1) The opening shot. Besides the ships telling us all we need to know about the plot, the original 1977 version had the visuals perfectly matched to the music: the first moon appeared at one musical cue; the music built to a similar cue and a second, larger moon appeared; then the crash came as Tatooine entered the screen. Ever since the subtitle was added, that scene has been off, with the planet arriving too early for its musical cue. The opening crawl also arrives too late for its cue ever since the subtitle was added.
2) Threepio and Artoo walk across the hall through a storm of laser bolts and never get hit.
3) “Star Wars” kicks off right away. We see with his first scene that Darth Vader is a brutal man who will do anything to get what he wants. Violence, lies, torture—anything. Without a great villain, we cannot have a great hero.
4) Leia talking to Vader has always sounded to me like, “The Imperial Senate will not distill for this.” Before I even knew what the word “distill” meant. Made even funnier by the “Star Wars Uncut” edit in which this scene is represented by photos of the actors’ faces on vodka bottles, with Leia indeed using the word “distill.”
5) By the way, Leia’s buns were inspired by the hair style worn by Pancho Villa’s female warriors.
6) Threepio kicking Artoo.
7) The noises Artoo makes when tazered by the Jawas.
8) Ah, Threepio, ever the pessimist.
9) Threepio desperately trying to sell himself.
10) Threepio’s “Shutting up, sir” after being ordered to by Owen.
11) Luke’s line about picking up power converters. I used to hate it, but I had a high school teacher who would quote that line whenever someone complained about homework, so I grew to find it hilarious.
12) Owen and Beru as caring guardians. Owen wants Luke to go off and start his own life, but needs him around and is just as upset as Luke is about the deal. Beru understands Luke completely and appeals to Owen in a kind way. They’re very good people, which is why we care about their deaths after only a couple of scenes with them.
13) The binary sunset. What a gorgeous scene, with the swelling music, Luke’s frustration at not being able to leave home because of familial obligations, and the orange-and-yellow/blue-and-purple (depending on whether you're watching the pre- or post-1993 versions, which shifted the color timing) colors of the setting suns on a harsh planet.
14) Tatooine’s a pretty dangerous place—a desert planet that you can’t venture out into at night, or even in the day, because of Sand People. Adds a big menace to the early part of the movie.
15) The Empire’s shown to be a real threat too—they kill anyone who may have had contact with the droids, for goodness’ sake. They destroy a whole planet because a princess won’t give them information, and we know that they will do it again anytime they choose.
16) The editors rocking the film back and forth to make the Tusken Raider raise the staff many times instead of once.
17) Ben knows Luke’s name without being told, indicating that he’s been watching over Luke from afar and has been waiting for this moment of meeting a long time.
18) Everything’s dirty.
19) The Leia hologram.
20) The pause Ben gives before telling Luke what happened to his father.
21) Ben’s simple explanation of the Force.
22) Luke’s lightsaber is cyan in this movie instead of a more intense sapphire blue in The Empire Strikes Back. I figure that the saber probably hasn’t been ignited in 20 years and the crystal has slightly warped and needs a bit of time to charge up before reverting back to its original blue. I don’t see it as a mistake and like that the color’s a bit different here.
23) Also, Obi-Wan’s lightsaber has a slightly different shade than Luke’s, a sort of sky blue. I think it adds a lot of personality. It’s very different from the prequels, where every single blue saber is the same shade of blue, and every green saber the same shade of green, even with the digital technology to do something more. Crystals of the same kind of gemstone have different hues—emeralds can be any shade of green, sapphires are every color (except red, which are rubies), and there’s even a tourmaline that is red and green in the same stone. How cool would THAT have been, to have seen a duel-hued saber? Or instead of Obi-Wan and Anakin having exactly the same blue saber, Obi-Wan’s could be the “Star Wars” sky blue and Anakin’s could be midnight blue, symbolic of his fall to the Dark Side. That would also put more visual distinction in their fight scene. The older films had more variation in the colors of their four sabers, each blade with a distinctive color, than the prequels had with their hundreds of sabers.
