Bar None... The greatest motion picture ever filmed!!!

Rating: 10/10 (18 February 2006)

I drove 50 miles to see this film on opening day during the summer of 1977. I saw it several times in it's original theatrical run, then I saw it a couple of times on each subsequent re-release. The last time I watched Star Wars in a theater (excluding the 1997 special edition) was in 1985 at a drive-in theater. In 8 years... the total number of visits I made to the big-screen to see Star Wars ... 21. There are two or three things that make Star Wars the best movie ever made. First, there were those incredible special effects. Special effects are not a big deal any more. Last summer I saw "War Of The Worlds" and, while I enjoyed the movie, I wasn't that impressed as the aliens blasted people out of their clothes and annihilated the bridge next to Tom Cruise's home. I've seen movies in the past few years in which the main star of the movie doesn't exist, except in the mind of the creator and in a computer. Anything a writer/producer/director can possibly imagine can be stunningly rendered on the screen using CGI. Such was not the case in 1977. As the camera paned down to the surface of Tatooine after the opening crawl, showing Vader's ship closing in on Princess Leia's ship, it was breathtaking... Like standing on the edge of the Grand Canyon. No one had ever done anything like this before. Star Wars was first and foremost a special effects movie. Second, the story. Our world was in turmoil throughout the 70's. The Soviet Union was at the top of their game. The US was torn and devastated by the Vietnam war. A President resigned in disgrace. Inflation was killing the financial future of the working man. We waited in line to buy gas. Americans were being held hostage in Iran. Hollywood was cranking out great movies. The Godfather, Cuckoo's Nest, Taxi Driver, Apocalypse Now and Chinatown were the top movies of the 70's. Some of the best movies ever made, but notice that all of them are somewhat dark. Godfather is a bloodbath and the ending shows evil winning out over Michael Corleone's soul. In Cuckoo's Nest our hero enters an institution a fun-loving goof ball and suffers a terrible death. Taxi Driver is about darkness and evil pushing a man into insanity. I could go on.. Even those famous disaster flicks of the 70's consider it a happy ending if 6 people out of 1000 survive (Poseidon Adventure). Star Wars gave us a good old fashioned battle between good and evil... and good prevailed. Sure, we felt loss when Vader struck down Obi Wan, but Obi Wan's spirit continued through out the rest of the movie as if his death didn't occur. At the end, after an emotional battle and a bit of a twist, with great ceremony, the hero's are honored and the closing credits roll to John William's majestic score. In 1977, there were very few movies you walked out of, feeling like you had lived a fantasy, feeling like you were there. But I was in that auditorium when Leia placed those medals on Luke and Han's neck. I wanted that feeling over and over and that's why I saw it every chance I got. In the early 80's I paid $150 for a bootleg VHS video, shot right off the screen of a theater, complete with washed out color and the flicker caused by the different frame rates of TV and motion pictures. When Star Wars was first released on video, the price for a VHS cassette was over a hundred dollars and I purchased it then. I purchased it again when it became available on Laser Disc, and again when they released the "definitive collection" (widescreen with Dolbly Pro-Logic Surround) on Laser Disc. I bought it again when the DVD became available. I will probably buy it one final time if/when it's released on high-definition video (added in 2012-I have the set on Blu Ray). That's how much I love this movie. "Empire", "Jedi" and the prequels were all great motion pictures, but only Star Wars (today known as "Episode IV- A New Hope") had the magic... because it had never been done before. I understand why my kids don't share my enthusiasm. There is absolutely nothing a film maker can do to get the "wow factor" back. At no time did anyone say "how did they do that" when aliens were vaporizing humans in "War of the Worlds". I don't give special effects a second thought any more. I understand why some people call Star Wars over rated. But I also understand why it ranks #2 in all-time domestic gross and has been near the top of the AFI's list of 100 best movies ever made for the past 20 years. The magic of Star Wars can not and will not ever be repeated. The reason: Prior to 1977, you couldn't even imagine such realistic images ever being filmed. Today, anything you can imagine, you can see (yawn). Star Wars is the greatest triumph in movie-making and deserved to get a Oscar for Best Picture of the millennium. It saved 20th Century Fox from bankruptcy, it began the tradition of the Summer Blockbuster (along with Jaws), it started the special effects revolution and made going to the movies an 'experience'