This just has to be in my top five list. The most technologically important movie of any generation, this movie allows crappy touchy feely movies that Benn likes to have small special effects that aren't even noticeable. Sure you can argue that the story isn't the greatest, the acting was done by a bunch of youngsters save for Alec Guinness and Pet Cushing, that may all be true, but every one knows the phrase, "May the force be with you." Without this movie, movies like Schindler's list, Saving Private Ryan, Titanic, Lord of the Rings, are delayed ten years, if ever. It is because of this that Star Wars is in my top 5 of all time.

It all began a long, long, time ago, in a galaxy far, far, away. Young farm boy Luke Skywalker, played by Mark Hamill, gets to know to droids that his uncle bought named R2-D2, and C-3PO. R2-D2 is on a quest to find an old Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi to help save Princess Leah for the evil Empire and its leader Darth Vader, and try to protect the Rebellion. Even typing this I am thinking that this sounds so horrible, but it works so well.

The Empire kills Luke's Uncle and Aunt so he joins Obi-Wan to try and get to the Princess. In order to do so the have to get the help of a pirate, Han Solo, Captain of the Millennium Falcon. The three of them plus the droids, and Solo's do-pilot a Wookie named Chewbacca, all head to the Princess's home planet. Little do they know that the Empire have captured Leah and have destroyed her home planet by using a space station called The Death Star. So when our heroes arrive where the planet should be, they get captured. What will happen next? Will the Princess survive? What can they do about The Death Star? How can they save the Rebellion?

I know this sounds corny but in a way that is how the story is but that in turn is the genius of the movie. Director George Lucas tells the story wonderfully. But it is not only about good vs. evil. You also have the small stories like will Luke grow into a man recovering from the loss of his Uncle and Aunt, the sexual tension between Han Solo and Princess Leah is amazing, does it develop, does Obi-Wan get to pass on his knowledge to a young Skywalker, it just continues just like that. Yet it is very simple.

The acting was very nice for a young cast. Lucas in his comments stated that he wanted a young cast with one or two veterans to lead by example, and that it what he got when he cast Sir Alec Guinness as Ben Kenobi and Peter Cushing, as Grand Moff Tarkin, leader of the Death Star. With these two actors, Lucas helped mold the cast into exactly what he wanted, a team to tell a story, no one part more important than the other. The rest of the actors include Hamill, Carrie Fisher, and the now legendary Harrison Ford. They all did a nice job complimenting the story.

However, the best part of this movie is the special effects. Ground breaking in their time, nothing had been seen like this before. Lucas used miniature models for the large battle scenes and created stop-action photography to shoot his film. He also used costumes which by his own admission he did not like because he could not get them to do what the computer generated versions can do now. But am just fascinated by his attention to detail with these costumes, they genuinely look like creatures from another world. But by inventing these many things, Lucas helped define a new way in which to tell a movie. To see a great impact of what his special effects have done, go and rent two movies that can provide a before and after of special effects. I would recommend renting the Longest Day and Saving Private Ryan. Both portray the Normandy Invasions in World War II, and they are as different as day and night. Both movies are fabulous but Saving Private Ryan allows the special effects to help tell the story in way that The Longest Day can not.

Another thing to keep in mind is the script. In this movie, as well as the next two Star Wars movies, George Lucas wrote so many phrases that are apart of our culture and our movie history. Like I mentioned earlier, "May the force be with you," "You don't know the Power of the dark side of the force." "Luke, I am your father." I know I am getting ahead of myself, but the scripts in these three movies tie everything together so nicely and are so memorable that it became impossible for Lucas to repeat his performance for these most recent movies. Which is too bad because it is like an artist who creates a masterpiece with his first brush stroke on the canvas, he or she will forever be remembered for their masterpiece, but can anything possibly ever live up to that again.

I would tell you to watch this movie, but chances are you have, numerous times. Just know that any time that you watch a movie, as long as it doesn't have Miramax in the production line, you are probably watching something that in some way could not be told if it were not for Star Wars.

Brian - the Naked Gun