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introvertguide · 4 years ago

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Star Wars (1977); AFI #13

In honor of May 4th and the original movie that started it all, the group reviewed Star Wars (1977). Nominated for 10 Academy Awards and winning 6 with one extra special achievement award for Sound, this is perhaps the most highly decorated science fiction movie of all time. The special effects and the music were especially moving making the Star Wars experience something amazing to behold. I was lucky enough to see one of the re-releases in the theatre back in the mid 80s. In fact, I might well have seen the film 100 times over my life. The music might be the most well known soundtrack globally. With inflation, this is the 4th highest grossing film of all time. It is truly a fantastic work and I would like to now spoil it for anyone who hasn't seen it. Let me start with the usual:

SPOILER WARNING!!! I DON'T THINK THERE ARE MANY WHO HAVE NOT SEEN THE FILM, BUT FOR THOSE FEW THAT DON'T KNOW, I AM GOING TO RUIN THE PLOT!!! STOP NOW AND GO WATCH IF YOU HAVEN'T ALREADY!!!

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Amid a galactic civil war, Rebel Alliance spies have stolen plans to the Galactic Empire's Death Star, a massive space station capable of destroying an entire planet. Imperial Senator Princess Leia of Alderaan (Carrie Fisher), secretly one of the Rebellion's leaders, has obtained its schematics (this entire effort was originally a throwaway concept but was completely fleshed out in Rogue One almost 40 years later) , but her starship is intercepted by an Imperial Star Destroyer under the command of the ruthless Darth Vader (acted by David Prowse and voiced by James Earl Jones). The movie is just starting and the odds against the rebels are shown by the scale of the two ships. Before she is captured, Leia hides the plans in the memory of an astromech droid called R2-D2 (Kenny Baker), who flees in an escape pod to the desert planet Tatooine accompanied by protocol droid C-3PO (Anthony Daniels).

The droids are captured by Jawa traders (little shiny eyed beings who are now meme legends), who sell them to moisture farmers Owen and Beru Lars and their nephew Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill). While Luke is cleaning R2-D2, part of a holographic recording of Leia starts playing a message for Obi-Wan Kenobi where she requests his help ("Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi, you're my only hope!"). Later, after Luke finds R2-D2 missing, he is attacked by scavenging Sand People while searching for him, but is rescued by elderly hermit "Old Ben" Kenobi (Sir Alec Guinness), an acquaintance of Luke's, who reveals that "Obi-Wan" is his true name. Obi-Wan tells Luke of his days as one of the Jedi Knights, the former peacekeepers of the Galactic Republic who drew mystical abilities from a metaphysical energy field known as "the Force", but were ultimately hunted to near-extinction by the Empire. Luke learns that his father fought alongside Obi-Wan as a Jedi Knight during the Clone Wars (another throwaway concept that was eventually fleshed out) until Vader, Obi-Wan's former pupil, turned to the dark side of the Force and murdered him. Obi-Wan presents Luke with his father's old lightsaber, the signature weapon of Jedi Knights. The connection between Darth Vader and Luke's father is explored in depth during the next eight films.

R2-D2 plays Leia's full message, in which she begs Obi-Wan to take the Death Star plans to her home planet of Alderaan and give them to her father, a fellow veteran, for analysis. Although Luke initially declines Obi-Wan's offer to accompany him to Alderaan and learn the ways of the Force, he is left with no choice after discovering that Imperial stormtroopers have killed his aunt and uncle and destroyed their farm in their search for the droids (cue the Academy and Grammy Award winning theme music composed by John Williams). Traveling to a cantina in Mos Eisley to search for transport, Luke and Obi-Wan hire Han Solo (Harrison Ford), a smuggler with a price on his head due to his debt to local mobster Jabba the Hutt. Pursued by stormtroopers, Obi-Wan, Luke, R2-D2 and C-3PO flee Tatooine with Han and his Wookiee co-pilot Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew) on their ship the Millennium Falcon. As they reach the planet's orbit, two Star Destroyers try to intercept them, but Han is able to jump to hyperspace by reaching lightspeed.

Before the Falcon can reach Alderaan, Death Star commander Grand Moff Tarkin (Peter Cushing) interrogates Leia about the location of the Rebels's secret base, with the threat of destroying her home planet, and, when she answers that the base is on Dantooine, he orders Alderaan destroyed simply as a show of force. As the group arrives in the asteroid field that now stands in place of Alderaan, Han spots an Imperial TIE fighter and is taunted into chasing it and shooting it down, allowing the Falcon to be captured by the space station's tractor beam. Inside the Death Star, Obi-Wan attempts to disable the tractor beam, and Luke persuades Han and Chewbacca to help him rescue Leia after discovering that she is scheduled to be executed. After disabling the tractor beam, Obi-Wan sacrifices his life in an epic lightsaber duel with Vader, allowing the rest of the group to escape the Death Star with Leia. Using a tracking device, the Empire tracks the Falcon to the hidden Rebel base.

