1977
DIRECTOR: GEORGE LUCAS PRODUCER: GARY KURTZ SCREENPLAY: GEORGE LUCAS STARRING: MARK HAMILL (LUKE SKYWALKER), HARRISON FORD (HAN SOLO), CARRIE FISHER (PRINCESS LEIA ORGANA), PETER CUSHING (GRAND MOFF TARKIN), ALEC GUINNESS (BEN OBI-WAN KENOBI), ANTHONY DANIELS (C-3PO), KENNY BAKER (R2-D2), PETER MAYHEW (CHEWBACCA), JAMES EARL JONES (VOICE OF DARTH VADER)
Star Wars
TWENTIETH CENTURY-FOX • COLOR, 121 MINUTES
A young man from a remote planet trains with a master warrior and joins the galactic rebellion against an evil empire.
Star Wars not only changed the face of science fiction, it actually changed the world. Today, more than forty years after its debut, the saga’s popularity shows no sign of waning. Described as a “space fantasy” (by producer Gary Kurtz) and a “space opera” (by writer/director George Lucas), Star Wars is a far-out fusion of mythology, Hollywood Westerns, Errol Flynn swashbucklers, 1930s Flash Gordon serials, live-action Disney classics such as Treasure Island (1950), Akira Kurosawa films, and a dash of The Wizard of Oz (1939). Creator George Lucas drew upon old influences to produce something wholly new—a sci-fi-flavored adventure the Los Angeles Times called “the ultimate tribute to the past.” Unlike most science-fiction tales, Star Wars is set not in the future, but “a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.”
With no opening credits and only an old-fashioned screen crawl to establish the backstory, Lucas drops the audience in the middle of an intergalactic battle. We catch on easily enough, thanks to the engaging characters: comical droids R2-D2 and C-3PO (the Laurel and Hardy of robots) lead us to the spunky Princess Leia, described by actress Carrie Fisher as more of a “distressing damsel” than a damsel in distress. Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker leaps boldly to Leia’s rescue, embarking on the quest of a lifetime with gruff star pilot Han Solo, played by Harrison Ford. The sonorous voice of James Earl Jones (as Darth Vader) and the established British stars Peter Cushing and Sir Alec Guinness (as Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi) provide enough weight to anchor the space-fairy tale, lending it a mythic quality.
Though it spawned popular sequels, the first film—later retitled Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope—remains an undisputed classic. It is the least self-conscious of the series. Nobody involved in the film expected it to take the world by storm, except maybe Lucas, the man with the vision. “Where are the romance, the adventure, and the fun that used to be in practically every movie ever made?” Lucas asked himself upon completing the cruising comedy American Graffiti (1973). After his groundbreaking but somber sci-fi THX 1138 (1971), the young director learned a lesson with his follow-up: “I discovered that making positive films is exhilarating.” He poured that exhilaration into Star Wars, a happily-ever-after epic without a trace of THX’s cynicism.
While the script for American Graffiti had taken him three weeks, Lucas labored over the Star Wars screenplay for two years, yielding enough material for three films—a trilogy. Despite the director’s success with Graffiti, the Star Wars treatment was rejected by both Universal and United Artists. Finally, Twentieth Century-Fox executive Alan Ladd Jr. agreed to green-light the project for the low figure of $8 million, though he struggled to get the studio to grasp the vision. “How do you do a synopsis of this movie for a board of directors?” Ladd said. “Imagine saying, ‘There is a Wookiee named Chewbacca and…’ The company was going through a bad period anyway. [They] decided to go with it, and then fortunately didn’t ask a lot of questions.”
After eighteen grueling months of shooting in England, Tunisia, Guatemala, and Death Valley, Fox threatened to shut the production down when it fell behind schedule and over budget. Working feverishly to save his film—and to perfect the optical effects he and his team at the newly formed Industrial Light & Magic created from scratch—Lucas was rewarded beyond his wildest dreams when Star Wars opened in May of 1977. Young and old alike flocked to see the timeless hero’s journey with the whimsical details around every corner: the alien band in the cantina, the elegant sabers of light, the ramshackle Millennium Falcon speeding through the galaxy, and, of course, the soaring, triumphant John Williams score. The screen had never experienced anything like it before. It collected seven Academy Awards and sold over $400 million in tickets, leading the press to dub it “the most successful film of all time.”
Mark Hamill promotes Star Wars in 1977.
Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, and Harrison Ford
Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia
As executive producer, Lucas rounded out his trilogy with The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Return of the Jedi (1983), and helmed a string of prequels, starting in 1999. Pioneering the modern blockbuster mentality, the Star Wars series ushered in the age of repeat screenings and crowds camping out for days to buy tickets. It revolutionized the sci-fi genre, initiated the special-effects industry as we know it, set the stage for the large-scale fantasy franchises (Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter), and marked the first time T-shirts and toys grossed more revenue than the movie itself. Even the spiritual aspect of Star Wars has proven a lasting phenomenon; in a 2001 U.K. census, 390,000 people stated their religion as Jedi, making it the fourth-largest belief system surveyed.
FAR-OUT FACTS
MIND-BLOWING MOMENT
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