George Lucas' Timeless Classic

Rating: 9/10 (15 March 2020)

Before Star Wars became a multifaceted genre unto itself, before it became an executive-managed branch of the Disney Corporation, before it was even a saga, it was a movie. That movie, retroactively titled A New Hope, came from the mind of George Lucas and penetrated straight into the public consciousness like a bolt from the blue. A New Hope is one of the handful of movies to attain cinematic immortality. George Lucas' timeless myth exists on a plane that few movies can ever reach, as a kind of magical accident. You can't intellectualize why Star Wars works like it does, although many, many, many people have tried. It's George Lucas' disparate tastes and goals that shape A New Hope into something utterly unique in Hollywood. Westerns, samurai movies, science fiction B-pictures, and classical mythologies are the raw ingredients to Star Wars. When filtered through George Lucas' imagination, it comes out as a towering landmark in film history and the first step of a story that will last for all-time.
I'm in no position to add anything new to the discussion of A New Hope's greatness as an adventure or as a kid-friendly vehicle for universal themes. What I can describe is the appeal A New Hope has for me. In comparison with the rest of Lucas' saga, A New Hope is smaller in scope and less ambitious in themes. It's the broadest Star Wars movie, a good vs evil fable without the complexities of later entries. It is also, by nature of being the first, the clunkiest Star Wars film visually. The special effects are the baseline for what the series could do. They only got better with time. When it's all said and done, it might be my least favorite of Lucas' Star Wars movies. And yet, it works in ways that none of the other five do. A New Hope is the Star Wars movie that will live on a hundred years from now. It has an effervescent magic, an innocent exuberance that no other Star Wars film can boast quite as well. It has a sense of place and verisimilitude that I am always amazed by. You can't help but feel you have actually sat in the dusty cantina and walked through the cavernous halls of the Death Star every time you watch it.
A New Hope defines the strange wonder of Star Wars, as something completely new and yet cobbled from the most varied and interesting of sources. It captures the oddity of Star Wars, and of George Lucas' child-like imagination. It is movie magic, the strongest piece of purely cinematic myth making ever created. Its best qualities can be lost in comparison with the other Star Wars films. And it's true, I have a personal fondness for the others of the series, but they simply can't compare to A New Hope for pure impact. As a movie, and not part of an ongoing episodic tapestry, A New Hope is the one we will remember most fondly.
90/100