24) Vader saying that the Death Star is nothing compared to the power of the Force. Which can destroy the Death Star.
25) The introduction of the Force Choke. No one else reacts in horror because Vader could easily do that same to them. Tarkin reins him in only because the Emperor’s given him that power. Also nice because we see the magic come in slowly, not thrown at us all at once.
26) I remember being very young and seeing the scene of the burned homestead and looking at the charred skeletons and thinking, “I don’t remember seeing that before.” That is my first memory of Star Wars, so I can’t remember seeing these movies for the first time.
27) Although I do remember seeing a widescreen version once on the Sci-fi channel in the 1990s. The cantina scene.
28) The Jedi mind trick.
29) The Cantina. You can cut off a man’s arm and shoot a guy in the face and no one will call the cops. THERE ARE NO COPS. Mos Eisley is as backwater as you can get, which is why I wonder why all that hustle-and-bustle was added to the special edition.
30) “I don’t like you either!”
31) Obi-Wan’s classy dialogue with Han in procuring a ride to Alderaan.
32) And Luke’s antagonistic banter with Han.
33) The look on Ben’s face when Han tells him his ship “made the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs.” Ben knows when he’s being had.
34) Han blasting Greedo in the Cantina in one shot, instead of the awkwardly animated humanly-impossible computer trick where his whole head slides off his neck to dodge a blaster bolt that was never intended for the film.
35) Han coolly walking out of the Cantina after blasting Greedo and tossing the bartender a coin. I always knew from this scene that Han was dangerous.
36) Han’s been going on about how great the Millennium Falcon is, and the first thing Luke says is, “What a piece of junk!”
37) The pair of dice Chewie hits his head on in the Falcon cockpit. You never see them again.
38) The first shot of the Falcon in space leaving Tatooine and the subsequent line, “Watch your mouth, kid, or you’re going to find yourself floating home!”
39) The stars turning to lines when going into hyperspace. You love it too! I’ve realized that we never see this effect in the prequels.
40) And the “blue aluminum foil” effect when seeing the ship in hyperspace from the outside.
41) Leia insulting Vader and Tarkin when they’re right next to her.
42) Alderaan’s original destruction. Why, in the special edition, did they make the destruction of a planet of millions of people look beautiful?
43) Artoo beating Chewie at space chess.
44) When Ben tells Luke to stretch out with feeling, Han is stifling a laugh in the background, amused by the whole silly thing.
45) Han realizing that Ben is right when he says, “Turn the ship around.”
46) When all I had was the pan-and-scan versions, I never saw the docking bay on the right side of the screen that the Falcon was being pulled into, so I always thought that the ship was going to crash into the wall. With widescreen, I see the bay clearly, but the memory remains. Who in the world panned-and-scanned that shot like that anyway?
47) The head-on shot of the Falcon being pulled into the docking bay, with the music underscoring it.
48) The whole bloody score. The trilogy has almost-incontestably the best film score ever done.
49) Them hiding in the secret compartments.
50) The commander opening the door to reveal Chewie and the gang.
51) Han calling Obi-Wan a fossil.
52) Luke admits he can’t see in the helmet—an improvised line.
53) “Where are you taking this…thing?”
54) Han’s conversation with the guy over the intercom, especially “How are you?” followed by the cringe.
55) Han shooting the intercom after the conversation goes bad.
56) “I’m Luke Skywalker, I’m here to rescue you.” Like that name’s supposed to mean anything to her. Also is the first mention of “Skywalker” in the movie.
57) Leia’s unimpressed and confused when someone comes to rescue her.
58) Han suggesting to Leia that she can go back into her cell if she doesn’t like that Han’s cut off their escape route.
59) “This is some rescue! You came in here, didn’t you have a plan for getting out?” "He's the brains, sweetheart!"
60) Leia’s “Someone has to save our skins!” after grabbing the gun from Luke. Han and Luke are so inept that she has to take charge of her own rescue.
61) This isn’t stunning acting overall, but the actors are into it and full of energy.
62) Artoo rescuing the gang from death by crushing.
