Star Wars Day IV: A New Hope (1977)

Impressions from the fourth movie. Just in case you’ve managed to not see the movies, here be spoilers:

• This is the one that started it all. I can’t help thinking of my Aunt Ann, who took me to see this at the drive-in theater in 1977. I was eight, and you can imagine the impression it made on me. We’d gone to the mall before the movie and I’d gotten a copy of the novelization, which I devoured once I got back to my aunt’s house. My mind was buzzing — I can easily travel back to that time and reinhabit the moment with my eight-year-old self.
• The classic, mostly improved in this special edition save for one particularly egregious moment that will go unremarked. (COUGH-Greedo-COUGH!)…except this is the newest release, with both versions available. Thank goodness.
• It wouldn’t be Star Wars without the Cantina Band — Figrin D’an and the Modal Nodes.
• Also, they really should’ve given Chewie a medal.
• Despite the retroactive nature of things, it’s an entertaining exercise ascribing memories and motivations to Obi-Wan and Darth Vader based on the previous movies today.

More on this topic later, but I see no disparity between this and the newer movies — one of the main bones of contention with the haters is how bad the acting and storylines are in the newer movies. There is not that much difference to me, apart from the special effects of course. This is not high art, nor are they supposed to be. These are pulp movies, perhaps the most elaborate and well-done pulp movies ever made.

I love pulp movies. I loved the childhood Saturday morning movies (once matinee serials) that these Star Wars were tributes to. This and another absolute favorite of mine are love songs to the past. Are there problems with them all? Certainly. But if you spend all your time trying to find every flaw and inconsistency, you will lose the greater whole. What was it Emerson said? “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.”

Next: Hoth!