Star Wars (1977), (aka Star Wars, Episode IV: A New Hope) is one of the most popular, profitable, entertaining, and successful science fiction/action - adventure/fantasy films of all time. The film, shot mostly on location in Tunisia, Guatemala and Death Valley (California), advanced special-effects technology to a degree unseen before, with computerized and digitally-timed special effects. It ultimately helped to resurrect the financial viability of the science-fiction genre, a category of films that was considered frivolous and unprofitable, and brought the phrase "May the Force be with you" into common usage.
Pre-Star Wars director, USC graduate, and writer George Lucas had begun his career as director of the science-fiction film THX 1138 (1971), an expanded version of a prize-winning feature film he made while studying film at USC. It was produced by American Zoetrope and executive-produced by Francis Ford Coppola. He went on to direct and co-write the immensely popular American Graffiti (1973), a nostalgic story about California teenagers in the early 60s. It took four years for Lucas to develop his next film - this astounding cult film about "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away..." from 20th Century Fox.
The modestly-budgeted production (of about $11 million) from the TCF/LucasFilm production company, made in Britain, was based upon Lucas' recollections of Saturday afternoon matinees, serials, and comic strips, usually with cliff-hanging endings.
The archetypal plot was influenced by a varied anthology of sources and eclectic references:
- legendary Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon comic-book heroes and films [Lucas had originally wanted to remake the 1930's Flash Gordon movie serials, but the rights to the comic book character were snapped up first by Dino Di Laurentiis]; the works of cartoonist Alex Raymond included Flash Gordon and Jungle Jim; Lucas cited the classic movie serial Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe (1940) as the direct inspiration for his own space opera
- previous science fiction films (such as Forbidden Planet (1956) and Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968))
- the saloon setting of westerns (as a model for the inter-galactic watering hole)
- the James Bond films
- Joseph Campbell's book The Hero with a Thousand Faces
- Carlos Castaneda's Tales of Power
- medieval knights (King Arthur and Camelot) [Camelot's story also told of a young Prince, who with the help of a sorcerer/Merlin, a Sword and 'the Force' saves a Queen and defeats the Black Knight with the help of his Roundtable aides.]
- sorcerers' tales and stories about magic (Tolkien's Lord of the Rings and Carlos Castaneda tales)
- warrior legends, myths, fairy tales
- Western good-guy vs. bad-guy stories
- elements of other classic films or tales (e.g., The Wizard of Oz (1939), John Ford's The Searchers (1956), TV's Star Trek, Fritz Lang's Metropolis (1926), Riefenstahl's Triumph of the Will (1936), and Kurosawa's The Hidden Fortress (1958) and Yojimbo (1961))
- Errol Flynn swashbucklers
- dogfight-filled WWII war films, such as 633 Squadron (1964)
- similar to the Greek tradition of beginning an epic in the middle ("in medias res"), this film (the first in a trilogy) was the fourth film in the entire series
The mythological tale of space-age heroism (fighting Evil for the sake of Good) featured memorable characters - a benevolent ex-Jedi Knight (Guinness), an imprisoned Princess Leia (Fisher) of the peace-loving Rebel Alliance, two comical robotic droids (R2D2, named after a piece of film editor's jargon - Reel 2 Dialog 2, and C3PO), a smuggler/mercenary space-pilot (Ford), a beastly creature named Chewbacca (a Wookie), and an idealistic young boy (Hamill) who becomes trained in the righteous ways of the Force in order to rescue the captured Princess from the evil Empire's Death Star and the dark forces of the Empire, led by evil Darth Vader (voice of James Earl Jones/David Prowse).
Lucas wisely combined three basically-unknown young American actors in the lead roles (Hamill, Fisher, and Ford acting like a screwball comedy threesome) with the acting talents of the great British actor Alec Guinness, and then added a pair of cute robotic droids and a Sesame Street-style creature (Chewbacca) to the mix. [Note that the film's hero, Luke Skywalker or Luke S. (pronounced "Luc-as"), was a way for director Lucas to get his name mentioned, subliminally.]
The blockbuster film left itself open for sequels (and prequels). Lucas announced plans for a second trilogy (and hinted at three more films) ten years after Star Wars' release - in mid 1987. In total, there were really only six films. Two prequels in a second trilogy were released in 1999 and 2002, with a third in mid-2005. The prequels focused on how the father of Luke Skywalker (Anakin Skywalker) succumbed to the dark side of the Force and became the evil Darth Vader: