THE ORIGINAL AND BEST

Rating: Null/10 (18 January 2002)

There is a force present in the first film of this saga that is absent in the others- humour. A New Hope is a film made in the tradition of the greatest 70s' films- casual, leisurely and stylish. Note the scene when Han Solo is disguised as a Storm Trooper, and when contacted by one of the security guards over something resembling a transmitter, Solo says- situation is great, everything is fine, I'm fine thankyou. How are you?' The security guard replies- who the hell is this?' Solo blows up the transmitter, then concludes in the subtlest of ways (to himself) boring conversation anyway'. An obviousley improvised scene (and who'd have thought that in an episode of the Star Wars saga?) there are no moments of this spontaniety in the other films. Its' with this humour, a subtle level of camp, and the sense of Joi De Vivre you get from witnessing something truelly spectacular unfolding before your eyes with the perfect sensibility of avoiding over ambition that makes this easily the best film of the saga. The characterisation is clearly spot on (Han solo is easily way cooler here than in the other episodes) and there is not a dull moment in sight. It's easy to see why this makes everyone's top ten lists of greatest films of all time 10/10.