Star Wars

Star Wars (Episode IV: A New Hope).
1977 20th Century Fox & Lucasfilm Ltd.
Starring: Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Alec Guinness, Peter Cushing, David Prowse, Anthony Daniels, Kenny Baker, Peter Mayhew, Denis Lawson, James Earl Jones (voice only)
Director: George Lucas
Available from Amazon.

Note: I will be watching the original 1977 theatrical release, which was included as a bonus disc when the original trilogy was re-released to DVD in 2006. This was how everyone saw Star Wars back in the day, presumably as nature intended, before George Lucas decided he wasn't quite done with the finished film. In this cut, James Earl Jones did not receive screen credit, and the DVD transfer was taken from the 1993 laserdisc remix, so it isn't perfect, but hey, it's servicable.

You know the story by now: there's a civil war going on in the galaxy, and spies for the Rebel Alliance have stolen plans for something called the "Death Star", a space station capable of destroying a planet. Princess Leia (Fisher) has the plans, and when her ship is captured, she downloads them along with a holographic recording onto a droid known as R2-D2, and sends it and a fellow droid called C-3PO (Daniels) on an escape pod that lands on Tatooine (and its two suns in the sunset). After being found by Jawa traders, the droids are sold to a farmer named Owen Lars and his nephew Luke Skywalker (Hamill). Luke accidentally activates the recording while cleaning R2-D2, and finds that she's requesting help from Obi-Wan Kenobi (Guinness).

Before long, Luke and the droids encounter Obi-Wan, and he asks Luke to accompany him back to Alderaan. Luke agrees only after he finds that his aunt and uncle were killed by Imperial stormtroopers. Before Luke decides, Obi-Wan tells him about the "force", and his past days as a Jedi Knight as well as his association with Luke's father, who he says he was betrayed and murdered by Darth Vader (HA HA!) Pretty soon, Luke, Obi-Wan and the droids are enroute to Alderaan, with the help of Han Solo (Ford) and his Wookiee co-pilot Chewbacca (Mayhew), aboard the Millenium Falcon.

It doesn't take too long for Luke to find himself in the middle of conflict between the Rebels and the Galactic Empire, having to rescue a captive Leia, and helping the Rebels discover a weak spot within the Death Star to blow it to kingdom come, which would only temporarily derail Darth Vader's (Prowse & Jones) plans. There's two more sequels to go, folks.

Highly, highly, highly recommended, of course, and you wouldn't have it any other way. Episodes V and VI will be watched and reviewed Tuesday evening.