I have a funny relationship with A New Hope. I stopped counting how many times I have watched it somewhere in the 280's. I had a VHS dub of it that I would watch relentlessly as a kid. In 5th grade I had 29 absences from school by January because mom and dad both worked and I could watch it back to back to back.

I watched it less (but still watched it) during high school. The official trilogy on VHS was one of the things I took with me to college. But something happened. Toward the end of high school, and then through college, I started watching what I would call "real" films. I slowly started breaking up with Star Wars. In fact, after a spirited discussion with a film professor, I finally woke up and realized that in many ways.... this is a TERRIBLE film. But it meant so much to me! I loved it! I became a house divided. I spent a few years wrestling with this whole notion that something that was a favorite... wasn't really high quality. And I'm not talking about quality of special effects or anything.... say what you want - the visual and aural effects in Star Wars IV were bleeding edge and better than EVERYTHING out there by miles. We have the luxury of looking back on them now and laughing - but if you want to go toe to toe on the technical merits on this... I think you'll lose.

Anyway - here I was, loving the film, but not loving it as much. The original trilogy was re-released in the theaters in the late 90s and of course I went. I was still in college and was again reminded that the film was so awesome and so terrible. My inner conflict remained.

Fast Forward a few years - I have a few kids and I've had the joy of introducing them to the film and loved every minute of that shared experience. We've had epic light saber battles in the back yard. I watch my kids "use the force" on each other with reckless abandon. We quote the films around the dinner table (my poor wife...). With each viewing, I would feel nostalgia, but something else would bug me about it... something in the plot. Some piece of dialog. Some bad/whining/flat/over-the-top acting. SOMETHING would stick out at me. And though stormtroopers bumping their heads on door frames should bug me - they don't. Those kind of little human error things don't get me as much as they do other people.

As time went on, I liked the film less and less. It held a place in my heart, but it's less shiny.

Fast forward to last night. My 15 year old son (yes - that's weird that he is as old as several hubski users) had some friends over. One of his friends had NEVER seen A New Hope. My son was super excited to share the film. I decided to watch it too.

As the music blares in on cue - I got chills. I will chalk that up to nostalgia - but I must say - it's very effective. For the next two hours (or however long it is) I watched, soaking it in, in HD for the first time at home... I was thrilled. I know the story. I can recite just about every line. But it was great. Yes Hamil is a terrible actor. No Lucas' writing isn't very good. Yes the bizarre love triangle is uncomfortable. Yes, when some one gets shot - it feels a little like watching an old western. Yes the graphics are tired and the he "physics" don't feel natural. Sure the plot is razor thin.

But look. The story flows right along on it's shallow way. Obi Wan basically saves the show. If anyone else would have described "the force" it would have been... different. If Han Solo wasn't so cocky - you'd lose interest.

And look - the sets are... in my opinion - AMAZING. Watch close... those sets are unbelievable. No wonder Lucas went ridiculously over budget and had to basically lie and avoid studio execs. The art direction/style is amazing. You can see a lot of influence in later film work, but also in video games and even real life. This was the start of a phenomenon.

So in the end... I still love watching the film. I'm not afraid to admit it in public. It may not be a cinematic masterpiece... but it is entertaining.

Fun side note.... did anyone notice that random storage boxes... like smallish shipping containers seen in various places - like in Mos Eisley near the falcon, or on the Death Star in the landing bay.... the look a lot like the boxes in Portal? Just sayin... I'll try to screenshot it later.

Funny side note #2... I had to stop the film once last night to correct my kid's friend who said "This is just like Family Guy". Somethings need immediate correction.

It's been sooooo long since I saw this. It made me so happy to see it again, especially as an adult. Honestly, I think the last time I saw it must have been about ten years ago (discounting one drunken group viewing in the middle there somewhere).

This was the only one of the original trilogy that George Lucas both wrote and directed, and boy does it show. Lucas is a great ideas man, but I read once that the less he had to do with the original trilogy the better it got — and they were right. Episode IV (both written and directed by Lucas) is easily the simplest and least interesting of the three. V is the best and most complex because it was neither written nor directed by Lucas, and VI is great, but maybe not as great as V. Sure enough, Lucas co-wrote the script for VI. Fucking Ewoks.

So dialogue and direction-wise, episode IV is a bit pants, as steve has pointed out in his comment. But those things weren't what made this movie great. The vision George Lucas realized (and yes, he was a tremendous ideas man), the charisma of the lead cast, and the special effects are all what rope you in. And that's enough, to be honest. Most movies would be lucky to have those things.

I don't want to rehash the obvious things, so I'll focus on the things that stood out for me on this ten kabillionth viewing. One is Obi-Wan Kenobi's demise. I'll be honest — I've never understood his line, "If you strike me down, I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine." Does anyone know just what the hell he's talking about here? He might have meant that he could influence events far better as a ghost than as a living being (which he does in episode V), but couldn't he have done that alive too? Are there scenes we don't see where his ghost secretly sneaks into Darth Vader's bedroom and rearranges stuff behind his back to gaslight him, or what?

The thing I noticed for the first time is the irony in some of the dialogue. You just don't pick up on this kind of stuff as a kid, but it's in there. People have talked about the awkward love triangle between Leia, Luke, and Han Solo, but I think that only happens in episode V. Here in episode IV Solo doesn't give a flying fuck about Leia. He might have some attraction to her which later evolves into a fuller appreciation, but when he first meets her he clearly doesn't think much of her. The only reference to him liking her is when he realizes Luke likes her and he winds Luke up by saying, "Hey, you think a princess and a guy like me…?" Luke shuts him down and Solo laughs to himself, which I bloody love! He's not displaying an interest in Leia here, he's just teasing Luke.

So yeah, it's kind of nice to know that a movie I've seen so many times still has some surprises for me. I'm looking forward to moving on to episode V now.

What the fuck is wrong with you people.

Star Wars came out nine months after LOGAN'S FUCKING RUN.

Star Wars was a goddamn tour de force. There's all this hemming and hawing about how it's not this or it's not that and this and but not that and JESUS FUCKING CHRIST IT'S 40 YEARS OLD AND MUTHERFUCKING REDEFINED CINEMA FOR THREE GENERATIONS.

For better or worse. Basically, "science fiction" meant "space opera" from 1977 until revenge of the clones or whatever they called that last abortion came out. And between Star Wars and Jaws, the summer blockbuster was invented. Yeah. That's right. Prior to Spielberg and Lucas nobody spend a bajillion dollars on special effects just to fucking do it. Your ass would be watching Taxi Driver or Exorcist on Labor Day. Suck on that.

These things aren't happening on a timeframe that works very well for me - sucks to be me, don't fuck with it - but sweet jesus tapdancing christ you can't evaluate Star Wars as if it were fucking Avatar or the Avengers or some shit. Star Wars had an impact on cinema that hadn't been seen since Citizen Fucking Kane. I can hate on Lucas with the best of 'em but let's be honest: if you gave the guy who wrote American Graffiti and THX-1138 ten million dollars to make a samurai film in 1976, you'd be fuckin' psyched to get Star Wars. That film fuckin' CTRL-ALT-DEL'd Hollywood and perfect, imperfect, dialogue, SFX, whatthefuckever it essentially built modern Hollywood.

Now, imagine a universe where Leia is played by Shirley from Laverne and Shirley

and Han Solo is Kurt Fucking Russell.

This movie (these movies) put me on the path to writing the great epic pieces I try to write today. While I can't lament on the film in a technical sense, what I like most about these films is how they've changed as I've grown. Whether it was intentional or not the aspect of jedi v. Sith is always an intriguing one from a story perspective. I won't get too far just because it isn't super apparent early on, but as a kid you knew when Vader hit the screen he was a really bad guy.

good movie

Aw man, did I miss it? Sigh

Would you add me to the shoutouts?

This is the movie that started it all. It helped shape my love of film and especially my love for fantasy epics, which the LOTR franchise would only add to.

Looking back, there's just so much that came together to make this movie great. The stories of how the special effects came together, how they created these models, and how they filmed pivotal scenes like the Death Star battle offer great insight into the incredible work that was done to make this film a success. I plan to keep adding episodes of Empire of Dreams before each playing to get further looks at the work done to create the film.

The way those special effects combined with the world design, John Williams' score, and George Lucas's world helped make this universe something that affected (and continues to affect) the lives of millions.

Going back to watch this film is quite entertaining. It's hilarious to hear whiny Luke complaining about how he just wants to hang out with his friiiiiiends. And cringe-inducing to watch the sexual tension and weird love triangle that forms among him, Han, and a character that would eventually be decided is his sister in Leia. Also, I don't think anyone can deny that while Obi-Wan vs. Vader is a memorable scene, it really does come across as old men whacking sticks at eachother.

But that doesn't detract from the film to me.

There are so many iconic scenes. I mean that beginning is one of the most memorable beginnings to a film that I know. The fanfare, the title crawl, the ships flying in from the top of the screen, the short battle, and Vader's entrance all prepare you for a fantastic space-fantasy-epic to come.

That said, I feel like IV really shows how Lucas was never a truly visionary director. He created an immersive world, but there are few shots that a visually captivating and the camera is never really used in interesting ways. This will also become more apparent when we watch Empire on Sunday.

All in all, this is getting me more excited for the new movie, which I hope turns out to be a great ride, even if it's not quite as groundbreaking as this one.

And I'm looking forward to reading everyone else's thoughts.