![]() "Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid," he quoted with a superiority gained through nothing but cocky self-confidence. When it comes to what makes Star Wars the greatest fucking science-fiction story ever told, the answer is Han Solo. George Lucas managed to launch Steve McQueen's Cooler King, Clint Eastwood's Blondie, Vegas-era Elvis, Frank Sinatra, JFK, Lenny Bruce and goddamn Indiana Jones (although we didn't know it yet) into space, all of them crammed into the handsome body of one Harrison Ford, one-time carpenter, shortly to become the biggest star in the world.įorget the Force, forget Vader's overarching tragedy, forget the Death Star and lightsabers and Leia in that slave-girl bikini get-up. Jedis can go hang - we're with the cool cat in the waistcoat. Surly, wisecracking, dismissive, a dab hand with a blaster, the best pilot-smuggler in the galaxy, and best friends with a Wookiee. Han Solo passed the ultimate litmus test of a character's popularity: every kid, in every playground, since 1977, wanted to play him. Head here for the making-of story of The Empire Strikes Back. The end of Return Of The Jedi, with Vader unmasked as a redeemable cherubic nice guy, is arguably a mistake - but what power the prequel trilogy has is all down to watching Anakin get ready for that helmet come Revenge Of The Sith's devastating conclusion. Later, when Lucas invented more backstory, Vader gets one of the great reveals of all time ("I am your father") and - for a few moments at the end of The Empire Strikes Back - you feel Luke really ought to ditch the Rebels and join his dad to found their own Empire. In Star Wars, he doesn't even seem to be working for the Empire - for him, it's all about becoming the last of the Jedi by offing Obi-Wan. Vader knows that if everyone else wears white, black is the ideal fashion statement. With the weightlifter shoulders of Bristol's Dave Prowse holding up the long black cape, the rich tones of Mississippi's James Earl Jones making evil lines sound better than they are ("The plans you refer to will soon be back in our hands") and costumier John Mollo providing that glossy black stormtrooper/samurai-helmet-cum-gas mask, Darth Vader is the visual and dramatic lynch-pin of Star Wars, the perfect balance for Alec Guinness' tweedy, elderly goodie. His curtain-closing appearance in The Force Awakens, after years of speculation, confirms his importance, and teases the possibility that he might, eventually, catch a break. And it's Mark Hamill who sells it, screaming his soul-riven disbelief into the tornado then, once he's shattered, choosing to fall despondently down that giant air duct rather than take his pop's metallic hand. ![]() Sure, Han's carbonite farewell in Empire has crushing emotional oomph, but it's the Vader/Skywalker showdown, with its climactic megaton-bombshell revelation, that stands as the entire canon's single most memorable, most iconic, most numbingly impactful moment. think about it), rather that, quite simply, he has the best story arc, the best fight scenes (until the prequels he's the only hero to engage in proper, full-on lightsaber duels) and even the greatest scene of the entire saga. It's not so much that he's the character closest to Lucas himself (Luke. A heroic figure so expertly drafted that if he didn't exist, mythologist Joseph Campbell would have to crack open a new archetype to capture him, over the years the hero almost became – undeservedly – the punchline. Head here to see Alec Guinness as Obi-Wan on the set of Star Wars: A New Hope. Hooded in mystery, vaguely priest-like, the strange hermit out beyond the Dune Sea gave the concept of Jedi Knights a mysticism and authority no amount of blather about "midi-chlorians" could undo. Putting him in the hands of a classically trained British thesp who could quote Shakespeare at 'will' was assuredly building on rock. George Lucas had, of course, been boning up on his archetypes, and here was a classic mentor figure cut from the Merlin/Gandalf cloth - the givers of wisdom. For all the special effects, space cowboys, arch villains and comedy droids, it was Kenobi who gave Star Wars conviction. Out of the mouth of Ben 'Obi-Wan' Kenobi, in the silver-haired guise of Alec Guinness (whose voice could varnish wood), it sounded like holy liturgy. It binds the galaxy together." On paper, that reads pretty silly. It's an energy field created by all living things. "The Force is what gives a Jedi his power.
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