Opening crawl

ファイル:ESBOpeningCrawl.png
 ファイル:Opening Crawl.jpg

"*One of the things we still have to shoot is the opening crawl. Shooting that crawl is actually one of the hardest things on these shows. The artwork itself is only about four feet long and maybe a foot wide. The camera is real low to the ground and we use a tilting lens to eliminate a lot of the focus problems. But everything has to be lined up just perfectly and you spend days running through tests. Every little blemish shows up. Any little bump, any little movement of the camera is going to screw up this big 2,000-frame-long take. It's fun, but pure torture.*"
―Ken Ralston during production of *Star Wars*: Episode VI *Return of the Jedi*[src]
The ***Star Wars* opening crawl** is the famous opening to the *Star Wars* saga.

## Description

Each of the six *Star Wars* films begin with nearly identical openings, in which the text "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...." is displayed, followed by the *Star Wars* logo over a field of stars. A subsequent downward pan reveals the film's episode number, the subtitle in all-capital letters, and a three-paragraph summary of events immediately prior to the events of the film.

Two typefaces were used in the crawl: News Gothic bold for the main body of the crawl and Episode number, and Univers light ultra condensed for the title of the film.

In the widescreen (or letterbox) versions of the *Star Wars* films, each line of the opening crawl text appears directly in its entirety from the bottom of the screen. In the fullscreen (or pan and scan) versions, the sides of each line of opening crawl text are visible only after that line reaches the center of the screen.

## Differences in crawls

Though each crawl is roughly similar, the individual films contain some differences in their presentation. For instance, in *Episode II: Attack of the Clones*, the camera pans upwards after the text finishes, rather than downwards as seen in all of the five other films.

Some words or names are in all-capital letters to stress their importance to the story (such as "DEATH STAR" in *A New Hope*, "GALACTIC EMPIRE" in *Return of the Jedi*, and "ARMY OF THE REPUBLIC" in *Attack of the Clones*). There are no words emphasized by all-caps in any of the odd-numbered films. The text is in simple, yellow, sans-serif type, and it is pitched at a sharp angle. The text scrolls upward into the distance, toward a horizon located just below the top of the screen. In a trademark of the film series, each title crawl ends with a four-dot ellipsis except for Episode VI which ends with a three-dot ellipsis.

When originally released in 1977, the first film was simply titled *Star Wars*, as Lucas was not certain if he would follow the film with a sequel. Following *The Empire Strikes Back*, the film was re-released in 1981 with the subtitle 'Episode IV A New Hope'. The original version, without the subtitle, was not released on home video until the 2006 limited edition DVDs.

## Origins

 ファイル:SWV Opening crawl.jpg
The roll-up (alternatively called the "crawl") is an homage to *Flash Gordon* serials of the 1930s and 1940s, which *Star Wars* creator George Lucas enjoyed as a child. It is also for this reason that many of the subtitles of the six films have a "pulpy" sound to them or are reminiscent of the Gordon serials.

George Lucas in an interview in 2005 described how the final phrasing of the roll-up in *Star Wars* came about. "The crawl is such a hard thing because you have to be careful that you're not using too many words that people don't understand. It's like a poem. I showed the very first crawl to a bunch of friends of mine in the 1970s. It went on for six paragraphs with four sentences each. Brian De Palma was there, and he threw his hands up in the air and said, 'George, you're out of your mind! Let me sit down and write this for you.' He helped me chop it down into the form that exists today."

Lucas has openly admitted that the opening crawl is inspired by the same opening crawl that can be seen at the beginning of each episode of the original *Flash Gordon* film serial that inspired Lucas to write much of the Star Wars saga.

According to Dennis Muren (who worked on all six films), on the audio commentary track of the Star Wars Trilogy DVD release, the roll-ups on the "original trilogy" films: *A New Hope*, *The Empire Strikes Back* and *Return of the Jedi*, were accomplished with physical models laid out on the floor. Muren says the models were approximately two feet wide and six feet long. The crawl effect was accomplished with the camera moving longitudinally along the model. It was, says Muren, difficult and time-consuming to achieve a smooth scrolling effect.

With the advent of computer-generated graphics, the "prequel trilogy" films: *The Phantom Menace*, *Attack of the Clones* and *Revenge of the Sith*, the roll-ups' effect was achieved much more quickly. However, because nobody had taken notes on how the original ones were accomplished, the design team had to rewatch and piece together the elements to make the new opening crawl.

