|
Post by Skaathar on Oct 1, 2018 17:27:07 GMT
It already is... we just won't see its full effect till after a few decades from now.
|
|
|
Post by President Ackbar™ on Oct 1, 2018 17:32:52 GMT
No, it isn't, and it can't be.
STAR WARS (1977) was probably the most impactful and influential film... ever.
There is simply no way any routine comic book franchise could ever compete.
|
|
|
Post by Skaathar on Oct 1, 2018 17:40:50 GMT
No, it isn't, and it can't be. STAR WARS (1977) was probably the most impactful and influential film... ever. There is simply no way any routine comic book franchise could ever compete. Yes it is. Notice how a bunch of studios are already trying to copy the MCU's interconnected universe. Or how many cosplayers dress up as MCU characters over Star Wars characters. They won't be equal in every aspect, as they'll be influential in different things, but the general impact is the same.
|
|
|
Post by President Ackbar™ on Oct 1, 2018 17:47:39 GMT
No, it isn't, and it can't be. STAR WARS (1977) was probably the most impactful and influential film... ever. There is simply no way any routine comic book franchise could ever compete. Yes it is. No. I don't expect you to understand. After all, you weren't even born yet. But, there are dozens of articles like this one online, to help you shed some light on it: NOVEMBER 28, 2016 2:42pm PT by Graeme McMillan Why 'Star Wars' Is One of the Most Important Works of Art in Cinema History
Don't blame George Lucas for what accidentally came after the 1977 film. The argument over whether Star Wars saved or doomed Hollywood by the scale of its success, and by the industry it created in its wake, is one that's gone on since the movie's original release almost 40 years ago. The real answer is "both" — it would be short-sighted at best to deny more lessons have been learned from the merchandise opportunities Star Wars created than its world-building — but just because George Lucas's galaxy far, far away created an Empire of its own doesn't mean that it's worthless as a movie. Despite that, The Hollywood Reporter executive editor, features, Stephen Galloway recently suggested that Star Wars is less than the sum of its parts, and is far more successful as a corporate property than series of stories. "There's a strange thing I've noticed," he wrote in a column titled "Why I Hate 'Star Wars,'" published Monday. "No one ever seems to defend Star Wars (or any other franchise) as a great work of art." That's untrue, of course; there are countless books, essays and internet arguments on the artistic worth of any and every facet of Star Wars from George Lucas' original movie through to the now non-canonical Expanded Universe merchandise from cultural critics, academics and fans alike. It's nonetheless true, however, that Star Wars-as-franchise often overshadows Star Wars-as-artistic-endeavor, and that's a shame. It's unmistakably true that, as Galloway wrote, Star Wars borrows — if not outright steals — from a number of places: 2001: A Space Odyssey, Metropolis and The Hidden Fortress, as Galloway suggested, but also the comic books and pulps of Lucas' upbringing and their antecedents. (The crossover between Jack Kirby's comics and Star Wars is often commented upon.) But the result of this combination was something that touched a nerve in a way that the individual elements had never managed on their own, with the result being a significant shift in the medium going forward. In that, Star Wars follows in the footsteps of the musical career of The Beatles and the 1960s creation of Marvel Comics — both significant milestones in popular culture that dramatically changed their chosen fields in ways in which those involved couldn't have imagined, especially considering that both The Beatles and the Marvel creator brain trust got started essentially trying to recreate work they admired by other artists. Three of the biggest pop cultural events of the last 60 years — if not the three biggest — have come, essentially, from trying to copy something someone else did and getting it wrong in such a way that it's more appealing to people than the originals; there's something charming, and frustrating, about that in equal amounts. (Undoubtedly, those it frustrates the most are those who want to innovate instead of refine; Galloway isn't wrong in complaining that "franchise product isn't meant to be original"; very little successful pop culture is; en masse, audiences prefer something that's survived past the prototype stage.) The power of crowds might seem like a weak identifier of artistic worth — everyone can point to a massively successful project which, to them, is creatively bankrupt, let's be honest — but it's a useful tool in this case; surely the fact that Star Wars was quite as successful as it was (as it continues to be; look at last year's Star Wars: The Force Awakens) proves that Lucas was adding something of his own to the mix of influences, even if it was simply his taste in choosing what elements to combine. (Everything is a remix, after all.) Does that mean that Star Wars is proven to be a "great work of art"? Doubtlessly not — the actual movie (and greater franchise) will convince you of that more than any conversation about its creation, if all goes well. But putting it in the context of The Beatles and Marvel Comics might allow the franchise to be separated from everything that followed. Does anyone really blame The Beatles for the music business that existed after 1970? (E.L.O., sure, but that's all Jeff Lynne's fault, really.) Can the omnipresence of superhero crossover comics be placed at the feet of what Lee and Kirby did in their Fantastic Four run? The art should be separated from the effect, in order to be judged — and, in deciding whether something is or isn't a great work of art, it's also valuable to look outside individual taste. 50,000,000 Elvis Fans Can't Be Wrong, as the saying goes, and there are at least as many people out there who'd argue that George Lucas hit on something when it came to Star Wars a long, long time ago. If nothing else, given all that Galloway complains about that changed in the aftermath of the original movie's success — which is to say, a mass change in focus for the western movie industry — it should be considered one of the most important pieces of art in the last half-century.
|
|
|
Post by President Ackbar™ on Oct 1, 2018 17:49:43 GMT
How Star Wars changed the movies
George Lucas’s original Star Wars movie in 1977 became the creation myth of today’s Hollywood. Adam Smith reports
The tale of how Star Wars: A New Hope, George Lucas’s scrappy little underdog of a sci-fi movie made for a paltry $11 million, became such a box-office smash that today Lucas is worth $6 billion, is well known. But as well as making Lucas very rich, Star Wars changed the entire movie business in the stroke of a fizzing lightsaber.
