ANH - the ultimate tie-in movie!

A slight left-of-field ramble here, but...

does anyone else out there think that the first 30 minutes of ANH has, via coincidence or Lucas's genius, become the PERFECT way to bridge the PT and OT together??

I mean let's look at it this way. If you've never seen ANH before and you've just seen ROTS, which has ended in a very dark note. The Jedi Order is gone, the Republic has been consumed by the machinations of the new Emperor and turned into the Empire, Anakin has become Vader and is presumed lost to the Dark Side, the few survivors of the PT are now scattered across galaxy...all hope seems lost, the forces of Darkness have lied, cheated and slunk their way to a position of inconcievable power! We IRIS out to the end credits and a dark, sinking feeling in the pits of our stomachs (one would imagine).

Now...

16 years later... (i'm assuming its 16...could be a little off here guys, please forgive me)

*cue Star Wars Main Theme*

A NEW HOPE

look! a small Rebel ship being persued by an Imperial Cruiser of unimaginable size and power!

look! 3PO and R2! 16 years later! They're still with the rebellion against the Empire!

look! Anakin emerging through the smoke of battle-fire! 16 years older! Still supported by his black respirator, his iron lung, his mind enslaved by the Dark Side of the Force!

look! Who's that? Some girl in white? Looks pretty young! Oh she's a princess! Heh kind of like Amidala. Hey...there's something familiar about her!

look! Is that Tatooine? How'd they end up back here, at Anakin's home planet? What on earth could they be doing there? (why looking for Obi-Wan Kenobi of course!)

look! Those little guys in the robes with the big crawling vehicle! We've seen them before! Hey...we get to see a LOT MORE of them What're they gonna do with 3PO and R2? These two droids get into a lot of trouble..

look! Hey WHAT THE??? IS THAT THE LARS HOMESTEAD? OMG! It is! And wait here come some people--



"Luke? Luuuuuke?" *cues Luke's theme played warmly in the background*



look! IT'S LUKE!! 16 years old! Luke's grown up! And there's Owen and Beru (Luke calls them by their names too!)!

look! That garage! That...that...that looks familiar! Isn't that where Luke's father...OMG!

"Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi...you're my only hope! Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi...you're my only hope! Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi...you're my only hope! "

OBI-WAN! Hey that's right! What DID happen to him anyways?? Is he still around?? Well obviously R2 remembers him!

look! OMG...it's...it's...it's Obi-Wan Kenobi! 16 years later! He's an old man, wow the years have been hard! The great General of the Clone Wars...living like an exiled hermit, in disguise, in a desert planet! So sad...

look! Old Obi-Wan is telling him about the Force...oh no will Luke end up like his father? Even the music isn't promising much hope for this...oh man...

look! The Sandcrawlers been blasted! Those clone/stormtrooper things are catching up on Anakin's son! Luke realizes the importance of the droids...the camera cuts to his POV and we see 3PO and R2 standing around oblivious of their past lives...lives where they saw all that action, encountered all that loss, all that atrocity...they ARE more important than they could possibly seem to be!

and then...15 minutes later...

LOOK! Is that the DEATH STAR?? OMG THEY ACTUALLY BUILT THE FREAKING THING? EEEEK!!



gah i could go on like this forever...

but does anyone else see what I'm getting at? The structure of ANH is so perfectly pieced together...the way the shots and the music and everything else WORKS in it...it's like the ultimate catching up with the story episode. The first 30 minutes or so of the movie is like:

And now...16 years later...the story continues....



Sorry for the gushing, but all this is just suddenly starting to dawn on me and it's...it's really really REALLY amazing how well all this fits in. Even though the film was not intentionally made to be like a catching-up-w

 

Yes, STAR WARS as it was originally called is a brilliant movie - always has been.

 

You're right, NZPOE, it will be an overwhelmingly great experience to watch ANH efter ROTS. I can't wait til I have the whole saga on DVD!
It's 19 years, though

 

youre right. i think it really will work this well, as one synchronised piece as opposed to two seperate trilogies.

 

I agree.

The payoff from watching ANH after seeing ROTS will be immense!

 

I'm also very interested in the effects of the chronological Saga. I think that Lucas is walking a fine line with PT: He wants it to be attractive for those who know the OT (the amount of succes is debatable) but I think that his main focus is that it will work as the beginning of the Saga. I'm convinced that ROTJ and even ESB (minus the revelation) greatly benefit from the PT, but I'm still not so sure about ANH... will it connect visually? won't there be a big contrast in pacing? won't some parts feel redundant?

It's fun to speculate about it, but I can't really tell until I've seen ROTS, which will have the most influence on ANH...

For instance: You keep saying "16 (19) years later", but how do you know this? In your description you apperently haven't learned Leia's name in ROTS, so it won't be until you see Luke and the Larses that you realize that a significant amount of time has passed since ROTS.

Just to show that little details in ROTS can make a world of difference in ANH.

 

Makes you wonder whether George will ever see fit to changing the Episode IV crawl.

 

I was thinking the exact same thing a few days ago.
It is a great lead in. At first your not even sure what planet the droids are on, and slowly you can put the pieces together before you get to the homestead.
Excellent beginning.

I think there are 19 years between the two trilogies.
I'm just saying this because I think Carrie Fisher was 19 when she played Leia in ANH.

-Seldon

 

Well if the desert ain't red it has to be Tatooine.

 

It is 19 years. The official timeline says so.