Slashdot Mirror
Star Wars as Pulp Sci-Fi
mikelove writes "Salon has an article arguing that Star Wars owes its origins to pulp science fiction and not Joseph Campbell-esque mythology. Finally SOMEONE is realizing this... Also makes the suggestion that Lucas/Kasdan didn't really write The Empire Strikes Back, which makes a certain amount of sense when you compare it to Lucas' other screenplays."
to see Jar Jar Binks beaten to a pulp. Does that add any evidence to the theory?
WWJD.... for a Klondike bar?
Blah blah grump grump grump. Cheating grump bastard. grump grump grump. Buckets of money. Grump grump, lack of appreciation for true source of inspiration. grump complain whine grump.
Some people take entertainment way to seriously.
air and light and time and space
I heard the only reason he made the third one was because Temple of Doom was so bad and he was ashamed.
Of course, I have come to doubt that story, as I no longer feel he is capable of feeling shame.
What Would Jesus Do
(for a Klondike bar)?
- Star Wars Holiday Special
- The Ewok Adventure
- Ewoks: The Battle for Endor
Of course, an honorory Golden Turkey Award has to go out to the slop that was Star Wars I: The Phantom MenaceWhat is it about Salon and this gigantic anti-Star Wars bent? David Brin's article from a couple years ago was seething with resentment -- he was clearly REALLY annoyed that Star Wars, which is space opera (not hard SF) was so insanely popular. "True SF is the only way to salvation, not this populist trash! Curse Lucas for his success!" He went off on a rant about how Lucas's morality was going to destroy Western civilization or something.
Now we've got another guy ranting about Star Wars's faults.
Hey, dickhead -- it's a MOVIE. Sit back and enjoy it -- it's not worth having an embolism over.
Incidentally, Lucas and Kasdan DIDN'T write ESB -- but this is not news. Kasdan and Leigh Brackett did. Lucas had the story credit, but Kasdan and Brackett were the WRITERS. Who's claiming that Lucas co-wrote ESB?
If you mod me down, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine.
"Destroy science and religion. Science would re-emerge exactly the same; but not religion." - Penn Jillette, paraphrased
There's a difference between I Am Serious About Making A Fun, Dumb Movie serious and This Movie Is Not A Dumb Fun Movie But Part Of The Great Tradition Of Epic Storytelling, And I Am A Latter Day Homer serious.
D'oh!
;-)
Hidden Fortress is a rip off of an American Western staring John Wayne called "The Searchers." John Wayne is quite young in it. Rent it or buy it if it is on DVD. It is totally worth it and is one of the best pieces of American Film making from that time period. John Wayne plays a Luke Skywalker type character who decidedly drifts to the dark side!
Akira Kurosawa was the director of Hidden Fortress. John Ford was the director of The Searchers (1956).
The link to Pulp Fiction for Star Wars was researched ages ago right after the movie was released. Actually there are more ideas stolen from WWII films in Star Wars than their are from Pulp Fiction as far as I am concerned. The cockpit of the Mil. Falc. is ripped straight from that of a B-25 Bomber and the Cantina scene is film noir in color!
Enjoy!
I believe Steven Spielburg once said that there are only 4 movie plots:
Man vs. Man
Man vs. Nature
Nature vs. Nature
Dog vs. Vampire
The Pope: Still Catholic (P.S. Noam Chomsky is a Knob)... by David Horowitz
Don't Look Now, But Bears Are Defecating in the Woods! ...by Amy Reiter
Water: It Sure is Wet... by Garrison Keillor
Special mp3 Audio presentation by Armistead Maupin: "Hail Unto Me, I've Recently Observed That the Sky is Blue."
Jackbooted Republican Thugs Will Have You Shot and Killed in the Dark Future -- Oh, And Today is Wednesday... by Tom Tomorrow
... and they want you to pay $30 a year for this stuff.
You can remember the names of the droids from "Silent Running" but you can't remember the name of the film?
Playing kind of fast and loose with the facts for an editor, aren't you?
yerz,
Anonymous Cartoonist
>
> All this discussion is just pushing Campbell's thesis. Whether Lucas consciously or unconsciously meant his characters to fall in line with the monomyth is an entirely different question.
>
> _Buffy the Vampire Slayer_ also has a great deal of monomythic elements to it, but Joss Whedon has admitted himself that he hasn't read _Hero with a Thousand Faces_.
So does _Pac Man_. Inky, the dark one, Blinky, the red one, aggressive with passion, Pinky - as in Pinky and the Brain - the fast genius who's the greatest threat, and Clyde, for comic relief. All set up in a backdrop of the ideology of mass consumption iconified by yellow, the color of cowardice - we're too scared to confront our desire to consume until we energize and empower ourselves (the energy pills), after which time we can turn the tables on our ghostly enemies and devour them.
It's like astrology. Make your "monomyth" broad enough to include anything, and anything will fit the pattern.
(couldn't resist... and yes, I know it should be Luke, but if I had my choice of love interest in A New Hope it wouldn't be him :p)
Don't remember any equivalent of The Force in FG, just space opera tech (indistinguishable from magic anyway)?