The original Star Wars trilogy is considered one of the best film trilogies in history. [161] Although most changes are minor or cosmetic in nature, many fans and critics believe that Lucas degraded the film with the additions. [7] For the film's 20th anniversary in 1997, Star Wars was digitally remastered with some altered scenes and re-released to theaters, along with The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, under the campaign title Star Wars Trilogy: Special Edition. Francis Ford Coppola, who needed money to finish Apocalypse Now, sent a telegram to Lucas's hotel asking for funding. This list of characters from the Star Wars franchise contains only those which are considered part of the official Star Wars canon, as of the changes made by Lucasfilm in April 2014. Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope. [26] Alex McCrindle portrays General Jan Dodonna, Alfie Curtis portrays Dr. Evazan and Peter Geddis portrays Captain Raymus Antilles. [51] This script would be re-written for the fourth and final draft, dated January 1, 1976, as The Adventures of Luke Starkiller as taken from the Journal of the Whills, Saga I: The Star Wars. "[166][167][168], Star Wars required extensive recovery of misplaced footage and restoration of the whole film before Lucas's Special Edition modifications could be attempted. It was all a gray mess, and the robots were just a blur." Test your knowledge on this movies quiz and compare your score to others. "[48] Kurtz said, "Although Star Wars wasn't like [then-current science fiction] at all, it was just sort of lumped into that same kind of category. As the group arrives in the asteroid field that now stands in place of Alderaan, Han spots an Imperial TIE fighter and is taunted into chasing it and shooting it down, allowing the Falcon to be captured by the space station's tractor beam. Clips from both films were included in Lucas's temporary dogfight footage version of the sequence. [77] Other locations included the sand dunes of the Tunisian desert near Nafta, where a scene featuring a giant skeleton of a creature lying in the background as R2-D2 and C-3PO make their way across the sands was filmed. [118][119], The influence of The Hidden Fortress can be seen in the relationship between C-3PO and R2-D2, which evolved from the two bickering peasants, Tahei and Matashichi, and a Japanese family crest seen in the earlier film is similar to the Imperial Crest. [35] United Artists also passed on Lucas' space-opera concept, which he shelved for the time being. After requests from the team that "it had to be more," the executives "got a bit scared. [48][135] Lucas himself was not able to predict how successful Star Wars would be. With so many more characters being introduced in Star Wars 9, many worry that J.J. Abrams is creating a whole new batch of Peg Warmers for weary fans who just don't want to … Lucas worked with his friends Gloria Katz and Willard Huyck to revise the fourth draft into the final pre-production script. Lucas would later deny having ever conceived using extant music for the film. It goes on forever. When the film opened in British theaters, the Hildebrandts' Style ‘B’ poster was used in cinema billboards. [7] Foster also wrote the sequel novel Splinter of the Mind's Eye (1978) to be adapted as a low-budget film if Star Wars was not a financial success. [239], The film also received twelve nominations at the Saturn Awards, winning nine: Best Science Fiction Film, Best Direction and Best Writing for George Lucas, Best Supporting Actor for Alec Guinness, Best Music for John Williams, Best Costume for John Mollo, Best Make-up for Rick Baker and Stuart Freeborn, Best Special Effects for John Dykstra and John Stears, and Outstanding Editing for Paul Hirsch, Marcia Lucas and Richard Chew. [116][117] The film has also been compared to The Wizard of Oz. "[299] The Story of Star Wars was a 1977 record album presenting an abridged version of the events depicted in Star Wars, using dialogue and sound effects from the original film. However, in this draft, the father is a hero who is still alive at the start of the film. [101] Reynolds estimated this early cut contained "30-40%" different footage from the final cut, with most of the differences coming from extended cuts or alternate takes rather than deleted scenes. Darth Vader's breathing was achieved by Burtt breathing through the mask of a scuba regulator implanted with a microphone,[105] which began the idea of Vader having been a burn-victim, which was not the case during production. It is the first installment of the original Star Wars trilogy, the first of the franchise to be produced, and the fourth episode of the "Skywalker saga". [33] I'd stick things on them and we'd make things look old. This version of the film runs 124 minutes. This version ended with another text crawl, previewing the next story in the series. [109][110] However, all the script