Review: Star Wars IV A New Hope Is The Best Kind Of Campy Fun
- Dec 1, 2017
- 2 min read
The years is 1977 and an icon is born. Yellow text scrolls over a star field, regaling the audience with tales epic battles amongst the stars. A small ship flees across space, soon to be dwarfed by a titan. The film is Star Wars, and the world will never be the same again.
A young Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) has his life violently turned upside down after coming into possession of two droids, C3PO (Anthony Daniels) and R2D2 (Kenny Baker). After his aunt and uncle are slaughtered by the soldiers of the galactic empire, he joins forces with Obi Wan Kenobi (Alec Guiness) in an effort to save rebel princess Leia Organa (Carrie Fisher). Along the way they pick up smuggling duo Han Solo (Harrison Ford) and Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew) and are rapidly drawn into a war, one that will put them in the way of the murderous Darth Vader (David Prowse/ James Earl Jones) and the scheming Grand Moff Tarkin (Peter Cushing). The stage is set for a battle that will determine the fate of the galaxy.
Is A New Hope a perfect film? No. The acting is hit and miss, the writing is all over the place and many of George Lucas' "improvements" are less than stellar, but you know what? I don't care. Between introducing cinemas greatest villains, one of cinemas coolest dudes, pulling off some truly great effects, actually having some solid acting from veteran thespians and one of the greatest soundtracks ever recorded, well, it's a good time as far as I'm concerned.
But hey, you don't need me to tell you that. Several billion dollars and forty years of unending success have that covered. A New Hope is a film I've watched more time than I care to count, Flaws aside, it is quite handily one of the most significant, and most entertaining films ever put to screen. If, by some cruel twist of fate, you've never seen it, or its simply been a while since your last viewing, well, there's no time like the present.
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