Which Star Wars movie is 'yours'?

TPM, no doubt. The period from when Time magazine printed a concept drawing of Coruscant up to the release day of the film was unlike anything else I've ever experienced as a fan of cinema/Star Wars. Sometimes I wish I immediately put to rest my interest in Star Wars after seeing the film in order that the series always bring to mind the pure joy of fandom more so than all the baggage that came with expanded horizons, internet squabbles, growing older, etc.

And even though this isn't the lit forum, I think the New Jedi Order series deserve a mention as being "my Star Wars" as well. A couple of the novels from that series define Star Wars to me just as much as The Empire Strikes Back does.

 

"Oh Star Wars...hold me. Like you did in the fourth row of the Regal. So long ago, when there was nothing but our love. No politics, no plotting, no war..."

 

It's got to be AOTC. It got me onto these forums and started me down the Dark Side of collecting. Before 2002 the only thing I really collected were the adult novels. Now I share my home with numerous Fetts (including a 6-foot standee of Boba) and Slave I's. My experience as an admin here got me my last paid job as well (though that contract recently ended and I am jobhunting again).

 

I have to say ROTS is "mine". It's the SW film that's had the biggest impact on me.

Understand, though, that this is not a compliment. Not in the least.

 

Without a doubt, Star Wars (aka A New Hope later). A friend was trying to explain it to me and at 13 years of age, I wasn't really getting what he was talking about. I guess that's because there wasn't really anything like it beforehand. I finally had to see this crazy-sounding movie and my friend and I went to the theater. I was hooked from the opening scene. I guess 13 was just on the border of being a little old to play with the toys that followed, but I bought them anyway. When Empire came out, I was 16 and had other things on my mind. Don't get me wrong, I loved Empire and Jedi, but just couldn't see them through those "kids eyes" again.

 

"The Phantom Menace", without even the slightest shadow of a doubt. If I could, though, I'd collect the whole Prequel Trilogy into a single unit, but TPM was the one that came out at just the right time, when I was seriously getting into following cinema and politics (back in '99, I wanted badly to fly off to join the WTO protests in Seattle decked in Jedi garb). I've devoted more time to that than any other "Star Wars" film, and though AOTC and ROTS both impress me just as much (and occasionally a little more-- "Clones" at times strikes me as the most bug-nuts crazy "mainstream" movie I've ever seen this side of "Fight Club" or "American Psycho"), it's Episode I that always captures my attention the most.

 

Star Wars (later to become Episode IV)

Well, it was the first one I saw. The opening battle in space immediately had me hooked, Obi-Wan was just a crazy old man who secretly could still kick some ass, I love Stormtroopers and the Death Star, and always loved Mos Eisley (especially Han Solo, Greedo and the Cantina).

Even though ANH is probably listed as my fourth favorite, I still hold it closer to me than others.

 

A Jedi Knight, battling crony capitalism beside Naomi Klein? Do you realize that had you embarked on that trip, I would have designated you the greatest hero in North America?

 

ESB...

It was everything a 9 year old could want in a movie and the plot-twist lingered for three more years. I was blown-away by the fact that Luke's enemy, was also his father.

 

Eh, what can I say? I was 15 and didn't have anyone I could hitch a ride with. I consider it to be one of the great missed opportunities of my life. I probably would've had to improv a Jedi costume out of a trenchcoat and hoodie, but as long as you bring a lightsaber, that's pretty much fine. It won't help you when the actual stormtroopers show up in their riot-gear, but at least you send a message.

 

Aw, what a great topic.

This one is only a little bit of a toss-up, but immediate reaction - ROTJ.

I remember digging through my grandpa's video tapes at his musty old house in Kansas City, feeling bored and restless and frustrated as only an eight/nine year old girl can be when stuck with a bunch of old people for a weekend, and desperately searching for something remotely interesting. I pulled out a drawer from this cheap plastic tape bin (pulled it all the way out, actually, with this angry noise as all the tapes clattered against each other, and I wasn't able to get it back into its slot), and ran my eyes down the white labels on the tapes, and lo and behold, here is "Return of the Jedi" written in neat black sharpie. Jedi? thought I. That sounds cool.