For a start, it revived a whole genre. By the mid-Seventies, science fiction movies were mostly brainy, socially conscious warnings from the future such as Logan’s Run or Stanley Kubrick’s 2001. But the stratospheric success of Lucas’s tale of interplanetary cowboys and Indians put the fun back into sci-fi, while its joyous swashbuckling paved the way for Indiana Jones and Pirates of the Caribbean.
And in order to realise his vision, Lucas revolutionised special effects, pioneering new techniques for both his original Seventies films and their more recent prequels. Motion control rigs used to create swooping, dynamic spaceships were invented for the original 1977 film, while wholly digitally rendered worlds and even characters (yes, you, Jar Jar Binks) were first fully realised for The Phantom Menace in 1999, making subsequent epics such as The Lord Of The Ringsand new Planet Of The Apes technically possible.
What’s more, the breadth of storytelling, in terms of backstory and incidental detail, increased exponentially. Movies became franchises, with characters and plot lines continuing from film to film, many with densely detailed mythologies to be pored over and endlessly picked apart.
By the Eighties, Die Hard, Back To The Future and Lethal Weapon reigned supreme at the newly-built multiplexes. Today, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with its multitudinous intersecting plotlines and enduring characters, is unthinkable without Star Wars. Even The Lord Of The Rings movies, though based on books written before Lucas was born, are unlikely to have been greenlit in a Star Wars-less world.
And with this notion came the idea of selling audiences merchandise. There had been movie tie-ins before Star Wars – Disney had been selling Mickey Mouse watches for decades. But the ephemeral nature of a film had mostly made toys an unprofitable afterthought. After all, who would want a movie-themed toy months after its inspiration had vanished from the big screen, next to crop up, perhaps, on TV years later? But with Star Wars, toys became perennial, acting as commercials for coming instalments.
Back in 1973, George Lucas made a prescient decision: he offered to direct A New Hope for a cut-price $150,000 in exchange for retaining the merchandising and sequel rights. Lucas walked off with what seemed an incredibly naïve contract in his back pocket. Distributor Fox had lost plenty of money on Doctor Doolittle merchandise a few years before. Given that the toys have so far brought in $12 billion, it’s questionable as to whether the toys exist to exploit the films, or, as many people suspect, vice-versa.
Not only did Star Wars change what kinds of movies Hollywood made, it changed who they were made for. Until then, Hollywood had reasoned that films aimed at young males dragged women into the cinema regardless, while female-skewed stories appealed to women alone. But Star Wars appealed primarily to boys aged eight to 16, many of whom paid to see it multiple times, and its unparalleled success meant that, from then on, Hollywood would concentrate its firepower on teenage males, who, it reckoned, would bring the rest of the family along with them.
How we talk about movies changed as well. The business side of Hollywood had always been a topic confined to trade papers like Variety. But Star Wars, and the cultural phenomenon that it generated, rocketed stories about a film’s profitability onto the front pages of newspapers for the first time. The current media obsession with the opening weekend, where box office is discussed like sports results and a movie is judged to be a flop or a smash within hours of release, is a piece of industry drama with its roots firmly in Star Wars.
Star Wars, then, is modern pop cinema’s very own Big Bang: traces of it are to be found in every blockbuster thundering its way into your multiplex. It changed what stories were told, how they look, introduced blitzkrieg marketing, and created the fan debate which continues to deafen us today.
For good or ill, then, Star Wars didn’t just change the movies. As moviegoers at least, it changed us.
|
|
|
Post by President Ackbar™ on Oct 1, 2018 17:51:11 GMT
A Tour De Force: How Star Wars Changed The Film Industry On May 25th 1977, a modest independent movie directed by George Lucas was released upon the world, pushing all aspects of filmmaking to new heights in a way that had more significant consequences than people today even realise.
When Star Wars Episode IV was first conceptualized, Lucas recognised that Ralph McQuarrie’s original concept art would require special effects and a technical prowess that was unavailable at the time. In Lucas’ own words in a 2015 Wired Magazine Interview, regarding the final Death Star battle sequence “I knew it was going to move very fast, with lots of pans and this giant space battle at the end. Only in those days, you couldn’t do that. I thought, “We’d better figure it out.” It was destined to be my undoing”.
Lucas set up his own Special FX Company “Industrial Light and Magic”, but knowing what was needed to be created for the effects to be believable, he told his team “Forget the Industrial and the Light—this is going to have to be Magic.”
