Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope
Tomatometer: 95%

This is it, boys and girls. This is the visionary blockbuster that started it all, the film that bolted Harrison Ford to stardom and elevated George Lucas's Hollywood stock, birthed a fanatic worldwide cult following that endures to this day, and even inspired a brand new religion. While it certainly pulled inspiration from several different sources and effectively utilized many familiar thematic elements, Star Wars would go on to change the face of sci-fi and become a cinematic inspiration itself.

And how about the audacity of subtitling it Episode IV?* Unsuspecting, observant moviegoers may have wondered to themselves how Episodes I-III could have come and gone with no one noticing, and one must give credit to Lucas for a marketing ploy (can we call it that?) so ingenious in its subtlety that it kept fan circles abuzz with rumors for decades after the "first" trilogy had come to a close. Of course, we know how the prequels turned out, but that doesn't diminish the fact that the very first (fourth?) installment of this epic series was pure movie magic.



*It has been noted that the original 1977 release of Star Wars did not carry the "Episode IV" subtitle, which found its way into the film upon its re-release in 1981. RT apologizes to all Star Wars aficionados.