HOLLYWOOD CLASSIC # 5 Star Wars
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Unlike the traditional science fiction films preceding it, the "Star Wars" world was initially portrayed as dirty and grimy, rather than sleek and futuristic. In interviews, Lucas tells of rubbing the new props with dirt to make them look weather-worn, a concept he has referred to as "a used or ancient future", a concept further popularized in the film Alien of the same era. He may have been inspired by Sergio Leone, whose 1960s films performed a similar function for the Western genre. It is also possible that he may have received the idea from Akira Kurosawa, who believed that it gave his actors a more authentic look. Each "Star Wars" film opens with the text, "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...." Lucas intended this as an allusion to the classic fairy tale opening of, "Once upon a time, in a faraway land..." This is the only way the Star Wars Galaxy has been defined in relation to the real world. To some, Lucas's allusion suggests that the films are to be interpreted as allegorical and metaphorical narratives of the future, rather than literal events of the past. Lucas intentionally left the details open to interpretation. Events occur in the Star Wars galaxy; although the film series itself spans the events of only two generations, other stories set in the Star Wars universe (those from the so-called "Expanded Universe") cover events that span millennia. The "Star Wars" films use an opening text to provide the audience with the background to the story. Lucas emulated the Flash Gordon serials by having his opening text "crawl" up the screen from bottom to top at a high pitched angle, as if the text were disappearing into the distant starscape. Also in all "Star Wars" films, a starship of some kind whooshes by after the crawl disappears completely. In a May 15, 2005, interview with the Chicago Sun-Times, Lucas described the creation of the distinctive crawl: "The crawl is such a hard thing because you have to be careful that you're not using too many words that people don't understand. It's like a poem. I showed the very first crawl to a bunch of friends of mine in the '70s. It went on for six paragraphs with four sentences each. Brian De Palma was there, and he threw his hands up in the air and said, 'George, you're out of your mind! Let me sit down and write this for you.' He helped me chop it down into the form that exists today." The saga shows us a very "ancient" galactic civilization thousands of years old. The setting is totally unrelated to Earth or our galaxy, which gives it more liberty, in a sense. The Star Wars Galaxy prominently features aliens who are essentially identical to humans. Their civilization was able to develop space travel, terraform, build ecumenopolises and build space colonies 200,000 years "ago." "Star Wars" melds science with supernatural elements that strongly relate to epic stories and fairy tales (for example, magic, knights, witches, princesses and 'whimsical' alien races such as Ewoks and Gungans). The scope of "Star Wars" history spans over 5,100 years among all the "Star Wars" fiction produced so far (from Tales of the Jedi to Star Wars: Legacy), even though the films span only two generations. Later novels from a series dubbed New Jedi Order opened up the Star Wars setting with alien beings named Yuuzhan Vong that came from a different galaxy. Most aliens prior to this series came from the one galaxy in which the films are set. One of the reasons of the huge success of the first "Star Wars" movie and all others is that even though it situates in a future galaxy far away from here it still has all elements we humans can relate to.
Darth Vader helmet comes close to the German helmet during world war II and he wants to start a new Reich.... Sounds familiar!? Than we have the handsome Prince, like in every fairy tale and the Princess that will give her heart away. We all know that it eventually will happen the only question is when? The space ships look like real ships only they fly! These are just a few things that made this movie such a big success! Another reason is because of the music. John Williams' music is always so recognizable, bombastic, but still with very catchy melodies! This also brought the movie this "little extra"! Even today it is still one of my favorite movies ever! I remember that I was mesmerized from the opening shot of the movie till the end credits came on! However I never wanted a Star Wars toy cause they were too violent in my opinion. I have something against weapons but that's another story!
Here's the link to that spectacular movie of the seventie's that took science-fiction movies to a higher level:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hl0J67OP_Wk
A link to that great score by John Williams:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O61Do03ZCjw
.
Unlike the traditional science fiction films preceding it, the "Star Wars" world was initially portrayed as dirty and grimy, rather than sleek and futuristic. In interviews, Lucas tells of rubbing the new props with dirt to make them look weather-worn, a concept he has referred to as "a used or ancient future", a concept further popularized in the film Alien of the same era. He may have been inspired by Sergio Leone, whose 1960s films performed a similar function for the Western genre. It is also possible that he may have received the idea from Akira Kurosawa, who believed that it gave his actors a more authentic look. Each "Star Wars" film opens with the text, "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...." Lucas intended this as an allusion to the classic fairy tale opening of, "Once upon a time, in a faraway land..." This is the only way the Star Wars Galaxy has been defined in relation to the real world. To some, Lucas's allusion suggests that the films are to be interpreted as allegorical and metaphorical narratives of the future, rather than literal events of the past. Lucas intentionally left the details open to interpretation. Events occur in the Star Wars galaxy; although the film series itself spans the events of only two generations, other stories set in the Star Wars universe (those from the so-called "Expanded Universe") cover events that span millennia. The "Star Wars" films use an opening text to provide the audience with the background to the story. Lucas emulated the Flash Gordon serials by having his opening text "crawl" up the screen from bottom to top at a high pitched angle, as if the text were disappearing into the distant starscape. Also in all "Star Wars" films, a starship of some kind whooshes by after the crawl disappears completely. In a May 15, 2005, interview with the Chicago Sun-Times, Lucas described the creation of the distinctive crawl: "The crawl is such a hard thing because you have to be careful that you're not using too many words that people don't understand. It's like a poem. I showed the very first crawl to a bunch of friends of mine in the '70s. It went on for six paragraphs with four sentences each. Brian De Palma was there, and he threw his hands up in the air and said, 'George, you're out of your mind! Let me sit down and write this for you.' He helped me chop it down into the form that exists today." The saga shows us a very "ancient" galactic civilization thousands of years old. The setting is totally unrelated to Earth or our galaxy, which gives it more liberty, in a sense. The Star Wars Galaxy prominently features aliens who are essentially identical to humans. Their civilization was able to develop space travel, terraform, build ecumenopolises and build space colonies 200,000 years "ago." "Star Wars" melds science with supernatural elements that strongly relate to epic stories and fairy tales (for example, magic, knights, witches, princesses and 'whimsical' alien races such as Ewoks and Gungans). The scope of "Star Wars" history spans over 5,100 years among all the "Star Wars" fiction produced so far (from Tales of the Jedi to Star Wars: Legacy), even though the films span only two generations. Later novels from a series dubbed New Jedi Order opened up the Star Wars setting with alien beings named Yuuzhan Vong that came from a different galaxy. Most aliens prior to this series came from the one galaxy in which the films are set. One of the reasons of the huge success of the first "Star Wars" movie and all others is that even though it situates in a future galaxy far away from here it still has all elements we humans can relate to.
Darth Vader helmet comes close to the German helmet during world war II and he wants to start a new Reich.... Sounds familiar!? Than we have the handsome Prince, like in every fairy tale and the Princess that will give her heart away. We all know that it eventually will happen the only question is when? The space ships look like real ships only they fly! These are just a few things that made this movie such a big success! Another reason is because of the music. John Williams' music is always so recognizable, bombastic, but still with very catchy melodies! This also brought the movie this "little extra"! Even today it is still one of my favorite movies ever! I remember that I was mesmerized from the opening shot of the movie till the end credits came on! However I never wanted a Star Wars toy cause they were too violent in my opinion. I have something against weapons but that's another story!Here's the link to that spectacular movie of the seventie's that took science-fiction movies to a higher level:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hl0J67OP_Wk
A link to that great score by John Williams:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O61Do03ZCjw
.
posted by Patrick at Saturday, December 02, 2006
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