This is sort of wrong, though. lucas has said he drew inspiration from all the tiny country vs. giant empire fights - american revolution, vietnam, the winter war, Yi Sun-Sen’s defeat of Japan, etc.
Vietnam was the most culturally prominent in the US, but beyond the superficialities (little force defeats big force) the stories don’t really track at all. Like: there was no deathstar moment, there wasn’t even a single decisive victory (the US just got sick of the meatgrinder and public pressure overcame the political will to continue). The US also wasn’t defeated then replaced New Republic style, the NV weren’t going it alone in their fight against the empire and nobody threw Kissinger off a cliff at the end (mores the fucking pity),
He drew ideas from a LOT when writing it; presenting it like it was inspired by a single event is pretty disingenuous.
George Lucas wrote some stuff, and his ex-wife worked with him in some capacity. There were some that said George Lucas was a visionary genius and he also had a wife and so of course she was involved. There were some that said that George Lucas was a big self-important orangutan who couldn’t write for shit, and his ex-wife fixed it all up and turned it into an epic story because she had some apparently pretty significant screenwriting talent. And who’s to say? Surely there would be no way of going back in time and examining this intimate process in retrospect and finding out.
And then, the wife having left, he wrote the prequels without her involvement, and the world got its answer.
And then, the wife having left, he wrote the prequels without her involvement, and the world got its answer.
With the caveat that I haven’t watched the prequels for a good several years, the overarching storyline is actually pretty good, but the special effects were too heavy on CGI so they dated quickly and a lot of the writing of individual lines was too much toned for a younger audience.
George Lucas would be silly to not make the next trilogy that was released 20 years later something fans of the original trilogy could take their kids to, but unfortunately it went a bit too far into trying to be kid friendly. Plus it definitely had sequences designed specifically to be recreated in video games, as any family movie did in the early 2000s (heck one of the 101 Dalmations movies even featured some gameplay of the tie-in game in the film!)
Chewbacca was supposed to be more like Jar Jar Binks but at that point he still had people around him to push back on that.
Look at some of the CG segments injected into the rereleases of the original trilogy, which Lucas used to bring it more in line with his original vision: cheap slapstick and goofy aliens.
Lots of good points here. It would have been cool if Star Wars had a more complex geopolitical (galactopolitical?) environment, including more instances of multilateral politics.I feel like this was touched on in the prequels, but it still kinda boiled down to “good guys vs bad guys.” The general audience will get what it wants. That’s how markets are supposed to work.
Still, I feel like it was a missed opportunity to have a politically complex sequel rather than just dialing up the space-wizard lore. We could have also gotten some more complex characters rather than just bad guys or good guys that change at the end. People are way more complicated than that.
It probably would have been better if Warner Bros. Had acquired the IP rather than Disney. I’d watch HBO Star Wars all day long. I get why that wouldn’t work for their marketing position, but it would have been worth it to me to hear an Ewok say, “Yub yub, motherfucker” before offing the imperial officer that burned his village.
Also, we learn that Tibbit the Ewok has a bad glowroot problem, wasn’t entirely faithful to his partner, Nubni, and was a bit of a negligent father. His character doesn’t really improve, but he does save the village. The resultant fame nearly destroys him, and he goes back to spicebark farming with his toxic affair partner. The Alliance turns out to be as oppressive to the Ewoks as the Empire, but they have better PR. The other Ewoks label Tibbit as a traitor for protesting the Alliance he fought for. Ewoks boycott his spicebark. He loses everything. Grikk finds his body, glowroot seeping out of his mouth. Clutched in his lifeless paw is a child’s drawing. It was the one Grikk gave him on Father’s Day over a decade ago. Tibbit had yelled at Grikk and thrown the drawing away in an intoxicated rage. That was the last time Grikk had seen Tibbit. To think he had dug it out of the trash and carried it for ao many years. Grikk held his dead father’s paw with tears in his eyes. “Yub yub, Dad. Yub yub.”
Okay, Shakespeare it’s not, but tell me if it’s worse than any scene in the sequels.
I could certainly believe it, there’s lots of parallels. Dense jungle forest, ancient ruins, small brown… natives…
…
… hey wait a minute.
Really though I could believe it. I was only commenting that the idea all of OT star wars was an allegory for vietnam is a stretch. The existance of allegories in the OT is totally reasonable.
This is sort of wrong, though. lucas has said he drew inspiration from all the tiny country vs. giant empire fights - american revolution, vietnam, the winter war, Yi Sun-Sen’s defeat of Japan, etc.