The 2004 DVD special edition versions of the original trilogy were later updated with computer-generated roll-ups as part of their restoration and enhancement.[*source?*]

## Star Wars crawls

***Episode I: The Phantom Menace***

"Turmoil has engulfed the
Galactic Republic. The taxation
of trade routes to outlying star
systems is in dispute.

Hoping to resolve the matter
with a blockade of deadly
battleships, the greedy Trade
Federation has stopped all
shipping to the small planet
of Naboo.

While the Congress of the
Republic endlessly debates
this alarming chain of events,
the Supreme Chancellor has
secretly dispatched two Jedi
Knights, the guardians of
peace and justice in the
galaxy, to settle the conflict...."

***Episode II: Attack of the Clones***

"There is unrest in the Galactic
Senate. Several thousand solar
systems have declared their
intentions to leave the Republic.

This separatist movement,
under the leadership of the
mysterious Count Dooku, has
made it difficult for the limited
number of Jedi Knights to maintain
peace and order in the galaxy.

Senator Amidala, the former
Queen of Naboo, is returning
to the Galactic Senate to vote
on the critical issue of creating
an ARMY OF THE REPUBLIC
to assist the overwhelmed
Jedi...."

***Episode III: Revenge of the Sith***

"War! The Republic is crumbling
under attacks by the ruthless
Sith Lord, Count Dooku.
There are heroes on both sides.
Evil is everywhere.

In a stunning move, the
fiendish droid leader, General
Grievous, has swept into the
Republic capital and kidnapped
Chancellor Palpatine, leader of
the Galactic Senate.

As the Separatist Droid Army
attempts to flee the besieged
capital with their valuable
hostage, two Jedi Knights lead a
desperate mission to rescue the
captive Chancellor...."

***Episode IV: A New Hope***

"It is a period of civil war.
Rebel spaceships, striking
from a hidden base, have won
their first victory against
the evil Galactic Empire.

During the battle, rebel
spies managed to steal secret
plans to the Empire's
ultimate weapon, the DEATH
STAR, an armored space
station with enough power to
destroy an entire planet.

Pursued by the Empire's
sinister agents, Princess
Leia races home aboard her
starship, custodian of the
stolen plans that can save
her people and restore
freedom to the galaxy...."

***Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back***

"It is a dark time for the
Rebellion. Although the Death
Star has been destroyed,
Imperial troops have driven the
Rebel forces from their hidden
base and pursued them across
the galaxy.

Evading the dreaded Imperial
Starfleet, a group of freedom
fighters led by Luke Skywalker
has established a new secret
base on the remote ice world
of Hoth.

The evil lord Darth Vader,
obsessed with finding young
Skywalker, has dispatched
thousands of remote probes into
the far reaches of space..."

***Episode VI: Return of the Jedi***

"Luke Skywalker has returned to
his home planet of Tatooine in
an attempt to rescue his
friend Han Solo from the
clutches of the vile gangster
Jabba the Hutt.

Little does Luke know that the
GALACTIC EMPIRE has secretly
begun construction on a new
armored space station even
more powerful than the first
dreaded Death Star.

When completed, this ultimate
weapon will spell certain doom
for the small band of rebels
struggling to restore freedom
to the galaxy...."

## In other Star Wars media

The West End Games roleplaying game supplement *Galaxy Guide 1: A New Hope* suggests that the opening crawl from *A New Hope* was actually written by Rebel Alliance historian Voren Na'al to end his account of the events surrounding the Battle of Yavin. The account includes the phrase, "A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away..."

A large number of LucasArts computer and video games feature an opening crawl. Games based on one of the films usually include the same crawl as the movie, while other games have original crawls. Some of the games' crawls differ from the traditional film versions. *Star Wars: TIE Fighter* plays *The Imperial March* over the crawl, while *Rebel Assault* uses a spoken version, starting with the first paragraph from *A New Hope* and differing afterward. *Dark Forces* has an unused spoken version in its cutscene data. *The Phantom Menace* video game begins with the film's crawl, but features a second, original one part way through the game. The LEGO Star Wars games include an opening crawl at the beginning of each chapter, with five to six chapters per movie.

