The Magic of Movies: A Star Wars Exegesis, Part Six

 the guy calling on the radio is fantastic. The main thing Harrison Ford brought to Star Wars was a more relaxed attitude and willingness to improvise; famously, he once told Lucas “You can write this shit, George, but you can’t say it.” I wonder if he and Alec Guiness would commiserate on set together, although of course most of the crew thought very little of the movie or its chances. It’s always great to me that actors will bring their whole ass to something they have nothing but contempt for; of course, that’s how they get more work.

Luke meeting Leia is a great acting moment from Hamill; he tilts his head like a husky seeing something weird. 

An argument in favour of Vader being the true antagonist of the film over Tarkin: whilst Tarkin does push the plot forward, Vader has a story, in that he makes decisions based upon his emotions. Vader’s arguments to Tarkin are almost entirely intuitive; his decision to face Obi-Wan alone is based upon satisfaction. Tarkin dismisses Vader’s emotions but is swayed by the credible threat of Obi-Wan to his plan; I’m pleased by Tarkin being taken down but I’m moved by Vader’s decision here.

I wonder how much the bickering of the heroes as they try to escape has influenced blockbusters today. It’s not like movies didn’t have bickering before Star Wars, but I don’t watch The Dirty Dozen and feel like I’m seeing millions of franchises snark out in terror. It’s inarguable that injecting humor into action sequences led to a lot of the success of Star Wars – the non-Ford actors can be wooden, but they definitely build a dynamic pretty well (although Ford gets my favourite line: “Get in there! I don’t care what you smell, get in there!”). I also love the staging of this scene; the pentagonal shape of the corridor pays off here, trapping the heroes.

The garbage chute scene is a great one for showing how the details are what makes Star Wars; the set design is wonderfully gross, with the water in particular making it so much more disgusting, and Han shooting the door to open it is a really great way to set off more arguing between the heroes. The garbage monster in particular is a great way to immediately undo the arguing, giving them a greater monster to fight than each other. Han is a dick, but he doesn’t want Luke to die. And it’s wonderful that it’s not even really necessary! The compactor immediately comes along to replace it. Lucas’s imagination can lead him down some strange directions, but it can also vastly improve a moment.

Threepio gets a rare moment of competence here, successfully lying not once but twice. Obviously, this is because he’s in his element as a protocol droid on a space station. I would like to point out that at this stage, any resemblance to The Hidden Fortress has vanished entirely. Of course, this is followed up by him turning off the comm link and forgetting about it, but no matter – he saved them in time.

You know, the funniest thing about Luke’s whininess is that it makes him not resemble the stereotype he created at all. The typical post-Star Wars naive farmboy is generally honourable, kind, and infinitely patient – say what you will about Rey over in the sequel trilogy, she embodies that type unironically and with full sincerity in her character, and Robb Stark in the A Song of Ice and Fire books is an ironic twist on that type. Luke, on the other hand, is hotheaded, impulsive, and prone to berating people (“Will you shut up and listen to me?!”). Again, he resembles the Gen X stereotypical protagonist remarkably.

I always found the scene of Obi-Wan turning off everything in the Death Star to be eerie, though it makes sense emotionally to be showing this now; ‘meanwhile back at the ranch’ is about waiting for a story to reach a climax before showing another, and cutting away while they were apparently dying would cut the energy. I wonder if Alec Guiness enjoyed shooting these scenes the most because it meant saying as little dialogue as possible.

Leia was a proto-feminist heroine for a lot of women, by which I mean “they were five years old when they saw her and thought she was cool”. Which sounds snarkier than I mean it; I concede the complexity of the issue, given things like her wardrobe (Carrie Fisher has complained that Lucas told her not to wear a bra and even said “There are no bras in space”), as well as her being a damsel in distress most of the time. I’ll go to bat for her character in the sequels, though, especially the third film when I get to it on Star Wars Day 2027.

And in this particular moment, I enjoy that her first action now is to take command; sensible, given she’s an ambassador; funny, given that Han has been complaining this whole time about people telling him what to do. I can imagine little girls seeing that and enjoying a non-nonsense woman taking charge, giving orders, and shooting bad guys. 

When the heroes determine their next course of action is to get back to the ship, Han pushes forward recklessly to distract the stormtroopers, separating them; tactically suspect, totally in-character, and pushing the story forward. One of my favourite comic beats in this film is Han roaring as he chases after a group of stormtroopers, firing into a crowd, then enthusiastically running the other way, with the shots of him running mirroring each other.

Luke and Leia fleeing is also really fun; Luke firing on the controls to lock the door and then admitting he may have just blasted the only way to make a bridge is funny and a plot move, and lays some of the groundwork for Indiana Jones later in Lucas’s career (The New Hollywood guys sure were making it up as they went along, huh?). I love how the crew keep escalating and escalating the tension of Luke and Leia having to get out of there; more stormtroopers from another direction, the door beginning to open (such a great shot). It makes the final heroism of Luke grappling his way out even more heroic.