So A New Hope is on TV, and I noticed that the information for the show had this description:

"Robots and other allies help a youth and a space jockey rescue a rebel princess and battle dark forces bent on intergalactic rule."

Hrm.

This description confounds me for several reasons.

As a big fan of the entire franchise, hearing
...R2 and C-3PO referred to as "Robots," (um, hello? They're called droids, thank you.)...
...Han Solo being referred to as a "Space Jockey," (What, does he ride space horses? Was 'smuggler' not good enough?)...
...Luke Skywalker, though just an outer rim farmboy in this movie, being described merely as "a youth"...
..."Robots and other allies" be the first things mentioned in the description...
...the Galactic Empire being described as "dark forces bent on intergalactic rule (First of all, it's intragalactic. Second, they're not "bent" on rule, they've already got it. Third, wouldn't "Evil Galactic Empire" suffice?)...
..."rebel princess" (okay yeah, she's a rebel and a princess, but it's not like she's the princess of the rebels)...
...struck me as odd.

BUT, then I realized a few things.

First, how would I describe the plot of A New Hope in 23 words? That's no easy task.

But before I could even begin to think about how I would do that, I remembered that that description wasn't for me. Yeah, I would know what "Droid" means, but to the person who doesn't know the first thing about Star Wars, that word is virtually meaningless. When I see "Star Wars: A New Hope" on the satellite guide, I know all about it, I've seen it dozens of times, and I know that if I really want to watch it I can go to the next room and get the DVD so I can watch without commercials, and hey that's not a bad idea maybe I'll do just that. But Joe Schmo, who thinks Star Wars was that show hosted by Ed McMahon in the 80's, might benefit from a slightly less detailed description.

And with that in mind, maybe having Robots be the first word isn't such a bad idea. Maybe "space jockey," "rebel princess," and "battle dark forces" are good key terms to get the idea across. What do we get from that description? It's a futuristic space movie about a small group of underdogs fighting a giant evil. And that's about as good a summary as you can get for the Original Trilogy.

It's just so strange looking at this tiny little reach out to those who know nothing about Star Wars, from the perspective of someone who knows a lot about it.




For fun: let's look at the descriptions of the other OT movies.
ESB:
"Luke Skywalker, Han Solo and Princess Leia face Darth Vader's wrath."

Good enough for names now, are we? Hmm. "Face Darth Vader's Wrath." I guess it's fair to say that that is the main thread that runs through the entire movie, except for the Luke-becoming-a-Jedi part, and the Han-Leia Romance. But this isn't supposed to be a plot summary, just a short description. You couldn't try to touch on all the plot lines in that space. Considering it's general accuracy despite it's incredible brevity, I give this one a passing grade.

ROTJ:
"Luke Skywalker, now an experienced Jedi Knight, tries to discover Darth Vader's identity."

Okay, no passing grade this time. I suppose Luke does try to find out if Darth Vader is his father, and you don't want to have ESB spoilers in the description. But I'm sorry, this one fails to convey either the mood, the style, or the thrust of ROTJ. How about something about Rescuing Han Solo from a gangster, or Rebels dealing a major strike against the Empire? Or Luke facing Darth Vader and the Emperor? A loose end from the last movie doesn't quite capture the idea of the movie.


I wonder who writes these things.

Now I want to go figure out how I would describe the movies in 23 words. Let's hear yours, too!