"The Force can have a strong influence on the weak-minded..."- George Lucas

Rating: 6/10 (6 February 2002)

The studio dismissal of his first (and, arguably, best) film, THX-1138, and the phenomenal success of his second feature, AMERICAN GRAFFITI, led George Lucas to undertake an Americanized version of Akira Kurosawa's THE HIDDEN FORTRESS- by way of the old FLASH GORDON and BUCK ROGERS serials. Replacing the two flesh and blood leads from THE HIDDEN FORTRESS with a pair of robots who might well have stepped straight from Fritz Lang's METROPOLIS, Lucas fashioned a kiddie corn classic. Luke Skywalker, one supposes, is the young Lucas himself (whose interest in fast-moving machines nearly cost him the farm in his misspent youth). Forgettable in many ways, but nonetheless entertaining, STAR WARS has become the backbone of big-budget fx filmmaking in this country. One can't begrudge Lucas his phenomenal success, but one tends to find oneself longing for a return to the old, inventive days when he made movies with a tad more substance- movies that didn't follow the selfsame beat, frame after frame...