Star Wars
“Great shot kid, that was one in a million.”
It’s just the absolute best man. So fun, so enjoyable, so entertaining, so quotable, so brilliant. Focused a lot on the production design this time around, and it’s undeniably some of the absolute best in any piece of science fiction. The designs of the droids, ships, blasters, lightsabers, interiors, buildings, creatures, aliens, costumes, computer screens, lights. Everything is designed so well, and with such a great style.
Not that I was around in 1977 and have anything to compare it to really, but watching this and thinking about how this single film spawned such an unbelievably expansive fictional world is so cool. There is such a ridiculous amount of fan content, extended universe stuff, comics, shows, films, books etc now and it is crazy that this one movie started it all.
Another thing I enjoyed a lot on this rewatch, is seeing how other films inspired the original Star Wars trilogy, especially this one. I obviously would not have picked up any of these references or inspirations during my many viewings as a younger kid, but it’s so cool to notice them now. The production design is obviously very reminiscent of Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, there’s the Hidden Fortress inspirations, C3PO looking very similar to the robot woman (I haven’t watched it yet) from Metropolis, and a bunch of other stuff I noticed/have read about. This film - as well as its sequels and probably even more so it’s prequels - are also very very interesting if you look at them through a political lens. George Lucas has said that the original trilogy is inspired by/based on the Vietnam war, and that is such an interesting aspect to delve into as well.
I’ve watched the original Star Wars trilogy more times that I can count. This franchise and universe has always had a special place in my heart. I’ll never forgive George Lucas for the abomination that is the Jabba scene though. Or most of the changes to be honest. Still a great film, but please for the love of all that is holy and sacred, please can we get a good, official blu ray/4k release of the original versions of the original trilogy.