I don’t have to tell you that he was successful in his endeavour. Upon the movie’s release, audiences were spellbound by what ILM had been able to accomplish. By 1980, with the release of the follow-up colossal hit “Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back”, they had cemented themselves as titans of the industry, making audiences fall in love with a little green Jedi Master on the Swamp planet of Dagobah. Lucas, who handed off directing duties to his film mentor Irvin Kershner for the second instalment of the franchise, stated “The big challenge on Empire was Yoda. We knew how to fly spaceships; the thing we didn’t know how to do was have a 2-foot creature make you believe that it was a real live thing and not just a Muppet”.
ILM was then hired on films outside of Lucas’ Star Wars trilogy, responsible for some of the most important visual effects shots in cinematic history. Some of these include some of the first ever completely 3D computer generated characters, such as in James Cameron’s “The Abyss”, and even the first fully synthetic speaking computer generated character, everyone’s favourite friendly ghost “Casper” in 1995. What most people are not aware of, is that Industrial Light and Magic are responsible for the creation of a little animation studio called “Pixar”. For those unfamiliar with what Pixar has been credited with, let me scratch that childhood nostalgia itch with such classics as Toy Story, Monsters, Inc, The Incredibles, Cars, WALL-E and countless more that you had been taken to see by your parents, or been dragged on a Saturday morning by your kids to watch. `
Beyond the technical feats that ILM managed to achieve, the cultural impact they’ve had has been far-reaching and undeniable. In the 2001 UK Census, over 390,000 people entered their religion as Jedi. Jediism then became a real religion, following a modified version of the Jedi Code. Followers in Turkey even tried to have a Jedi Temple built within their University, which garnered international attention. The list of celebrities who have attributed Star Wars as influences growing up is staggering, including Trey Parker and Matt Stone of “South Park”, actors such as Simon Pegg and Bill Hader, and Seth McFarlane of Family Guy, who went on to create three animated parody films of the original Star Wars trilogy.
All of these classic movies, technological breakthroughs, cultural impacts and my love of everything Star Wars would not have been possible had it not had been for one man’s vision of a story about a farm boy, a princess and a dashing smuggler in a galaxy far, far away.
- Written by James Raper
|
|
|
Post by President Ackbar™ on Oct 1, 2018 17:52:35 GMT
40 Years Ago, Star Wars Changed Movies Forever The film kicked off a series that would change the meaning of the term blockbuster, revolutionize special effects, and bring modern movie merchandising to the world. Brad Jackson By Brad Jackson MAY 25, 2017
On May 25, 1977, movies changed forever. That was the day 40 years ago when the first “Star Wars” movie debuted. Thousands of fans waited outside theaters in long lines to see what would become the greatest space opera of all time. The film kicked off a series that would change the meaning of the term blockbuster, revolutionize special effects, and bring modern movie merchandising to the world.
When George Lucas began writing what would become Star Wars, he was inspired by Buck Rogers, Akira Kurosawa samurai films, and the car culture of California that Lucas grew up in during the 1950s and ‘60s. Hollywood didn’t know what to do with it originally. Lucas has said it was difficult to get studios to take him seriously. He found a champion at 20th Century Fox, and that’s where Star Wars was born.
The Birth of Modern Movie Merchandising
One of the biggest changes “Star Wars” ushered in was mass market merchandising, something Hollywood relies upon now for their bottom line but wasn’t as big a deal in 1977. In fact, as Lucas negotiated a deal with Fox for the sequels in the wake of the original movie’s success, he was able to nab the money from merchandise sales, which made him a fortune over the ensuing decades.
Today when movie-goers sit down for a blockbuster they expect to be wowed by big-budget special effects, amazing music and sound design, and inundated by cross-promotions for clothes, toys, food, and many other things they hadn’t known they needed. That massive marketing blitz wasn’t standard before “Star Wars.” Target wasn’t full of plush toys, baby clothes, bed sheets, Legos, action figures, and video games tied to every major movie. Now, however, kids and adults alike line up for “Force Friday” before every “Star Wars” movie to spend ungodly amounts of money on the latest merchandise.
The toy industry is now built upon major film franchises. Look down the toy aisles at your local Target or Walmart, and you’ll see Star Wars, Batman, Ninja Turtles, “Frozen,” Harry Potter, and many more movies represented in the action figures, dolls, Legos, puzzles, collectibles, and video games. Lego has risen to be one of the world’s most recognizable toy brands because of their incredibly popular “Star Wars” construction sets. My office shelves are stocked with a Lego X-Wing, Millennium Falcon, Ghost, and many, many more sets and figures.
My son sleeps on “Star Wars” sheets, my daughter has a string of BB-8 night lights in her room, and half of my T-shirts bear a “Star Wars” character of one sort or the other. All of that is owed to the birth of modern movie merchandising that began 40 years ago.
Star Wars Revolutionized Special Effects All of today’s blockbusters also owe their special effects to “Star Wars.” Lucas and his team at Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) changed the way directors were able to tell stories through special effects. This was before the age of computers, so nearly everything had to be done practically. That meant making lots of small, incredibly detailed models of spaceships and using matte paintings and camera tricks to give the illusion that these were life-size fighters battling it out in space, or a space station the size of a moon.