drafts (with the exception of one that Lucas doctored after the fact) describe Jabba as humanoid, the notion of him being an alien not having come up until work on the 1979 re-release, and scrapped until the Special Edition. "[241], The film has spawned a series of films consisting of three trilogies (including the original film), anthology films and an extensive media franchise called the Star Wars expanded universe including books, television series, computer and video games, and comic books. Lucas and Kurtz, in pitching the film, said that it would be "low-budget, Roger Corman style, and the budget was never going to be more than—well, originally we had proposed about 8 million, it ended up being about 10. [293], In addition to the film's multiple awards and nominations, Star Wars has also been recognized by the American Film Institute on several of its lists. "[82] Barry, Christian, and their team began designing the props and sets at Elstree Studios. [7][89] Post-production was equally stressful due to increasing pressure from 20th Century-Fox. Take your favorite fandoms with you and never miss a beat. On opening day I ... did a radio call-in show ... this caller, was really enthusiastic and talking about the movie in really deep detail. [91], Lucas commissioned computer programmer Larry Cuba to create the animated Death Star plans shown at the rebel base on Yavin 4. Star Wars debuted on Betamax,[173] CED,[174] LaserDisc,[175] Video 2000, and VHS[176][177] between the 1980s and 1990s by CBS/Fox Video. [92], After two and a half weeks of filming in Tunisia,[91] production moved to Elstree Studios, near London. [125], The opening shot of Star Wars, in which a detailed spaceship fills the screen overhead, is a reference to the scene introducing the interplanetary spacecraft Discovery One in Stanley Kubrick's seminal 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey. [47] Lucas called up for other cinematographers, and eventually chose Taylor, basing his choice on Taylor's cinematography for Dr. Strangelove and A Hard Day's Night (both 1964). "[155] In 2014, Kurtz recalled they had toyed with the idea "of calling it Episode III, IV, or V."[156][d] Hamill recalls having asked Lucas "Why are we doing episode four?" The record was produced by Buena Vista Records, and its content was copyrighted by Black Falcon, Ltd., a subsidiary of Lucasfilm "formed to handle the merchandising for Star Wars. 22 on its list of the "500 Greatest Movies of All Time";[287] in 2010, the film ranked among the "All-Time 100" list of the greatest films as chosen by Time magazine film critic Richard Schickel;[288] the film was also placed on a similar list created by The New York Times, "The New York Times Guide to the Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made";[289] in 2012, the film was included in Sight & Sound's prestigious decennial critics poll "Critics' Top 250 Films", ranking at 171st on the list, and in their directors poll at 224th. [122] Some of the dialogue in The Dam Busters is repeated in the Star Wars climax; Gilbert Taylor also filmed the special effects sequences in The Dam Busters. "[31] Lucas would later recontextualize the discussion around the film, saying it was born out of research into "psychological underpinings of mythology", a claim that had been dismissed by Kurtz as self-aggrandizing: "The whole idea of Star Wars as a mythological thing, I think came about because of [later Lucas] interviews that tied it to The Hero with a Thousand Faces"[49] and by Steven Hart and Michael Kaminski: "It is here that the true origin of Star Wars comes from -- not from myth and legend, but from the 'schlock' sold on newspapers stands and played in matinees. Directed by George Lucas. Harrison Ford found it strange that "there's a princess with weird buns in her hair", and called Chewbacca a "giant in a monkey suit. Hardware Wars, released in 1978, was one of the first fan films to parody Star Wars. The transfer led to problems with colors and digital image jarring. The book is told from the perspective of background characters in A New H… A whole new genre developed from that idea. "The Force" was also introduced as a mystical energy field. The final issue of the original theatrical release (pre-Special Edition) to VHS format occurred in 1995, as part of "Last Chance to Own the Original" campaign, available as part of a trilogy set and as a standalone purchase. [7] Kurtz stated that "it happened a lot where he would just say, 'Let's try it again a little bit faster.' Soon as someone comes in through the door, I stand up. [97] As production went on, Lucas still disapproved of Jympson's cut and fired him halfway through the film's production. But George saw it differently, so we tried using nets and other diffusion. As 20th Century-Fox gave little support for marketing beyond licensing T-shirts and posters, Lippincott was forced to look elsewhere. "[221] Lucas felt