Star Wars also sucks?

[Ttaskmaster]

On the lighter side: There didn't seem to be a 'Star Wars SUCKS' thread to accompany the latest ESB and ROTJ threads, so I thought I'd start one :lol

Nah, seriously, I don't care if you like it or not.


But on a slightly more serious note, I chanced upon a comment from yonks back where people are arguing (on a Blog somewhere, not here) which films are SW rip-offs.

Interestingly, someone then claimed that SW itself was a rip-off of several other films.
Not looking to bash SW, I'm just interested to know what people make of this?


"Not to detract from Star Wars per se - hey I like the trilogy as much as the next man - but...that whole fricken movie is full of CLEAN STEALS from other films. And put your whole Joseph Campbell Hero With Yadda Yadda on the backburner. That is a really convenient smoke screen by Lucas to make people ignore the following:

Shot for Shot and concept steals by George Lucas

Shot discovery of Princess Leia in black cell
(princess against the rock, The Hidden Fortress, Kurosawa)

Concept of bickering droids
(Two peasants in The Hidden Fortress)

The plot of Han's rescue
(The Hidden Fortress)

Darth Vader's helmet
(Samurai warlord's helmet, the Hidden Fortress)

Tatooine scnes
(My Darling Clementine)

Luke's horrified discovery of the burning farm, burned bodies
(Arrival back to the burnt farm, The Searchers)

Luke's battle on Cloud City (Empire) with Vader, revealing fatherhood and Luke''s bloody stump for hand
(battle between Tony Curtis and Kirk Douglas (revealed to be brothers) with a bloody stump for a hand in The Vikings 1958)

The trench attack on the Death Star
(taken from The Dam Busters)

Princess Leia's name and hairstyle
(Princess Freia, Flash Gordon series)

The final award ceremony
(Leni Riefenstahl's Triumph of the Will)"

 

[dualedge]

I think for me, Star Wars comes the closest to being the "perfect" example of filmmaking for me. There's still a couple of small things I'd like to see "fixed" like the scene during the final battle of an X-Wing crashing into the Death Star surface. But despite that it's been my #1 movie since I saw it when I was 7 years old and I can't think of another movie that comes as close to "perfect" for me as it does.

It doesn't bother me if every scene was inspired by something else. IMHO, it's not really any different than what most any artist does... you take all the ingredients you love and you remix them into a new recipe.

 

[propologist]

I really think it's possible to over study any film. The great thing is " every " film after them , used them for reference

 

[Darklighter]

This blasphemy has gone too far.

 

[YenChih Lin]

Monkey-Poo for Star Wars

 

[Nwerke]

Hoo boy. Someone's gonna complain about that one for sure.

Ttaskmaster - that's a pretty good list. All things that are pretty much accepted as true, and Lucas (in earlier incarnations) has spoken of several of them, especially Flash Gordon and Kurosawa.

 

[darth_myeek]

It's not stealing, George "borrows".

 

[ILMwannabe]

It's not stealing, George "borrows".

Except that Lucasfilm apparently does not want anyone else to "borrow" like they did. Take for example the recent "Cease and Desist" order against a company who makes a high-powered laser. (See 'Star Wars' creator says laser too much like lightsaber - CNN.com) I strongly disagree with LFL on that one, for the following principal reasons . . .

1.) It is not the same product or device - it is a laser, not a "sword" nor simulated sword weapon of any kind.

2.) It has grips just like any other hand-held device, such as a flashlight. Does a flashlight (invented before Star Wars) violate LFL copyrights?

3.) It was never advertised nor sold as a "light sabre"

4.) The Light Sabres themselves were made from old camera flash holders and other familiar objects. And there are a multitude of designs.

Personally, I think it's time LFL gets a reality check instead of a royalty check. This time they have gone too far, and yes, the films did copy ("borrow") tons of material from other films and sources, and they are too numerous to name here. Even the opening credits angled off to infinity were done before. They also used tons of every day items to detail their miniatures and props (without paying royalties) and now they want to claim ownership to any hand-held device with a light?

 

[Funky]

Hey, guys! Hang on to your hats because this is going to come as a real shock:

EVERYBODY "BORROWS"!!!

If you are expecting any movie you go see to be an original concept or idea, save yourself money and time and stop see movies. ANY movie.
The beauty is in how you interchange, modify and re-tell the same ideas in a different way. That's what happened with ANH.

 

[Ttaskmaster]

Oh, I know everyone borrows/steals/plagiarises... Billy Shakespeare himself took a centuries old tale and only slightly rejigged it to what we regard as 'his' Hamlet.

Hey - At least SW isn't a..... REMAKE!!!!!
Personally, I'd rather see someone pull a Geroge Lucas and create something new inspired by past stories, than just rehashing formulaic movies or taking old ones and 'rebooting' them using the latest high-octane formula.

I was mainly curious to see how similar to SW the mentioned films like The Hidden Fortress and Kurosawa actually were... and whether these really were the inspiration for SW, as the OP claimed.
I haven't seen them myself, so I was wondering if anyone here had and what they were like.