ILM had to create all the robots in the film, filling some with little people to operate the emotive metal machines. They had to make each of the costumes, weapons, and creatures, whether you saw them for much of the film, like Chewbacca, or just in passing, like many of the customers at the Mos Eisley cantina. Big set-pieces weren’t created in a cubicle by a computer geek, but constructed on location. They built a universe that was lived-in, dirty, worn, and completely immersive. Aliens looked otherworldly but with real facial expressions, crazy appendages, and complex, developed languages, adding to the experience. “Star Wars” was more than you could imagine within your own head. It was simply amazing!
“Star Wars” also featured cutting-edge sounds. Whether it was the hum of the lightsabers, the pew-pew of the blasters, the roar of the engines, or the incredible music, “Star Wars” sounded different. Ben Burtt, who designed many of the film’s iconic sounds and is a pioneer in his field, went to great lengths to find what worked, mixing bits and pieces from the real world to create the sounds of a galaxy far, far away. The team that would become Skywalker Sound blazed an audio technology trail that studios and movie theaters still follow today.
What really made “Star Wars” such a joy to listen to, though, was the music. The rich, rousing score composed and conducted by John Williams is legendary. It is widely considered one of the best film scores of all time. Lucas said recently that Williams is the “secret sauce” of the franchise, and he’s right. Whether it’s the foreboding march that indicates the coming of Darth Vader, the sweet theme of Princess Leia, or the inspiring sounds of the Force, Williams pulls “Star Wars” together.
Star Wars Is Full of Memorable Characters “Star Wars” also introduced perhaps the most memorable villain in all of cinema, Darth Vader. Encased in a black suit, covered with a menacing helmet, and followed by a flowing cape, Darth Vader is the definition of evil and intimidation. Voiced by James Earl Jones, and accompanied by the now-famous labored breathing, Vader is the villain you love to hate. His mere silhouette still strikes fear into people’s hearts. Using the mystical “Force,” Vader was able to move objects, choke people with a thought, and wield a lightsaber with deadly efficiency.
Vader wasn’t the only memorable character to come from the movie. Now we think of all the major actors in “Star Wars” as household names, big box office stars known the world over, but at the time Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, and Carrie Fisher were all young and not well-known. Ford famously auditioned for the role after he came to Lucas’s attention while building a door in Francis Ford Coppola’s office. He was a carpenter and pilot long before he was a movie star.
The most well-known actor in the “Star Wars” cast was Sir Alec Guinness, who played Obi-Wan Kenobi. He openly said he disliked the series and role. Peter Cushing, another esteemed British actor, was also well-known, but neither of these men were the focus of the movie. Ford was the biggest breakout star, going on to do the “Indiana Jones” series, “Blade Runner,” several Tom Clancy movies, and other major motion pictures, winning acclaim and making him the second highest-grossing actor of all time, with movies that total nearly $4.9 billion in sales.
The most ground-breaking hero of the original Star Wars movie may have been Princess Leia, played by Carrie Fisher. The princess in the white dress with big hair buns was a legitimate female action hero. She stood up to the darkest of villains, took guff from no one, and blasted her way out of trouble. A fierce leader of the Rebellion, she was a big-screen hero girls the world over could emulate. It’s a focus of much discussion and effort in studios big and small now, but in 1977 we saw it on the silver screen thanks to Lucas.
With the sudden loss of Fisher last year, that mantle of “Star Wars” heroine will officially pass to Daisy Ridley’s Rey, who was introduced in “The Force Awakens,” Jyn Erso from “Rogue One,” and lesser-known female characters like Ahoska Tano, Hera Syndulla, and Sabine Wren. They all owe their success to the Princess.
A Movie For 12-Year-Olds Became So Much More At Star Wars Celebration this year, Lucas said he wanted to make a sci-fi series that was different, one with mystical and philosophical elements. That’s where the “Force” comes in. Used by Jedi, and their evil opposite the Sith, the Force is an energy that surrounds all living things, binding the galaxy together. Those with special powers study the Force, learning to manipulate it. It made onscreen magic more believable. I, and many other kids, thought that if we concentrated hard enough we too could make a lightsaber fly from the table into our hands. I’m still working on that. I’ll let you know when it finally happens.
Although there are now generations of Star Wars fans, many old enough to have kids or even grandkids who love the movies, Lucas didn’t make his tale in a galaxy far, far away for the average adult. In his appearance at Star Wars Celebration, Lucas said the dirty little secret is that it’s a movie for kids: “I’m not supposed to say this, but this is a film for 12-year-olds.”
Lucas said he wanted to show kids on the cusp of entering the real world what was important: “Friendship, honesty, trust. Living on the light side, avoiding the dark side.” What he intended to be a simple story about good versus evil became so much more in the summer of 1977. It became a franchise, a movement, a culture filled with fans of every age, sex, and race. Big or small, old or young, rich or poor, millions upon millions of people in the world are “Star Wars” fans.
Star Wars Redefined Blockbusters This movie redefined the term “blockbuster.” What came to be known as “Star Wars: A New Hope,” is the second highest-grossing film of all time at the U.S. box office when adjusted for inflation. It made nearly $461 million, which becomes just shy of $1.5 billion when adjusted for inflation, putting it behind only the 1939 classic “Gone with the Wind.”
