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As we draw closer to Star Wars: The Last Jedi, and this year being the 40th anniversary of Star Wars, I've decided to talk about my favorite of the SW films, A New Hope.
Now while A New Hope is number 4 in order of the Star Wars timeline, it holds the honor of being the first SW film, and the one that kicked off the cultural phenomenon since 1977. It may not be a surprise that this is my favorite of the SW films, with The Force Awakens (2015), being my second favorite. While Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back is often considered the best by fans and critics alike, A New Hope is my favorite for a number of reasons, which I will discuss here.
I highly enjoyed watching A New Hope as a child when I got familiar with Star Wars, and the plot and setting of the first SW film was enough to keep me to see A New Hope again and again. While I also enjoyed The Empire Strikes Back, there were a number of things about ANH which made it my favorite.
A New Hope is among those films which pull you into the story as soon as you watch the beginning. The film dives deep into the story, which, putting aside the famous opening crawl, allows audiences to follow along with the progression of the story. We don't see the main hero Luke Skywalker appear right at the beginning but instead the first characters to appear onscreen are the droids C-3PO and R2-D2, who are integral to the story as the carriers of the Death Star plans.
We have those on the hero side, the Rebel Alliance members, along with Princess Leia, began the story along with Darth Vader. For me, it was interesting to see a villain appear early in the film (although in the first SW film, Vader is the secondary villain) before the main hero. Vader's entrance excellently establishes his menace, with the ominous music and his dark shape emerging quickly establishing him as one of the greatest movie villains of all time.
The film delivers the viewer well into the plot, with the plot device being the readout of the Death Star, the superweapon of the Galactic Empire. A well-known plot device that happens frequently in fantasy films (Star Wars is both science fiction and fantasy) is an object being the focus of a conflict in the film, like some artifact or a magical object being wanted by the villain and the hero having to keep it from falling into the villain's hands. However, A New Hope has the device being a readout plan of something, which has quite a lot of depth into the conflict in my opinion.
The pacing is wonderful, and keeps the story of the film easy to follow with and does a great job at keeping audiences anticipated in the characters' experiences in the film, and establishes their role in the film very well.
The dialogue, while a bit corny at times (Alec Guiness, who played Obi-Wan Kenobi, found many of the lines to be "fairy tale rubbish") nevertheless contains memorable lines and quotes worthy of being online memes, with some of my favorites being Luke Skywalker's "If they traced the robots here, they may have learned who they sold them to. And that would lead them... home!" as well as when Luke sees the Millennium Falcon- "What a piece of junk!"
The action scenes, as well as being evocative to watch, don't overcrowd the story and appear when the time is right for action. A common problem I find in many action films today is that there is just too much action which tends to overcrowd the story, and not enough dialogue-driven scenes which is essential to the film as much as the action is. Luckily, Star Wars manages to avert that, and does well in keeping the action scenes and the dialogue scenes controlled and balanced. The Force Awakens managed to do a good job at that too, which is among the reasons that TFA is my second favorite SW film overall.
And the chemistry between the characters is quite lifelike and feels genuine, which made the trio of Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, and Princess Leia one of the most beloved character groups in film history. As for the characters themselves, they follow a pattern common in epic stories- the humble hero (Luke Skywalker) being pulled into the conflict of the story, the wise old mentor (Obi-Wan Kenobi) teaching the hero of what needs to be done, the damsel in distress (Princess Leia) (although Leia was a more progressive heroine if you consider her a "damsel in distress"), and the loveable sidekicks (Chewbacca the Wookiee and the droids C-3PO and R2-D2).
All of these combine to make A New Hope worthy of being my favorite SW film, since the pacing and setting just folds into a pattern to my liking, and is a great model of what epic films can be, and how creative the genres of fantasy and science fiction can be.
Now I will talk about how The Empire Strikes Back compares to A New Hope. Now while I loved TESB and consider it to have one of the most adventure-filled stories of any films, I do not consider it to be the best SW film. While I do not in any way consider it "inferior" to ANH, the reason TESB isn't my favorite is not because of any flaws, but because ANH just has the elements which I like. TESB has the many makings of an adventure film, which I admire, from the fact that Luke Skywalker is separated from his allies for a majority of the story, the elevation of Darth Vader to being the main villain of the film (as the main villain in the first film was really Grand Moff Tarkin), to the introduction of fan-favorite Yoda.
TESB has a level of supense that is sure to keep me gripping my seat and hoping for the heroes to prevail in the dark hours that follow in the film, since the one thing I admire most about TESB is that Luke is tested both by Yoda and Darth Vader, the good mentor and the villain respectively. Of course, I understand the full impact audiences had when the sequel premiered in 1980 when it was revealed that Vader was Luke's father. But alas, since that famous scene has been copied numerous times, any reference to "I am your father" becomes just lost in impact. But still, the scene where Luke fights Vader and the former learns, much to his horror, that Vader is his father, is just perfect in establishing the difficult times that Luke has to later face and prove that he is a Jedi.
Now the reason I have ANH as my favorite over TESB is that I personally feel more connected to ANH than TESB. As for Return of the Jedi (1983), I also consider it to be worthy of being Star Wars. But ANH delivered everything that made me interested in Star Wars, and I find the pacing in ANH to be the best used overall. After all, ANH was the film that changed the film industry, and established numerous film tropes and inspirations to follow.
So that is why A New Hope is my top favorite Star Wars film. I hope this gave you insight into what makes A New Hope great. I am Dracorider19, and be sure to comment on what you thought of this.
Bonus point: I have the original edition of the novelization of Star Wars: A New Hope, which at the time was simply called Star Wars. The writing is just brilliant, and the dialogue is complex and worthy enough to make one feel as if they are in a galaxy far, far away.
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