I suppose it makes sense to start a series about lightsaber
duels in Star Wars with the first one ever depicted. The duel
between Obi-Wan Kenobi and Darth Vader on the Death Star in A
New Hope is noteworthy to me for two main reasons. The first is
that it isn't actually the climax of the film; the Battle of
Yavin is. A New Hope is the first and so far only film in the
main Star Wars saga where the big finale doesn't involve
lightsabers. The second is that the protagonist of the film has
nothing to do with it.
Luke Skywalker is given his father's lightsaber at the beginning
of Episode IV and doesn't get to duel anyone with it until the
end of Episode V (he then immediately drops it down a hole. I
wonder if anyone was disappointed by that back in the day). The
first and only duel in the original 1977 Star Wars film was
between the main villain and the main character's mentor. In a
way, this is fitting; it reminds us that lightsabers are a relic
of a more civilized age that ended with the rise of the Empire
rather than being the sort of thing that young people at the
time ran around with. It adds to their mystique to see one being
wielded by an elderly wizard rather than some young
wipper-snapper farm boy. Speaking of which, the image of an
elderly wizard in a brown robe duelling a big robot man with a
laser sword in the middle of a metal sci-fi corridor perfectly
sums up Star Wars and why I fucking love it. It's such an
anachronism to have Obi-Wan Kenobi, a character straight out of
traditional Tolkien fantasy, existing in that futuristic sci-fi
environment that it totally sells the idea that the weapon he's
holding is old and anachronistic too.
It's obvious from watching A New Hope in isolation that Obi-Wan
Kenobi and Darth Vader have some deep history together that
started far before the opening crawl. However, if we look at
things in the way that Lord Lucas intended, we're supposed to
view the saga in numerical order rather than in production
order. So, looking at Star Wars as a saga that starts with The
Phantom Menace, the duel in A New Hope is structurally the last
big prequel moment. The result of the duel, the death of Obi-Wan
Kenobi, means something to Luke Skywalker and makes Vader seem
more evil to the audience, but the actual relationship between
Kenobi and Vader is its own little subplot left hanging from the
end of the first trilogy that none of the new characters are in
any way a part of. Clearly George Lucas had grand plans for this
franchise from the very beginning in the way he weaved these
generational stories together. In the lead up to the release of
The Force Awakens I marathoned all of Star Wars watching two
films a day, meaning for the first time I saw Revenge of the
Sith and A New Hope back-to-back. Honestly, I highly recommend
doing so as it greatly enhances the interactions between Kenobi
and Vader in this duel. There's much more weight behind it and a
sense of unfinished business, perhaps even guilt from Obi-Wan at
putting Vader in the suit. It's also the last big prequel moment
in the sense that it's the last time Obi-Wan plays an active
role is trying to fix the mess his incarnation of the Jedi Order
started. After his death (spoiler alert) his main concern is
guiding Luke to help him avoid making the same mistakes.
So even though the fight is a big moment for the Star Wars saga,
both in terms of story and in terms of introducing the tradition
of the lightsaber duel, it isn't actually that relevant to the
heroes of A New Hope beyond giving Luke an even more tragic
backstory. Obi-Wan's ghost becomes important in The Empire
Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi but looking just at A New
Hope, it's really more of a subplot. While our heroes all run
around the Death Star fighting with modern blaster weapons like
the gun films audiences at the time were used to, the two
characters who are a carryover from a different era keep
themselves busy with an old-fashioned sword fight. As well as
combining the fantasy and sci-fi genres, this also helps to
introduce another core theme in Star Wars: inheritance. The
relationships between old and new, fathers and sons, masters and
apprentices.
There's a sense in the duel and throughout the rest of the film
that Obi-Wan Kenobi is what Luke Skywalker will one day become
(and thanks to The Force Awakens, we know that this sense is
absolutely correct). I think it's pretty significant that, of
the four lightsabers we see in the Original Trilogy (Anakin's,
Obi-Wan's, Vader's, and Luke's), Anakin's and Obi-Wan's are the
only two that share a blade colour, and that Anakin's lightsaber
is currently being carried by Luke. Then, after he drops
Anakin's lightsaber down a hole, Luke reappears at the start of
Return of the Jedi having constructed a brand new lightsaber
with a green blade, unlike any lightsaber we'd seen previously,
symbolising Luke's attempt to forge his own identity separate
from that of his father. But even then the hilt of his green
lightsaber is heavily based on Obi-Wan's hilt. Both of the
lightsabers wielded by Luke Skywalker share similarities with
Kenobi's.
