At its core Star Wars: A New Hope is a simple swashbuckler film. It's the story of the daring hero rescuing the princess and defeating the bad guy. Whether in Camelot, Sherwood Forest, or the far reaches of space the story remains the same. But while people like Arthurian myths and the legends of Robin Hood nothing has achieved the level of adoration that people feel for Star Wars. In 1977 audiences were drawn in by the promise of special effects unlike anything they had ever seen, and while they were not disappointed, modern movie goers will not be as easily won over by such primitive visuals. No, the reason we love Star Wars is for its characters.
Each character is established the minute they step on screen. The movie does not waste its audiences time with lengthy introductions. In the opening scene we get a clear bad guy. Vader walks onto the set, picks a man up, interrogates him, and kills him. There is no sympathy and no remorse—he is an emotionless mask with soulless eyes. After being introduced to the hulking power of Vader the audience meets it next character in his exact opposite. Where Darth Vader is dark and massive Princess Leia is light and small. One all in black armor, the other all in white robes. One a mouthful of hard consonant sounds, the other an breath of vowels. Before she even says a word you know she is the damsel, and as soon as she opens her mouth you know she is not in distress. Leia spars words with Vader without fear. She stands her ground, patronizes him, and never falters. When watching The Adventures of Robin Hood you may root for Maid Marian because you're supposed to, but when watching Star Wars you root for Leia because she earned it.
Like King Arthur at the beginning of The Sword in the Stone, the hero of Star Wars is a naïve farm boy. Luke like Arthur before him, is the everyman. We're interested in Vader and Leia because they show themselves as interesting, but we sympathize with Luke because we watch him be forced into adversities beyond his control and we feel bad for him. It's necessary for the story that Luke isn't as strong as the other characters from the start because he's the one we are going to watch grow the most over the course of the series. But while his actions and dialogue make him kind of a whiny brat, the film makers put a tremendous amount of effort into everything else to make us like him. There is one very important scene just after we meet Luke that fully establishes him as a character. Luke walks out of his home and for about twenty seconds looks off, far into the sunset, he's lit by the red glow and the wind blows in his hair and as we watch this simple action the music swells with all of Luke's hopes and dreams and without having said a thing the audience wants him succeed.
If Luke is King Arthur, the boy destined for greatness, than Han Solo is Robin Hood. The thief with a heart of gold. Han wastes no time asserting himself as confident and careless of the law. Everything from his boots to his gun holster show Han to be the cowboy, the rogue. He hangs around rowdy bars, has a bounty on his head, and shoots first. Were A New Hope the only Star Wars movie made it would be Han who experiences the biggest character arc. Idealistically Luke, Leia, and Vader change very little, but Han goes from a cocky scoundrel who values his independence to a cocky scoundrel who values his friends.
The characters in Star Wars don't get lost in a complicated story or come second to the special effects. They are there to be at the forefront. They are there for the audience to connect to and love and hate and feel for. The story is told so the characters can shine through it. And by using such a simple and established story like the good guy fights the bad guy, it allows Luke and Leia and Han and Vader to have more depth than their archetypes traditionally do.
Ten out of Ten.
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