| Collector's Corner May 2005
 Star
WarsStarring: Mark Hamill,
Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Peter Cushing, Alec Guinness,
Anthony Daniels, Kenny Baker, Peter Mayhew, David Prowse
Directed by: George Lucas
Theatrical release: 1977
DVD release: 2004
Video: Widescreen
Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
Released by: 20th Century Fox Home
Entertainment
The film ultimately is about a
young farm boy and a young princess.
-- George Lucas
With the purported final chapter of the Star Wars
saga here, there is a certain group -- curmudgeons, if you will -- who are waiting to see
if Star Wars: Episode III -- Revenge of the Sith will be a train wreck, or if it
will live up to the high standard of the first two films. The maven of the series
hasn’t given us a lot to look forward to, but hope springs eternal. After all, he did
create Star Wars.
I’m old enough to have seen the original Star Wars
on opening day in 1977 -- a Wednesday, not the usual Friday, but then, everyone thought
the film would bomb. Smokey and the Bandit was slated to open two days later in a
wide release on 498 screens. 20th Century Fox had to use strong-arm tactics to force 43
theaters in the entire US to show Star Wars, but they hoped those extra two days
might allow them to get at least some audience before Smokey stole the whole
audience.
None of us in the line waiting to see Star Wars knew
very much about it. It was directed by George Lucas, who’d directed American
Graffiti, so that was cool. The newspaper advertisements were stunning. And it was
that most uncommon of beasts in the Western world of 1977: a high-budget science-fiction
film. That was enough to get several hundred of us to line up at the General Cinema in
Dallas for the afternoon premiere.
The General had a huge, curved screen, the best sound
system in the state, and could hold an enormous number of people. From John Williams’
thundering opening chords, Lucas had us in his grasp -- but we were dumbfounded when we
heard sound coming from behind us.
For the next two hours, the audience laughed, cried,
gasped, and applauded. All of us felt as if we’d been through a startlingly powerful
communal experience, one that left many jumping back in the next line to see it again.
Small groups of strangers formed outside the theater, talking about the film and why it
had moved them so much. While everyone raved about the effects (especially the
nausea-inducing dogfights), the number one topic on everyone’s mind was the spiritual
dimension.
Could a science-fiction film make people ponder their
mystical and religious selves?
A special effect is a tool, a means of telling a story.
A special effect without a story is a pretty boring thing.
-- George Lucas
Star Wars was and is special precisely because it
contemplates issues larger than the average film. But it never descends into a boring
diatribe on spirituality. Instead, Lucas’ story is a masterpiece of intertwining
engaging themes that attract audiences, and Lucas does that intertwining in a novel way.
The adventure fan is given a fresh take on combining three
of the most popular forms: the western, the seafaring tale, and the World War II battle
film. The western lover gets a damsel in distress being rescued by a hayseed country boy
and a hotshot gunslinger-for-hire. C-3PO and R2-D2 are characters lifted out of John
Ford’s outdoor dramas -- but in a mirror-room tribute, via Akira Kurosawa’s
lifting of Ford’s creations in Kakushi toride no san akunin, aka The Hidden
Fortress. There’s even a gunfight in a saloon. For fans of Hornblower and his
breed, we have all of the ships in space, along with their maneuvering. Today, even after
being endlessly imitated, the attack on the Death Star (chapters 45-47) still
carries real drama. And as if all this weren’t enough, we have a three-way love
story. Who will Princess Leia choose?
Given all these great elements, Star Wars had the
makings of a terrific story. What took it to the next level was the issue of The Force.
Though entire books have been written on the meaning of The Force, Lucas has been coy
about it, and I’m glad. The precise aspect of The Force that gives it its power is
the fact that it carries a personal meaning for each of us. We know that The Force is good
and incredibly powerful, but also very difficult to master. Do you or I have The Force in
us? Have we ever been drawn to The Dark Side? As in the best novels or films, Lucas draws
us in and catches us questioning our own lives, then, with an explosion, carries us off
into another universe of action. It is this moment of contemplation in the middle of
excitement that was the hallmark of John Ford’s films, and it is a method that few
filmmakers today have been able to re-create.
But for all of this, Lucas was pretty sure Star Wars
would fail.
I thought Star Wars was too wacky for the general
public.
-- George Lucas
Lucas had one hit to his name: American Graffiti
(1973). The year after making Graffiti, he started writing Star Wars.
Despite the fact that Graffiti had been a hit, and that he’d already made one
good science-fiction film, THX-1138 (1971), Lucas couldn’t get anyone in
Hollywood interested in Star Wars. He was turned down by studio after studio until
20th Century Fox offered to make the film. There was one hitch: He’d have to do it
for free. No salary, just a percentage of the box-office receipts. Lucas accepted the
challenge just to get his vision on celluloid.