So, I pop in the tape, and voila, in fuzzy blue-tinted awesomeness, ROTJ.

In my child mind, I had some misconceptions about the characters (I wanted Luke and Leia to date, not Han and Leia), and some of the dialogue went over my head, but it was pretty much love at first sight. Shortly thereafter, the SE came out, and I was hooked. I followed every story, printed out every joke and fanfic, collected every magazine, etc. Han rose greatly in my esteem, and after seeing ESB on the big screen, I understood why Luke and Leia could not be together . I adored all three of the films, but ROTJ was my first love. The black outfit, the green lightsaber, the flips, the x-wings, the epic battle inside the Death Star ("Darth!" and red and green blades sparking against the black backdrop while the violins swell - one of my most vivid childhood memories), the celebration, the music, the victory... From that point on, I wanted to be Luke Skywalker.

But this answer has to be tempered with the effect of ROTS. I was eighteen when this movie came out; I had just graduated high school; my childhood was ending, and it was ending with the last movie in a series that had defined my childhood. Seriously - from the moment ANH SE came out, my hobby was Star Wars. I was disappointed somewhat with AOTC, but only, I think, because I was viewing it with older eyes, with a mind no longer satisfied with only lightsaber fights and pretty costumes. So when Episode III came out, I was past the starry-eyed stage of simple youthful abandon. I was worrying about college, and family problems, and changing friendships, etc. I knew that ROTS was the end, basically, of a stage of my life. I was in a strange mood when I went to the midnight showing.

The Fox searchlights and familiar music - check
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away... - check

And then BAM, I'm right in the middle of a dizzying dogfight, with these huge ships, and lasers shooting everywhere - I remember gripping my brother's hand and looking over at him to see his reaction to this opening, and being so filled with excitement. The icing on the cake was that the music that played over the credits was Leia's theme, which had long been my favorite from the SW soundtrack. I felt total completion. Full Circle. The End. I actually cried that night, back home, at three o'clock in the morning, because how often do you get to have such a monumental flashing sigh pointing at your life saying, "Childhood Over; Entering Adulthood!" It was like the theatrics of the midnight showing and the movie itself had been some grand closing ceremony for my youth. I can look at the films objectively now, but I can also so easily slip back into the euphoria and oddness of those times.

But, still, that black jumpsuit! The green lightsaber!

I still get giddy just thinking about it.

 

For me it's TPM. I was 12 and a SW fanatic my grandma had all three of the OT and I watched them constantly. I sisnt read any spoilers cuz I was o young amd it was still magic to me cuz I was a kid still. Rest of the PT I was a little older and cynical so I didn't enjoy then as much (though I still defend them) I saw TPM 13 times in the theater lol and was only one I saw with my grandma of PT and she was my star wars person she's gone now so it is very personal to me

 

I missed this post the first time I looked at this thread - WOW, I had the exact same experience involving TPM, AotC, and RotS as you! I mean exactly the same: thinking Episode 1 was a solid entry with acting and writing on par with the others, being badly disappointed by 2, and having the whole thing redeemed by 3. 2002-2005 was my Star Wars "dark ages" as well - the only relationship I had with the saga in this period consisted of cracking "soft and smooth" jokes. But RotS turned me back into a Star Wars fan.

Weirdly, today I like AotC a lot. I still don't like much of the love story, but the rest of the film is highly entertaining stuff with a lovely "everyone is doomed" atmosphere hanging over the whole deal.

Have you come to terms with Attack of the Clones as well?

 

Most of us OT fans weren't terribly impressed either I or II.
Maybe those of us who took the disappointment too hard carried it into III and never saw the real value in it. We lost them in this 2002-2005 era of crumbling dreams. One of my friends still hasn't even seen Episode III!
III was just so good for the rest of us to deny, but on top of that, it made sense of I and II.yay

 

Well, the problem is that Revenge of the Sith is almost as ambitious and intriguing, but boasts the added virtue of good performances and a proper narrative momentum. In this respect, AOTC almost plays like a trial run for the real thing.

