Star Wars
God, where does one begin when talking about Star Wars, especially George Lucas’s original 1977 film?
This film is objectively perfect. The effects were groundbreaking and still look incredible, the way John Williams sets the mood with his soundtrack (it’s the only film soundtrack I’ve ever bought), the ability of the cast (Alec Guinness having a thousand yard stare for a war George hadn’t written yet!) and the settings and worldbuilding Lucas gives you with just this one movie is phenomenal. I can’t imagine what the crowds in 1977 were wondering - what were the Clone Wars? What happened to the Jedi? Can the Rebel Alliance really defeat the Galactic Empire? - and yet the film gives you enough to stand on its own.
For some time I had dismissed A New Hope. “It’s the first release in the saga,” I’d tell myself, “it’s got some bumps and Lucas really used it to iron some things out.”
And then I saw it at a drive in. My god, that’s when it finally hit me. The visuals and the soundtrack were absolutely made purely for the theater experience; it’s incredible now, it must have been mind blowing at the time.
If you haven’t seen this movie, what are you waiting for? Even if you don’t watch the rest of the saga (and you should watch it), A New Hope is a classic.