and it must've been both perplexing and fascinating for filmgoers to predict what it all meant at the time  I felt spoilt watching and knowing what it all meant with audiences from 1977 in mind not knowing at all - when was the last time I felt spoilt during a film? This is all part of Star Wars' effectiveness. Whilst I don't think Lucas has achieved auteur status, I feel that his accomplishment as a filmmaker is more that cemented. Lucas has come up with these various types of alien species; he's shown us brief glimpses of them throughout the film, leaving us wanting more; he's given us the special effects that we want to see more and more of and he's taken everything to do with modernity of the time and contaminated it on screen with robots, laserguns and the now famous space Katanas (lightsabres to most people).
But the films scope doesn't stop there. It presents us with one of the best character introductions of all time: Han Solo (Ford), a guy sitting in the seediest of bars in the galaxy where shootings and dismemberment is a common thing, talking crime and money with equally seedy people before blowing one of them away when he learns of his death's price. Although remaining professional and giving us an entertaining scene, the film tells us everything we need to know about a character without use of voiceovers or flash-backs or even silly special effects as someone does something truly unbelievable in a dumb attempt to 'woo' an audience. Here, it's just feet up, cool banter, find out about the price on your head and 'Blam!'; job done. The film also achieves its cult status through use of futuristic scope. Man had landed on the moon a mere eight years ago and in the same vein as 2001: A Space Odyssey, Star Wars throws everything on screen to do with technology and yet remains undated: space, space crafts, lasers, robots; things that are around now and are at a much more advanced level and yet remain in Star Wars as fresh and entertaining as they ever did, have I mentioned 'compelling' yet? Lucas shows us he can deal with the more serious sides of story telling: a brief flirtation with a love story and the personification of evil through the 'dark side' and its similarities with the Nazis of the second world war. The way the guards dress inside the death star, the way storm troopers guard certain areas on certain planets, the use of an 'empire' in a film and the way the dogfights resemble Spitfire vs. Messerschmitt battles during the Battle of Britain. The film also knows how to keep us in suspense; there are some scenes when Skywalker (Hamill) and Solo are disguised as stormtroopers, where they face being crushed, where Skywalker has to make an important shot aboard his fighter plane, when a door is slowly opening behind them and certain death awaits  the editing and story telling make us involved and if you can zone yourself out enough, make it unpredictable; yes, unpredictable I said it.
There is no reason not to identify the mediocre flaws the film has such as the may the dogfight at the end is edited in that dated sort of a way, nor can you ignore the fact any other Allied space ship being destroyed during the final fight is insignificant as we don't know who's in them and we don't care; I also didn't like the way the ships seemed to 'scream' past and the excessive beeping R2D2 kept making. These things aside, the film is still a 'blockbuster' and firmly cemented the legacy that summer films now have  next time you watch a blockbuster that's guaranteed to rake in cash thanks to your favourite stars and characters, spare a thought for little known Lucas and co. whose Star Wars wasn't expected to do well and yet took the time to entertain and remained smart at the same time.