With that said, AOTC is one of those genre failures, like Robert Altman's Popeye or Tarantino's Death Proof, that could only have been crafted by a tremendously talented filmmaker. See, a hack could've coaxed better performances out of the leads, but wouldn't possess the stones to so gleefully and thoroughly subvert his established, streamlined mythology (hold on, the Jedi were fighting alongside the Stormtroopers for the Sith?!?!), nor would he have the craftsmanship to render his vision indelible (when Padme takes hold of her bridegroom's artificial hand...oh George, bless you!).

Bottom line: If a summer blockbuster ain't gonna be perfect, then it should at least aspire to be Episode II, which will continue to beguile and enrapture and madden me for as long as I watch movies.

 

When I watch AOTC, I use every bit of my attention to enjoy it and for a couple moments, I really do like that movie.
As soon as I'm done watching it, I hate it. SO. MUCH. I think at least half of it is "Across the Stars" aka "Hook 2.0"

 

It would seem that you and I have very different views of what makes a talented filmmaker.

Getting good performances from your actors (and more than that, the ability to cast actors who will deliver good performances) is like knowing how to frame a shot - an essential directorial skill.

Franchise after franchise has demonstrated the capability of hacks to subvert a franchise's mythology:

-Michael Myers DOES have a reason for killing people - he comes from a generically abusive white trash hellhole
-After four movies in the future of "We have to keep the aliens from reaching Earth AT ALL COSTS!" it turns out they've been on Earth pretty much as long as we have.

To name two.

 

Personally I think the greatest subversion of the Star Wars mythos by Lucas himself was when he took out all the feistiness.

 

I wouldn't say "essential". There are plenty directors of high esteem who never really know what they were doing with their cameras, or at the very least essentially allow their cinematographers to essentially direct the films, visually. I'd say that Lucas is about on-par with his skillset as, say, Woody Allen is with his. He's certainly superior to the continual sacred cow of OT fanatics and pretty much the dictionary definition of a journyman hack-- Irvin Kershner (seriously, he couldn't direct a halfway decent Bond flick with Sean Connery, and even managed to screw up a John Carpenter script; oh, if only they'd gotten Brian De Palma for "EYES"...)

Both the "Halloween" and "Alien" franchises had been tarnished before the advent of Rob Zombie or the "AvP" series. In the case of the former, only the original was ever worth watching. In the case of the latter, the first three films are all good-to-great, with the fourth being both unnecessary and completely out of character and spirit with the previous three. Shot very nicely by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, but written rather horribly by Joss Whedon, proof positive that you can't trust a hack screenwriter no matter how high their fanboy pedigree.

As for what Drg4 said-- there are times when AOTC is almost my favorite "Star Wars" flick of them all. It's so deliriously strange and twisted in the way it plays with the conventions of its genre, its series and cinema as a whole, and easily better than Altman's unwatchable "Popeye". Tarantino's "Death Proof", however, is pretty cool (perhaps AOTC would've been a better flickmate for it in "Grindhouse"). Like I've said before, it's "Johnny Guitar" in space.

 

Kershner's body of work makes it difficult to rate him as one of the great directors. I think what you can say is that he was the right man for the right job at the right time as far as TESB was concerned. He was able to get more from the actors in terms of performance at a time when that's exactly what was needed in order to take the saga where it needed to go. The actors themselves seem to acknowledge this.

 

No doubt, but honestly, the performances have never been what impressed me about ESB. The story, the action and primarily the visuals-- that's what makes it so great in my opinion. And on all those counts, you mainly have Lucas to thank for them, and not Kersh.

If there is eomebody other than Lucas who deserves the lion's share of credit for making ESB a classic, though, it's Peter Suschitzky, who does some of the best cinematography of a lifetime there. Granted, he'd done great work before in movies like "Rocky Horror Picture Show", and has later gone to do wonders in a great partnership with David Cronenberg, but ESB's lighting is easily some of the best in all of sci-fi, and works perfectly with Lucas' vision. No wonder he's the guy Lucas originally wanted for ANH, instead of Gilbert Taylor.

