|
 |
Find interviews by: | ||
| | |
Star Wars box-out 1: Press coverage The first ever reviews of Star Wars were in two daily Hollywood trade mags on 20th May 1977, which both considered it “magnificent”. “Lucas combines excellent comedy and drama and progresses it with exciting action in tremendously effective space battles,” gushed the Hollywood Reporter, while Variety deemed it “the kind of film in which an audience, first entertained, can later walk out feeling good all over.” When the movie actually opened, the Washington Post called it “the kind of sci-fi adventure movie you dream about finding, for your own pleasure as well as your kids' pleasure” while the New York Times lauded “the most elaborate, most expensive, most beautiful movie serial ever made.”
Screen International admitted: “The story is so-so, with written-down dialogue which emphasises the strip cartoon nature of the characters and situations. But it is this very simplicity which is the secret ingredient in the successful formula.” Film Review summed up the whole phenomenon with: “There has never been a film like Star Wars - not for sheer fun, mind-boggling spectacle and overwhelming popularity.” Of course, a knee-jerk reaction was to be expected from some quarters. The Listener pondered: “Star Wars is great good fun and cleverly made, but what is there about it that has created this hysteria? It can only be its marriage of sci-fi knowingness with something it is hard to resist calling religious nostalgia.” A typically clinical review in the Monthly Film Bulletin said “It could scarcely be termed science fiction at all, but... a simple space adventure, now overlaid with sterile nostalgia and multi-levelled movie puns.” Time Out employed no less a person than JG Ballard to review the film: “It is engaging, brilliantly designed, acted with real charm, full of verve and visual ingenuity,” he wrote. “It’s also totally unoriginal, feebly plotted, instantly forgettable and an acoustic nightmare.” Film Comment offered two opposing reviews. On the one hand, Star Wars was: “an anti-modern message in an ultra-modern wrapper: what could be more stylish? What could be more fun?” On the other: “The survival chances of Star Wars are slim. No matter how one looks at it, George Lucas has not only made a movie which is mindless where it would be mind-boggling, he has made a movie which is totally inept.” “I cannot see what all the fuss is about regarding Star Wars,” said a hilarious letter in the May 1978 Film Review. “There were better space stories over 40 years ago in such publications as Boys’ Magazine, of which I have many copies.” The following month, the nation’s dullest 14-year-old wrote to say: “I just don’t know how adults can sit and watch Star Wars. I went to see it and I thought it was a very boring film.” But first prize for missing the point must go to Take One magazine which mentioned “the disastrous casting” and “the bad acting” before concluding: “There is no sense of wonder or magic in the film." Box-out 2: The UK release | ||
| | |
