The original trilogy is the first installment of films of the Star Wars saga to be produced. These were the movies released from 1977 to 1983. They primarily focus on the Rebel Alliance trying to free the galaxy from the clutches of the Galactic Empire, as well as Luke Skywalker's quest to become a Jedi and face Sith Lord Darth Vader and his master Emperor Palpatine.
The original trilogy is sometimes called the classic trilogy in contrast to the prequel trilogy. The sequel trilogy takes place 30 years after Return of the Jedi.
Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope This film introduces the characters of Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia, as well as the iron-fisted regime of the Galactic Empire. On Tatooine, Luke's home planet, the exiled Jedi Obi-Wan Kenobi, in the guise of a kindly old hermit named Ben Kenobi, watches over him. When Luke realizes his Jedi potential, he teams with Han Solo, joins the Rebels, destroys the Death Star and rescues Leia from Darth Vader. However, this was all possible because of Obi-Wan's sacrifice during his final duel with Vader aboard the Death Star.
Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back After the Alliance experiences a devastating defeat at the hands of the Empire on Hoth, Luke Skywalker goes to receive training from the Jedi Master Yoda shortly after a visit by Obi-Wan's Force spirit. However, when Princess Leia and Han Solo are captured by the Empire on Bespin, Luke attempts a rescue only to be confronted by Darth Vader. His battle with the Dark Lord ends in Luke's defeat, and he receives the horrifying revelation that Darth Vader is in fact the former Anakin Skywalker, his father. Leia manages to break free with the help of Han's old friend, Lando Calrissian, but Han is himself taken away.
Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi After rescuing Han Solo from the crime lord Jabba the Hutt, Luke visits a dying Yoda, who confirms Vader's revelation and reveals that there is another surviving Skywalker before passing away. Obi-Wan Kenobi's spirit appears and elaborates, and Luke deduces that his sister is in fact Leia. While the Alliance engages the Empire in a battle against the second Death Star above Endor, Luke confronts Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine, the Sith mastermind who engineered the creation of the Galactic Empire and the fall of Anakin Skywalker. After a brutal duel with Luke, in which he is defeated and shown mercy, Vader renounces the dark side of the Force and becomes Anakin Skywalker again, destroying Sidious and saving Luke's life at the cost of his own.
With the destruction of the Death Star and the death of the Emperor, the Empire is defeated. As the Rebels celebrate, Luke sees the smiling spirits of Obi-Wan, Yoda, and his father.
The original trilogy box re-release
The Canadian original trilogy DVD release
George Lucas has tinkered repeatedly with the original trilogy. Episodes IV through VI were remastered and re-released
- as Special Editions (theatrically, and on VHS and LaserDisc) in early 1997,
- on DVD in September 2004, and
- on Blu-ray in September 2011.
The films underwent extensive clean-up and restoration work, and Lucas took advantage of this opportunity to make a number of changes and additions of effects. In a September 2004 interview with CNN, he explains his reasons for the changes:
The re-release changes are a point of contention among some fans, who claim that they reduce the quality of the movies. Some fans see Lucas' testimony before the U.S. Congress in opposition to colorizing black-and-white films (a position he reiterated in August 2004) as hypocritical, but the types of alterations Lucas opposes are done by studios without the consent of the artists involved in the original production, as opposed to changes he made to his own films.
On May 4, 2006, StarWars.com announced that the original trilogy would be released in unaltered form on DVD on September 12, 2006.