This is mostly about the first film, but to avoid the debates over rankings and which are the worthiest titles, I’m marking this as the place for all Star Wars films. So, if you think Return of the Jedi should be excluded or The Last Jedi should be included, this spot covers it. Which makes sense because no film(s) changed modern cinema as deeply as Star Wars. No films inspired more modern directors. A few generations ago, every filmmaker with clout wanted to make a Musical or a Western. Now, everybody wants their own Star Wars, either directly or inspired by George Lucas’ original trilogy.
Like Alien, Star Wars didn’t invent a new genre, but Lucas melded a classic hero’s journey and a swashbuckling adventure with state-of-the-art technology that transported everyone to another galaxy. I usually don’t use absolute words like “everyone”, but in this case finding someone who’d never seen Star Wars is like finding a unicorn. I’ve watched parents debate when to introduce it to their kids. It’s never “if”, always “when”.
That’s partly because A New Hope may be the most rewatchable movie ever. At my age, every moment feels iconic, yet I just move onto new classic bits as my favorite moments. The one constant is Luke watching the Binary Sunset. That shot is everything. I’ve been on some hard shoots, and you sometimes get a moment like this where you can feel the crew going silent and start to think that all the hard days may be creating something special after all.
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