THE space opera

Rating: 8/10 (16 March 2014)

What 2001 did a few years earlier for serious sf films, Star Wars did in spades for the genre of space opera. I remember sitting in the theater in 1977, glued to the screen, wishing it would never end.
Star Wars was a transition for the genre, the first such film that required no, or at least very little, suspense of disbelief. I am not referring to perfection of the plot here, but to immersion in a world sufficiently well simulated to seem real. There are gigantic rusty tanks run by desert creatures peddling junk; dark oily corners in space ships that have seen better days; elevators going into an abyss in gigantic space docks; robots with dings in their exoskeleton; and evil storm troopers that in contrast are white, and shiny, and new.
As became clear with the later films, Lucas is not the best director or scriptwriter, and given too much money, he over-gadgeteers every shot. But on a budget, and gathering together his best material, he put an awesome vision to the screen. He had a vision of a world, expanding over the years, within reach of other sublime universes such as Tolkien's Middle Earth or Gene Roddenberry's Federation Universe.
Lucas pushed the envelope of hard sf realism as it had been pushed before only once. No surprise that he created venues such as Industrial Light and Magic, or Skywalker Sound, as the technological side of movie-making and the vision of the general universe were is greatest strengths. Much bedeviled and much emulated (by WETA et al.) over the years, the photorealistic special effects movie and the special effects houses that make them are much indebted to him. Mark Hamill once said, to paraphrase, if someone could shoot films without actors, Lucas would be the man. Unfortunately, this prophecy has come too close to the truth in modern action/effects movies, including Lucas' own subsequent second trilogy. But eventually things will settle in, and special effects will be so ordinary that they can be used continuously without becoming the centerpiece of the film. One of the more embarrassing moments of my life was watching Space Balls on an airplane, and bursting into frenetic laughter about a minute into its opening special effects scene, until I realized that the whole plane was looking at me in that mixture of engine rumble and total silence you can only get on a night flight. The scene was not about special effects. It was just silly funny. We need more of that.
The story of Star Wars is endearing: a young farmhand is recruited by an ancient knight to save a princess in distress from a dark lord who can destroy entire planets to bend the galaxy to his will. The rebels whom the princess represents eventually manage to destroy a gigantic battle planetoid through a clever attack, assisted by a mercenary with a heart and a pair of bumbling robots. Unlike many modern action movies, this one takes some time to develop its characters, especially the pair C3PO and R2D2. So what if the idea is derivative of Kurosawa, and John William's fantastic music of Dvorjak! Dvorjak also copied a thematic opening of his best symphony from Beethoven's 9th, Scherzo, for 6 full emblematic notes. If you're gonna steal, steal from the best! And many have since taken this to heart by stealing from Star Wars.
The film remains great in its remastered version, except now Lucas' heavier hand of later years can be seen: Mos Eisley is virtually tumbling with creatures put there to fill the screen with effects. It took until LOTR a few years later for effects to develop to the point where they are just present, not overwhelming. But Lucas had already achieved that ultimate goal with much less money and just as much heart in 1977.