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| Empire definitely had better visuals than Star Wars, as the film itself is higher quality, and the producers decided to give the Falcon cockpit a major upgrade. |
But I'm rarely satisfied with what other people say. For me, a person who lives literature, writing, and storytelling, the better film between the two is clearly Star Wars. Why? Let's hear from the actor's themselves and then dig a little deeper.
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| What gives? Same ship, different movie. Conclusion: Star Wars is darker. |
"They've made movies like this before," said Mark Hamill. "A movie about a farm boy and a wizard and a princess."
Alec Guiness was even less impressed. "New rubbish dialogue reaches me every other day on wadges of pink paper -- and none of it makes my character clear or even bearable."
And lastly, Harrison Ford.
"That opening shot," said Ford in a 1977, "is a stroke of genius."
That's right. The man who famously referred to his character as Ham Yoyo and has spent the last quarter century explaining his contempt for the Star Wars universe once had nothing but praise for the films, and his character.
In a televised interview, Ford confessed that he had never seen science fiction films before, or cared. "But this one is different. It's not about the science. It's about human relationships."
Human relationships indeed. Star Wars is the story of an orphaned farm boy who longs for adventure--and then justice--after his only known relatives are slaughtered by armed soldiers. It's Arthurian Legend, Buck Rogers, Flash Gordan and more.
It's a John Ford Western. It's a Kurosawa Eastern. Some say it's a space opera. Others say its a World War II action movie.
And really, Star Wars is all that and more. Hence the genius of the first installment in the franchise, and its superiority over all films that have come in its wake.
Star Wars is the superior film. Every element of storytelling is seamlessly integrated into the plot and dialogue. Every film technique that was worth retelling is retold here, but coupled with the aura of pioneering special effects and the mystique of legends. Some say the film, nearly 40 years old, is showing its age. Some disastrous CGI over the last decade might give those critics pause. That point is surely debatable.
What is not debatable is that the underlying pulse of the story is a beat that goes on forever. Much about how the creator's of Star Wars utilized Joseph Campbell's mono-myth template for storytelling has already been said. Rather than repeat what others have said, let's compare Skywalker to another Luke from film folk lore.
Cool Hand Luke, filmed in 1966, shows our titular character as a redeemer, one who wins over the hearts of the oppressed and pays the ultimate sacrifice for their sins. It's familiar from another Luke, in another time.
Luke in Star Wars, also shows parallels to the Holy Gospel. In the Gospel, it is clear that Jesus is descended from noble lineage. When Jesus meets John the Baptist, God himself speaks to him. "You are my son," he says. "with whom I am pleased."
When Luke meets Obi-Wan, he learns of his noble birth. "I was once a Jedi knight like your father." Obi-Wan, like John the Baptist, mentors and grants special powers.
Like John the Baptist, Obi-Wan is killed by the Empire for aiding the resistance. Herod's Empire slaughters the innocent children in to stop the rebellion from gaining a savior. Vader's Empire slaughter's innocent Jawas, diplomats, along with Luke's foster parents to prevent stolen data tapes from falling into the hands of the rebellion. Luke leaves Tatooine to go to Alderon and bring justice to the galaxy. Jesus leaves Nazareth to go to Bethleham and liberate its people from the clutches of the Evil Empire.
Oh yeah, and Jesus blew up the Death Star. Tiberius was really upset about that. What, you didn't know? Read the Gospel. It's in the back.
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| This is not the ending to the film you are looking for. |
Okay, you got me. But while Jesus and Cool Hand became martyrs to the cause, Skywalker emerges victorious. Is that a cheap Hollywood ending? Maybe, maybe not. Consider the time Star Wars was conceived, produced, and released.
1968. America's greatest moral leader and America's greatest political leader and struck down by assassin's bullets. Walter Cronkite declares the Vietnam War a conflict that cannot be won, and Richard Nixon takes the White House.
Dark times indeed.
