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Star
Wars IV: A New Hope (1977)
In director George Lucas' sequel to the prequel-trilogy:
- the crawling of the beginning credits ("A long
time ago in a galaxy far, far away...") into a star-studded
area of space
- the spectacle of an exciting action story with landmark
special effects and fanciful, unique characters
- the dramatic opening - first the appearance of a small
rebel ship belonging to Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher), which was
being pursued by a gigantic, wedge-shaped imperial Star Destroyer
spaceship of the evil Galactic Empire that completely covered the
screen
- the entrance (and first appearance) of black-garbed
(with a swirling cape), masked, heavy breathing Dark Lord of the
Sith - or Darth Vader (with the deep breaty voice of James Earl Jones),
a towering, faceless, helmeted leader of the cruel and villainous
forces during the assault on the crippled rebel ship; he spoke with
a commanding voice - a vision of evil, signaled by the soundtrack
- the anthropomorphic Laurel and Hardy-like robots or
'droids - the beeping R2D2 and gold-plated companion C-3PO, first
seen in the corridor during the assault, and later lost in the desert
- the scene of the robots' capture by Jawas and their
imprisonment in a sandcrawler with other droids
- the scene at Mos Eisley and its outerspace cantina
featuring bizarre and intimidating space creatures and aliens ("a
wretched hive of scum and villainy"), with the introduction
of the hot-shot mercenary flyer Han Solo (Harrison Ford), who quickly
shot bounty hunter Greedo at one of the tables
- Han's flying of his Millennium Falcon with
Wookie first-mate navigator Chewbacca or "Chewie"
(Peter Mayhew) - and the moment of their light-speed blast-off
- the iconic image of young hero Luke Skywalker (Mark
Hamill) - gazing out at desert planet Tatooine's twin suns
- his meeting to learn the ways of the Force (to become
a Jedi knight and wield a lightsaber) from the great Jedi master
Old Ben or Obi-wan Kenobi (Alec Guinness)
- the scene in the Death Star's garbage bin crusher
- Han's snarling words to Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher):
"Look! Your Worshipfulness! Let's get one thing straight. I take
orders from just one person. Me"
- the intergalactic final battle between the forces
of good and evil - and the planetary explosion of Alderaan after
orders by the Death Star's commanding officer Grand Moff Tarkin (Peter
Cushing) to destroy it
- the "laser" lightsabers duel between Vader
and Kenobi, culminating in the slaying of Kenobi
- Han's unexpected reappearance with his Millennium
Falcon to save the day ("You're all clear, kid! Now let's
blow this thing and go home!")
- the bombing raids by the X-wing rebels across the
surface of the Evil Empire's enormous battle station the Death Star
and down into a narrow trench toward the target
- Obi-wan Kenobi's telepathic advice to Luke to use
his intuition: "Use the Force, Luke" rather than his targeting
computer when firing
- the climactic destructive explosion of the Death
Star
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