'Star Wars,' Glorious 'Star Wars' By Ben Abramson Washingtonpost.com Staff Monday, November 16, 1998

(File photo)

Washingtonpost.com used the list as the basis for an online survey to determine which film our readers thought was the best. In the first installment, No. 20 ("One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest") defeated No. 19 ("Chinatown"), and moved on to face No. 18 ("Psycho"). And so on.

Until "Star Wars" (No. 15 on the AFI list).

At first it was funny. See "Star Wars" trounce "Bridge on the River Kwai." Watch "Sunset Boulevard" go down in flames. But when the Christmas classic "It's a Wonderful Life" led by 200 votes but then trailed by thousands a few hours later, we sensed trouble. In an effort to level the playing field, our esteemed movie editor shelved "Star Wars" to allow the top five movies to compete against each other, in the hopes that the winner of that bracket would stand a fighting chance.

In the penultimate round, "Casablanca" (AFI's No. 2) battled "Citizen Kane" (No. 1) and earned a final-round showdown with "Star Wars."

"Casablanca" – with its epic story line of war, intrigue and romance, Bergman and Bogart, and a screenplay that yielded a number of lines so memorable they've become an enduring part of the culture – versus "Star Wars" – a Western in a spacesuit, with a cast featuring a talking garbage can and a grunting primate, a slew of chase scenes and explosions, and such legendary quotes as "I used to bull's-eye womp rats in my T-16 back home."

No contest, I thought.

I was right.

According to washingtonpost.com readers, by a vote of 25,546 to 2,467, "Star Wars" is the greatest American film ever made.

Now I'm as much for democracy as the next guy, but I thought an explanation was in order. So we asked our readers to submit their reasons why "Star Wars" is the best movie ever, with the understanding that I would try to (tactfully) rebut a representative sample. (See more reader responses on another page.) Thank you to all who participated, and my apologies in advance . . .

Reader: The movie showed diversity, teamwork, and unity for a common cause. How else could a wookie, a hotshot pilot, a farm boy, a legendary Jedi, two robots, and a princess be brought together and be able to work together so well, as all these characters were from ... different backgrounds (and planets)? – Mike Gandy, Culpeper

Response: A farm girl from Kansas, her terrier, a cowardly lion, a dancing scarecrow and a talking tin man go on a quest . . .

Reader: I don't think you can dismiss the legions of fans that continue to this day to rave about this movie and its accomplishments and contributions to modern movie making. It maintains a cult following, yet it's one of the largest . . . "cults" in the world. And I do mean the world – the USA isn't the only country crazy about this movie. Fans don't lie. Numbers don't lie.* – Wes Royer, Clifton

Response: The top-rated television program in the world today is "Baywatch." Do we really want to argue that popularity equals quality?

(*"Star Wars:" 21 years – $322 million. "Titanic:" 1 year – $1.2 billion)

Reader: It made science fiction mainstream. – Ira N. Goldman, Vienna, Austria

Response: This was a frequent argument, that the film singlehandedly brought science fiction into the nation's mainstream. But "Star Wars" is science fiction in only the most literal sense: it's fictitious and it has spaceships. Science fiction as a genre uses a futuristic context to address how technology may affect society. Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World," George Orwell's "1984" and Robert Heinlein's "Stranger in a Strange Land" are notable literary examples. In film, Stanley Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey" and even George Lucas's own "THX 1138" fit the genre. And these all came before "Star Wars."

Reader: I was 10 years old when "Star Wars" was released. The question asked around school at that time was not, "Have you seen 'Star Wars' yet?" It was, "How many times have you seen 'Star Wars'?" To my recollection, no other film has elicited such a response. Twenty years on, "Star Wars" captivates the hearts and minds of viewers, unlike "GWTW" or any other movie that has been re-released. – David Coghlan

Response: Many of the responses we got focused on the impact "Star Wars" made on the individuals who flocked to see it again and again (and voted in our online surveys again and again). I remember the same phenomenon with "Jaws," which had an even more tangible impact – many people were afraid to swim in the ocean for a long time afterward. When "Psycho" came out, people were afraid to take showers. As for "Gone With the Wind," do we really know how it was received in 1959, 20 years after it was made?

As an aside: note that "Home Alone" is the top-grossing comedy in Hollywood history, largely because so many 10-year-old boys went to see it so many times.

Reader: To understand why "Star Wars" is the greatest movie of all time, you have to go deeper than the fantastic technology. There will always be conflict in the world – it may be nation against nation or man against man, but it will always be present. Writers, philosophers and storytellers, since the beginning of time, have tried to show and explain the conflict of Good vs. Evil. Ancient myths have shown the journey of a hero to overcome a hardship, as "Star Wars" does.... Maybe you don't realize it, or maybe you never thought about it, but "Star Wars" has helped so many people understand conflict, in such a basic way, that anyone of any age can understand it. – Stephen Corby, Chevy Chase, Md.

Response: This is a reasonable argument, that its mythological setting makes "Star Wars" a good vehicle for addressing the question of good vs. evil. The problem here is that "Star Wars" presents the viewer with an evil so overt that it could never be questioned. Of course I'm against the Empire; those bastards blow up planets just to amuse themselves. But good and evil are rarely so cut and dried: Was Oskar Schindler a hero who selflessly saved hundreds of Jewish lives from the gas chamber, or was he an opportunist who capitalized on a crisis and profited from slave labor? There are no easy answers. In "Star Wars," those tenacious rebels keep on fighting, triumph against superior firepower, and by the end of the trilogy Darth Vader has killed the Emperor and joins Obi-Wan in heaven. What was I supposed to learn from this again?

Have you ever seen "Casablanca?"
(Beginning to end. Be honest.)

Yes No View results without voting.

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