could star was have been a stand alone film?

yes.

 

I also say yes.

 

I already made a thread like this way back. Use search bar, son.

 

keyword being "way back" - I can't even remember it. Besides, poor guy was locked in Saga already
If you find it, PM me the link and I decide if it's recent enough. Make yourself useful if you really want to contribute something - which you haven't so far...


and while I'm at it:
mrfootball, you could have at least copied your opening post from the Saga thread in here.

 

Although George wanted it to be a saga he had no idea it would be the success it was. In fact many thought it would bomb at the box office, which is why I believe he made a couple tweaks in the script to make it work as a stand alone movie while leaving things open to continue the saga if it did succeed.

Which thank Christ, it did...

 

So in essence, yes, and it proved it by doing so.

After which GL decided he could go ahead and do ESB and RotJ. Which were a succes at least partly because people fondly remembered the first movie that set up an interesting and likebable set of heros and a good villain.

About a quote from severian28 in the locked Saga thread Vader escaping in ANH ecshewed the stand alone idea, in my mind. I think people knew they were going to get more just with that single shot in ANH.
Don't agree. It just made a good ending: things turned out for the good, battle won, but that doesn't make everything okay, it just means the war could be won at a later time.
I think that with that being the end of Star Wars I could have lived with it. As opposed to for example ESB which clearly needed a followup to wrap things up.

 

It could have been. But I'm glad it's not.

 

Seems how it was nominated for Best Director, Best Picture and Best Screenplay for the '78 Academy Awards, it was seen a a stand alone film. At the time, people didn't know it would become a saga.

 

Who would watch such a hokey movie? Robots, laserswords, wookies, come on.

Just joking.

For a while, it wasn't called Episode IV or anything. It wasn't even called A New Hope. It was just STAR WARS.

And Lucas was skeptical it would succeed. It was a low-budget far fetched imaginative movie that took a big chance. He thought it would have flopped. Boy he was wrong.

I'm kinda glad, too!

My mom and dad saw that movie SIX TIMES IN THE THEATRES TOGETHER WHEN THEY WERE DATING.

Maybe they got married becuase of Star Wars!

 

It's been done son.

 

At one time it was...

...and it blew most people away.

 

I doubt Star Wars would be as popular today, had it been just one film.

 

Then what would this forum be called? "Classic Movie"?

 

It very easily could've been a stand alone movie, in fact it would've been most likely if it had bombed.

 

It was made to stand on its own. You can't bank on sequels to tell your story. Not everyone gets their trilogy guaranteed.

L8r

 

yup.

 

The way the story was presented;

Hero comes of age.
Villians defeated.
Happy ending with smiling rebels...

Yeah. Very easily could have been a single movie.

Lucas knew that too. Ergo why we have two Death Stars...

 

If Lucas had made the movie the way he initially wanted, Star Wars would have been one movie, but it would have been about 3.5 to 4 hours long, and he knew that studio would never go for that so he broke it into third and expanded each part into a full length movie. As Darth Digital has already mentioned, it also explains why we have two Death Stars, since Lucas was aware that there was every possibility for the movie to be a huge bomb, he needed some sort of resolution at the end of the first movie, in case in ended up being the only movie.

 

If star wars was a stand alone movie, even though the rebels win againts the death star, Luke doesn't have a teacher anymore so he could become a jedi.

Obi was suppose to live, but lucas descided to kill him off. Maybe thats why lucas made obi a ghost. So even it was a stand alone movie, people could assume that obi would teach luke as a ghost.

 

While it is designed to fit into the narrative and emotional fabric of the other pictures in the saga, "A New Hope" is perhaps the only "Star Wars" film to be more or less completely self-contained - in a sense, this was a necessity due to the fact that Lucas was unsure as to whether or not he would be able to proceed and complete the other two films in the trilogy. All five of the existing pictures can be enjoyed as delirious visual feasts which tease the senses with their cascading wonders, but the other films, particularly "Return of the Jedi" and the two existing prequels, contain events which rely on our familiarity with the other movies in order to attain a complete synthesis of emotional resonance. Each of the movies can be watched either seperately or as the part of the grand saga - such is the richness of Lucas' universe.

 

it was alone. How many here saw it in the drive-in back in the 70's?

 

Star Wars would've been screwed standing alone. ~gabs