This was before digital downloads, DVDs, and even the widespread popularity of VCRs, so when you liked a movie you saw it multiple times in the theater. Films stayed in theaters for months and months so fans could return to the experience. People who saw the first movie in 1977 will tell you they saw it four, five, six times, maybe even more.
I didn’t see a Star Wars movie in the theaters until “Return of the Jedi,” but I then watched all of them on VHS so much that the tapes were worn. By the time “A New Hope” was re-released in 1997 to celebrate its 20th anniversary, I knew the intricacies of every scene, bar of music, and line of dialogue. My mom, in a bid for mom of the year, stood in line for tickets for me and my friends while we were at school.
Now I’m old enough that I take my own kids to see Star Wars movies in the theater. We pile on the couch to watch one of the movies or TV shows in the franchise at least once a month. We play with the toys, wear the clothes, and my daughter can’t sleep at night without her stuffed BB-8.
Since Disney bought it a few years ago, the Star Wars brand is in the midst of a massive renaissance that shows no signs of slowing down. In 2015, with “The Force Awakens,” it burst back onto the big screen. With one cartoon series on TV and another on the way, video games on phones and consoles, and merchandise on every aisle of big box stores, the Force is still strong with the franchise.
No one could have guessed that an obscure sci-fi film in 1977 from a young director, with few big stars, and an out-of-this-galaxy plot would one day become the ultimate force in Hollywood, but thanks to Lucas and millions of fans the world over, “Star Wars” changed the film industry forever. Now, 40 years after its debut, “Star Wars” is as much a part of American culture as freedom, football, and apple pie, and 40 years from now I’m sure my grandkids will be still be saying, “May the Force be with you!”
|
|
|
Post by President Ackbar™ on Oct 1, 2018 17:53:47 GMT
HOW STAR WARS CHANGED THE WORLD OF FILM AND BEYOND 20 APR 2016 BY JOE URSELL IN FILM FEATURES
With the enormous success of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the biggest film franchise of them all has been given a new lease of life by ingeniously introducing the saga to a whole new audience whilst still keeping its army of existing fans happy. To celebrate the film's DVD release this week, we're taking a look at where Star Wars all began, its influence on other cinema, and delving into some of the science and technology seen in the films.
George Lucas was heavily influenced by Japanese cinema when creating the original saga, in particular the work of legendary director Akira Kurosawa. The Hidden Fortress, a Kurosawa film that combined swashbuckling action, comedy, civil war, princess-led rebellions, and mysterious battle-weary generals - all told from the perspective of two lowly, bickering peasants - had a massive influence on the plot and characters of Star Wars. In particular the two robots, C3P0 and R2D2, were direct updates of the bickering peasants. Kurosawa's Seven Samurai was also key in the creation of the Jedi warriors, with wider Japanese culture influencing many of their key aesthetics and mythology.
Star Wars' influences can also be detected in a huge range of American titles, such as science fiction classics 2001: A Space Odyssey and Metropolis; World War Two adventures like The Guns of Navarone; Westerns, such as Once Upon A Time In The West; and even the infamous Nazi propaganda documentary Triumph Of The Will. There are many more, although it is perhaps Joseph Campbell's book Hero of a Thousand Faces and its examination of the archetypal hero (or monomyth) across history and mythology that was perhaps the greatest inspiration for Lucas.
Star Wars is one of the few films to genuinely change Hollywood. Following its unprecedented success, the industry became focused on producing special effects-led titles and event pictures targeted at younger and family audiences. Much more attention was given to films as brands, rather than stand alone movies. As a result, far more sequels and franchises were developed, complete with accompanying fandoms, spin-offs, extensions into other media, and of course, merchandising - which was a famously a minor concern for film studios before Star Wars.
The relatively dormant science-fiction genre was resurrected and paved the way for the comic-book films that dominate today, many of which have their special effects produced by Lucas' own company, Industrial Light & Magic. A game-changer in the effects industry, Star Wars was a milestone in allowing future films to take the next steps in ground-breaking technology, including future bench-marks like Terminator 2, Jurassic Park, The Matrix, and Avatar - right through to the recent The Jungle Book adaptation.
The extraordinary sound of the films also resulted in Lucas creating THX, a sound company named after his cult experimental first film THX 1138, and which revolutionised speaker systems in cinemas and home entertainment. These new facilities then appeared in multiplexes, and later - with the revenue generated from Star Wars and the industry's new focus on family audiences - began to appear in towns around the world. These new cinemas then needed more titles in order to fill their multiple screens, resulting in a wider range of films being made.
And it's not just technology - the characters of Star Wars have also massively influenced the templates of other huge franchises. For example, Luke Skywalker can clearly be seen in the depiction of other 'chosen ones', such as Harry Potter, Neo in The Matrix and Frodo Baggins (although JRR Tolkein had of course already written The Lord of the Rings books). Traces of sci-fi cowboy Han Solo are seen in Guardians of the Galaxy's Star Lord, while the strong female action heroine of Princess Leia has influenced Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games and Mad Max: Fury Road's Furiosa. The influence extends to non-human characters too, whether it's the loveable robot mascots seen in Wall-E and Short Circuit, humanoid robots like The Iron Giant, or a character like Groot with his resemblance to Chewbacca.
