The One That Started It All: Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope (1977)

Greetings, you stuck-up, scruffy-looking nerf herders! As the final chapter of the Skywalker Saga hits theaters with Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, my Master, Robin of the Jedi Council tasked me with a very crucial assignment – one worthy of the Archives of the Jedi: an honest retrospective of the Star Wars series, episodes I-VIII!

From now up until the the release of Episode IX, I’ll be your guide as we look back on the good, the bad and the Jar Jar, and how this series has endured for 40 years. We begin the journey back where this whole affair began – Episode IV.

On second thought, this will be tougher than I realize, because, in reality? There isn’t a thing I can say about A New Hope that hasn’t already been said, gushed about and praised from one quadrant of the galaxy to the other.

This one film has inspired countless filmmakers. It has been on many a rankings list of the most important films in cinematic history. And in the genre of science fiction, and enchanted generations of viewers. It’s given us dozens of novelizations, over a half-dozen animated shows based within the universe. Two sequels from 1980 to 1983, a prequel trilogy from 1999-2005, an sequel trilogy, two anthology spin-offs. And…The Star Wars Holiday Special, but we don’t talk about…that thing.

Point being: A New Hope is a classic. You all know the story (and for those of you who have recently come out of hyperspace – welcome!). The galaxy’s in the midst of a civil war. The Galactic Empire are scowling one end of the universe to the other in search of two droids who hold the galaxy’s most crucial secret. The plans to the Death Star, a space station capable of destruction on a planetary scale.

The Rebel Alliance believe within these plans, a weakness can be found within the Empire’s new destructive battle station. And could tip the scales closer to restoring peace and freedom to the galaxy. By twist of fate, the plans, placed inside two droids, C-3PO (Anthony Daniels) and R2-D2, have fallen into the care of a farm boy, Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamil).

Seeing it as his ticket out of his home planet of Tattoine, Luke accompanies Jedi Master Obi-Won Kenobi (Alec Guinness). Along with cocky smuggler/pilot Han Solo (Harrison Ford) and his co-pilot, the Wookie Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew). To rescue Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher). One of the main figures in the Alliance, in the clutches of the Empire, and to safely deliver her and the plans to the Rebel base on Yavin 4. Before the Empire’s most sinister and ruthless agent, Darth Vader (voiced by James Earl Jones), acquires them first.

I should tell you that I’m a child of the 1990s, so Star Wars didn’t enter my life until 1997. The year 20th Century Fox (not owned by the House of Mouse at the time) brought back all three installments to theaters in celebration of its 25th anniversary. So I was not prepared to stand in line for almost two-and-a-half hours to purchase a ticket with my parents. Who were, along with the hundreds of adults standing in line, ecstatic to re-live a part of their nostalgia as children and teenagers when this was released in May of 1977.

It was, perhaps, one of the all-time magical experiences I’ve ever had at a theater in my life. There was a buzz that was palpable throughout the auditorium. People cheered when the lights turned down. They cheered for the previews (including for some luxury cruise ship movie that, little did we know, would take over the freaking world in December of that year), they cheered for the studio’s logos, the text crawl. And they were even humming along to the damn opening themes!

I had never seen an audience this invested, this excited for a film before. And by the film’s climactic third act – Luke Skywalker joining the Rebel pilots, storming into space to destroy the Death Star, that contact high had long hit me. When Han Solo came in to save Luke’s bacon, I was roaring along with the crowd. And when the Death Star exploded into oblivion, there wasn’t a person sitting down in their seat. Popcorn bags were flung from aisle to aisle. Not a hand was silent, nor a voice not cheering at their highest decibel.

A former colleague, whose name shall rename nameless, once said that the movie were the closest thing to magic we’ll ever have. If that’s the case, then every last person who worked on Star Wars: A New Hope should be considered master magicians.

There are are a handful of times where I have found this statement to be true. In 2001 with Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone & The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. In 2002 with Miyazaki’s Spirited Away. 2003 with Tarantino’s Kill Bill Vol. 1. 2007 with Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood. And in 2010 with David Fincher’s The Social Network.

All of these movies share one common thread: there’s no way these films should work as well as they do. They leave me optimistic about what the power of film can do to a young boy, growing into a young man. The feeling that I’ve seen something that matters, the stories, familiar as they might seem, can tell in new and exciting ways.

And in this power, I believe, is Episode IV‘s enduring legacy . We are Luke Skywalker, that boy in some nowhere part of the world, yearning to break free and forge our own fates. We are Han Solo, that arrogant, yet undeniably cool and rouge-ish friend. Whose bravado gets us into many adventures, as well as trouble.

We are Princess Leia, an important figure in some brave resistance to tyranny. Who refuses to wait around for her rescuers to come save her backside and can stop even the most devilish of scoundrels in their tracks. We are Darth Vader. The most bad ass and intimidating mofo to ever Force choke fools who we find their lack of faith in the power of the Force disturbing. We are all these characters that George Lucas has created. And whatever part of the galaxy we’re in is grateful for it.