Star Wars
The Star Wars films of GEORGE LUCAS have grown into one of the longest-running serials in movie history.
The original space adventure Star Wars (1977) was a such a sensation that plans for sequels began immediately. Lucas has always said he imagined nine separate episodes to the saga, and that the 1977 film was really episode four (subtitled "A New Hope").
Subsequent films have been known by their episode titles: the sequels The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and The Return of the Jedi (1983), and the prequels The Phantom Menace (1999), Attack of the Clones (2002) and Revenge of the Sith (2005). The disconnect between the episode numbers and order of release can be confusing: episode four was the first film released, and vice-versa.
It's not clear whether Lucas will ever make episodes seven, eight and nine. But a delay would be nothing new: 16 years passed between the release of The Return of the Jedi and The Phantom Menace.
Here are some of the primary characters and actors in the Star Wars saga.
Vader was played by two different men in the very first film. The Vader helmet was worn by DAVID PROWSE, a former weightlifter with an appropriately menacing frame and height (6'7"). But Prowse's voice was deemed insufficient for the role, and so his lines were dubbed by basso thespian JAMES EARL JONES. The pair repeated their roles in the next two films, and Prowse became a regular on the sci-fi convention and nostalgia circuits.
Vader is joined in episode five by another colorful villain: the bounty hunter BOBA FETT, who does his hunting at the behest of the larva-like Jabba the Hutt. Though Fett's role is rather small, he has become a favorite character among Star Wars fans online. A key prequel villain is Darth Tyranus, played by horror veteran (and Lord of the Rings star) CHRISTOPHER LEE.
On to the heroes. NATALIE PORTMAN is Queen Padme Amidala, the enemy of the budding Empire and yet the love interest of Anakin Skywalker. It's no secret that in later films Padme and Anakin become the parents of Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia -- as revealed in Darth Vader's famous "I am your father!" line from The Empire Strikes Back. Portman managed the neat trick of quietly attending Harvard University while starring in episodes one and two.
Anakin's children grow up to become his greatest foes. Luke Skywalker is the hero of episodes 4-6, a naive flyboy who grabs his chance to save the beautiful Princess Leia from the clutches of Darth Vader. (Luke and Leia don't discover that they're related until the end of Return of the Jedi.) Luke was played by a relative unknown, MARK HAMILL, and the role became the defining moment of his career. Leia was played by CARRIE FISHER, who has since become known as a tart-tongued writer and script doctor for Hollywood films.
HARRISON FORD played smuggler Han Solo, Luke and Leia's scoundrelly ally, in episodes 4-6. Ford had worked with Lucas before, playing scoundrelly hotrodder Bob Falfa in American Graffiti (1972). Star Wars put Ford on a rocketship of his own: it helped him score the plum role of Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark, a 1981 film by Lucas and his chum Steven Spielberg. Raiders spawned two blockbuster sequels of its own, and by the end of the 1980s Ford had been at the center of six of the top-grossing movies of all time.
(Lucas's mentor, director Francis Ford Coppola, used Ford as a bit player in the 1974 film The Conversation and 1979's Apocalypse Now.)
Luke Skywalker's mentor was the aged Jedi warrior Obi-Wan Kenobi, a Gandalf-like figure played by venerable English actor SIR ALEC GUINNESS. Guinness was one of the few "names" in the original cast, having starred in the Oscar-winning Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) and other distinguished films. In the prequels a younger, more hot-blooded Obi-Wan is played by the Scots actor EWAN McGREGOR.
Obi-Wan has a mentor of his own in episode one: Qui-Gon Jinn, a Jedi knight played by Irish thespian LIAM NEESON. The Jedi are an ancient sect of peaceful-minded warriors who channel the natural powers of The Force. Still another prequel Jedi is council leader Mace Windu, played by SAMUEL L. JACKSON.
The Jedi were assisted in The Phantom Menace by Jar-Jar Binks, a computer-generated character voiced by actor AHMED BEST. Jar-Jar turned out to be controversial among fans: a few considered him a thinly-veiled African stereotype, and many more simply found him too goofy to be sharing the screen with the Jedi. Nonetheless, Jar-Jar had a role in episodes two and three as well.
The top-dog Jedi of all is YODA. Shrunken and pointy-eared yet strangely distinguished, Yoda is the master Jedi who trained Obi-Wan Kenobi. In The Empire Strikes Back Yoda also trains Luke after the young pilot finds him on the planet Dagobah. Yoda is performed and voiced by puppeteer FRANK OZ, better known as one of the leading players in the late Jim Henson's troupe, the Muppets. In Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith, Yoda was created by computer animation rather than puppetry, though Oz continued to supply the voice.
Another diminuitive figure, KENNY BAKER, remains a regular at Star Wars fan events. Baker is David Prowse's opposite: at 3'8" he was just small enough to fit inside and operate the cute droid R2-D2. In later sequels R2-D2's movements have often been handled by electronic control, but Baker is still used in some scenes.
R2-D2's sidekick is the gold-plated strolling android C-3PO. Where R2-D2 is nearly cuddly, C-3P0 is amusingly fussy and clumsy, providing comic relief amidst the chaos. The Phantom Menace reveals that C-3P0 was actually built by young Anakin Skywalker -- ironic, since later in the saga C-3P0 becomes an ally of Luke Skywalker against his grown-up creator, Darth Vader.
C-3PO is played by actor ANTHONY DANIELS, who wears the costume and provides the voice. Daniels and Kenny Baker have a chance to become the only actors to appear in all nine films planned for the Star Wars series; reportedly C-3P0 and R2-D2 are the two characters which tie all the episodes together.
Also linking the episodes so far are rousing scores by the same composer: JOHN WILLIAMS. Williams is a favorite of both Lucas and Spielberg and so (like Ford) a participant in a number of Hollywood's biggest money-makers. And as with Portman, there's a Boston connection: Williams was chief conductor of the Boston Pops from 1980-1993, and occasionally conducted the orchestra in playing music from the Star Wars films.
For a similar blockbuster film series, see The Lord of the Rings.
See more Who2 Loops!
ADVERTISEMENT:
