A long time ago in a wandflower just like this one , George Lucaswas about to make cinematic story — whether he bed it or not .
On May 25 , 1977 , moviegoers catch their first glimpse ofStar Wars , Lucas ’s long - simmering quad opera house that would help define the conception of the Hollywood “ blockbuster . ” While we ’re still talk about the film today — plus its many sequels , spinoffs , and TV serial publication — not everyfilmcritic would have guess just how ingrained into the soda pop culture fabricStar Warswould become . While it charmed plentitude of critics , some of the motion picture ’s original review were less than glowing . Here are a few of our favorites ( the good , the bad , and the Wookiee ) .
“The Golden Robot”
“ Star Warsis a fay narrative , a fantasy , a fable , finding its roots in some of our most pop fictions . The golden automaton , lion - faced space pilot , and insecure short data processor on wheels must have been suggested by the Tin Man , the Cowardly Lion , and the Scarecrow inThe Wizard of Oz . The journeying from one end of the galaxy to another is out of countless thousands of outer space opera . The computer hardware is fromFlash Gordonout of2001 : A Space Odyssey , the gallantry is from Robin Hood , the hero are from Westerns and the baddie are a cross between Nazis and sorcerers . Star Warstaps the pulp fantasy buried in our memories , and because it ’s done so brilliantly , it reactivates former boot , fears , and exhilaration we thought we ’d abandoned when we read our last copy ofAmazing Stories . ”—Roger Ebert , Chicago Sun - Times
“Not a Great Movie”
“ Star Warsis not a big motion-picture show in that it describes the human condition . It only is a fun pic that will appeal to those who revel Buck Rogers - style adventures . What places it a sizable baseball swing about the routine is its salient visual essence , the best since Stanley Kubrick’s2001 … Star Warsis a fight between good and evil . The bad hombre ( lead by Peter Cushing and an assistant who look like a smutty vinyl radical - coat frog ) control the world with their dread Death Star . ”—Gene Siskel , Chicago Tribune
“A Box of Cracker Jack Which is All Prizes”
“ Star Warsis like getting a box of Cracker Jack which is all prizes . This is the author - director George Lucas ’s own motion picture , capable to no business interference , yet it ’s a film that ’s totally uninterested in anything that does n’t connect with the mass audience . There ’s no breather in the picture , no lyricism ; the only attempt at beauty is in the double sunset . It ’s enjoyable on its own terms , but it ’s tiring , too : like contain a pack of kids to the genus Circus . An minute into it , children say that they ’re quick to see it again ; that ’s because it ’s an assemblage of supererogatory voice — it has no aroused grip . “ Star Wars ” may be the only movie in which the first time around the surprise are reassuring … . It ’s an epic without a dream . But it ’s probably the absence seizure of wonder that accounts for the motion picture ’s special , immense success . The excitement of those who call it the film of the year endure agency past nostalgia to the feeling that now is the time to return to puerility . ”—Pauline Kael , The New Yorker
“Unexceptional”
“ The only style thatStar Warscould have been interesting was through its ocular mental imagery and special result . Both are run-of-the-mill … I keep looking for an ' border , ' to peer around the corny , solemn comic - Bible strophes ; he was face them frontally and full . This characterisation was made for those ( particularly male ) who carry a portable shrine within them of their adolescence , a chalice of a Self that was Better Then , before the world ’s social function or — in any complex style — sex intruded . ”—Stanley Kauffmann , The New Republic
“Puerile”
“ There ’s something depressing about seeing all these telling cinematic gifts and all this over-the-top technical skills lavished on such adolescent material . Perhaps more important is what this seems to achieve : the canonization of amusing book culture which in bit becomes the victory of the standardized , the simplistic , mass - get commercial artifact of our time . It ’s the triumph of pack — that sentiment which have delight in the awful plainly because it ’s fearsome . We enjoyed such stuff as small fry , but one would think there would come a time when we might put away childish things . ”—Joy Gould Boyum , The Wall Street Journal
“Most Beautiful Movie Serial Ever Made”
“ Star Wars … is the most elaborate , most expensive , most beautiful movie serial publication ever made . It ’s both an apotheosis ofFlash Gordonserials and a witty critique that take a leak affiliation with a variety of literature that is nothing if not eclectic : Quo Vadis ? , Buck Rogers , Ivanhoe , Superman , The Wizard of Oz , The Gospel According to St. Matthew , the legend of King Arthur and the knights of the Round Table … The style definitely not to approachStar warfare , though , is to expect a film of cosmic implication or to annotate it with so many references that one anticipates it as if it were a literary obligation . It ’s fun and funny . ”—Vincent Canby , The New York Times
“Enormous and Exhilarating Fun”
“ Viewed dispassionately — and of course that ’s desperately hard at this point in time — Star Warsis not an improvement on Mr Lucas ’ previous work , except in box - spot terminal figure . It is n’t the honorable film of the year , it is n’t the expert science fable ever to be translate to the screen , it is n’t a bit of other things either that sweating critic have taste to call on it into when faced with happen some plausible account for its vast and slightly black success consider a catching market . But it is , on the other hired man , tremendous and tickle pink merriment for those who are fain to take root down in their behind and get it all wash over them . ”—Derek Malcolm , The Guardian
“High-Falutin Scientific Jargon”
“ StripStar Warsof its often striking trope and its high - falutin scientific jargon , and you get a level , characters , and dialogue of overpowering banality , without even a ‘ future ’ cast to them . Human beings , anthropoids , or robots , you could believably happen them all , more or less like that , in business district Los Angeles today . for certain the outlook and values of the picture can be duplicate in third - rate non - science fiction of any place or geological period . O dull novel world!”—John Simon , New York Magazine
“Hopelessly Infantile Dialogue,”
“ Star Warsis fairly grounded by a malfunctioning handwriting and dispiritedly childish negotiation , but from a technical standpoint , it is an dead breathless accomplishment . The particular effects expert who put Lucas ' far - out fancy on film — everything from a mammoth astronomic warfare auto to a stunningly spectacular World War II imitation dogfight — are Oscar - desirable wizards of the first order . And , for his own part , Lucas displays an fantastically fertile imagination — an almost Federico Fellini - like fascination with flakey creatures . ”—Kathleen Carroll , New York Daily News
Read More Star Wars taradiddle :
A version of this taradiddle run in 2019 ; it has been updated for 2024 .
