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| Star Wars: Episode IV – A
New Hope Starring:
Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Peter Cushing,
Alec Guinness, Anthony Daniels, Kenny Baker, Peter Mayhew,
David Prowse, James Earl Jones
Directed by: George Lucas
Star Wars: Episode V –
The Empire Strikes Back
Starring: Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford,
Carrie Fisher, Billy Dee Williams, Alec Guinness,
Anthony Daniels, Kenny Baker, Peter Mayhew, David Prowse,
James Earl Jones, Frank Oz, Jeremy Bulloch
Directed by: Irvin Kershner |
Star Wars: Episode VI –
Return of the Jedi Starring:
Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Billy Dee Williams,
Alec Guinness, Anthony Daniels, Kenny Baker, Peter Mayhew,
David Prowse, James Earl Jones, Frank Oz, Ian McDiarmid,
Sebastian Shaw
Directed by: Richard Marquand
Theatrical Releases: 1977-1983
DVD Release: 2004
Released by: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround EX
Widescreen (anamorphic) |
My date with the past did not begin well. I
fell asleep halfway through Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope. This is, in
fact, the first movie in the series, the one that created the franchise, but in terms of Star
Wars chronology it's the fourth, a naming convention that The Star Wars Trilogy
upholds. The dramatic flow of the film fell flat after the classic opening shot of the
Imperial Star Destroyer and Princess Leia’s capture. Luke Skywalker’s
introduction on Tatooine and the siege of the Death Star felt painfully slow and
unexciting. This was through no fault of the acting, which I consider light years ahead of
the embarrassment illustrated in the more recently released episodes. Mark Hamill
impressed me with his balance and emotional restraint. Luke acts like an anxious teenager
without coming off as a spoiled brat. Hayden Christensen, take note: subtlety can mean the
difference between believable acting and caricature.
| Revisiting Star Wars: A
Personal Recollection I was living in
Washington, D.C., and four years into recovery from a near fatal bout with alcohol. I was
drifting, unable to find a higher power, which people in the know had told me I must have
to continue a successful recovery. I hadn’t heard anything about Star Wars,
until some friends suggested that I must see it. We stood in line all the way around the
block to get into the Wisconsin Avenue Cinema Theater in upper northwest Washington, where
the film was to play for something like two years.
I was completely mesmerized by the movie. Its special
effects were innovative; its symphonic music thrilling, and its characters appealing.
Moreover, it brought a rush of childlike wonder and wisdom with its clear-cut
good-versus-evil script. I went out and bought one of the beginning-to-be-rare Hildebrant
posters, had it framed and put it on my wall, where it still hangs to this day. I bought
the two-LP soundtrack album. It had a poster of the Death Star battle inside. That, too,
got framed and is still hanging on the wall of my home-theater room. I bought a plastic
model kit of the X-Wing fighter, and that completed craft hangs from the ceiling as I
write this. I adopted The Force as my higher power. Star Wars saved my ass, and
possibly my life.
Time passed and I embraced The Empire Strikes Back
as even better than Star Wars. I got to see what the Dark Side of The Force was all
about and surely wanted to avoid it. By this time, my friends and I were all speaking Star
Wars lingo, and "may The Force be with you" was a standard parting phrase.
With Return of the Jedi, I could see a disturbance in The Force and it was called
Ewok. Hundreds of the furry critters. You could smell the marketing. Then came Episodes
One and Two, CGI showpieces that were not worthy to be shown in the same galaxy as the
originals. In the wonderful documentary found on disc four of this handsomely produced DVD
set, George Lucas says that he has become the enemy he despised, the corporate head he
challenged. He has crossed over, become his own Darth Vader.
It shows in his work. Rather than give us his original
vision on DVD, he has twiddled and made a "corporate" version of Star Wars,
darkening the basic color scheme, and adding CGI effects, including a particularly jarring
Jabba. He has taken the dream and made it into corporate nightmare. Newcomers to the film
will not notice, though Anthony Di Marco, in his astute review, has felt something
amiss. We haven’t changed, Anthony, Lucas has. To those of us who experienced the
magic of 1977, Star Wars has lost its innocence and been corrupted. The Force is
still with me, but I wonder if Lucas hasn’t settled for money and the false idea that
more is better.