Not everybody sees the Star Wars model of characterisation as being positive however. While The Force Awakens has been praised for its diverse cast and focus on highlighting strong black and female characters in lead roles, some argue that the franchise's focus on resurrecting supposed medieval concepts of heroism - which often involving male knight figures rescuing helpless women - is in itself problematic and regressive.
And while Star Wars has always been more concerned with dealing with storytelling, philosophy and allegory, there are nevertheless fascinating discussions to be had around the science and technology depicted across the saga.
Inevitably, the series employs a large amount of dramatic licence when it comes to depicting science. Traveling through hyperspace at the speed of light, like the Millennium Falcon does, is of course impossible. We also don't know how characters are able to breathe freely and move about with ease on multiple planets with differing gravities, or why these locations do not have sufficiently different climates that would render them at least partly inhospitable to their many visitors.
Space itself is a vacuum, meaning that the audience shouldn't be able to hear any sound during the film's epic battles, but of course the series is full of spectacular explosions, space engines and iconic laser-fire sound effects. There is fierce debate amongst the scientific community about whether planets would be able to form around binary stars - like the two suns of Tatooine - since the gravity of one star may prevent planets from developing around the other. And sadly, lightsabers should not clash in the sword-like manner that they do, since they are composed of lasers and light, which have no mass or substance. It is, after all, science fiction.
In terms of technology, however, Star Wars is on slightly surer footing. Its advanced robotics have clear parallels with the current robotics technology of today, and the division of robots into those with military and civil occupations (like C3PO and R2D2) links in with real technological advancement. The films have made frequent use of force fields - energy shields designed to protect soldiers, machines and spacecraft in battle. Very similar technology has recently been patented by American aerospace companies. The use of levitation technology (such as hover-bikes) has also been developed for military purposes, while holograms - so famously deployed in many of the series key scenes - are looking increasingly less like the world of science fiction. Cloning practices and genetic engineering are also seen throughout the saga, albeit in far more advanced technological forms than we've developed to date.
|
|
|
Post by President Ackbar™ on Oct 1, 2018 17:55:00 GMT
14TH DECEMBER 2017 11:48AM How Lucasfilm changed cinema forever with Star Wars
Jack Rear
In an age where phrases like “I am your father” and “may the force be with you” are commonplace, it’s easy to forget Star Wars‘ impact on our world.
From its inception, the film ripped up the rule book on sci-fi, film, technology, design, and narrative art in general.
Whether or not you enjoy Star Wars there’s no denying it’s pervasive in popular culture. We could spend months discussing all the areas Star Wars has impacted, but, for now, let’s stick to cinema.
Star Wars’ impact on science-fiction:
The most important thing to remember about Star Wars is that it essentially saved science-fiction.
By the 1970s when George Lucas started thinking about making A New Hope, sci-fi was a dead genre walking. The genre had become a breeding ground for cerebral films about the state of humanity, filled with grim portents about what the future might hold.
Lucas upended that notion entirely. Science fiction could be a backdrop for a story, as well as a theme. There is essentially no story reason for Star Wars to exist a science-fiction context. It does so purely for the joy of it.
Spaceship battles, laser guns, and lightsabers don’t exist because they’re necessary to the plot.
They’re there because they’re fun and put the control back into the creator’s hands. Instead of dealing with the laws and rules of Earth, Lucas could create his own.
The so-called used universe concept
Lucas Film
Aside from just reviving the genre, Star Wars also transformed the presentation of science-fiction.
Before Lucas’ films, sci-fi was populated almost exclusively with gleaming modernity. Spaceships and technology were constantly cutting edge and brand new. It was, in many ways, an idealised future.
However, Star Wars brought a grittiness to the genre.
The technology in the films was dirty, broken, and well-worn. Machines were greasy, life was often unhappy, and dirt was everywhere. There’s a certain amount of industrialism to the design of the galaxy in Star Wars which had never really been seen before.
On the other hand, the forces of the Empire, from Darth Vader to the Stormtroopers hearkened back to science-fiction of yesteryear.
The uniformity and carefully pristine conditions of those elements act as an anathema to the rest of the world, highlighting the power and resources of the forces the heroes must battle against.
The used universe concept was an instant hit. Films like Alien and Mad Max used the same concept. Ridley Scott, director of Alien, summed up the design concept as ‘truckers in space.’
The ‘used universe’ concept, also added another layer to how Star Wars changed film forever.
An expansive, living universe
These days there’s no getting away from the idea of a movie universe.
Marvel, DC, and even Universal Monsters are building their own movie universes all the time. But none of this would have been possible without Star Wars because narrative art hadn’t really ever been conceived on that scale before.
Sure, Star Wars wasn’t the first film to have sequels. However, before Star Wars films had mostly been standalone affairs. A sequel would be made if the first film was a success. Sequels plots were usually tangential and the original could stand without them.
Star Wars changed all this. The films pioneered the concept of an overarching story set within a living universe. Viewers could literally see how ‘lived-in’ the universe was, thanks to the aforementioned design of it all.
By 1981, George Lucas slapped the Episode IV: A New Hope subtitle onto his original Star Wars film. Before he’d even begun to released the third in his original trilogy, he was laying the groundwork for an expanded universe based around prequels: Episode IV existed before the prequels were even a glimmer in Lucas’ eye.
