He was trying to make a Kurosawa-esque, classical hero story set in space. He definitely had more than a vague idea but the Jedi magic stuff really seems like a kind of hand waving magic MacGuffin.
Comment on In Star Wars, what would it mean "to bring balance to The Force?"
Vedlt@lemmy.world 2 weeks agoI think perhaps the original Star Wars just being kind of a cool sci-fi/fantasy setting with more of a vague outline and nothing super concrete actually is what let it thrive in the way it did. I don’t know if it was intentional by any means, Lucas just wanted to make a neat space fantasy story and didn’t put a whole lot of thought into it. Nerds love to debate, nerds love sci-fi, nerds love fantasy. It’s almost a perfect breeding ground for what happened. Lucas and then Disney saw a rabid fan base and thought “I can use this” then tried to enforce more meaning into something that was vague and fun to speculate on and it ended up going very poorly until you look at the success of the sales. Cause some people just like space/fantasy stories.
LordMayor@piefed.social 2 weeks ago
prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 weeks ago
Hidden Fortress
phaedral@beige.party 2 weeks ago
@LordMayor @Vedlt I amused my sweetheart the other night by explaining the Lucas/Kurasawa influence, and pointing out that a katana is not a broadsword but is instead a type of saber, not heavy.
schipelblorp@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
And the only reason those Samurais movies were made was because Japan had prohibitions on showing guns in movies since, well, you know, they were probably a little bit embarassed by how nuts they’d gone in dubyadubyatwo. Most of Kurosawa movies are really inspired by Westerns more than anything else.
I love the circular nature of culture.
Danquebec@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
I just realized now that “Dubya” means W.
And now I understand why that US president is given that strange nickname.
ExLisper@lemmy.curiana.net 2 weeks ago
Totally agree. Star Wars was just a cool movie and something new for its time. I even liked the first one but personally, I think the cliffhanger ending of the second movie was a disgusting cash grab that should have ended the entire experiment and it go only worse from there.
phaedral@beige.party 2 weeks ago
@ExLisper @Vedlt who's The cliffhanger in the second movie was legit homage to the old Saturday morning serials ,Buster Crabbe style. Not that I liked it, but I think it's legit. However, there is no forgiving the Ewoks, the yub yub dance, Jar Jar Binks, or a thousand and one other crass marketing grabs. And by the way, Han fucking shot first, mother-fucker.
Grail@multiverse.soulism.net 2 weeks ago
Han didn’t shoot first. He was the only one who shot.
schipelblorp@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
You know, I will give SW credit for this: Luke’s decision to not fight his father at the climax of the trilogy is really quite amazing given the western pop film canon’s enshrinement of violence as the ultimate means to defeat evil. This was a culture that had grown up on Westerns and war films. The good guy always kills the bad guy in the end.