A long time ago...

Rating: 8/10 (7 June 2003)

"Star Wars" has been blamed for most of the evils of the last 25 years of cinema, and probably rightly. But no-one who saw this film on first release aged seven could possibly give it a bad review. It's a simple tale of good-versus-evil, but there's still so much for even the most cynical and cultured of viewers to enjoy: the rousing music, the 70s haircuts, the skillful use of the Tunisian desert (completely convincing as another world) and of course, the stunningly composed opening scene where the great triangular battleship, impossibly large, passes overhead for what seems like an eternity. Then you have the characters: Darth Vader, the perfect villain; C-3P0, the camp droid; and the bickering duo of Leia and Han. And the touch of extra class added by Brit veterans Alec Guinness and Peter Cushing. And, most important in an action adventure, there's the perfectly paced, self-contained plot, notably matched in precisely none of its numerous sequels.
It's aged well too. The special effects, then revolutionary, immediately made every previous science fiction film essentially unwatchable, and still look good today (and the "enhancements" of the special edition are really quite small). It's not the best movie ever made, but for my generation, "Star Wars" remains the film of our time.