There’s also the writing of the films. The scripts are stuffed with unexplored concepts and locations.
The characters mention events and places which the films never stop to explore. It all means viewers get a real sense of a universe that goes on much further than the film’s boundaries.
Part of the success of Star Wars was viewers’ ability to imagine their own adventures in the universe. By including all these references to the rest of the universe, Lucas legitimized these imaginary adventures.
This laid the foundation for viewers to build the Star Wars expanded universe through fan-fiction and tie-in merchandise. Which leads nicely onto…
Merchandising
20th Century Fox executives must have spent years kicking themselves over this one.
During the negotiations for Star Wars George Lucas made an enticing offer to the studio. He’d direct his own film for the pitiful sum of just $150,000. In return though, they’d let him keep the merchandising rights to his film.
At the time, the offer must have been too good to believe for 20th Century Fox. Merchandising for films had typically been an unprofitable waste of time. Once a film stopped playing at cinemas, merchandise sales would dry up entirely.
So just like that, Lucas walked away with the merchandising rights to the films. These days he’s worth around $6bn, so there’s that.
Before Star Wars major movie were usually targeted towards adults.
However, Lucas did something very different. He focused all his advertising efforts on teenage boys and children. This meant that when the films came out, demand for merchandise hit obscene levels.
By Christmas 1977 (after A New Hope launched in May) the original Star Wars toy maker, Kenner was forced to give out an Early Bird Kit for pre-ordered toys; literally a piece of cardboard showing kids the toys they’d be receiving next year.
The merchandising acted as advertising for the films, and the films as advertising for the merchandise.
Lucas Film
Lucas’ relaxed approach to enforcing his intellectual property helped too. Fans could basically do whatever they wanted with his universe and characters, as long as they weren’t turning a profit on his creations.
These days we see the concept coming full circle with The Lego Movie and Transformers being films created off the back of a line of merchandise.
Of course, nowadays, some of those original toys are worth an absolute fortune. Oh, and the merchandise linked to the new films?
It’s better than ever.
The impact of Star Wars on the way we talk about film:
Around May the phrase ‘summer blockbuster’ is almost inescapable. It’s easy to forget that, along with Jaws and Ben-Hur, Star Wars essentially created the concept of a summer blockbuster.
By pitching his film to kids and releasing it just before the summer holidays began, Lucas ensured a revenue stream that just kept giving.
It’s hard to say whether Star Wars would have been as much of a success if it had been released in February, but it seems unlikely. Lucas gifted the film to bored children to keep them busy during the holidays.
That can’t have helped with toy sales either as kids looked to have their own adventures during their time off from school.
The enormous success of Star Wars is also what sparked the modern preoccupation with weekend box office takings. Before these numbers were confined to industry papers and analysts, but suddenly they were splashed on newspaper headlines.
The film business became something real and immediate, not just a far-flung notion for Hollywood big-wigs.
Changing the face of film technology
Of course, behind the camera, the Star Wars effect shouldn’t be underestimated. The movies really transformed things for filmmakers in they key ways.
Sound design
It might not have been anything new to include impressive sound effects in film, but Star Wars made it an artform. Ben Burtt, the sound designer on A New Hope radically expanded the kind of sound offerings available to Lucas.
He personally recorded many of the sound effects for the film. Live bears provided Chewbacca’s growls while Burtt banged radio-tower cables together to make blaster sounds. The sounds of space opened up a whole new world for viewers who’d never heard anything like it before.
Special effects
There’s no question that George Lucas loves special effects. Some rumours suggest he refused to even begin work on the prequel trilogy until the technology was prepared.
Lucas made sure to mix CGI in with practical effects and miniatures to really make his universe come to life.
None of this would have been possible without the work of Industrial Light & Magic, Lucasfilm’s in-house effects studio. ILM went on to become one of the most well-regarded effects studios in Hollywood, having worked on over 300 films.
However, it was during their work on Star Wars they crafted some of their most legendary creations. They pioneered the Dykstraflex, for example. Named for its chief architect, John Dykstra, it was the first motion-controlled camera system that could be programmed by computer.
This meant that dynamic spaceship maneuvers with stationary models could be reliably performed time after time.
The Graphics Group of ILM, managed by John Lasseter was eventually sold to Steve Jobs. After a bit of further development, Jobs sold it again. They then released the world’s first ever fully-CGI movie.
That film was Toy Story and the Graphics Group of ILM is now Disney’s Pixar Studios.
|
|
|
Post by Hauntedknight87 on Oct 1, 2018 17:56:54 GMT
|
|
|
Post by Tristan's Journal on Oct 1, 2018 19:34:24 GMT
the President my slay me for this, but I think Trek is even a tad more relevant culturally than Star Wars, as Trek was THE SJW franchise long before the term was coined by having the first mixed race kisses, cooperation between cultures and striving to better oneself - it's a rich and meaningful legacy next to the technical prediction, not just empty entertainment. It also featured one of the biggest shared universes (after Universal's Monsters universe) that even saw characters from different times meet and interact. Star wars is more a nerd thing about art design, music and storytelling. It also changed the movie & toy industry significantly, and maybe introduced the modern strong female character type.
