From the text crawl leading into the awe-inspiring shot of the overhead Star Destroyer right through to the orchestral crescendo of John Williams' score at the very end of the credits, Star Wars (no Episode number, no subtitle) is a deliriously exciting movie. And what do you expect? This is the movie that sparked the entire franchise, and the things that so captured imaginations in 1977 are what make it hold up as well as it does today. It is a film that offers both the incredibly tangible and the obscenely fantastical at once. Inspired by Flash Gordon serials and the works of Akira Kurosawa (and liberal lifting from Joseph Campbell), the story is highly familiar - a dreamer goes on a big adventure, saving a princess and taking on an Empire - yet it's against a backdrop of space wizards and demon aliens, a contrast no better seen than in the shot of Luke musing on his future while looking at the twin sunset of Tatooine. What makes this transcend simple story transplanting is that the world of the movie itself is so utterly complete and believable, with everything (be it the nature of the Force to the downtime of the Jawas) feeling like it exists in its entirity just offscreen. Much is made in reviews of the "used future" aesthetic, and that is totally a winning factor, but it's how that design choice (and everything else) extends into every crevice of the film that's so impressive. When I did my list looking at the very best of Star Wars cinematography, it was this movie that popped up the most (10 out of 25 shots were from the original film), which is testament to how even what is viewed as one of the series more standardised elements can still be used to incredible effect - rather than creating a generic feel, normalising the fantastical world and giving it scope. Empire is the conventional favourite among fans of the franchise, but for everything it introduces and implies, turning us all into dreamers, it's Star Wars that wins out here. How would you rank the Star Wars movies? Share your ordering down in the comments.