An opening crawl plays when a character is loaded for the first time in Star Wars: The Old Republic. A shortened variation plays every subsequent time a character is loaded, recapping the story so far.

A number of Dark Horse's *Star Wars* comics have used the same format as the opening crawl to serve as a recap of the previous events in the series. These series include *Dark Empire*, *Tales of the Jedi* and many others.

The original edition of the novel *Heir to the Empire* included a still-image version on its back cover.

Jeffrey Brown's non-canon *Star Wars: Jedi Academy* and *Darth Vader and Son* book series both use the opening crawl.

## Parodies

* *The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie* uses a crawl to set up the clips of the shorts featured. The crawl reads "A long long long long long...time ago, in a universe far, far, far, far, far...away."

* *Airplane II: The Sequel* begins with a crawl of the text of an erotic story that is "broken" like glass by a space shuttle flying through it.

* The 1986 Hungarian animated film "Macskafogó" (Cat City) uses an opening crawl which is a direct spoof / reference to Star Wars.

* The Mel Brooks film *Spaceballs* opens with a similar, but much more humorous crawl, with gags such as "unbeknownst to her, but knownst to us". At the end, in small letters, it reads "If you can read this, you don't need glasses".

* The *Red Dwarf* episodes "Backwards" and "Dimension Jump*"* both feature similar, humorous crawls, with the former scrolling too fast to be read without freeze-frame.

* *Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me* opens with a similar crawl. It is accompanied by a voiceover.

* "Weird Al" Yankovic's "The Saga Begins" begins by turning the opening line of "American Pie" ("A long, long time ago, I can still remember...") into the opening line of the Star Wars crawl, albeit changing the repeated word from "far" to "long".

* In *Thumb Wars*, an opening crawl is used. In the end, someone yells, "Watch out for that word!" then crashes into the crawl and explodes.

* *LEGO Star Wars: Revenge of the Brick* uses an opening crawl.

* Those who attended Nintendo's online Camp Hyrule 2006 were greeted with an introductory opening crawl sequence.

* Recent editions of Apple Computer's *iMovie* software feature a similar title effect called "Far, Far Away" in reference to Star Wars. Recent editions of Windows Movie Maker also include a text effect in reference to Star Wars.

* The movie *Fanboys* starts with a Star Wars-style opening crawl, ending with "Sent From My iPhone". Also featuring a parody crawl that reads "You are very, very, very, very high" when Linus and the other protagonists have eaten peyote laced guacamole

* The *Family Guy* episodes *Blue Harvest*, *Something, Something, Something, Dark Side* and *!It's A Trap!* feature an opening crawl. This makes sense, as the episodes are actually re-tellings of *A New Hope*, *The Empire Strikes Back* and *Return of the Jedi* using *Family Guy* characters - the crawl for *SSSDS* has the same first paragraph as the authentic one of *ESB* before adding *"But you already know this story."* and devoting the rest to make fun of 20th Century Fox, while the one for *IAT!* gets as far as *"Luke Skywalker has returned to his home planet of Tattooine..."*, at which point it devolves into a tirade against FOX, followed by an apology and admission that the previous comments were drug-induced.
* In *Phineas and Ferb: Star Wars*, a narrator begins to read the crawl, but is interrupted by two off-screen voices. They tell the narrator to read the crawl faster, and funnier if possible. The crawl rewinds, and the narrator starts over, this time reading at a faster pace while using a goofy-sounding voice. The narrator is then interrupted again. The same two off-screen voices tell him to forget about making it funnier. The narrator starts over once more, this time with his normal voice. The crawl starts out as, "Episode IVa: MAY THE FERB BE WITH YOU." At the end of the crawl it reads, "And none of this is canon, so just relax."

## Notes and references

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 *Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith* DVD commentary
2. ↑ Pearlman, Cindy (May 15, 2005). The force behind 'The Force'. *Chicago Sun-Times*.
3. ↑ File:HeirEmpire\_HC.jpg

## External links

* StarWars.com Episode I: At First Glance on StarWars.com (content now obsolete; backup link on Archive.org) - article about the creation of the opening crawl for Episode I
* StarWars.com Episode III: How It Begins on StarWars.com (content now obsolete; backup link on Archive.org)
* Useless Telnet

In other languages

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