hurt at the accusations. "[100] In an examination of this early cut, which has come to be called the "Lost Cut", David West Reynolds noted the film adopted a "documentary-like" approach that emphasized "clarity, especially in geographic and spatial relationships" over "dramatic or artistic concerns". "10 of the best movie trilogies of all-time | 1. The main title page for the film's script had the lines of text and graphical elements: Some of Lucas's early script drafts bear titles such as. Lucas chose Hotel Sidi Driss, which is larger than the typical underground dwellings, to shoot the interior of Luke's homestead. Released in 1979, the 24-page Star Wars read-along book was accompanied by a 33⅓ rpm 7-inch phonograph record. [63] [a] In 1975 Lucas suggested he could make a trilogy, which "ends with the destruction of the Empire" and a possible prequel "about the backstory of Kenobi as a young man." [206][3][207][208] Internationally, the reissue grossed $117.2 million, with $26 million from the United Kingdom and $15 million from Japan. Imperial Senator Princess Leia of Alderaan, secretly one of the Rebellion's leaders, has obtained its schematics, but her starship is intercepted by an Imperial Star Destroyer under the command of the ruthless Darth Vader. "[269], In its May 30, 1977 issue, the film's year of release, Time magazine named Star Wars the "Movie of the Year." The word for this movie is fun. [34][116] Star Wars features many elements derived from Flash Gordon, such as the conflict between rebels and Imperial Forces, the wipes between scenes, the fusion of futuristic technology and traditional mythology, and the famous opening crawl that begins each film. I read it through a few times and fixed some stuff. Christian said that Lucas "didn't want anything [in Star Wars] to stand out, he wanted it [to look] all real and used. He commented: "Unfortunately it didn't work out. Before the Falcon can reach Alderaan, Death Star commander Grand Moff Tarkin interrogates Leia about the location of the Rebels's secret base, with the threat of destroying her home planet, and, when she answers that the base is on Dantooine, he orders Alderaan destroyed simply as a show of force. [7][268][269], Filmmakers who have said to have been influenced by Star Wars include James Cameron, J.J. Abrams, Damon Lindelof, Dean Devlin, Gareth Edwards,[270] Roland Emmerich, John Lasseter,[271] David Fincher, Peter Jackson, Joss Whedon, Christopher Nolan, Ridley Scott, John Singleton, and Kevin Smith. Lucas later said that the group was honest and seemed bemused by the film. "[32] During production, he changed Luke's name from Starkiller to Skywalker[7] and altered the title to The Star Wars and later Star Wars. The lighting approach Taylor devised "allowed George to shoot in almost any direction without extensive relighting, which gave him more freedom. [6] 35mm reels of the 1997 Special Edition were initially presented for preservation because of the difficulty of transferring from the original prints,[170] but it was later revealed that the Library possessed a copyright deposit print of the original theatrical release. [211], —Roger Ebert, in his review for the Chicago Sun-Times[212], The film was met with critical acclaim upon its release. "[294] In 2012, the Star Wars action figures were inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame. '"[47] The crew split into three units, with those units led by Lucas, Kurtz, and production supervisor Robert Watts. The lightsaber sound effect was developed by Burtt as a combination of the hum of idling interlock motors in aged movie projectors and interference caused by a television set on a shieldless microphone. It's very hard when you are hiring people to know if they are going to mesh with you and if you are going to get what you want. 'Star Wars'—A Trip to a Far Galaxy That's Fun and Funny... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f00IkrWvur4, Exclusive Hyperspace commentary on the film, The Princess, the Scoundrel, and the Farm Boy, The Adventures of Luke Skywalker, Jedi Knight, Star Wars in Pictures: The Original Trilogy, Darth Vader's Mission: The Search for the Secret Plans, Empire Building: The Remarkable Real Life Story of Star Wars, Star Wars Storyboards: The Original Trilogy, https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Star_Wars:_Episode_IV_A_New_Hope?oldid=9693430, 125 minutes (Special Edition, DVD, Blu-ray and Digital HD), The music associated to the opening capture of the blockade runner is very similar to, The music for the awards ceremony at the end of the movie begins with "the Force/Ben's Theme," and then transitions into a theme that, in the liner notes, Williams says is reminiscent of "The Coronation," which probably refers to, The music for C-3PO's and R2-D2's arrival on Tatooine is very similar to the beginning of the second part, titled. 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