1977 - STAR WARS: A NEW HOPE

Preparing for the new Star Wars film and thought I would sit through the first three films. So called episode 4 still plays pretty well.  This was the enhanced version that George Lucas fooled around with adding more digital stuff to the film and some scenes that were previously cut.  Adding all this junk really didn't do anything for his film but it didn't really hurt it.  

The cast looks incredibly young and the idea to add Peter Cushing and especially Alec Guinness was an inspired casting choice.  These actors brought some gravitas to what could have been a very silly film.  The trend setting computerized special effects were also a big deal at the time.  Before this with the exception of 2001:  A Space Odyssey no science fiction film looked this good special effects wise.

It didn't escape many critics that Lucas "borrowed" from a lot of other films.  It can be a film buff's dream to do a spot the reference to other war movies particularly the final attack on the Death Star which is a mix of The Dam Busters and 633 Squadron.

Like I said the film still plays pretty well.  The film was written by George Lucas with uncredited help from Brian DePalma, Jay Cocks, Willard and Gloria Huyck.

121 minutes.

1981 - RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK , slick commercial Hollywood filmmaking at it's best

Obviously Steven Spielberg and George Lucas were the main creative figures behind this film.  However there were a number of top line professionals that made this film a success.

The cinematographer Douglas Slocombe had been working in films since the 1940's.  His very impressive list of films included, The Man in the White Suit, The Lavender Hill Mob, The Lion in Winter, the first three Indiana Jones films, and 2nd unit on Close Encounters of the Third Kind.  Apparently Slocombe barely used a light meter when he was shooting.

2nd unit director Mickey Moore had been staging action scenes in films like Patton, Gunfight of the OK Corral, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Man Who Would Be King, and the first three Indiana Jones films as well.  This guy worked into his 80's.

Spielberg's long time editor Michael Kahn had started out editing Hogan's Heroes and had worked on a number of blackploitation films which included Truck Turner, Black Belt Jones, and The Spook Who Sat by the Door.  He's still working with Spielberg at age 80.

115 minutes, written by Lawrence Kasdan.

2005 - STAR WARS EPISODE III: REVENGE OF THE SITH, finishing up the series

Did not like this film.  It took me 4 years to finally watch the concluding film in the first trilogy.  Everyone has taken shots at the low quality of this since it first came out so there is not much more to add.  It seems the film's two biggest issues are the dialog and the acting. This is my 2 cents.

The dialog:

I don't believe what I'm hearing! Obi-Wan was right... you've changed! You have turned to the dark side! 

Army or not, you must realize, you are doomed.  

And then there's this love banter between Anakin Skywalker and Padme:

 You are so... beautiful.

 It's only because I'm so in love.
 No, it's because I'm so in love with you.
 So love has blinded you?
 Well, that's not exactly what I meant.
 But it's probably true. 

The cast was another problem.  Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman and Samuel L Jackson look like they want to be somewhere else.  Portman's part was particularly humiliating, she's stuck playing the traditional simpering female waiting around for her husband to come home.  Hayden Christensen, the big acting discovery, the person the whole movie should revolve around seems to be unable to generate any chemistry with any member of the cast.  If your main character is so uninteresting and bland, it's hard to work up much interest in his emotional conflict or the film he is in.  

It was almost like George Lucas's casting sense, the one that had worked so well in American Graffiti and The first Star Wars trilogy movies had deserted him completely.

Not wasting any more time thinking about this moving on.

140 long minutes.