CT Why IS the first movie great?

Firstly, let me just say that the original Star Wars is not only my favourite of all 6 films in the saga, it's probably my all time favourite movie.

Nonetheless, I'm not personally buying your answers for numbers 1 or 4. The way I look at it is that when we're trying to explain plot holes and contrivances in a movie it is only fair to go by the information that the movie itself gives us. If you have to go elsewhere for answers then the movie is flawed; it's that simple IMHO. Now there is nothing in Star Wars which suggests that the Death Star could only destroy certain class/size planets. So as far as I'm concerned the fact that they waited to clear the planet in order to get a shot at the moon is an obvious plot hole. And that's not the only thing that makes no sense. Why the heck did the rebel ships even need to fly along that trench and increase their own risk of being destroyed? They had the complete Death Star plans, they knew precisely where the target area was located, so all they had to do was fly right up to it and fire a missle straight in. Boom! job done. That's the way I see it anyway.

None of this in any way affects my enjoyment or admiration though. Quite obviously the idea was to create a "ticking clock" for our heroes and, therefore, make that final act more suspensful. And it worked. The battle of Yavin is my favourite moment in the saga. I've seen Star Wars literally hundreds of times but I'm still on the edge of my seat, eyes glued to the screen every time I watch that sequence.

There are other "plot holes" in Star Wars. One that does make me chuckle has to do with Obi Wan, Luke and the droids.

Think about this: They've just watched Leia's message, they know what R2 is carrying and how important it is to keep him safe and out of Imperial hands. So what's the first thing they do? They roll into Mos Eisley, a "wretched hive of scum and villainy" that they know is crawling with Imperial troops who are actively searching the area for the droids, then stroll into a seedy bar and send the droids outside on their own completely unprotected! At that moment it's like "And you were a General, Obi Wan? Damn, it must have been easy to earn your stripes during the Clone Wars!" LOL And is if that wasn't bad enough, Luke compounds this reckless stupidity by again leaving the droids alone and unguarded in the middle of an Imperial battle station!

 

Whether people "believe" the reason for the droids not being shot down or not I would actually say this scene is very much evidence of ANH paying a lot more attention to its world's credibility than TFA did. Under Abrams we wouldn't have even seen the imperial gunners at all and the threat of the droids being shot down wouldn't even have been mentioned.

In TFA the First order doesn't bother to check the wreckage of Finn and Poe's tie to make sure their dead and then when Finn and Rey escape on the Falcon suddenly any First order pursuit isn't even hinted at despite there not having gone into hyperspace.

 

Fair enough but I believe I provided explanations within reason. I also believe the Empire does things with economic reasoning and common sense but designing a Death Star to take out gas giants like Jupiter does not fall under such considerations, IMHO. Do populations reside on gas giants? How many inhabited Star Wars planets orbit a gas giant? The overwhelming majority of planets the Death Star might aim for are life-supporting planets or moons. It would be like buying a Formula One race car but with the knowledge you can only drive it in on normal streets. Doesn't make sense to me.

Having analyzed the plans General Dodonna made it very clear that this was the way it had to be done. For all we know the decisive target area above the trench was protected by another energy shield or else. We don't have the "technobabble" details but rely on Dodonna's word. That's not a plot hole.

Here you are on to something, I concur. Yet we see the droids later hiding in Mos Eisley (obviously Brian Daley, author of the radio drama, also acknowledged this needed to be better explained and featured the droids "adventures" in Mos Eisley) before they reunite at Docking Bay 94 later, so Lucas was aware the droids needed to appear from sight in Mos Eisley.

Where I agree is Luke's order to stay put at the Hangar 327 control station. But it's a good thing to know that the droids can also think for themselves (in the radio rama Threepio reports that Artoo's "deceitfulness can be infectious"), found a way out and positioned themselves close to the Falcon, probably pretending they were doing systems checks in the hangar.

 

I agree with most on here I would like to add the soundtrack is brilliant and so are the costumes. One aspect of later works that disappointed me was the computer imagery of aliens instead of costumes. Compare and contrast the creatures from both eras.