Leia's schematics reveal a hidden weakness in the Death Star's thermal exhaust port, which could allow the Rebels to trigger a chain reaction in its main reactor with a precise torpedo strike. While Han abandons the Rebels after collecting his reward for rescuing Leia, Luke joins their starfighter squadron in a desperate attack against the approaching Death Star. In the ensuing battle, the Rebels suffer heavy losses as Vader leads a squadron of TIE fighters against them, but Han unexpectedly returns to aid them in the Falcon, narrowly managing to save Luke before Vader can shoot him down. Guided by the disembodied voice of Obi-Wan's spirit, Luke turns off his targeting computer and uses the Force to aim his torpedoes into the exhaust port, destroying the Death Star moments before it fires on the Rebel base. In a triumphant ceremony at the base, Leia awards Luke and Han medals for their heroism.

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I want to explain the connection between this movie and the Joseph Campbell version of the hero's journey that so many people have pointed out. This journey starts out with a call to adventure that is refused and then forced (Luke is given an opportunity to leave, he declines, the death of his family pushes him forward, he leaves with his team). Campbell then predicts an initiation that involves meeting a woman and gaining weapons, a meeting with an incredible power, and an achievement of the hero's power (goes to star destroyer, meets Vader and loses Obi-Wan, gains power over force). The story ends with a refusal, a magic flight, a rescue from without, and a hero's return (Luke goes to attack the Death Star, Han refuses and then eventually saves him, and the day is saved so the heroes are rewarded). It is a story that is called the Monomyth and has been recognized in Greek myths that are thousands of years old. It is a good story that has been proven to work and it makes for one of the most enjoyable movies of all time.

There was some negative opinions of the film because it is such a simple old story that became extremely popular and film goers would no longer be interested in intelligent thinking movies. It is kind of the truth because blockbuster summer films are full of explosions. The highest grossing films since then have tended to be highly explosive action films. Films like Star Wars, Jaws, and Indiana Jones are a lot of fun, but they are not super deep. They are easy to understand at surface level, but they can also be interpreted to mean much more significant things. The choice of the viewer about whether the story has deep inner meaning or is just the Odyssey in space is personal and likely colors opinions about how good it is. Some people think it is stupid fun while others have actually formed religions around the idea of the force.

One thing is for certain, the formula worked amazingly well for a large group of people and this made movie producers want to copy it. This is what is generally called a watershed moment because the look of movies changed significantly. There were so many more space operas and they all had that worn post-apocalyptic look to them. Star Wars and Mad Max combined to give a different look of what futuristic was. There was advanced tech in some cases, but there was a scorched Earth that had run out of resources and people suffered. Think about how many movies and television shows there are that have come out since the 80s and combine industrial tech for space and distressed almost Western appearances for the planets. The movie changed the way many people see the future.

One thing that is inarguably great was the score. I am not going to try and describe it with words, I am just going to put links to the different themes here so you can hear for yourself:

Star Wars Main Theme (Full) - YouTube

Star Wars- The Imperial March (Darth Vader's Theme) - YouTube

Princess Leia's Theme - YouTube

Star Wars Episode IV A New Hope (1977) Soundtrack 11 Cantina Band - YouTube

This is somewhat strange for the AFI so I went back and checked, but I believe that this is the only film with a ranked villain (Darth Vader), hero (Han Solo), and theme song (Main Theme). Even if it is somewhat simplistic from some perspectives, the story and the songs and the sounds and the characters speak to those who watch it. Seeing the movie is an incredible experience and I envy those who get to see it for the first time.

I am a big fan of the original Star Wars trilogy and I could completely nerd out going over all of the little things throughout the movie, but this is not a deep dive but instead an overall review. So does it belong on the AFI top 100? Maybe more than any other movie. It is an epic tale that changed the way movies were made across multiple genres. We could probably look at all science fiction films and put them as before or after this one. It is an important piece of American film and (no matter what anyone thinks of the other Star Wars films or George Lucas) it is a masterpiece. Would I recommend it? I cannot say yes enough. It is part of my culture as a California movie nerd and understanding this film is understanding some of the basic knowledge I grew up with. All sticks are swung around like light sabers. If I say "Princess Leia hair," everyone around here knows exactly what I mean. If something is impossible but still needs to be done, we tell people to use the force. I have lived in the Bay Area for 20 years and I can still reference a location by how close it is to Skywalker Ranch were George Lucas worked on movies. Please check out this film and you will know why I am such a fan of movies.

