First,
let's talk, as so few do, about the absolute brilliance
of the original Star Wars, later revised to
Star Wars IV: A New Hope. The film starts
off in mid-story, no background is given. The
robots--droids, as the film calls them--abscond with
a robed woman's secrets to mistakenly deliver them to
the most vapid of film heroes, Luke Skywalker.
The absurdly named Skywalker sets off to find the even
more absurdly named Obi-Wan Kenobe (one of the film's
greatest lines is when Luke asks himself, "Obi-Wan
Kenobe? I wonder if he means old Ben Kenobe?"
Gee, Luke, ya think?) to relay the desperate cry
for help the princess gives us. We are now in
the full clutches of an ancient dying order and Luke,
when he loses his relations and with them his rural
working-class illusions, must now take center stage
in a galactic opera. All of which happens after
the greatest entrance by the greatest film villain of
all time (sorry Dr. Lecter), Darth Vader.
Vader
is singularly malevolent, "more machine than man,
twisted and evil." His breathing is as audible
as if done through a respirator. He is faceless, ruthless
in his voice commands, stands nearly seven feet tall
and is capable of physical and metaphysical violence
of a kind never seen before. His is a stark world of
execution of will. He is masterfully influential, a
mass murderer without conscience when necessary, but
not without skillful intelligence and utter fealty to
the "dark side of the Force." Lucas' pseudo-religious
mumbo jumbo (the Force, the Jedi, the good and dark
sides) infuses all this techno construct with a simple
and bipolar morality, a comforting world where evil
is clearly labeled and we can simply be good by choosing
to oppose it. At least in this film, it's that simple.
Enter
now Harrison Ford as Han Solo. There is simply no other
way to write this than to state it: Han Solo is the
coolest character that ever existed in film. Never mind
that he has a dorky white shirt on, never mind that
he also is wearing a black vest (yes, a vest). Look
at how that blaster is slung low on his thigh. Look
at his utter and total relaxation in a plastic world
that springs to life with his presence. From the cantina
(and its amazing music) to his "improvised"
conversation on the Death Star, from his selfishness
to his heroic reappearance to thwart Vader and allow
Luke to perform the impossible, Solo is without a doubt
a kind of 70's channeling of Rick Blaine from Casablanca.
This film is a children's film or here too Han might
have touched Leia's face and said, "We'll always
have Tantive IV."
Leia
is a woman playing a girl. She is both subconsciously
sexual (again, this is a children's film) and brainy,
challenging Tarkin and Vader with her intellect. Vader
is uninterested in bandying wits with her as much as
he is obsessed with defeating Obi-Wan. He also has an
unnatural fixation on stamping out the Jedi, but then
again what's natural about this guy? The film's final
act and set piece is an extraordinarily well-executed
synthesis of clear plot, complex action, special effects,
and near misses. It's harrowing and dangerous, the music
giving balletic flight to these models, setting the
spacecraft soaring into our imaginations.
The
music is a supremely important component of this film,
a Wagnerian leitmotif-influenced score that tracks the
scenes in melodic modalities and arriving in inspired
time to carry us through even the oddest sequences.
(The Jawa sandcrawler? Who the heck are those droids
and why is that washing machine being tortured?) C-3PO
is an inspired dandy, comic relief of a kind that disappeared
in the 60's but came roaring back here. R2-D2 is the
unintelligible American, a stalwart of the group whose
sacrifices and spunky ingenuity are crucial to the picture's
staying power over time. Star Wars IV: A New Hope
is simply one of the finest films ever made. It is photographed
in glorious cinemascope, supremely crisp in its editing
and sequencing and unequaled as an imaginative leap.
Never before had we been so transported. From its opening,
"A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away..."
to its final credit, it is a stunning achievement.
Dileep
can be reached at dileep@babblog.com. |