 

And some more plot "holes" from ANH (courtesy of one TFA thread) which I hope I was able to debunk:

http://boards.theforce.net/threads/...holes-debate-3.50038371/page-17#post-53214394

 

And a few more from the TFA thread: http://boards.theforce.net/threads/...holes-debate-3.50038371/page-18#post-53214519

 

Darth Downunder wrote (in the TFA thread)

To respond to your point though, you've opened another can of worms here if you're saying that Han & Leia actively tried to avoid the Imperials tracking them to Yavin. My opinion is that Leia wanted the DS to come to Yavin. The Rebels could then throw everything they could at it & hope to destroy it before another planet suffers Alderaan's fate. If you're saying that's not the case then why the hell did they take the Falcon to Yavin at all? Why not rendezvous with another ship & offload the princess & R2?

Leia knew about the importance of the hidden Rebel base and was rather willing to sacrifice her home planet for it. Of course, her and Han wanted to avoid the Death Star following them to the Death Star so that first and foremost the Rebels would have time to analyze the Death Star plans to see if there even was a weakness they could successfully exploit to destroy the Death Star.

However, Leia insisted that the Imperials were tracking them, but Han wouldn't listen. The reasonable course of action, agreed, would have been to offload the princess and Artoo but I can imagine Solo protesting that, since he wanted to see his reward and the knowledge about the location of the Rebel base as leverage that he would be paid, indeed. Leia, reluctantly, had to play by his rules (in the radio drama a Rebel officer even suggests to get rid of Solo and Chewie, rather than to pay them, which spurs Leia to voice a vocal protest).

Anyway, the original point stands. With what little the Rebels knew about Imperial communications & fleet plans there's no way it makes sense for them to stay on Yavin. Immediate evacuation was clearly the safe & logical choice.

This is where I concur with the radio drama. General Willard, commander of the Rebel Forces, proposed an immediate evacuation but Leia insisted to make stand, hoping to accomplish the Death Star's destruction and to spare other planets the fate of Alderaan. Since she made that proposal she felt it to be necessary to stay on Yavin IV (she couldn't and didn't do any good otherwise), but apparently the Alliance was not willing to expose General Willard to the risk of being killed who seemed the only top brass Alliance general (of which we know) to be evacuated, because we do not see him again in the war room (with Dodonna and Leia) nor during the medal ceremony.

I'm also very confident that the Alliance evacuated all the bigger ships that would have been of no purpose during the battle and non-essential Yavin IV personnel.

 

Ok well just going by the movie it's a genuine nitpick. Seems they should've wanted to urgently evacuate. Realistically I'd expect an Imperial Fleet to arrive within hours of the DS explosion.

 

Darth Downunder

But even if they had only hours why shouldn't the Rebels be allowed to have cake and eat it, too? Shortly after the destruction of the Death Star the A- and B-Wing squadrons (according to Filoni and Hidalgo had they watched the end of ANH *cough*) on a mission elsewhere had returned and the medal ceremony actually might have been the prelude of General Dodona's announcement to everybody present that they'd now evacuate the base:

"This day will be long remembered. We've won our most decisive victory against the Galactic Empire, but the Imperial Starfleet will arrive her soon. Man your ships and proceed to our asteroid field base - and may the Force be with you!"

 

"Why IS the first movie great?"

BECAUSE! That's why!

 

well it is fascinating because it throws you right into this huge debacle after the opening crawl and you are still wondering what's going on. it's the middle of the saga but it's the first entry to the saga so episodes built off of it. it's fast-paced, it's intense, it's got close-call moments like the trash compactor and the trench run at the end and all of the characters are vibrant yet different but all mesh well. it's just lightning in a bottle and it broke records like crazy because of it

 

Why IS the first movie great?

YOU try telling Tony the Tiger to expand his lexicon if he's gonna be doing film reviews. He doesn't listen to me.

*Walks away in a huff*

 

Darth Downunder JabbatheHumanBeing

Please feel free to ignore my rationalization in post # 32 as the actual dialogue in ANH is rather self-revealing considering the established motivations of the characters without the need to explicitly spell out everything:

LEIA That doesn't sound too hard. Besides,
they let us go. It's the only
explanation for the ease of our
escape.

HAN Easy... you call that easy?

LEIA They're tracking us!