Filming took longer than expected, mostly due to the
complex special effects, and the film, which had originally been set for a Christmas 1976
release, was pushed back to Memorial Day, 1977. When the execs at 20th Century found out
that that was when Smokey and the Bandit was to be released, they had fits. How
could a science-fiction movie stand up to Burt Reynolds?
Things got worse when 20th Century Fox started to set up
distribution. The theater owners didn’t want Star Wars. As a last resort, Fox
told some of the owners that unless they booked Star Wars for at least a few weeks,
Fox would withhold a potential blockbuster coming out later in the year, The Other Side
of Midnight. Eventually, they coerced 43 theaters to take a chance.
At this point, Fox was sure they had a loser on their
hands. They floated the idea of selling their share in the film to another company for its
tax-loss benefits. Then they found out that some of the test audiences actually liked the
film. But there was still a big problem: Star Wars was rated "G." Afraid
teenagers wouldn’t be caught dead going to a "G" film, Fox lobbied to have Star
Wars upped to "PG." Suddenly, the Fox execs were feeling a bit better about
their future.
Not Lucas. On opening night, he and his wife stayed away,
not wanting to hear the bad news. Instead, at each of those 43 theaters, the reaction was
the same as at the General Cinema in Dallas. The Star Wars juggernaut had begun.
Star Wars made just over $1.5 million on 43 screens
its first week. By way of comparison, when it was rereleased eight years ago, it made $36
million its first weekend on 2104 screens.
In hindsight, Lucas looks brilliant. One of the little
things he thought might be fun to ask for in his original contract was the merchandising
rights. Fox thought no one would be interested in a Darth Vader mask or a C-3PO toy chest,
so they gave him the rights -- for free. His stake in Star Wars has made him
wealthy -- at last count, to the tune of more than $3 billion.
To be renewed is everything. What more could one ask for
than to have one’s youth back again?
-- George Lucas
George Lucas has now committed what is, to some, an
unpardonable sin. He has messed with perfection. For millions of Star Wars
acolytes, Lucas should never have touched a frame of the film for any reason whatsoever.
He disagreed. The current DVD is filled with what Lucas counts as improvements. Whether or
not you agree depends on how serious your love affair with the original film was. If you
grew up watching a ratty old VHS copy on a 19" television, you might miss most of the
changes. Some are aimed at making characters more coherent across the arc of six films,
while some are simple changes that Lucas made because he can now do things with CG that he
couldn’t in 1977. I wish he’d released the original version along with his new
version on a two-disc set, so that I could watch either. Knowing Lucas, we’ll
probably get that chance some day.
On the other hand, I can understand the man’s desire
to tinker. It brings back his youth, and allows him to impart some wisdom to his earlier
works. I recall the story of a painter -- Pissaro, I think -- who, in his 90s, showed up
at the Louvre with his paints and brushes and began to make some changes to one of his
masterpieces on display. A guard ran up in horror and stopped him. When the curator
arrived at the scene, he asked the old man what on earth he was doing. The artist replied
that there was this one section that had always bothered him and he wanted to fix it
before he died. I can imagine Lucas feeling the same way.
Whether or not you like the changes, you can’t quibble
with the picture, the sound, or the extras on this near-perfect DVD. All are of the
highest order. From the delicate orchestral sounds and crashing impulses of the bombs to
the grain-free picture, everything has a dazzling clarity that suggests hard, loving work
on the parts of all involved. I don’t mind having to buy Episodes V and VI to get
Episode IV, the original Star Wars, because they, too, have been beautifully done.
We also get an astonishing behind-the-scenes documentary, all for about $45.
You have to find something that you love enough to
be able to take risks, jump the hurdles, and break through the brick walls that are always
going to be placed in front of you. If you don’t have that kind of feeling for what
you’re doing, you’ll stop at the first serious obstacle.
-- George Lucas
Lucas jumped some big hurdles, but he’s taken home
some nice mementos for his trouble. Star Wars was nominated for 11 Oscars and
walked away with seven, losing the others to Annie Hall.
The American Film Institute ranks Star Wars as the 15th best film ever made, and
the top sci-fi film. Adjusted for inflation, Star Wars is the third most successful
film in history, after Gone With the Wind and Snow
White and the Seven Dwarfs.
Here’s something to provoke a little thought: If only
43 theaters in the entire US were willing to show Star Wars when it was first
released, what other pictures that never bubbled up to the top might we be missing?
One last thought: There are always those who find it
fashionable to put down something as prevailingly powerful as Star Wars. Well, I
say ubiquity is no sin, and neither is mass-market popularity. The fact that Star Wars
and its denizens have gone on to icon status doesn’t make the movie less important or
less entertaining. And as for his subsequent five films, rather than sling arrows at the
man for his efforts to reclaim his own fantasy, I say give him his chance. I look forward
to having a few years’ distance, then sitting down some rainy weekend to watch all
six in a row. If they don’t work as a series, no matter. We’ll always have Star
Wars.
...Wes Marshall
wesm@hometheatersound.com |
