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…

Why five stars I hear you ask?
Well..... here's why:

- It has some of the most memorable film characters ever.

- the Millennium Falcon

- the garbage disposal scene

- 'May the Force be with you'

- Light Sabres

- Jedis

- Peter frickin' Cushing

- James frickin' Earl frickin' Jones

- Alec frickin' Guinness

- my horrible Chewbacca impression of which I am insanely proud

- 'Stay on target!'

- tan tan tan tantá tan tantá tan

- Jawas

- Hyperspace!

- the choke hold

- 'And now, your highness, we will discuss the location of your
hidden rebel base. '

- Mos Eisly

- the Greedo-Solo showdown

- the best opening scene ever

- 'Help me, Obi-Wan…

Since it would be redundant to review a movie that everyone and their mother knows by heart and already has an opinion on, I'd instead like to comment on the modern CGI additions, from the unbiased point of view of someone relatively indifferent to Star Wars. In fact, if anything I went in biased towards supporting Lucas' modern changes, assuming the complaints regarding his tampering with the past were just the whining of overzealous fanboys. Well, they aren't, at least not entirely.

In the Tatooine city where Luke meets Han Solo, Lucas and his modern CGI team abandon subtlety altogether, baldly inserting brand new overhead shots of the city that clash terribly with the 70s footage. Everything made from modern…

I watched the original version and the 2004 version. Honestly, apart from the godawful Jabba and Biggs scenes that were added in 1997, it's easily the film that's been the least harmed by the revisions. There's a few bits where some extra creatures have been added, and there's the scene in the Death Star where Han runs into thousands of storm troopers. But for the most part, it's not too distracting compared to the changes in the other two. [oh, I forgot about "Greedo shot first" - that's bad]

I don't mind that Lucas borrowed. Shakespeare stole a lot of his greatest ideas, and it seems to be okay with most people. Lucas took the ideas that had been floating…

That's no moon. It's a space station.
-Obi-Wan

It is the film that started it all. It is no exaggeration that it changed movies forever. I think most people can agree on that, while they might have a problem on agreeing how good the movie is. I don't think anyone can watch it today for the first time and be objectionable. The original movie is too much a part of our culture. People who have never watched Star Wars still know who Darth Vader is. They know what a lightsaber and Jedi are. Hell they've even heard of the Millennium Falcon and that's just a space ship.

What ends up happening is the first film is sometimes accused of being…