Beginning something that would shape an entire medium of fan culture and reshape the genre of sci-fi for all of cinema history was a challenge that director George Lucas didn’t realise he was going to tackle when he had the idea for a space fantasy film in 1971, wanting to adopt a fun and adventurous atmosphere akin to Flash Gordon and taking inspiration from several sci fi inspired novels and films. Though no company was willing to fund his film, Lucas continued creating idea after idea for this supposed space opera known only then as ‘’The Star Wars’’. After the success of his film, American Graffiti, Lucas was given the chance to deliver his movie to the world and after several rewrites and with help from a lot of other famous directors such as Brian De Palma, Star Wars was officially born into the world. Set on a forgotten old planet, young farm boy Luke Skywalker (played by Mark Hamill) gets caught up in the battle between the overruling empire and the struggling resistance when he comes across two droids; C-3P0 (voiced by Anthony Daniels) and R2-D2, with a secret message and some plans that will help the rebellion take down the dangerous empire weapon, a large planetoid laser called the Death Star . The message sent by Princess Leia (played by Carrie Fisher) asks the help of an Obi-Wan Kenobi (played by Alec Guinness) who is one of the last of the Jedi, a group of fighters responsible for protecting the galaxy before they were wiped out. Tagging along after losing his family, Luke, Obi-wan and the two droids get the help of smuggler Han Solo (played by Harrison Ford) in order to rescue the princess from the clutches of the evil Darth Vader (voiced by James Earl Jones) and get the plans to rebellion before the Death Star destroys any more planets. Despite how little faith was given to this film during creation, Star Wars became a phenomenon unlike anything every scene before. What started off as a simple return to form space opera with fantasy and sci-fi homages, eventually became what is regarded as one of the key films of cinema. While this film is regarded as perfect by the public, its important to pick apart what does not work about the movie because nothing is without its flaws.

The story has a remarkably standard premise for something that arguably changed cinema. The premise as well as the narrative structure is essentially the hero’s story, the mold of narrative which dictators the formula that is featured in several Arthurian and fantasy stories; young hero teams up with wise mentor and loveable rogue to save a princess from an evil bad guy. While it is pretty standard, the film was meant as a homage to classical serials of the time, as well as being inspired by several books and films that featured a very similar outline. This outline being as brief and easy to grasp as it is allows the film to be incredibly timeless and easily recognisable, taking concepts and themes from several classic literature and old-fashion films balanced with Star Wars’  own created ideas makes for a wonderful blend that unique in its own way. With sources like King Arthur legends, several samurai movies, war films, sci-fi novels, and space serials, all of these conflicting genres with conflicting tones help give Star Wars a wonderfully open atmosphere, one that can feature element of both harsh and light-hearted. Even if a lot of the concepts and themes are reused from other material, it has its own creations that help to give its world its own personality. The force is a great example of this; several other stories have created something like this, but the way its described and treated in the film allows it to be several different things in one. It’s a wonderfully vague concept that doesn’t kill the tone that the world creates, instead enhances it. The environments are not atypical for a sci-fi epic of this time, instead relying on a grittier worn-out feel that gives everything this broken-down and tattered look as opposed to the clean chrome-like structures one would normally see in this kind of story. This basis in story and characters means that the focus connects much more with the audience’s emotions than anything else; being draw away from technicals and instead connecting with the simple characters and their desires. The climax illustrates this perfectly; with how well the conflict and consequences have been built up during this film, the final push for the weapons destruction gets everybody invested and makes them feel complete relief when it is destroyed.

Every character in the movie is again a product of a previously created narrative structure; familiar roles that characters were placed in for this type of story. There’s the lone farm boy dreaming of adventure who will unknowingly be the one to save the world, the princess that needs to be rescued, the wise mentor who will have to sacrifice himself, the loveable rogue whose motives are shaky, and the evil villain that wants nothing but destruction. Because of this, they are pretty flat roles and do not really offer anything unique to their architypes even if they are not unlikeable by any means. The acting for the film feels off in several areas and it feels like not a lot of direction was given as a lot of the actor’s flip-flop on a given delivery several times throughout the film. The main three are great examples; Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford are some of the most well-known names of this generation, yet their performances here are nothing that remarkable. Hamill is whiny and pretty flat, Fischer has this weird off-and-on again British accent that feels pretty distracting, and Ford’s cynicism in the performance can get pretty old pretty quick. The two actors that stand pretty strong throughout the film are James Earl Jones, who always commands great respect and authority in his voice, and Alec Guinness working wonderfully as a mentor figure for the lead character. Vader works as an okay bad guy and his designs makes him stand out very well, but his lack of involvement in the film as well as a pretty fruitless ending makes, he seem pretty secondary. The two droids get some good laugh throughout the film as well. Most of these characters would become more distinct and their own creations as the series continued on, but here the simplistic outlines are not the best starting points for them.

The film was hugely praised for its visual effects at the time and even to this day, they still hold up wonderfully. There is a scale and weight that is given to any of the spaceships in the film that move and sound appropriate to the film’s pace and tone. The dirtier feel and look really makes this world feel more lived in and not as perfect as other sci-fi creations, but the mystical elements mixed with the magical powers gives it this fun edge. The movie thankfully never forgets to be a light-hearted adventure story while still mixing in enough serious concepts to not be a complete laughingstock. While the locations and environments in the film do not feel incredibly defined as they were mainly real-life locations that were simple enough for effective without having to be largely over-budgeted as the movie was already incredibly expensive. Lucas seems like a man who has tons of ideas in his head and someone who always wants to put them down on paper and onto the screen, even if he doesn’t realise how many of these ideas could come from other places and sources. While this mind-set is very admirable and shows that he a great idea man, he is not very good at handling these ideas on set. His directing work seems very distant and not very helpful to his actor, which resulted in the confused deliveries. His writing can also range from pretty hoaky and basic (which explains a lot of poorer writing choices) and overly complicated and unnecessary. Several scenes were cut from the film that dedicated too much time to pointless side elements that would have ruined the films universal appeal. Thankfully, Lucas had other directors and creators to help direct his work into a serviceable picture. The music by John Williams is one of the most famous scores ever created for film; such a grand powerful melody with a hopeful light adventurous side to it, makes it a song that everybody can enjoy, and everybody will always remember.

A New Hope cannot be overlooked for the legacy it created for itself and for the franchise, paving way for several more movies to be created as well as books, games, merchandise, and everything else that made Star Wars a pop cultural phenomenon. Despite what people can view this as though, this is not a flawless product; by all accounts, if it wasn’t helped out by other people and had such a likeable and timeless atmosphere, it wouldn’t have been seen as anything that remarkable. The acting can be pretty awkward at times, mainly from the leads and the writing is not as clever and effective as it could be, but its charming atmosphere and world that is both gritty and hopeful, its timeless appeal that makes a film that will likely last forever, and its emotional connect-ability to audience members of all ages, using its simplistic narrative and characters in order to suck the audience in a way that makes them ignore the details and instead focus on the feelings. Its not the best Star Wars movie, as that title more so goes to its sequel for taking more risks and evolving this simple beginning point to a whole new level, but this was a pretty good starting point. Whether by chance or not, this movie was indeed sci-fi fans as well as Lucas’, new hope for the future.