...Rad Bennett
radb@hometheatersound.com |
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The Empire Strikes Back continues to defend its
crown as the darkest, most dramatically engrossing chapter of the series, while Return
of the Jedi benefits from a cast whose chemistry has jelled over time. A thrilling
Imperial Speeder bike chase through the forest of Endor and an exciting climax more than
make up for those damned cutesy Ewoks. I smiled at Han Solo’s wisecracking swagger,
relished Leia’s natural beauty and marveled at special effects where attention to
detail eclipses the often flat-looking CGI effects of recent Episodes.
Lucas may not have been the greatest writer but no one can
question his knack for plot reversals and archetypal characterization. The scene in Empire
where Luke finds out that Darth Vader is his father and the scene in Jedi where
Luke faces down Vader and the Emperor are classic in scale and mythic ambition. The look
in the Emperor’s eyes as he directs tendrils of blue lighting at the young Jedi
Knight embodied an evil as vicious as I’ve ever seen in cinema. Still, despite these
moments I found the experience lacked the sense of wonder and immediacy I felt as a boy.
Was it because they really were average films, or because my perspective had changed?
I found perspective when I watched the high quality, if not
generous number, of extras. The feature-length commentaries offered some good
insight into the rigors of production, peppered with funny anecdotes. However, a lot of
what was contained in these commentaries could be gleaned from the excellent collection of
documentaries.
There are a total of four documentaries. Three are
20-minute shorts on particular aspects of the productions and Star Wars culture.
Each is well done and very informative, yet do not equal the quality of Empire of
Dreams: The Story of the Star Wars Trilogy. The two and one-half hour retrospective is
quite possibly the best, most thorough documentary I have yet to see offered on DVD. It
begins with some background on George Lucas: how his first film THX 1138 got him
noticed and how American Graffiti ultimately launched his career. One of the more
interesting and entertaining aspects of the documentary chronicled each actor’s
reservations about the production. Criticisms surrounded the film’s plot; the
script’s flowery aristocratic dialogue and Lucas’s introverted directing style
all came under fire. Twentieth Century Fox’s constant micromanaging did not help
matters. Luckily for Lucas, Fox’s head of feature production, Alan Ladd Jr., believed
in the young filmmaker’s vision. Ladd’s support coupled with Lucas’s
resolve kept Star Wars alive. This determination to realize a dream gave me a
renewed respect for George Lucas.
I can’t see how any of the three films could look any
better. There were times when I just stared in amazement at the level of detail and
resolution that Lucas and his team managed to pull from each print. Scenes shot on set
exhibited HD-like resolution. Close-ups revealed marvelously pure and palpable skin tones.
Whites and blacks possessed a solidity that many current transfers barely muster. Darth
Vader’s costume shimmered with beautifully rich blacks, while the walls within the
Death Star and the hulls of the spacecraft possessed detail that easily suspended
disbelief. There are some scenes that suffer from a bit too much filtering. Softness is
apparent in the interiors of Jabba the Hutt’s lair and the deserts of Tatooine. These
instances are the exception, not the rule.
The newly remixed 5.1 soundtrack is also impressive.
Surrounds are always active without being distracting, and John Williams’ classic
score possesses excellent dynamics. Dialogue does have a tendency to sound a little flat
at times. Much of the dialogue sounds like it was reprocessed from the original source
tapes, while the sound effects, like the unique dynamic sizzle of light sabers, seem
rerecorded.
One point repeated during the documentaries is how the
first three Star Wars films triggered a historical shift in the way films are made.
It was the technical successes that made these films memorable. And this may be why the
newer films feel like cashing-in rather than as closure for fans. The new films cannot be
considered revolutionary in terms of technology or story when people have seen the likes
of Jurassic Park and The Lord of the Rings. They can only be regarded with a
sentimental eye. |
