Anchorhead said:
American Hominid said:
... the original film has a sense of adventure and "haphazardness," ...
I've been meaning to weigh in on this discussion because it is the very reason why I'm a one-film-only fan. I'll not bore the board - yet again - with the minutia of it all. I will, however, point out that the essence of your statement is what spoke to me when I sat in the theater in 1977.
I think that Empire and Jedi, while they pile on the additional story mythology and relationships, do not fully shift the feel.
They may not fully shift the feel, but they very much get the ball rolling. Empire starts the shift, Jedi completes it. Can't speak to the tone of the prequels because I barely remember the only one I've seen.
With a great deal of input from Marcia, Kurtz, and McQuarrie, Lucas got lucky in 1977. A stand-alone film that works because it's stand-alone. As soon as Lucas started trying to write more story, he ruined the story. The "adventure and "haphazardness," disappeared when Lucas shrunk the universe. Particularly the haphazardness of it all.
Where you see a shift in tone as the franchise goes along, I see it just the opposite. To me, Star Wars is the only film in the series that didn't have that tone. As I've stated before, I think Star Wars is the odd film out.
Personally, I think the original Star Wars trailer is the best example of how different that film is from the rest of the franchise. It's truly an adventure in a galaxy far far away, with a darker tone. Actual darkness - not the cartoon darkness of the other 5 films.
My argument is a little different than that, though. The OT sequels did feel different than the original, no real argument there. However, the PT did something even beyond that, which is introduce the Chosen One plotline and a prophecy relating to the Force being "out of balance." I don't know how familiar you are with those things, not being a prequel viewer - but those are the big differences I see.
In the OT, even after the web of connections started becoming denser, it was still a political story and a personal one. It was not, I think, an overtly metaphysical one. By that I mean - in the OT, there is no reason to think that the Force could generate a person from nothing, let alone that this is actually the backstory to Anakin Skywalker. In the OT there is also no particular reason to think that the Force itself could be knocked "out of balance," whatever that even means. The addition of these elements - some of which have their origins in OT-era notes and thoughts, but are not explicit in any of the pre-PT films - elevates the characters and events to metaphysical significance, a stature that I don't think they had before.
These additions also put the Force-users in the absolute center of the setting, demoting smugglers, pilots, moisture farmers, bureaucrats, and the like to fiefdoms along the periphery of a universe that hinges on the actions of and relationships between demigods.