The movie that changed the standards of film-making forever.

Rating: 10/10 (7 January 1999)

Before the mid 1970's, special visual effects weren't really made to look as real as life, because it was just commonly accepted that it was not possible, so what are you going to do. In 1975, "Jaws" was a film with better special effects overall than anyone had seen before, and when "Star Wars" was released two years later, it took these latest advancements of special effects into space, where it would change the way people looked at special effects. Obviously it wasn't exactly as real as it would look if it were actually happening, and it may have had some noticeable flaws, but it did take the first step towards the realistic special effects we see today. If not for "Star Wars", people would have continued using the special effects that were just enough to give you the gist of what was supposedly happening. Because of the fact that these effects, though cutting-edge at the time, would be dated now, the "Special Edition" was released in 1997 in order to maintain its impressiveness, with updated special effects that are as impressive by today's standards as the originals were in 1977. Although some people thought the story itself was pretty corny, I think it appealed to people with open minds. After all, that has always been the basic purpose of science fiction. The "force" is the reason for the most part that some people feel this way, but I don't think it is as "out there" as some people do. One thing the force can supposedly be made to do is telekinesis, which has obviously been thought of before because there's a word for it. Not that anyone really takes the force seriously in real life, but I doubt anyone can go out and prove conclusively that it doesn't exist in any form, so it doesn't suspend THAT much disbelief. There is some really good acting in the film, such as Han Solo (Harrison Ford), Ben Kenobi (Alec Guinness), and Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher), but I believe the most notable performance is Darth Vader (James Earl Jones). Vader is one of not very many movie villains that has been remembered for so long, and he is one that can really scare an audience with his presence. John Williams' music for him does a good job of representing how ruthless he is, although the famous "Imperial March" wasn't introduced until "The Empire Strikes Back" (1980). "Star Wars", although it was the first to be released in the series, is actually part four of a six chapter saga. The reason this was the first film to be released is because it is really the only one that starts out in such a way that you can get away with not already knowing the story so far, and also has a happy ending with relatively few loose ends. It was because writer/director George Lucas was not sure how well it would do in the box-office or if he'd be allowed by 20th Century Fox to complete the trilogy since it was new ground for filmmaking that he made this decision. He did, however, leave enough loose ends that could be expanded into the rest of his already conceived saga just in case the film was as successful as his friend Steven Spielberg was confident it would be. As it turned out, despite the setback of having a pretty small budget, it was more successful than Lucas imagined. I don't understand the fact that so many people are obsessed with every little detail of "Star Wars" and know every little trivial fact about these films, nor do I with all the "Star Trek" fans, but I did think the movie was great, as well as the movies that followed it. It's too bad that a science fiction movie this spectacular will never win an academy award (or be nominated, for that matter) for "best picture", but it seems no science fiction or horror film ever will just because too many people consider such films automatically unworthy just because of its genre (especially horror), but if ever a science fiction film deserved one, it would be "Star Wars: A New Hope". If you're someone who doesn't like science fiction, then this film might not make much of an impression on you but if you are one of the few sci-fi fans who hasn't seen this film, then although you may have missed it in the theater where it was much more amazing than it could be on video, you'd better see this film, then the others if you want to know what science fiction has been all about all these years.