Color Used for Characterization
Certain characters in the Star Wars trilogy
are closely identified with certain colors, with Darth Vader’s all-black
outfit being the most obvious example. Vader’s black makes a stark
contrast with Luke’s all-white clothes in A New Hope,
hearkening back to the serial westerns of the 1940s and 1950s, in
which the good guys had white hats and the bad guys wore black.
Leia wears an all-white costume in A New Hope as
well, signaling the goodness of her character and linking her visually
with Luke, her (unknown) brother. The Jedi Masters Yoda and Obi-Wan
favor brown, a warm color recalling a monk’s robes and the earth
itself. Han Solo, meanwhile, wears a white shirt with a black vest
for much of the trilogy, in an apt reference to the initial ambivalence
of his character. Luke’s outfits continue to emphasize his characterization
in this way throughout the trilogy. In Empire,
for example, when Luke journeys to Bespin to rescue his friends,
his fatigues are a light gray, showing that Luke has traveled a
bit from the innocent idealism of his youth and that he has placed
himself in peril of straying to the dark side. By the time we get
to Return of the Jedi, Luke has adopted an all-black
wardrobe, though this does not mean that he has gone over to the
dark side. Instead, the black robes he wears recall a priest’s garb
and link him visually to his father, with whose fate he is so deeply
concerned.
Orchestral Soundtrack
John Williams’s thematic compositions for the Star
Wars trilogy have been justly acclaimed, and the films
use the soundtrack expertly to heighten the drama and intensify
the mood. In many ways, the full orchestral accompaniment provided
by Williams and powerfully performed by the London Symphony Orchestra
is a throwback to the symphonic scores of classic Hollywood films,
at a time when pop music was being used more and more in film soundtracks.
There is an intensity and excitement in the Star Wars music,
especially in the heroic opening theme, with its instantly recognizable
fanfare, which contributes greatly to film’s overall effect. Another
dramatic musical moment is the Imperial march introduced in The
Empire Strikes Back as the theme music for Vader’s pursuit
of Han and Leia. The march’s rhythm is driving and relentless, capturing
Vader’s own relentless progress through the story. Williams’s score
can also be delicate and humorous, introducing themes for tender
moments and minor characters and mixing in passages from the main
themes in minor keys to emphasize crucial moments of dramatic tension.
Speed
Although it may be hard to believe now, one of the things
that set the Star Wars movies apart from the very
beginning was the speed with which the stories moved and the speed
with which certain scenes took place. Each of the films has at least
one set-piece moment that is meant to make the audience members
grab their armrests to steady themselves. In A New Hope,
it is the trench runs during the attack on the Death Star—this scene
was like nothing else that had come before, and it had theater viewers
swaying as if they were on a roller coaster. Though this scene is
comparatively slow by today’s standards, it is the reason no action
movie seems complete now without one super-fast air trip shot from
the pilot’s point of view. The EmpireStrikes
Back featured Han’s vertiginous flight through the asteroid
field, while Return of the Jedi sent Luke and Leia
zooming through the forest of Endor on speeder bikes. Such scenes
had many critics comparing the films, disparagingly, to amusement
park thrill rides, but for George Lucas, such a comparison was hardly
a criticism—more like an indication that he had achieved the effect
he was after.