Now examine every top-selling movie in the years that followed. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid leaves our characters dead. Love Story is a variation on Romeo and Juliet, although instead of suicide, Juliet succumbs to inoperable cancer. The following year saw Gene Hackman and Clint Eastwood starring in cop films from coast to coast. Hackman plays Detective Jimmy Doyle in New York City, Eastwood plays Harry Callahan in San Francisco. Doyle and Callahan escape both films alive, but their careers are most likely dead. The Godfather? Dead. Bear in mind, these are just the top selling films over a three year period. Near the top are such cynical masterpieces as Clockwork Orange, Caboret, and Shaft. And Mash. And Midnight Cowboy.
By 1973, things are looking up, in that some of the protagonist's actually survive in The Exorcist. Serpico is still alive at the end of Serpico. 1974 gives us more corrupt police and/or mafia films with Chinatown and The Godfather II. Both films outperformed Charles Bronson's journey to the dark side in Deathwish.
In 1975, Jaws topped out One Flew of the Cuckoo's Nest as the best-selling film of the year. Randall Patrick Murphy is dead, but Richard Dreyfuss and Roy Scheider were able to outsmart a shark. Yes, our heroes may not be able to defeat human villains any more, but they can triumphantly defeat a fish. Not just any fish, through. He's got mighty big teeth! They're razor sharp! Look at the bones! Some would say that the Shark was hungry for people. I would take this a sign that maybe people were ready for a happy ending again. One that could easily have been facilitated if Brody had gotten a bigger boat and the townspeople had the common sense to stay out of the water. Gee, maybe the Shark in that movie was our intellectual equal after all? Moving on . . .
1976 gives us Rocky Balboa and Travis Bickle. Balboa looses his fight and Bickle looses his mind.
Now, put yourself in the audience in 1977. You've seen or at least heard of every movie on this list. It's the culminating scene. The Rebel fighters go down, one by one. As Luke makes his final approach, his flight partner radios that his engines are damaged, and he can't cover for him.
"Stay back, Wedge," Luke instructs. "You can't do any good back there."
Wedge apologizes, and complies. As he does so, the film gives a wide angle shot for emphasis. Our hero is by himself being chased by enemy fighters. Luke had one pilot whose name was actually his function: He could serve as a "wedge" to protect Luke for his shot on the Death Star. Even if Luke gets the shot, he's a goner, and he knows it. The fighters that have nearly decimated the entire Rebel fleet have a clear target and are ready to fire.
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| This scene reason why Star Wars is on the AFI list and Empire is not. |
The creators of Star Wars could have easily analyzed the box office returns and cynically given the audience what they had responded to for the better part of the last decade. They could have ended the story with Luke as another martyr. But they didn't.
And they were right.
Star Wars is a dark film. An orphan looses his only known family, and then his only friend. An entire planet is blown to pieces, at a time when audience members were well aware of the Nuclear chess game between the United States and Russia. Real life has this kind of suffering. And yet Star Wars reminds us of what we gained.
For one, we gained women's rights, embodied in Princess Leia. Films had never given us a Princess like her before: She resists torture. She mocks and belittles her captures. Leia even insults her rescuers. She carries a blaster and she knows how to use it. Princess Leia is completely unfazed by death, her only concern is prospect of restoring democratic government to the galaxy. Thanks to the millions of women who demanded rights in the 1960s, we got a genuine female hero in the 1970s.
And we deserve it. 1977 was a clear time to remind ourselves that Good triumphs over Evil in real life. Cynics say that Star Wars is cheap. That good versus evil is unrealistic, and that for an empire to invest heavily in something with a design flaw that could be exploited by a courageous aerial assault is just silly cinema.
And yet sometimes that's the way things are. I like the Star Wars, as a stand-alone film, does so much for so many people.
And can one lucky shot bring down a whole structure? Even when it is heavily guarded?
Hey, it happened before. In real life. Somebody made a movie about it. The creators of Star Wars saw it, and deftly made it more interesting.
