Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.

Welcome to the eighth installment in an ongoing series of reviews known as The Samurai Papers. The first seven reviews in this series were: Yojimbo, Seven Samurai, Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto, The Hagakure, Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai, Sanjuro and The Hidden Fortress.

This review will discuss Star Wars: A New Hope. This review is heavily related to my Hidden Fortress review. If you haven’t read it, you should. In fact, the things I say here will make more sense if you read the first review before beginning this one. I’ll wait while you run off to read that review.

Nate paces and hums to himself for awhile.

Oh good, you’re back. Let’s get started.

In 1977 George Lucas’ released Star Wars. It was a massive hit. In fact, it was the first true block buster. This film would play in theaters for years. It would have a long run on pay stations like HBO, and it would become one of the most popular films in the home video market. It has been followed four theatrical sequels, two television movies (both focusing on the Ewoks from Return of the Jedi), a cartoon series, comic books, hundreds of books, toys, video games, board games, bubblegum cards, clothing lines, and a wide variety of collectibles. There are magazines devoted to this series of films. Hundreds of websites discuss nothing but Star Wars. It has become a massive industry.

In the midst of all that activity, Star Wars managed to change the face of cinema. It led to a resurgence of science fiction movies, it also led to the tradition of big budget summer releases. Influential is too weak a word for this movie. It has become ubiquitous.

By now, everyone knows what this movie is about. However, I will give a brief synopsis:

A young, beautiful princess named Leia (Carrie Fisher) is on the run from an evil empire that seeks to crush the galaxy in its iron fist. She sends for help. The only person that can offer that help is an old warrior who had served her family in the past.. This warrior, Obi-wan Kenobi (Alec Guinness), travels to her aid. He is accompanied by a young upstart kid named Luke (Mark Hamill), and sleazy smuggler named Han (Harrison Ford) and two “droids (C3PO, and R2D2).

Together they save the princess, blow up the evil space station, and grow as people.

Simple enough. A plot anyone could have come up with. In fact, many critics have referred to this film as an “oat opera in space”. That is, it’s a simple western story told in a science fiction back drop. But is it really that simple? The characters seem to be great archetypes. These are character types that we see again and again in fiction. They date back to early myth and folk lore. It is this very fact which seems to help us connect with the story. It is because we empathize with the young, uneducated, brash Luke that we are carried along so effortlessly by this tale.

We see the story largely from the point of view of two minor characters. The Droids serve not only as our window into this world, but also as the comic relief. C3PO’s constant carping and complaining gives us numerous chuckles, and lightens the mood of a film that could otherwise seem turgid, and heavy.

The biggest change undergone by a character in the film is that of Han Solo. Han is callous, cold, a little sleazy, and a little bad. After all, he does shoot first (don’t get me started on Lucas’ reworking of the film that now has Greedo shooting first; this change guts the movie, and is proof that Lucas is a moron). Over the course of the film Han comes to recognize the importance of the cause he has been drawn into. He also comes to connect with the people around him. The change he undergoes is extraordinary. It becomes the heart of this film.

So then, George Lucas must be some sort of creative genius, right?

No. If Lucas had created all of this on his own, he would be a great artist. However, as I have discussed in my review of the Hidden Fortress (you should know this, since you’ve read that review) Lucas borrowed much of his story from that earlier, better film. The characters bear striking resemblance between the two movies. The princess, the warrior-protector, and the Droids are all mirrored in that other movie. We see hidden fortress through the eyes of the comedy relief: two peasants who seem a lot like R2D2 and C3PO. The basic plot is largely the same, just in feudal Japan instead of outer space.

The editing and pacing are nearly identical, right down to Lucas’ use of Akira Kurosawa’s patented “wipe” transitions. Even the music has a mild similarity.

I don’t want to belabor points that I made in the first half of the review (which you’ve read, Right?). So I’ll stop there with the similarities. Now to say some good things about Star Wars:

This film is highly watch able. Better yet, it is rewatchable. In no way is it great art, but it is greatly entertaining. One cannot help being caught up in the adventures that the characters experience. The visual style is interesting, and at the time this movie was released that style seemed new and fresh. We easily come to love these characters. As children we adore this movie. As adults we realize that it is merely bubblegum entertainment, but we still hold a certain fondness for it. Heck, I’ve got an eighteen inch Boba Fett figurine in my living room, because as a child I absolutely loved the Star Wars movies (although, to be frank, Empire Strikes Back always caught my fancy more than the first film).

We can’t hate Lucas for ripping off Kurosawa. Everybody rips off Kurosawa. A quick look at a few films inspired by Kurosawa’s work:

Star Wars
Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior
A Bug’s Life
The Magnificent Seven
Saving Private Ryan
Fistful of Dollars
Last Man Standing
Django
Coyote Moon
The Warrior and the Sorceress
The Outrage
Misty
Braveheart


This is a partial list. A few minutes at the Internet Movie Database will provide hundreds more instances of films that are either direct remakes, or at least strongly influenced by the works of the legendary Akira Kurosawa.

So why do I get angry at Lucas? After all, I like a lot of the movies listed above. In fact, I even like Star Wars. The problem is not what Lucas did in making his movie. The problem lies in the way George Lucas presents himself. He is a shameless self promoter. He trumpets his own genius, and fails to give Kurosawa the proper credit. Lucas has spent a very lucrative career spinning off Star Wars. It has turned it into a massive industry, which has brought him great power, acclaim, and wealth. Yet, the initial idea wasn’t his. He borrowed heavily from a true cinematic genius.

Lucas has even some highly Orwellian double talk to mention that yes, Hidden Fortress was on his mind when he made Star Wars, but to claim that it didn’t really effect the film. He tries to intimate that he is as creative and original as Kurosawa, and that he deserves all of the credit he has received.

Others who have taken from Kurosawa have not made a career of it. Sergio Leone moved on to his own inventions, and to remakes of other directors films. (His Once Upon a Time in the West is largely Johnny Guitar with a Harmonica. For the makers of The Magnificent Seven, their film was just another movie to be cranked out before moving on to other projects. None of these film makers perpetrated the shameless self promotion that Lucas has been guilty of.

For proof that Lucas is not the genius he claims to be, simply look at his other movies: Empire is quite good. After that they went steadily down hill. The two recent films in his series are boring, overlong, derivative, badly written, poorly directed, and cartoonish.

So, in the end I recommend Star Wars. If you haven’t seen t, you’ll enjoy it. But, see The Hidden Fortress. This is a better film, and will show where Star Wars came from. I recommend watching the two as a double feature for comparison.

Next in this series of reviews we will drop the vitriol, and look seriously a great film. Rashomon doesn’t quite fit with the other movies we’ve discussed, but it is important to our over all conversation. There we will further develop the themes that are running through this review series.

The previous reviews in The Samurai Papers have been:

Yojimbo
Seven Samurai
Musashi Miyamoto
Hagakure
Ghost Dog
Sanjuro
Hidden Fortress

By the by, check out other reviews by Nathan Tyree. Go on. I mean it.

Cheers

Nathan Tyree




Recommended: Yes