Star Wars (1977)

Directed by George Lucas. Starring Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Alec Guinness, Anthony Daniels, Kenny Baker, Peter Cushing, Peter Mayhew, David Prowse, Alex McCrindle, Phil Brown, Shelagh Fraser, Garrick Hagon, (voice) James Earl Jones. [PG]

The classic whiz-bang B-movie nucleus packaged as a headline feature, this visionary space opera/fairy tale broke the mold and changed Hollywood forever. Its central story and characterizations are straight out of tropeville (bits of Flash Gordon and Edgar Rice Burroughs, a heavy dollop of Kurosawa’s The Hidden Fortress, and so on, to say nothing for mythologist Joseph Campbell’s “hero’s journey” concept), but the trappings are a dream come true for anyone with a youthful spirit, a fantastical imagination, and a thirst for adventure. Equal parts heart and hardware, propelled by groundbreaking special effects, nicely lived-in sets and costumes, plus John Williams’ unforgettable music (taking away just this one ingredient casts its staggering success in doubt); what it lacks in depth and originality, it more than makes up for in sheer exuberance of image and sound and comic-book thrills. Guinness (in the flesh) and Jones (in the pipes) stand out in the cast; Ford is a bit stiff at times, but his anti-heroic space cowboy still rates as one of the coolest hombres in cinematic history. Launched not only a boatload of theatrical sequels and spin-offs, but a whole fictional universe reaching into the realms of television, literature, video, and enough merchandise to fill a thousand warehouses. Later sub-titled Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope.

92/100