(This is part of my ongoing series on my quest to watch all 100 of AFI’s Greatest American Films of All Time)

 

13. Star Wars

Yesterday I live-tweeted Star Wars, in honor of Star Wars Day. I had no idea how tough it would be to live-tweet a movie I’ve seen countless times. Even though I did a bit of pre-writing, it still wasn’t enough to prepare me for the task. It seemed like every time I tweeted something, there were two or three other things happening that I missed. I tried as best I could to include trivia and witty remarks, as well as references to all of the Star Wars parodies out there, but it was a Herculean task. Kudos to those who manage to do these type of things.

As for the film itself, we all know what it’s about, right? A long time ago … etc. Even though I consider myself a hardcore Star Wars fan, I don’t own a copy of the original film; I refuse to spend money on any special edition version of the film. Actually, that’s not true. I have the original trilogy on VHS somewhere in the garage, but no VCR to play it on.

For my Star Wars Day live-tweeting, I borrowed the original theatrical release DVD from the library. This is also the same version that’s included in the Blu-ray set, but neither has been remastered and I won’t buy it until it’s been remastered and unaltered. It’s a shame that George Lucas wouldn’t release the film without tinkering with it, but hopefully Disney will see the light (aka $$$) and give the fans what we’ve wanted for years.

As I live-tweeted the movie, two things stood out during my umpteenth viewing:

1. Sir Alec Guinness and Harrison Ford were miles above the rest of the cast in terms of acting skills. Luke is nearly unwatchable in certain scenes, Leia’s accent is all over the place, and some of the Empire cronies are awful (except for Christopher Lee and James Earl Jones, of course).

2. The lack of CGI special effects is a major plus. When J.J. Abrams announced that Episode VII would not rely on all of the over-the-top CGI of the prequels, I knew that Disney had hired the right director. Nearly 40 years later and the special effects in Star Wars still hold up, for the most part.

I’m sure I’ll notice other things the next time I watch this masterpiece. And I’m sure it will be before next May 4th.

My rating: 5 out of 5 stars.