DirkH’s review published on Letterboxd:
Part of Dastardly Difficult December: film nr.97
I try to watch A New Hope at least once a year. I have already done so this year, but amidst this cinematic blizzard that is the December challenge and after seeing the horrible latest Lucas mutilation of Return of the Jedi a couple of weeks back, I felt the need to revisit my first love.
When I joined this site more than a year ago, the first sentence I wrote in a review was 'No explanation necessary' and it was for this film. It was later replaced by a 'review' in which I merely summed up the things that make this film so great. I think I perhaps should do it a bit more justice this time around. I'll probably ramble on for far too long, so please accept my apologies in advance.
The version I watched is the original one, the one that hasn't got all the useless brushing up of effects and the addition of superfluous scenes. It is the one I first saw all those years ago and made me fall in love with the medium.
There's something that annoys me in modern action/adventure blockbusters. They're lazy, relying on either star power or computer power to fill the seats. There just seems to be a startling lack of originality there and practically all of them seem to have lost sight of the two most important qualities they should possess: a good story and escapism.
Story
There are people who say they don't 'get' Star Wars (which is completely understandable), but I've never heard anyone say that they are bad films. I think that has a lot to do with the universal appeal of the story. Let's not forget that in his prime, Lucas was a very gifted storyteller and when Star Wars is discussed a thing that is skirted over often is the fact that it has one of the most perfectly paced scripts every written with a fantastic narrative structure and a superb plot exposition. Lucas gives us a classic story of good versus evil on a grand, almost Operatic scale and immerses his audiences in a richly detailed fantasy universe. All that is well and good, but Lucas' trump card lies with his characters.
Every folklore tale has archetypical characters, created in order for audiences to identify with them. They represent parts of the human psyche, identified by the philosopher Jung. This is nothing new in storytelling, but actually giving shape to these characters is a tough job. If you look at the human characters in Star Wars and the archetypes it comes down to this:
The Child - Luke Skywalker
He represents the untapped potential, the future. His character and his progress are the ones we are asked to invest in.
The Damsel in Distress - Leia
The external and personal motivation for the heroes of the story to be involved in it. Though not a classical damsel in distress as she can certainly fight for herself (one of the biggest reasons for her appeal), she still serves that purpose on the story of A New Hope.
The Hero - Han Solo
The true hero in A New Hope is Han Solo. Sure, he is an anti-hero that needs to discover that there are more things to fight for than personal gain, but he is the man of action, the person that gets things going.
The Wise Old Man/Mentor - Obi Wan Kenobi
The Child needs wisdom and guidance to get where he needs to be. The sympathetic father figure of Obi Wan Kenobi provides just that.
The Devil - Darth Vader
The personification of Evil, in appearance and deeds. He represents the bonding goal that links the protagonists to the audience.
What Lucas does astoundingly well is fill in these characters with rich detail, yet never overcomplicates them. The heroes are easy to relate to, they interact in a way that is appealing and entertaining, which makes us a part of their group and consequently their quest. The characters make the story, if we don't relate to them, an epic tale like this will never work. By making them archetypes it is easier for us to relate to them. It is the simplest trick in the book, but the hardest one to get right.
Escapism
Entertainment should entertain. It has to be fun, thrilling and easy. The biggest mistake most modern films of this kind make is that they equal this to either being extremely shallow or extremely overcomplicated. What A New Hope gives us is a perfect piece of escapist entertainment. It is unpretentious, well made and, most importantly, fun. Again, simplicity is key. I don't know why, but there are only a handful of films that seem to possess the quality to automatically transport you to a different mindset, one where you can leave 'life' behind you and just 'be' there, in that seat, watching that film and being entertained. Most of these films were made a while ago, at least, I don't come across them that often anymore. Don't get me wrong, there is a lot of 'popcorn fluff' out there to have fun with, but that's not the same. I'm talking about that exhilaration of being swept along on a ride in which you don't want to blink for fear of missing anything. A feeling of being totally immersed in a story. A New Hope did that for me and still does. It just balances everything perfectly and it is truly original in its execution. And that's the main problem with the aforementioned 'fluff', they are hardly ever truly original. A dime a dozen does not provide an escape route to the bliss of a distracted yet entertained mind, true excellence on all levels most definitely does.
This long ramble is not meant to disqualify any modern film, I wrote it to try and explain why this film is what it is to me. And what it is to me is my fail safe for a bit of escapism, something we all need from time to time and something films like this should always achieve to provide. Of the handful of films that possess this quality for me, this one will always be my favourite.