 

"The Making Of The Empire Strikes Back" this summer should determine how much was Lucas involved in Empire. I predict that it will surprise some people here (similar to what happened with the transcriptions of the Raiders story-meetings).

 

To me TESB is an example of excellent collaboration; of talented people being in the right place at the right time and bringing something to the mix. I agree with the things you mentioned being strengths, but to me the performances are the best in the saga and I think I.K. had a part to play in that. Any SW film you pick has aspects, particularly dialogue, which are potentially cringeworthy, but in TESB I get a sense that behind that, the actors really believed in what they were doing and so it doesn't grate on me like it does elsewhere. Good chemistry can cover up a multitude of sins.

 

All true, but at least his repugnant, nihilistic Robocop 2 showed us how deftly Paul Verhoeven juggled satire and soul.

Much of AOTC is a mite bit too heady and beclouded to pass as Grindhouse fodder, but I'd love to see a trailer...

?He's haunted by the kiss she should never have given him!?

?Obi-Wan would be very grumpy if he saw what Anakin was doing!?

?Next year, the Clones attack! And not just the men! But the women!!! And the children toooooooo!?

 

Absolutely. Kershner seems to be some sort of control-group in an elaborate conspiratorial set of experiments with the Hollywood system, showing us the various strengths and faults of different filmmakers by acting as a contrast in sequels and other projects. Not just Verhoven, Lucas and Carpenter, but by extension also Frank Miller (perhaps if it weren't for Kersh's clueless take on the comic-book legend's "RoboCop 2" script, he wouldn't have turned to the dumbed-down noir trappings of his "Sin City" comics and movies) and the EON Bond series (at the very least, it proved that a Roger Moore 007 movie could be better than a Connery one, much as it pains me to say that-- seriously, how do you make the story of "Thunderball" even more boring than it already was?). Sure, fanboys like to show off how great the acting was in ESB as proof positive that Lucas is inferior with actors, but when it comes to everything else, Kersh is pretty much a cinematic Brand X.

Of course, I couldn't help but hear that in a faux Tarantino-voice.

But really, if there is that much of a mismatch, it's because Lucas is trading in the 50's and 60's version of the grindhouse B-movie destination-- the drive-in. Everybody takes the "Rebel Without a Cause" connections with Anakin for granted, but beneath the simmering surface of the hot-rodding, delinquent attitude there's every bit the same kind of angst and genuine emotional turmoil tearing the poor padawan apart. He's not just James Dean, with his hurt-swagger and shy-cool, but also Sal Mineo, with his awkward longing and lonely, dangerous soul.

Frankly, I always preferred Hayden's acting in AOTC to ROTS-- I felt for the poor bastard, and even related to him somewhat. I do think that AOTC was off for a lot of people, though, who couldn't quite connect with all the Nicholas Ray style that Lucas was playing with. Now it might be all kinds of wrong to say this, but I think that partly it's due to the face that in channeling movies like "Rebel" and "Johnny Guitar", he was using the Ray films that have some of the most stridently ambiguous sexuality of their eras-- between Sal Mineo's unspoken competition with Natalie Wood for Dean's attentions and Mercedes McCambridge's stalker-ish obsession with Joan Crawford, you've got enough homoerotic tension to fuel about seven or eight Rock Hudson movies.

If Lucas really wanted to invoke the pioneering spirit of Nick Ray, perhaps he should've rewatched Ol' Bogey's forceful, violent turn as a drunken screenwriter pinned for murder throughout "In a Lonely Place". Perhaps the missing piece to make Anakin a bit more relatable was the bitter, sarcastic edge that Bogart always carried, and piloted into a darker turn in that classic. Then again, young Skywalker was a bit too, well, young at that point to have really earned his stripes as a confirmed world weary cynic, and the strains of Dean really were the most appropriate for the part, no matter how discomforting they were for fanboys.

Eh. I still think it's fun. Perhaps AOTC wouldn't work as a grindhouse picture, but I can definitely see it as a weird blend of the two Rays-- Nicholas and Harryhausen. Tell me you wouldn't want to see this at the drive-in-- "I Was a Teenage Jedi"!