Star Wars (1977) is both a self-contained story and a story setting up for sequels because it’s based on the sci-fi serials Lucas watched as a kid.
A New Hope is it’s own adventure but it leaves room for additional stories.
You guys keep using the word "self-contained". I don't think it means what you think it means. If it's setting up sequels, then it's not self-contained, since it needs more stories to finish its tale. It's like calling Fellowship of the Ring a self-contained story, when it's obviously not.
Self-contained means "complete, or having all that is needed, in itself:" Which ANH does not have, since it does not have the full resolution to the conflict it showed, and it raises more questions than it answers. How did the Empire subvert and destroy the Republic? How did Vader betray and murder Anakin? What's going to happen now that the Empire knows where the Rebels live, but the Rebels have shown teeth by blowing up the Death Star? Is this the start of a galactic revolution, or did the Rebels bite off more than they can chew?
Again, Sleeping Beauty is a perfect example of a self-contained story. It introduces the conflict with Maleficent, the residential bad bitch for the story. It shows how she starts the conflict by cursing the king's daughter. It shows how Prince Philip seeks to save said daughter. Philip fights Maleficent, gets the girl, saves the day, and they live happily ever after. The End. THAT is a self-contained story. ANH? It could end in a million different ways, and with Vader walking away and the Empire still intact, you'll never know unless they resolve it in a sequel. People even noted how different Star Wars was to other films which resolved their primary conflicts and had their villains die out, as opposed to Star Wars where the main bad guy escapes unscathed.
Maybe Vader and the Empire return with large numbers and bum-rush the Yavin IV base, with all the heroes getting killed off in an Alamo-style death scene. Maybe they settle it diplomatically like gentlemen, giving the Outer Rim to the Rebels but the Empire gets to keep the core while having to pay any off-world Alderaanians money as compensation for blowing up their planet. Maybe they just end up in a Cold War scenario where both sides are evenly matched, but they dare not start another battle because it would just cause the mother of all battles and would end with mutually-assured destruction. Maybe the Empire goes bankrupt after the Death Star explodes and it just collapses on its own. Or maybe some Imperial military leaders who were secretly conspiring against Vader and Tarkin marshal enough support to overthrow Vader and the other Imperial higher-ups and offer the throne to Princess Leia.
If A New Hope was a self-contained story, the conflict with Vader and the Empire, which was central to the theme of the film, would have been resolved. To the point where if that was the only movie in the series, it would still be a complete ending to the story.
A self-contained version of ANH would have Vader dying along with the rest of the Imperials when the Death Star explodes, and during the medal ceremony, the Rebels get word that the Empire is collapsing due to all the Imperial higher-ups dying aboard the Death Star, with the space station's destruction encouraging rebellions galaxy-wide, leading to the complete disintegration of imperial authority. That would be a self-contained story, since you could end it there, and it would be complete.
And if you choose to make another movie in the same series, maybe you can bring in some leftovers of the Empire or a new threat altogether. But if you left it there, it'd still be a "happily ever after" instead of an ending that just leaves more questions than answers.
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