[1. Select a full-length film and identify the title, writer, director, major actors and the year it was released.]
Title: Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope
Writer: George Lucas
Director: George Lucas
Year: 1977
Actors: Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher
[2. Summarize the story and plot of your chosen movie.]
Story: Star Wars is the 1977 epic about how Luke Skywalker from a backwater world sets out on an adventure with an old Jedi to save a rebel princess from the evil galactic empire and destroy its ultimate weapon before it can destroy them.
Plot: The film starts with a space battle between a fleeing rebel ship and a chasing empire warship. The rebel ship is quickly overcome and capture but not before a Princess Leia, a member of the rebellion, can upload plans of the Galactic Empires Battle Station to a small droid named R2-D2. This droid and his companion, C-3P0, use an escape pod to reach the nearby planet of Tatooine. This also introduces the villain Darth Vader who tortures and questions the princess and crew for information about what they know about the space station.
On Tatooine we meet a young moisture farmer, Luke Skywalker, who yearns to do something more with his life. Eventually the two droids from earlier are captured by local creatures who end up selling them to Luke’s uncle. While cleaning them Luke accidently discovers the hidden message meant to a man named Obi-wan Kenobi. Not knowing what this meant he leaves for awhile. While away the droids sneak away to find Kenobi. Upon realizing this Luke proceeds to search for the droids but is ambushed by creatures call Tusken Raiders. Luke is saved by Kenobi and taken to his home. There the droid show Kenobi the message and Luke learns of the mystical force and that his father was once a jedi is given his lightsaber. Kenobi knows that the droids message means he must go to a planet called Alderaan but Luke is hesitant to follow. Luke returns home to find his family murdered and home destroyed by the Empire. He agrees to follow Kenobi and they head to the nearest city for passage off Tatooine. There they find a smuggler named Han Solo and secure passage off world but not before the Empire finds and chases them to Solo’s ship. They escape the planet and head to Alderaan.
Little do Luke and Kenobi know but as they were on Tatooine, Alderaan was destroyed by the Empires Space Station named the Death Star. This was done to coerce the location of the secret rebel base from Leia, the rebel princess.
Upon arriving at Alderaan’s location Solo realizes something is wrong immediately as there is nothing but space rocks and debris where the planet should be. They all notice far away that there seems to be a moon but realize too late that it is the Death Star and are caught in a tractor beam. Their ship is pulled into a docking bay and searched but not before they all hide away in the ships smuggling holds. Later they sneak off the ship to look for a way to deactivate the tractor beam holding their ship. They split up and Kenobi deactivates the tractor beam while the rest locate and save the princess. In the ensuing firefight, Kenobi is killed by Darth Vader and the rest escape and head to the secret rebel base, but they were meant to escape as the ship had a tracking device planted on it. The Death Star begins heading to the rebel base.
They head to the rebel base on Yavin 4 and begin debriefing the plans. A weakness is found on the space station, but it will be difficult to hit. They also learn that the Death Star is on its way and begin readying for battle. Han Solo leaves with his reward, but Luke volunteers to fight. As the Death Star approaches to destroy Yavin 4 they launch their attack. There are many losses but they are victorious when Solo returns unexpectedly to clear Luke on his torpedo run on a small vent on the Death Star that destroys its reactor and the station itself.
They return to Yavin 4 where a great celebration is held and the heroes are honored.
[3. Discuss whether your film is presented chronologically or non-linearly. In your discussion, address the following:
a. Was the film presented chronologically or non-linearly? How did this aesthetic choice contribute to the general effect on the audience?]
Chronology: The film was told in chronological order. This choice contributed to film as it made the movie seem like a grand epic story from start to finish. Like a book, it holds interest all the way through as it tells its story, making you want to know what happens next.
[ b. How are elements like character development or foreshadowing impacted by the choice of storytelling methods?]
The chronological story telling built up the character development as we learned more and more about Luke, Leia, and Han. The appearance of Darth Vader in the beginning foreshadowed how bad the empire would likely be even though we had just learned about it. Also Han Solo’s every man for himself attitude foreshadowed him to be not a great person but in the end he proved that wrong by returning at a critical moment and saving the day.
[4. If the film had followed a different presentation style, how would the general effect on the audience have been different?]
Had the film been told non-linearly, I believe the story would have been much more confusing. It would also have been a much different story and would have lost the feel that Star Wars is a grand space epic and story. Without the story building, these characters up it would have just been any other story of good guy versus bad guy and lost too much along the way.
Resources:
Picture of Star Wars Poster, Retrieved from URL: http://www.foxmovies.com/movies/star-wars-episode-iv-a-new-hope
Gary, K. (Producer), Lucas, G (Directors). (1977). Star Wars: Episode IV. [Motion picture]. United States: 20th Century Fox
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