A few months ago I read most of The Secret History of Star Wars by Michael Kaminski, which was an interesting look at the creative process behind Episodes 1-6. Of course, I then had to follow it up by rewatching a fan-made version of the original cut of Star Wars (the original theatrical version before it eventually became Episode IV: A New Hope). It was notable how closely Luke’s character arc in the movie parallels Lucas’ journey from an upbringing in the outer rim (Modesto, CA) to playing a pivotal role in a new wave of cinema inspired by an older age of action serials. He and his friends (Steven Spielberg, Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese) took Hollywood by storm, with Lucas seeking to bypass traditional Hollywood practices. As Mark Hamill said, “I played him like George.” But Lucas’ initially scrappy collaborations grew into a corporate empire, and he became the very establishment he swore to destroy.
And in his relentless pursuit of directorial ambitions, he drove away the woman he deeply loved and respected, Marcia Lucas. She had helped him a great deal with editing the first Star Wars film, and while George preferred technical and graphical work (as featured in his student film THX 1138), Marcia was more character and story oriented1. After his student film bombed, it was at her suggestion that Lucas made a film that emotionally involved audiences more, resulting in the smash hit American Graffiti. “I made it for you,” he said2. She was also one of the few people he would listen to criticism from. However, to a large extent because of George prioritizing his work on the Star Wars films over spending time with wife and child, the couple divorced shortly after Return of the Jedi came out. No wonder then that fans felt the characters and story were lackluster in the prequels, particularly the first two. He was strong in the ways of filmmaking but had lost a lot of the human element in his stories. He fell back on advanced special effects and other techniques instead3. Marcia apparently cried after watching Episode 14. Wounded by fans’ disappointment over the prequels, George finally bent the knee to Disney’s Galactic Media Empire, completing the tragedy.
All of this colors how I see the films themselves. A disclaimer about Star Wars content I’ve enjoyed so you can understand the context for my rankings: I watched the Clone Wars movie when I was a kid but didn’t watch the show5, played various Star Wars games like Lego Star Wars, Battlefront 2 (the original), and Empire at War. My enjoyment of prequel memes in their heyday around 2017-2018 also biases things; George’s writing can be bad, but it is iconically bad. Finally, when I was younger I found droids vs clones more fun than stormtroopers (who are also cool) vs a bunch of ragtag randos.
Ranking, as originally screened (no retcons from subsequent editions):
- Episode 4 (9.5/10): Inspirational, groundbreaking, etc. Didn’t like it as much when I was younger since the beginning is slow, Luke is kind of whiny and the effects weren’t as sleek as some of the ones in the prequels, but after rewatching it I liked it a lot more.
- Episode 3 (9.4/10): My favorite when younger, and for me is about on par with 4 but loses by a hair, and beats 5 by the same hair. I like tragedies and this one was clearly coming from George’s heart (which is even clearer knowing the backstory from The Secret History of Star Wars). Some cheesy dialogue but it’s prequelmemey so it works for me and the action, politics, and plot is well-paced, ending up much better than the first two prequels.
- Episode 5 (9.3/10): Strong start with the Imperial invasion of Hoth, introduced Yoda and the Emperor who are fun additions, and reveals that Vader is Luke’s father, which undermines the original a bit (Vader was not originally intended to be Luke’s dad and it irrevocably narrows the focus from a vast galaxy into a family soap opera) but still broadly works. It’s very good overall, provides a nice tone shift from 4 and sets up 6 nicely but just doesn’t quite have the emotional impact of 4 (heroic) or 3 (tragic) given that the Rebellion is set back but none of the characters die and it’s not too much of a stretch to think that Han will be rescued (instead of Vader just straight up killing him).
- Episode 6 (5/10): Copy of 4 in many ways, but features iconic characters and scenes as well as some cool moments (Luke, Vader, and the Emperor on the Death Star).
- Episode 2 (4.5/10): A mix of great and not-so-great content, the effects are cool but there are pacing issues for most of the movie despite the last third of the movie being non-stop thrills from the factory to the arena to Jedi vs droids and finally clones vs droids (my favorite scenes as a kid) with some cool lightsaber + force fights to top things off.
- Episode 1 (3.5/10): Fun in places, Darth Maul is cool, good lightsaber fight choreography, but fans were right to be disappointed with the film’s many weaknesses.
- Episode 9 (1.5/10): Worse than any of the 6 above by a long shot but I like how J.J. Abrams just stopped caring and brought Palpatine back. This gave the film some fun moments that elevate it above the other two.
- Episode 8 (1/10): Cuts down most of the important plot points its predecessor set up for little gain (except the Snoke twist, I liked some aspects of that), Luke’s actions are out of character, the chase scene is boring and at times nonsensical, just not very good. At least it has some originality even if it doesn’t land.
- Episode 7 (0.5/10): Soulless beat-for-beat corporate remake of the original with none of its charm. I thought I was crazy for strongly disliking it when it came out despite rave reviews from critics and audiences but time has vindicated my position. I see this kind of soulless retread as among the worst trends in filmmaking, right up there with all the Disney live-action remakes.
Footnotes
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see this article for further discussion and more of the information featured in this paragraph. ↩
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remind you of anyone? ↩
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Marcia Lucas also had some apt criticisms of the sequel trilogy. ↩
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my headcanon is therefore that there was no “inhibitor chip,” the clones were just following orders. ↩