26. Reviving the Wilhelm Scream
A New Hope is responsible for perpetuating a genuine historical artefact from the film universe: the film's sound designer Ben Burtt discovered an original recording of what he would later call the Wilhelm Scream, reusing it in A New Hope, and then in almost every subsequent film he worked on. Following his lead, other sound designers started to use the effect, and it has now become a grand tradition of sound design that would simply not have formed without A New Hope and Ben Burtt. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhB1AZCaP6U
27. Making Sci-Fi Mainstream
Even though Fox panicked slightly after early pre-release research came back with a result that only men between 20 and 30 would want to see it, and subsequently re-thought the marketing to include more mysticism and less hardcore sci-fi, Star Wars was one of the first purely sci-fi films to make it as a mainstream concern. As the perfect indicator, it was also the first sci-fi movie ever to be nominated for a Best Picture Oscar, something that hasn't been a frequent occurrence since.
28. The Perfect Everyman Hero
Han Solo is the traditional hero in conventional Hollywood terms, he is a gun-slinging, morally dubious, bravado-spouting space cowboy, but he isn't the hero of Star Wars. We are supposed to root for Luke, since the Original Trilogy is his story, and despite his macho credentials never quite matching up to Han's, he is a hero out off a completely different Hollywood page meshing Arthurian legend with a Boy's Own tale of rags to riches glory. In his tale of zero to hero every man, woman or child watching can see the promise that they too might end up swept from mundanity to the very frontlines of intergalactic war.
29. Quote:
Youve never heard of the Millennium Falcon? Its the ship that made the Kessel run in less than 12 parsecs.
30. The Vociferous Dedication of Fans
Go right now onto a Star Wars forum and write something along the lines of "A New Hope sucks", and watch the explosion that immediately spreads out from the epicentre of your message. That reaction will be because even though fans are the first to criticise some of George Lucas' decisions, they will still defend the franchise vehemently from outside attacks, and it is precisely that passion that inspires the venomous reaction whenever Lucas makes a choice to cut or re-edit that the fans view as ill-judged. Like all of the greatest artistic properties, the fans have come to claim the films as their own - they have conventions, dress in immaculately conceived cosplay and devote themselves to the teachings of the film.