63) Ben using the Force to make Stormtroopers think they heard a noise. We never see anything quite like this again.
64) And the lightsabers are used pretty sparingly in this film.
65) Threepio tricking the Stormtrooper by saying he’s taking Artoo to maintenance. I don’t think Threepio does anything this tricky again.
66) Luke and Han keeping the Stormtrooper belts on after discarding the rest of the uniforms.
67) Han running screaming after the Stormtroopers, then screaming again as they start chasing him back the same way.
68) The adventurous swing across the chasm.
69) The editing really saved this movie. Well-deserved Oscar for Best Editing.
70) This one’s for my Mom: her favorite line in the movie is “I’ve been waiting for you, Obi-Wan.”
71) The lightsaber duel. What looks awkward is actually very small, masterly movements, for masters do not display flashy moves—they need only one swing to defeat an opponent.
72) Vader isn’t ready to take out Ben yet, so he draws out the duel until he’s said everything he wants to say to him. It’s a duel with words as much as with swords.
73) Ben calling Vader “Darth” like it’s a first name. Which it was back then. If you notice, the Imperials never call Vader “Darth Vader,” they call him “Lord.” If “Darth” were a title, they would call him that instead of “Lord.” Leia calls him “Darth Vader” because she’s a princess—she outranks him.
74) “You should not have come back” followed by the expression on Ben’s face.
75) Ben’s blade “vanishing” momentarily. I always assumed that it vanished because it faced the camera head-on and appeared missing. Basically, that’s exactly what it was.
76) Ben disappearing when slashed.
77) Luke’s “NO!” It’s short and doesn’t draw attention to itself in a cheesy way. One of the better exclamations of “NO!” in cinema history.
78) The Falcon backing out of the Death Star like it’s a car.
79) The lights go out on the droids in the game room, with only Threepio’s eyes glowing.
80) “She’ll hold together.” (ship parts explode) “Hear me baby? Hold together.”
81) “Help! I think I’m melting! This is all your fault!” How did Threepio get covered in wires? I don’t know, but I’m sure it must be Artoo’s fault.
82) Han is brutally honest to Leia: he rescued her for money, not because it was morally right.
83) The original shot of the Falcon approaching Yavin. It looks nice, and I was shocked to see that this fine-looking shot was altered with computers for the 2004 DVD.
84) I was always so focused on those two random pilots walking towards the Yavin temple that I never noticed until the most recent viewing that our heroes are in the right-hand corner of the frame.
85) I like the idea that the Rebellion makes a temporary home in an old temple: ancient civilizations were there centuries ago, and now that they’re gone, someone else is using it. Makes me wonder if sentient species are living elsewhere on the planet. If so, the Empire obviously doesn’t care. Makes them all the more callous.
86) Han saying, “May the Force be with you.”
87) When Luke says, “You all right Artoo?” Artoo beeps, to which Luke says, “Good.” I imagine Artoo saying “No!” having had enough adventure for one day.
88) The original shot of the X-wings taking off from Yavin. Little points of light represent the ships, giving a sense of urgency. The red planet is clearly visible, giving an accurate representation of the McQuarrie artwork it’s based on.
89) All those models look excellent. I was appalled and insulted for the original ILM team that it was replaced with horrible-looking CGI for the new editions. A real slap in the face.
90) The “Force Fanfare.”
91) The pilot bouncing up and down while saying, “How many guns do you think, Gold Five?”
92) “You worry about those fighters, I’LL worry about the tower!”
93) Vader goes out in a spaceship himself to fight the rebels.
94) Tarkin’s so tense in that last scene, even though he’s sure the rebels will be obliterated. Does this guy have any fun at all?
95) Vader letting Wedge go to keep his sights on Luke, making Wedge the only minor character to survive three ship battles.
96) Luke letting go of technology and trusting his human, Force-guided instincts to destroy the Death Star.
97) “YEA-HOO!!!”
98) Artoo beaten up and covered in oil, a battle casualty.
99) The silent ending. A stately, happy ending, with everyone smiling and without dialogue.
100) The ending credits music. I always watch the credits of these three movies for the music.
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