The start is fun but rough. Lucas is an idea guy

Rating: 7/10 (23 November 2019)

A New Hope has the distinction of being the first Star Wars film and I think a lot of people overrate the film as a result. It is a wonderful film, on the whole and the Star War franchise is a cornerstone of American culture. But ANH is not without its problems. The start of the story is needlessly convoluted and overextended by about 15 minutes. There simply is not a reason-for theme, character, plot or world-to separate R2D2 and C3PO only to have them reunited 10 minutes later. Indeed the film has about 20 minutes of fat that could have been tightened up on the page. This is hardly surprising as Lucas is a weaker writer. It is not enough to ruin the film or anything but the writing is not crisp.
The film's budget also leaves several sequences that feel less epic and more quaint in context of the franchise. The battle of the death star is almost laughably small in comparison to what comes after. And upon re-watch this aspect makes the film feel quite dated. Lucas direction is fairly good for him but there is a flatness to the film's classical structure that leaves much to be desire. In a lot of ways this film is a good first draft of the Star Wars formula.
The film's endearing cultural power comes from the acting and the moral simplicity of the universe. Guinness and Ford aside I don't think any of the actors are great actors but they are all so earnest and committed to this story that their performances are charming despite, by way of example, Luke being whiny. This a classic good vs evil, underdogs vs overdogs, republicans vs fascists story and as escapism one can't do much better than this film. There is a comfort to seeing the Death Star go boom that few escapist films capture at this intensity. But with all things the film suffers from time moving on and this sort of moral simplicity is no longer as elegant as it once was.
Overall this is a milestone in American culture that showed great promise for what was to come but that on its own is not fully satisfying. Lucas is a much better producer and ideas guy than writer and director; that most other Star Wars film's are better than this one is good evidence of that.
A few words about the special edition: on the whole the special edition is a cinematic abortion. Almost all of the additions are at best superfluous. Most actively ruin the scenes they are in. However, the Jabba the Hutt scene is a neutral addition and at least ties the OT together better than the original cut.