“Star Wars”: In A Childhood Far, Far Away……..

I was nine years old in the summer of 1977. Can you imagine a more perfect age for a boy to see “Star Wars” for the first time? In that respect, I consider myself blessed beyond measure.

“Star Wars” also probably came out at the perfect time for America. The country was still reeling from the debacle in Vietnam, the shame of Watergate, economic doldrums, long gas lines and god-awful clothes. The decade had been peppered with dark, raw films by Scorsese, Polanski and Coppola. “Star Wars” would lighten the load of America’s moviegoers, conveying the idea that all the good times were not behind us. With one fell swoop, George Lucas brought pure cinematic escapism back from the dead.

Lucas said from the beginning that he had set out to pay homage to the “Flash Gordon” adventures and westerns of his youth, transferring their ideas about heroism, loss, sacrifice, redemption and the battle between good and evil to a new generation. As he states in “Empire Of Dreams”, a full-length documentary on the new “Star Wars” Classic Trilogy DVD package, he never expected the movie to make a dent at the box office. As it turned out, his little space fantasy not only broke attendance records, but, for both good and ill, it changed the way movies are made.

The long-awaited DVD set is a satisfying, albeit not overwhelming, package that features absorbing audio commentaries on each movie by Lucas, sound designer Ben Burtt, visual effects whiz Dennis Muren and actress Carrie Fisher. Besides the massive “Empire Of Dreams”, there are some smaller featurettes detailing how the lightsaber came into being, how “Star Wars” has influenced contemporary filmmakers, and a preview of 2005’s “Episode III”. It’s neat stuff, but somehow I was expecting something bigger, perhaps a two-disc set for each movie. Nevertheless, this should be enough to quench the thirst of any good “Star Wars” junkie.

Ever the perfectionist, Lucas has come back and tinkered even more with his original trilogy since its re-release to theaters in 1997. Some changes are welcome; the CGI-enhanced shots in the Death Star battle at the end of “Episode IV: A New Hope” make the sequence more intense and vivid.

Others were a waste of Lucas’s time; I was particularly miffed by the addition of full shots of the ice creature during the cave scene in “The Empire Strikes Back”. The scene, in which Luke Skywalker hangs upside-down and appears helpless as the monster stalks him, is remembered by me as creepy, frightening and immensely gratifying. In 1980, the audience I saw it with literally shouted encouragement to Luke as he reached for his wayward lightsaber, then erupted into a deafening cheer when it flew into his outstretched hand. It was a marvelous, unforgettable moment, and that was with only a vague glimpse of the creature’s profile. Apparently, director Irvin Kershner realized what Lucas doesn’t: what you don’t see in a movie is infinitely scarier than what is clearly visible. The “enhancement” of this sequence was a huge mistake.

Still other changes are just bizarre; Lucas has cut the image of Sebastian Shaw (playing Anakin Skywalker’s ghost) from the celebratory “Miller Time” finale in “Return Of The Jedi” and replaced it with young Hayden Christensen, who plays Anakin in the new trilogy. What’s the reasoning behind this? Why does Anakin become his younger self in death, while Obi-Wan Kenobi remains an old man in his own apparition? One suspects Lucas was tempted to change that, too, but respected the late Sir Alec Guinness too much to go through with it.

Which brings us to the mother of all CGI-enhanced boondoggles, the infamous “Greedo fires first” scene in “A New Hope”. Allow me to get this off my chest once and forever. Solo shot first. Period. That merely makes him pragmatic, not a murderer. Solo would not have lasted very long in such a dangerous environment as the Galactic Empire by doing the PC thing and waiting for the other guy to get off the first shot (and even an idiot like Greedo could not have missed at point-blank range!!).

Here’s my lowdown: “The Empire Strikes Back” is the trilogy’s high-water mark, a dark, atmospheric masterpiece and arguably the greatest adventure movie ever made. It should have won the Oscar (okay, maybe not; “Raging Bull” came out that year, too). “A New Hope” comes in second, a solid classic that defined a genre. “Return Of The Jedi” is by far the weakest of the three, with unintentionally hysterical dialogue, wooden acting (even Harrison Ford seemed uncharacteristically restrained), a ridiculous Emperor that looked like the wicked queen from “Snow White” and those damned, cute little teddy bears, demolishing the Imperial forces with some rope and a few logs! Please. Even so, the picture gets a few brownie points for the scene in which the Millennium Falcon flies around inside the Death Star – - still amazing after 21 years.

This package has been a long time in coming, so I was overjoyed to pop it in and return to a childhood far, far away...and this time, being able to bring my own child along for the ride.




P.S. Can someone explain to me why Princess Leia speaks with a clipped British accent during the first hour of “A New Hope”, but sounds like she’s from Ohio in the second half?