Star Wars (film)
1977 film directed by George Lucas
Star Wars (later retitled as Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope) is a 1977 American epic space opera film written and directed by George Lucas. Produced by Lucasfilm Ltd. and distributed by Twentieth Century-Fox, it is the first film in the Star Wars franchise and the fourth chronological chapter of the "Skywalker Saga". Set in a fictional galaxy ruled by the tyrannical Galactic Empire, the film follows a resistance movement called the Rebel Alliance that aims to destroy the Empire's ultimate weapon, the Death Star. When the rebel leader Princess Leia is captured by the Galactic Empire, Luke Skywalker acquires stolen architectural plans for the Death Star and sets out to rescue her while learning the ways of a metaphysical power known as "the Force" from the Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi. The film stars Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Peter Cushing, Alec Guinness, Anthony Daniels, Kenny Baker, Peter Mayhew, David Prowse, and James Earl Jones.
Lucas had the idea for a science fiction film in the vein of Flash Gordon around the time he completed his first film, THX 1138 (1971), and he began working on a treatment after completing American Graffiti (1973). After numerous rewrites, principal photography began in March 1976 in locations including Tunisia and Elstree Studios in Hertfordshire, England. Lucas formed the visual effects company Industrial Light & Magic to help create the film's visual effects. Star Wars suffered production difficulties: the cast and crew believed the film would be a failure, and it went $3 million over budget due to delays.
“Star Wars (film)” enters the record as 1977 film directed by George Lucas. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Star, Wars and film can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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“Star Wars (film)” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Star, Wars and film provides the most credible route into that argument.
Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 26, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q17738. VIAF identifies the subject as 185100833. The Library of Congress control number is n78001095. 7 of 9 selected statements include explicit references; 5 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1977, 1138, 1971 and 1973.
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This entry incorporates text from “Star Wars (film)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.