Vietnam was the most culturally prominent in the US, but beyond the superficialities (little force defeats big force) the stories don’t really track at all. Like: there was no deathstar moment, there wasn’t even a single decisive victory (the US just got sick of the meatgrinder and public pressure overcame the political will to continue). The US also wasn’t defeated then replaced New Republic style, the NV weren’t going it alone in their fight against the empire and nobody threw Kissinger off a cliff at the end (mores the fucking pity),
He drew ideas from a LOT when writing it; presenting it like it was inspired by a single event is pretty disingenuous.
George Lucas wrote some stuff, and his ex-wife worked with him in some capacity. There were some that said George Lucas was a visionary genius and he also had a wife and so of course she was involved. There were some that said that George Lucas was a big self-important orangutan who couldn’t write for shit, and his ex-wife fixed it all up and turned it into an epic story because she had some apparently pretty significant screenwriting talent. And who’s to say? Surely there would be no way of going back in time and examining this intimate process in retrospect and finding out.
And then, the wife having left, he wrote the prequels without her involvement, and the world got its answer.
Also see: Stan Lee’s writing when he didn’t have Jack Kirby around.
With the caveat that I haven’t watched the prequels for a good several years, the overarching storyline is actually pretty good, but the special effects were too heavy on CGI so they dated quickly and a lot of the writing of individual lines was too much toned for a younger audience.
George Lucas would be silly to not make the next trilogy that was released 20 years later something fans of the original trilogy could take their kids to, but unfortunately it went a bit too far into trying to be kid friendly. Plus it definitely had sequences designed specifically to be recreated in video games, as any family movie did in the early 2000s (heck one of the 101 Dalmations movies even featured some gameplay of the tie-in game in the film!)
Chewbacca was supposed to be more like Jar Jar Binks but at that point he still had people around him to push back on that.
Look at some of the CG segments injected into the rereleases of the original trilogy, which Lucas used to bring it more in line with his original vision: cheap slapstick and goofy aliens.
Lmao well said.
Shit, we gotta get that ex-wife back in charge of star wars to fix it again.
Fuckin gottem
Lots of good points here. It would have been cool if Star Wars had a more complex geopolitical (galactopolitical?) environment, including more instances of multilateral politics.I feel like this was touched on in the prequels, but it still kinda boiled down to “good guys vs bad guys.” The general audience will get what it wants. That’s how markets are supposed to work.
Still, I feel like it was a missed opportunity to have a politically complex sequel rather than just dialing up the space-wizard lore. We could have also gotten some more complex characters rather than just bad guys or good guys that change at the end. People are way more complicated than that.
It probably would have been better if Warner Bros. Had acquired the IP rather than Disney. I’d watch HBO Star Wars all day long. I get why that wouldn’t work for their marketing position, but it would have been worth it to me to hear an Ewok say, “Yub yub, motherfucker” before offing the imperial officer that burned his village.
Also, we learn that Tibbit the Ewok has a bad glowroot problem, wasn’t entirely faithful to his partner, Nubni, and was a bit of a negligent father. His character doesn’t really improve, but he does save the village. The resultant fame nearly destroys him, and he goes back to spicebark farming with his toxic affair partner. The Alliance turns out to be as oppressive to the Ewoks as the Empire, but they have better PR. The other Ewoks label Tibbit as a traitor for protesting the Alliance he fought for. Ewoks boycott his spicebark. He loses everything. Grikk finds his body, glowroot seeping out of his mouth. Clutched in his lifeless paw is a child’s drawing. It was the one Grikk gave him on Father’s Day over a decade ago. Tibbit had yelled at Grikk and thrown the drawing away in an intoxicated rage. That was the last time Grikk had seen Tibbit. To think he had dug it out of the trash and carried it for ao many years. Grikk held his dead father’s paw with tears in his eyes. “Yub yub, Dad. Yub yub.”
Okay, Shakespeare it’s not, but tell me if it’s worse than any scene in the sequels.
I thought I remembered hearing that the Endor fight was pretty explicitly Vietnam
I could certainly believe it, there’s lots of parallels. Dense jungle forest, ancient ruins, small brown… natives…
…
… hey wait a minute.
Really though I could believe it. I was only commenting that the idea all of OT star wars was an allegory for vietnam is a stretch. The existance of allegories in the OT is totally reasonable.
One could make the argument that the Death Star is a stand-in for nuclear weapons, as literal weapon of mass destruction. There was notable political push to use nuclear weapons in the Vietnam war
This was not too long after there was notable political push to use nuclear weapons for heavy excavation and similar engineering purposes. Thankfully it was never actually performed since the results would obviously have been devastating