LONG AGO AND FAR, FAR AWAY,
when the first Star Wars film opened in 1977, TIME
announced the story as "the tale of a movie with such uncontrived innocence and sheer fantasy that it may start a trend in the film industry." Twenty-eight years later, with the final episode of this science fiction fairy tale finally hitting theaters, see highlights of TIME's coverage over the years:
Star Wars is a combination of Flash Gordon, The Wizard of Oz, the Errol Flynn swashbucklers of the '30s and '40s and almost every western ever screened—not to mention the Hardy Boys, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and The Faerie Queene.
From Star Wars: The Year's Best Movie
May. 30, 1977
There's Luke Skywalker, that gee whiz kid from Tatooine, and there's Princess Leia, that cosmic mankiller. There are Han Solo and his furry 8-ft. friend Chewbacca trying to get their beat-up old tub, the Millennium Falcon, to make the jump into hyperspace. And back, of course, are the Laurel and Hardy of the robot set, Artoo Detoo and See Threepio, in fine beep and polish.
From The Empire Strikes Back!
By Gerald Clarke
May. 19, 1980
Return of the Jedi completes the trilogy. It is not as exciting as Star Wars itself, which had the advantage of novelty. But it is better and more satisfying than The Empire Strikes Back, which suffered from a hectic, muddled pace, together with the classic problems of being the second act in a three-act play.
From Great Galloping Galaxies!
By Gerald Clarke
May. 23, 1983
Certainly no other movie has ever been rereleased with the kind of fanfare that 20th Century Fox and Lucasfilm Ltd. have drummed up for Star Wars' reappearance in theaters a few months in advance of its 20th anniversary
From The Force Is Back
By Bruce Handy
Feb. 10, 1997
Star Wars is made up of many themes. It's not just one little simple parable. One is our relationship to machines, which are fearful, but also benign. Then there is the lesson of friendship and symbiotic relationships, of your obligations to your fellow-man, to other people that are around you. This is a world where evil has run amuck.
From Of Myth And Men
By Bill Moyers & George Lucas
Apr. 26, 1999
We know so much in this first chapter--and not because of the prerelease hype. We know that plucky Anakin will grow up to be Darth Vader, so the crepe of Fate hangs over his ascendancy.
From The Phantom Movie
By Richard Corliss
May. 17, 1999
Now, with Star Wars: Episode II--Attack of the Clones opening May 16, the Anakin fable gets to the middle, the meat, the real story. The past was prologue, a modest prequel, like Tolkien's The Hobbit to his epic Lord of the Rings saga.
From Dark Victory
By Richard Corliss & Jess Cagle
Apr. 29, 2002
For Lucas, the memory of Star Wars is not the revelation of fantasy and fun that it was for viewers in 1977, but an anguished series of compromises and chest pains. Isn't it natural he would want to change that--to make the films better, by his lights, but also to rewrite in his mind the physically and spiritually painful experience he endured?
From The Star Treatment
By Richard Corliss
Sep. 13, 2004
True believers will debate and deliberate over each scene with the severity of a Jedi Council. The rest of us will breathe a sigh of relief that Lucas found the skill to make a grave and vigorous popular entertainment, a picture that regains and sustains the filmic Force he dreamed up a long time ago, in a movie industry that seems far, far away. Because he, irrevocably, changed it.
From Dark Side Rising
By Richard Corliss
May 1, 2005
Graphic: Star Wars Family Tree
Star Wars changed everything. It quickly became the top-grossing movie in the 65-year history of feature films (replacing The Sound of Music, if you need evidence of how much things had changed).
From A Conversation with George Lucas
By Richard Corliss
March 14, 2006
But it's not actually the waiting in line part that the fans love, says Steve Sansweet, director of fan relations for Lucasfilm. 'They love to be together, to find comradery and friendship.' And, let's face it, to compare their replica lightsabers.
From The World's Biggest Star Wars Party
By Rebecca Winters Keegan
May. 25, 2007
Special Report: Truly Wonderful, Star Wars is
Photo Essay: Star Wars Celebration IV
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