A break from the cynical films of the 1970s

Rating: 9/10 (11 July 2015)

The latest TCM production entitled TCM Presents A Night at the Movies: George Lucas & The World of Fantasy Cinema, was really 2/3 about Lucas's films and it seemed that 2/3 of that was about Star Wars - but that was OK because it finally drove home to me what I have suspected for years - that George Lucas did not and does not have a clue as to what made Star Wars great. He got lucky with the first one (this film) because it was a product of its time and was what people WANTED to see in 1977 - something hopeful and fun. Remember - or maybe you are too young to remember - movies in the mid 70s were extremely cynical post Watergate and post Vietnam. This one was different and even religious in an ecumenical way. Lucas got lucky with the second one because of the director and his input. To me, all the ones that came after The Empire Strikes Back were special effects filled duds. Now back to the original.
In that cynical era in which nothing was black and white and everything seemed at least gray and a little tainted came this little space western. The sound effects were hokie, the graphics were poorly rendered, and all of the creatures were real men and women in rubber suits not CGI. But that was not the point. The point was that HERE was a force of pure evil - The Empire - that everybody could be completely against. The heroes were imperfect yet you could rally around them. You have a young boy of about 19 who is treated well by his farming aunt and uncle but wants a bigger destiny, you have an old man living in the hills like a hermit that wants that young boy to join the fight against the empire, and not until The Empire touches the boy personally does he make a rather hasty decision to do so. There is a girl, a princess, who is not waiting for somebody to come rescue her and helpless. She's tough, she can handle a weapon, and she can handle the fourth in their little band, Han Solo, who sticks his neck out for nobody a la Casablanca's Rick Blaine and seems completely mercenary, yet he gets involved.
If you like science fiction and good old fashioned adventure you'll like it. If you are young and feel that your destiny is slipping through your fingers and are itching to make a difference, or if you are older and want a chance to right a wrong that you feel at least partially responsible for you'll love it. And you CAN shoot first in the face of danger, have lived a pretty self involved life, change, and become the hero. As the 1977 original trailer said "Star Wars - for the fun of it" and for the philosophy of it too.