Star Wars: A New Hope Opening Scene Analysis

Star Wars: A New Hope Opening Scene Analysis

The first scene we see is of the introduction of what the film is about - this will leave the audience understanding what is happening and why, we find out from this introduction that an evil galactic empire are trying to retrieve the stolen plans for an 'Ultimate Weapon'. The first shot of the movie is an extreme long shot in which we see a giant space ship hover over the top chasing a smaller ship. We hear the diegetic sound of laser shots which indicates the genre of the film (sci-fi action).

We are then taken to a medium shot inside of the smaller ship, were we are introduced to a few of the main characters in the film, one of these is C3PO, a gold 'droid' who is very pessimistic about situations that he is put through. We are also shown a smaller droid called R2D2, we cannot understand him, however C3PO can and with his answers, we can guess what R2D2 has said.

Soon after we are introduced to the antagonist of the film, Darth Vader. Vader is a typical villain who has a lot of power and will stop at nothing to get what he wants. As he is wearing a mask, the audience are left questioning who this man is, he wear black leather armor and a black helmet and mask - the colour black connotes darkness and death, which shows he is dangerous and also intimidating due to his height. Non diegetic music also comes on which shows his power in the film.