|
|
|
Post by President Ackbar™ on Oct 1, 2018 19:50:07 GMT
the President my slay me for this, but I think Trek is even a tad more relevant culturally than Star Wars
|
|
|
Post by Hauntedknight87 on Oct 1, 2018 19:51:19 GMT
the President my slay me for this, but I think Trek is even a tad more relevant culturally than Star Wars, as Trek was THE SJW franchise long before the term was coined by having the first mixed race kisses, cooperation between cultures and striving to better oneself - it's a rich and meaningful legacy next to the technical prediction, not just empty entertainment. It also featured one of the biggest shared universes (after Universal's Monsters universe) that even saw characters from different times meet and interact. Star wars is more a nerd thing about art design, music and storytelling. It also changed the movie & toy industry significantly, and maybe introduced the modern strong female character type. Agreed. I mean it literally impacted modern technology.
|
|
|
Post by Tristan's Journal on Oct 2, 2018 10:17:52 GMT
|
|
|
Post by Rey Kahuka on Oct 2, 2018 14:41:14 GMT
the President my slay me for this, but I think Trek is even a tad more relevant culturally than Star Wars, as Trek was THE SJW franchise long before the term was coined by having the first mixed race kisses, cooperation between cultures and striving to better oneself - it's a rich and meaningful legacy next to the technical prediction, not just empty entertainment. It also featured one of the biggest shared universes (after Universal's Monsters universe) that even saw characters from different times meet and interact. Star wars is more a nerd thing about art design, music and storytelling. It also changed the movie & toy industry significantly, and maybe introduced the modern strong female character type. Agreed, though I still think Star Wars is more 'culturally relevant' for the reasons you and others have listed.
|
|
|
Post by sostie on Oct 2, 2018 14:50:03 GMT
Currently they investigate if the same has happened with DC properties as the leading American and World icons such as Superman and Batman. Source? I can only find one reference to that and it's a one line claim by someone on Reddit.
|
|
|
Post by Hauntedknight87 on Oct 2, 2018 15:11:06 GMT
Interestingly enough both new Star Wars and new Star Trek suck.
|
|
|
Post by Rey Kahuka on Oct 2, 2018 15:21:09 GMT
We'll have to see how the MCU resonates with the culture over the coming decades. I grew up with Star Wars (literally, I was born in 1977). So it was my first love in terms of pop culture, toys, sci-fi etc. To my generation, Star Wars was and probably will always be king. But you have to admit the MCU is a cultural phenomenon right now, and it'll be interesting to see how we view it as a culture 20, 30, 40 years from now. Star Wars is THE special effects sci-fi extravaganza that changed cinema, that's never going to change. The MCU may not have quite the same impact because Star Wars has done it before, and because the media market is so much different now compared to those days. With this much competition, it's hard for one entity to tower over everything else the way Star Wars did in its prime.
I don't know if the MCU can duplicate that process simply because everything in our culture is so disposable these days. Everything is consumed and forgotten as we constantly look toward the next big thing. Hell, the MCU itself feeds this process by advertising their next film in the one you're already watching. Star Wars was unique in all of cinema history because it was so revolutionary for its time. I don't know that the MCU is really reinventing anything. Even the concept of a shared universe isn't new, the MCU is just better at it.
As a fan of the comics I find the MCU highly enjoyable, yet I have to wonder what the casual moviegoer thinks. The oversaturation of the market, even by the MCU itself, takes away from its own impact in terms of franchise iconography. By that I mean Star Wars, with it's original three films (one every three years), featured an iconic villain, iconic sci-fi tech (in terms of light sabers, x-wings, Death Star, the Falcon!, etc.), and several all-time classic lines of dialog. The MCU, often having three films a year, has yet to have what I'd call a signature villain/item/moment on the same level. Tell me who the iconic villain of the MCU is. Show me a ship or vehicle you can recognize by it's shape alone. You could argue Cap's shield, Mjolnir, or even Iron Man's armor (maybe even the gauntlet?) as iconic at this point and I'd agree, but I don't think they're as iconic as the light saber. You can't make a noise or a motion and have everyone in the room instantly know what weapon you're pretending to use. As quippy as many of the characters are, as memorable as some of the moments have been, there's no "I am your father," or "May the force be with you."
So while it's possible for the MCU to supplant Star Wars as the pop-culture phenomenon in the coming decades, I don't think it will ever approach Star Wars in terms of legacy and how it completely dominated pop culture in its own time.
|
|
|
Post by Rey Kahuka on Oct 2, 2018 15:22:35 GMT
Interestingly enough both new Star Wars and new Star Trek suck. New Trek sucks because it's trying to be Star Wars. New SW sucks because it's trying to force social commentary into the script like Trek used to. The irony!
|
|
|
Post by Tristan's Journal on Oct 2, 2018 15:49:41 GMT
Currently they investigate if the same has happened with DC properties as the leading American and World icons such as Superman and Batman. Source? I can only find one reference to that and it's a one line claim by someone on Reddit. you do not want to know, I could tell you but the Russians would find you (the evil ones who poison Brits, not those who lose their accent after one movie). All this goes high up to Putin. The Russkis habor a deep seated hatred for Superman especially in blue underpants. Heads will roll...
|
|