Posted on 05/04/2014 2:13:54 PM PDT by Dallas59
Now that the cast of the seventh "Star Wars" movie has been announced, you can imagine the anticipation among the millions of fans of the film franchise. And why not? The six "Star Wars" films have been enormous successes: they have grossed over $2 billion domestically at the box office, spawned scores of books, comic books and merchandise (how many kids have their own light saber?) and made household names of characters like Darth Vader, Han Solo and Luke Skywalker.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Of course it is, among other timeless plots laced with sciency-things. "Star Wars" has a particularly aristocratic Space Western origin, since the writer of "The Empire Strikes Back," Leigh Brackett, also wrote a couple of classic John Wayne movies ("El Dorado," "Rio Bravo").
She was also a very successful science fiction author in the 1930s. The "science" is dated - nobody thinks humans could survive on Mercury anymore - but a good story is a good story, and a good story can be made into a successful movie.
ping
Star Wars is Science Fiction Fantasy. Star Trek is more Science Fiction as in “it could happen”.
ping
Just time travel, race and lots of kinky sex.
This somehow being more science-y then light sabers and space ships.
Time for something new! How about doing a movie of the great book “A Mote In God’s Eye?”
All literature, and I consider movies as literature, is based in a handful of grand themes. “Wagon Train” is “Silk-Road Caravan,” if you want it to be, or “Star Trek.” Leadership vs. rebellion, order vs. chaos, how romantic relationships bollux everything up, etc.
Michael Hurst, “New Zealand’s most successful Shakespearean actor,” said of his co-star turn in “Hercules: The Legendary Journeys” that the themes were no different from the themes of Shakespeare, because people are always the same, only settings (and quality of writing ;-) change.
“Star Trek” did race, “Star Trek” did time travel, “Star Trek” implied kinky sex.
Look at what we have today that was used in Star Trek, the original with James T. Kirk. The flip phone for one. Flat screen TV for another.
Butler’s main themes are race and sex, and in “Kindred” she wrote about a modern black woman who travels back in time to the antebellum South, where she is enslaved. The novel is regularly taught in classrooms and has made at least one list of “Great Books By Women.”
But Hollywood has yet to adapt it for the screen.
“How many of those white people are evil movies are they going to make”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nN9hy4YNIv0 [language]
Interesting article, though I disagree with the premise. As much as I loved the original Star Wars films, I never thought (even as a kid) they were the end all, be all for science fiction.
Consider some of the really great sci-fi made during or just after the original trilogy of Star Wars flicks: Alien, Blade Runner, John Carpenter’s version of The Thing, Starman, etc. Later on, we’d also have the likes of Dark City, Gattaca, and so on.
Now, I *do* think there is a trend towards on over-reliance on action in the sci-fi genre. But that’s what sells summer movie tickets these days, and I don’t think Star Wars is to blame or even that sci-fi is the only genre to have this trend.
As for the author’s assertion that The Matrix is the most original movie of the last 25 years, well, each to their own. The first film was visually impressive, but I’ve never found the films that deep or inspiring. Gattaca left a much bigger impression on me than Matrix. And in the vein of virtual/alternate reality, I like Dark City and the low-bugdet eXistenZ (a birthday IS a special occasion) just as much, if not more, than Matrix.
Star Wars owes a lot to Jack Kirby, too. It’s not difficult to see the influence of The New Gods in the Star Wars mythology, and Dr Doom clearly influenced aspects of the Darth Vader character.
I don’t think Lucas ever owned up to that, but I confess I don’t know for sure
But this article was a whine fest about Star Wars, which I submit, that the author has his panties in a wad over because there were "white" heroes in the story.
But Hollywood has yet to adapt it for the screen. Maybe if the lead character had a Wookie by her side...
Who knows, maybe Moochelle Obama is available?
Seriously though, that's his example of thought provoking science fiction? Sounds like Uncle Tom's Cabin with a time machine.
Star Wars is a story about a farm boy, an old wizard and a pirate who rescue a princess from an evil sorcerer in an impregnable castle. The sci-fi part is just window dressing.
Flat screen for viewing monitors on decks but in the rooms they had bulky consoles.
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