The release of the latest instalment in the Skywalker saga in the eternally expanding Star Wars universe seems like an appropriate time to pose a wistful little thought experiment: What if Star Wars - the original 1977 film - had performed at the box office about as everyone expected, in the range of a 1970s Disney film, earning, say, US$16 million?

Let's imagine that some film historian circa 2019 were to rediscover this forgotten gem, an oddity of 1970s cinema buried among all the Watergate-paranoia thrillers, demonic horror films and disaster blockbusters. Can we, with 40 years' retrospect, evaluate it as a film instead of a phenomenon?