Why in your opinion has Star Wars: A New Hope become such an iconic film?

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Why in your opinion has Star Wars: A New                                  Hope become such an iconic film?

Lucas had the idea of Star Wars: A New Hope whilst directing his first full-feature film, THX 1138. Lucas started writing Star Wars: A New Hope in 1973 however it wasn’t until 1977 that it was released. Lucas spent these 4 years changing and modifying the characters and script. There were many minor changes such as Luke Starkiller being renamed as Luke Skywalker. There were many big changes such as the death of Obi Wan Kenobi after George Lucas realized that he no longer served a purpose to the story line. Joseph Campbell’s A Hero with a thousand faces inspired Lucas. Lucas read this book whilst he was choosing the characters that helped make Star Wars: A New Hope so iconic.

Star Wars: A New Hope was an unexpected huge hit. It has now evolved from just a film aimed at children to numerous types of media and is now multi-media. There is a lot of merchandise that has been made for Star Wars: A New Hope. The film is now a television series, animated film, videogame and in addition there has been a lot of merchandise produced. There have been many toys made based on the characters in Star Wars: A New Hope. Lightsabers have also been recreated in different colours. The lightsabers bear a resemblance to swords; this signifies heroism and bravery as characters such as saint George often used swords.  Nobody thought that the merchandise would be so popular, however Lucas did. He decided to try and get the rights to the merchandise. Lucas managed to get rights and the merchandise did turn out to be very popular. Lucas now gets all the money that the merchandise made and none goes to the studio.

It is possible that in Star Wars: A New Hope R2D2 could have been seen as a MacGuffin. At the beginning of the film Princess Leia loads the enemy plans onto R2D2, from that point he is very important. If R2D2 gets lost or is broken then they will not know the enemy plans. Therefore R2D2 drives the story forward.

Todorov’s theory states that there is equilibrium, disequilibrium and then a new equilibrium. This can be seen through the storyline of Star Wars: A New Hope. When the empire were not attacking or planning to destroy there would be equilibrium. The disequilibrium would be when the empire attacks the hidden base and tries to destroy it. The new equilibrium would be when Luke Skywalker prevents the destruction of the hidden base and stops the empire.

Star Wars: A New Hope was a revolutionary film and changed the ways in which certain types of people were portrayed. A big change in representation was with women. Until Star Wars: A New Hope women had been typically portrayed as weak and vulnerable. A male also often rescued them. Star Wars: A New Hope changes some of these conventions, but some are the same. In Star Wars: A New Hope Princess Leia uses a laser gun on two occasions. At the beginning of the film Princess Leia shoots a stormtrooper and this is a change to the typical representation of women. However soon after princess Leia is captured and is in need of rescue. Luke Skywalker, a male character, then provides the rescuing, this is a typical representation of women.

 Star Wars: A New Hope may have changed the way that we know it today. In the 1970’s many women around the world were fighting for equal rights to men. In 1972, only one year before Star Wars: A New Hope was written, the equal pay act aimed to remove the amount of pay that an employee got from work based on their gender. Star Wars: A New Hope sent out a message that women were equal to men and that they should not be discriminated. Women did get improved rights in the 70s. However it wasn’t until 1993 that the Human Rights act removed discrimination against women being employed. When people were thinking about women and their rights they may remember Princess Leia in this film. This makes the film iconic as it is instantly recognisable as it showed that women were equal to men.

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In Star Wars: A New Hope male characters are used in similar ways to many other films. Luke Skywalker and Han Solo save Princess Leia and are the heroes of the film. This represents men to be strong and heroes. This is a typical representation of men and is often used in films today. Princess Leia is captured at the beginning of the film. This is used to relate to many women at the time of Star Wars: A New Hope. There was a universal feeling that women had at the time of Star Wars: A New Hope, this was ...

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