#star wars #a new hope #use the force #john williams #film score #introvert #introverts #movie review #award winning films #special effects

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kovnynir · 4 years ago

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𝑻𝑯𝑬 𝑫𝑬𝑨𝑻𝑯

moff gideon started firing on bo-katan, who fell to the ground. din wasn’t sure if she was alive or dead and he didn’t have time to investigate. it wasn’t good enough, gideon knew this. he wanted them to suffer, and he already got what he wanted anyway. for all intents and purposes, gideon already won. the empire would rise again and these childish undesirables would continue to scramble, then suffer. gideon turned his attention on jett, and he started firing.

without a split second to register what was happening, din didn’t even think, he just jumped in front of the child to take the hits, feeling them ricochet off his beskar.

gideon stopped, staring haughtily at the display. he knew something din didn’t. a moment passed, and he didn’t-… din didn’t hear anything.

slowly, din got on his knees and looked at jett. the blasts –

it was as if the cabin depressurized. or boba had dropped one of those seismic charges into the room they were standing in.

everyone in the room knew. not a soul dared speak. din was shaking like mad – all of that effort, time, strife, fear, pain – all of it to end like this. the baby…. his baby, his son, dead – dead, on the floor of an imperial ship, dead, dead, dead, fucking d e a d –

the force was at a shatterpoint, and so was din’s last shred of humanity. he’d seen darkness before, known it, could call it by name. but this was devoid of all concept of light. there were no shadows here, no flicker, nothing. just black.

a sound ripped from din’s chest that he wasn’t convinced he made, it was- it was otherworldly, he was otherworldly. he ripped the darksaber from his belt and ignited it.

❝ mando, don’t – ❞ cara warned, her voice tense and commanding. din didn’t even register that she had made a sound. he turned on the moff and out of sheer panic, the man started blasting at din. he took every shot as if it wasn’t happening, marching straight towards him. fantasizing how best to kill him. finally, he’d decided to stop wasting his time fantasizing and just acted.

with a cry that could only be described as harrowingly feral, din reached out and grabbed the moff by the throat, crushing his windpipe, and slammed him up against the blast doors. over and over. then with the darksaber in his other hand, he didn’t stop stabbing him through, twisting the blade until the man that used to be his greatest enemy was… in pieces. and the sounds – the sounds din made.

they brought tears even to fennec’s eyes.

and yet the death of his monster didn’t fix it. the baby didn’t sit up and giggle, the pressure didn’t release from his chest. all he could do was keep screaming, the modulator giving it new gravel and new edge, and keep stabbing the darksaber through the door, hitting nothing and gaining nothing. he didn’t stop until he was out of breath.

he ripped the weapon from the door and shut it off. clipped it to his belt again. no one fucking moved. no one breathed. no one blinked. din took two absent steps backwards, nearly stumbling on his own boots. a slight turn. looking around, everything felt… wrong… like he wasn’t… he wasn’t supposed to be here. he went from the harshest of supernovas to… nothing. he was nothing. there was nothing.

the galaxy didn’t exist without the baby. there was no life. there was nothing.

none of this was supposed to happen. none of this was right. surely… surely this was wrong…

he walked, trancelike and trembling towards the baby again. fell to his knees before him and picked him up, cradling him to his chest. he’d never seen him so still and quiet, except for when he was-

❝ sleeping… ❞ din mumbled. ❝ he’s… just… he’s sleeping… ❞

cara glanced around at the others. ❝ mando… you know he’s not- ❞

❝ sleeping. he’s sleeping. he’s exhausted. of- of course he would be, he’s… been through so much today. ner verd’ika. ❞ din’s voice was wrecked through the modulator, husky and all but ruined from the sounds he’d made earlier. he kept rubbing jett’s back, avoiding the… the…

fennec swallowed hard. ❝ perhaps you should let him rest then. and help us kill these darktroopers. ❞ she didn’t want to be the one to say it, but they were still in danger. they had to preserve what they could.

din slowly started losing all concept of himself, of the room he was in, of everything. and at first he thought it was just his mind snapping under the pressure, but no. he was literally losing himself… disappearing. he felt woozy… maybe he was d-

maybe he was dying too? he wasn’t sure anymore. all he could do was hold his baby, help him sleep – jett did love the feeling of beskar, he could nap against the cold metal just fine –

the others stared in awe as slowly, din and the child turned to nothing. they disappeared into the force. the darksaber clattered to the ground, no one moved to pick it up. a few moments passed, and the weapon dissolved too.

lightyears away, the weapon materializes in a lake on pamarthe. waiting.

lightyears away, din and the child materialize in the razor crest. sleeping peacefully, the first real sleep din has gotten in ages. no memories of darksabers or darktroopers or death.

only dreams of a future, waiting just outside the ship’s hatches. a home.

#* din : self para.#* din & jett.#self para.

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