(logical conclusion > Leia and Artoo need to change ship to prevent the Death Star finding and destroying the hidden Rebel base)

HAN Not this ship, sister.

(Solo is clearly in "denial". He wouldn't be one of the best smugglers if he just ignored that possibility. Remember his earlier "rather her than me"? The Death Star would forever pursue his ship, the only way to prevent that is to bring the Death Star to Yavin IV which is his only means to ensure that the Empire looses interest in the Falcon and to provide him with the time and opportunity to remove this darned homing beacon)

Frustrated, Leia shakes her head.

(as an established and able diplomat she must have the ability to put herself into another fella's shoes and to see the other side of an argument. She is very well aware of Solo's concerns even though he doesn't voice them explicitly. There is little she can do to change his mind)

LEIA At least the information in Artoo is
still intact.

(Since Solo seems to insist they are going to Yavin IV, she puts all her hope on the possibility that the analysis of the Death Star plans will reveal a weakness the Alliance can exploit)

HAN What's so important? What's he
carrying?

LEIA The technical readouts of that battle
station. I only hope that when the
data is analyzed, a weakness can be
found. It's not over yet!

HAN It is for me, sister! Look, I ain't
in this for your revolution, and I'm
not in it for you, Princess. I expect
to be well paid. I'm in it for the
money!

(While Leia may have considered to change his mind by suggesting that they rendezvous with a Rebel vessel that carries Solo's reward, his insistance now suggests that he probably won't agree to that either, add to this that the Yavin IV base didn't have any cash - according to the radio drama - and had only precious metals available as compensation. Also, Solo wants to know the location of the hidden Rebel base as leverage, if they don't provide him with the reward he might sell the information to the Empire)

LEIA You needn't worry about your reward.
If money is all that you love, then
that's what you'll receive!

(Leia is angry and frustrated realizing that their conversation won't serve a constructive purpose anymore and decides to leave the cockpit. To take a bathroom break, to appeal to Chewie or else).

 

So, if you didn't like it then...don't watch it again? Problem solved.

 

Simple, the film is just really well made, despite the fact everyone thought it would be a failure. The characters are what really bring this film together, their all interesting and you instantly want to know what happens to them next.

 

Because it's a great, fun movie with some really cool characters that are taken on the journey of a lifetime.

 

Because it starts off the saga with a bang, gives a huge galaxy, introduces us to the Force, gives us very compelling characters and a great soundtrack
















and gives us a fantastic lightsaber duel at the end.

 

Nice try Darkslayer!

I will give you this though - There has not been (and probably never will be) a better lightsaber fight than at the end of The Phantom Menace!

 

Admit it, you laughed!

 

Never!

 

(Oh, and it is)
I don't know, but it is first film about which I could truthfully say, 'This is my favourite film.' I had watched plenty of other films and liked them, but I wouldn't have been able to point to a definite favourite beforehand. I'd say that there is just something about it that many people like; and you don't have to love it, but I don't really see how people could dislike it. But then, each day, I learn how weird others are.

 

Why is the first film great?
Well aside from the great for the time special effects and fantastic score, I think it lies in the nature of it.
The plot is simple, the characters are simple. There's a clear divide between good and bad. Its a very easy film to understand, and yet it holds your attention right the way through. There's no deeper meaning to a lot of things, so you don't have to think.
The simplicity of the characters helps because they seem real and relatable, whereas deeper characters tend to be more specific and you can't relate to them as much. I'm sure almost everybody has been through something they can parallel with Luke, has had an Obi-wan in their lives and had a Darth Vader or two.
When I first watched it it wasn't the best acted of written film I had seen, but it connected with me. It was the first time I could stand up and say 'I have seen a great film', and the simplicity was a big part of it.

 

Because it was a special effects groundbreaker in a story based on classic Arthurian favorites. It also revolved around teenage rebellion, of young adults fighting the establishment, and his machine with was very popular in the '70s.

 

The first film is just super immersive, too. The world building is totally convincing. Even after watching it however many dozens of times I still feel like I'm in that universe when I sit down and watch it. The photography has a documentary quality, not slick and painterly like TESB but gritty and real. A New Hope feels like it's really happening.