On the subject of lightsaber colour, the duel on the first Death
Star establishes a default setting for duels going forward: red
versus blue. There are many exceptions to this rule (blue
lightsabers don't appear at all in Return of the Jedi), but red
representing absolute evil and blue representing absolute good
is a strong theme throughout most fights. Obi-Wan and Anakin v
Count Dooku, Obi-Wan v Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker v Darth
Vader, Rey v Kylo Ren. The red/blue lightsaber combo certainly
gets a lot more screen time than others, like red/green,
blue/blue, or red/purple (by the way, I can't wait to talk about
the Darth Sidious v Mace Windu duel later on, mainly so I can
rant about my need for different lightsaber colours to be
introduced to the series). It makes sense as an aesthetic
choice: red and blue are from roughly different ends of the
colour spectrum which makes for a vivid and easy-to-follow sword
fight as well as representing the simplistic black-and-white way
in which morality is presented in Star Wars. It does have the
unfortunate effect of making it seem like all baddies have to
have red lightsabers and all goodies have to have blue
lightsabers, thus damaging the saga's potential for characters
who exist in a moral grey area, but again that's a rant for a
different entry in this series.
So I guess we should actually get into the fight itself. But
before we talk about the combat, can we talk about the A+ banter
for a second? "Only a master of evil, Darth!" is such an amazing
line. I wish Star Wars had more unapologetically camp moments.
The Disney era is sort of moving us back towards this with some
of the moments of humour in The Force Awakens and the big punchy
trailer-bait lines of dialogue in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story,
and it's a good thing too. Star Wars is at its best when it's
having fun. Incidentally, this is why I love it so much when the
Star Wars fanfare is used during an episode at times other than
at the very start, like when Luke escapes the sarlacc pit or
when Rey is piloting the Falcon on Jakku. Unlike other motifs,
the main Star Wars fanfare is recognisable even to people who've
never seen Star Wars before and refers not to a character or
concept but to the saga as a whole. Its use at any point in the
film other than at the start marks a completely self-aware
moment of pure fun.
Anyway, back to this duel. The choreography of the fight is
obviously the weakest of any duel in the Original Trilogy given
that it's a fight between an old man in a cumbersome robe and a
man in a heavy and restrictive robot suit. No-matter how cool it
looks when other people do it in later films, the decision to
make Alec Guinness attempt a badass spin during the initial bout
probably wasn't the best idea. There are moments where choppy
editing and close-ups are used as a way to make the duel seem
more dynamic, but there are also moments that seem as if this
was a duel storyboarded for two much more athletic actors.
In-universe, this is supposed to be an epic confrontation for
the ages between two powerful force users, so you'd have thought
the director (Lucas) and the choreographer could have made them
look a little more...well, powerful. The fight looks incredibly
awkward but I suppose for the first ever lightsaber duel, two
people fighting with laser swords was all the scene needed to be
visually interesting. Luckily, this confrontation is mainly
about the drama between the two characters (and the A+ banter).
Not that I'm trying to excuse the choreography though. It really
is a bit crap.
The end of the fight, with Darth Vader striking Obi-Wan down so
he can become more powerful that he can possibly imagine, is our
first real indication that the force is about more than just
superhuman reflexes. It's a moment along the same lines as Yoda
pulling the X-wing out of the swamp on Dagobah or Kylo Ren
stopping Poe's blaster bolt in midair but more weird and
metaphysical than both - an "Oh shit!" moment that shows you
just how potent the magic in this fantasy setting is. It's also
sort of the moment when the iconic 'binary sunset theme' becomes
'the force theme'. What's interesting about Obi-Wan's death is
that he clearly wanted it to happen. He knew that he would live
on through the force and that his ghostliness would allow him to
be of more help to Luke. So, given that he let himself be
killed, did Vader really win? I mean...aye, he did, but would he
still have won if the fight were allowed to continue? Who knows.
Obi-Wan is obviously capable of beating Anakin in a duel
considering that's why Anakin is in the robot suit to begin
with. Speaking of which, it's interesting that Obi-Wan makes no
attempt to turn Anakin back from the dark side here, and we
later learn that he doesn't think it's even possible. Instead,
it's Luke who succeeds in redeeming him. Based on that, I would
assume Luke will try a similar trick when confronting Kylo Ren
in The Last Jedi.
So: the first ever lightsaber duel. It's quite short, it doesn't
involve any of the main heroes, the choreography is terrible,
and the conclusion is ever so slightly unsatisfying in terms of
declaring a definite winner. Regardless, it's undeniably an
iconic moment in film history and it shaped the structure of all
Star Wars movies to come. Future films elevate the lightsaber
duel to being the climax of the story, transforming the
encounters into an expected trope of the series. Lightsaber
duels are about as expected as wilhelm screams, an opening
crawl, and the phrase "I have a bad feeling about this." And if
nothing else, this scene captured our imaginations by
introducing us to lightsabers: the coolest gadgets in film.
Duel Ranking
1 - Episode IV - The Death Star: Obi-Wan Kenobi v Darth Vader
Reasoning
It's the only one I've written about so far, so for now it's simultaneously the best and the worst. I suspect it'll end up in the lower half of the overall ranking.
Next: ???