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【Star Wars】The strange coincidence of Star Wars, Harry Potter, and The Lord of the Rings
In a nutshell
- On December 20th, the 9th Star Wars movie, "The Rise of Skywalker," will be released. The space opera of the century will come to an end once again.
- George Lucas, the creator of Star Wars, was inspired by his friend, the film director Francis Ford Coppola, who directed the masterpiece war movie "Apocalypse Now," to create a miraculous space science fiction film packed with his favorite things.
- There is a principle to hit stories. The mythologist Joseph Campbell showed the basic structure of the heroic epic, and Vincent Bruzzese suggests that audiences empathize with stories that have a typical structure.
12/20 "Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker" Release
The space opera is finally coming to an end again. Star Wars, which left the hands of its creator of six films, George Lucas, was revived again under the direction of Disney, and finally, today, December 20th, it will end with the release of the 9th film.
I am a big fan of Star Wars. My favorite character is the Ewok, an inhabitant of Endor who appears in Episode 6, "Return of the Jedi." They are a ferocious but cute hunting tribe who try to roast Han Solo and eat him, and who defeat the Imperial walkers in a Tarzan style. I will stop talking about the Ewoks now so that no one will stop following me.
By the way, my favorite mecha is the TIE fighter. It is the main fighter of the Imperial Army and is characterized by its unique shape. The engine sound is high-pitched and reminiscent of the Nazi German dive bomber, the Stuka. Please don't say, "What's a Stuka?" I will stop here.
Anyway, when Disney decided to continue production from the 7th to the 12th film, we were overjoyed that we could continue to dream, but the 7th and 8th films have been controversial. The consistent storyline based on George Lucas's worldview has begun to collapse in places, and we have been getting movies that are Star Wars, but not Star Wars. It seems that the 9th film is also controversial, but will it be okay?
Well, no matter what I say, I'll probably cry about 20 times when I go to the movie theater. I'm probably the only one who can cry the moment the famous story credits are displayed. Anyway, I'm looking forward to it.
Below, I will unravel how George Lucas created Star Wars and what the secret to its success is. The book that unravels this is my recent best hit book, "Hit Makers: The Science of Popularity in an Age of Distraction" (by Derek Thompson/Hayakawa Shobo). It is very helpful because you can find the basic structure of a hit from abundant examples. Also, the Japanese translation is good, so it is very interesting.
George Lucas
nicolas genin - Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8910205
George Lucas, the creator of Star Wars, saw the anime of the legendary space hero manga "Flash Gordon" and really wanted to make a movie of it himself. Flash Gordon is a story about a blond hero who leads a rebel army to challenge a vicious organization, and the laser swords, ray guns, capes, medieval-style costumes, magicians, spaceships, and space battles are very similar to Star Wars.
However, his dream did not come true. The movie rights were given to another Italian director, Federico Fellini, and in despair, he was having dinner with his older brother figure, the film director Francis Ford Coppola.
While talking with Coppola, he eventually decided to write the script and make the movie himself. This was in 1971.
The production of the script was extremely difficult. A ray of light was the battle between a hero who manipulates a mysterious power called "The Source" and an evil organization called "The Dark Side" in the comic "The New Gods" at the time.
Furthermore, Lucas read the basic structure of the heroic myth from the definitive book that summarizes the principles of the hit structure of myths, "The Hero with a Thousand Faces" by the mythologist Joseph Campbell, and decided to make it the backbone of the movie script. By the way, another movie that faithfully follows Joseph Campbell's story principles is the "Lord of the Rings" series.
As the script progressed, the Vietnam War began. From the Vietnam War, Lucas found the aspect of a war movie where "a powerful empire with strong technology tries to crush a small group seeking freedom." Just as Coppola was about to proceed with the legendary war movie "Apocalypse Now," which used real soldiers, he was scheduled to ask George Lucas to direct the movie, but Lucas refused and became engrossed in the production of Star Wars.
Lucas ended up packing in all of his favorite genres. In addition to the aforementioned Flash Gordon, comic book elements, and mythological structures, he was also influenced by westerns, period dramas, and chanbara.
In particular, Lucas was strongly influenced by Akira Kurosawa's movie "The Hidden Fortress." This movie, in which peasants protect a princess and a samurai general from violence, has a simple story structure of the weak challenging the strong, and the battles with swords, that is, the lightsaber battles, are based on chanbara.
A story that captures people's hearts
Star Wars is eye-catching for its setting and action, but if you just look at the backbone of the story, it is very simple.
In the original trilogy (Episodes 4, 5, and 6), it is a story about a son named Luke Skywalker trying to overcome the existence of his father, Darth Vader.
There are many difficulties along the way, and in the end, a direct confrontation with Darth Vader awaits.
In "The Hero with a Thousand Faces," the mythologist Joseph Campbell finds the basic structure of a story in the many myths around the world. The myths that have been passed down to the present day have a typical structure.
An seemingly ordinary man sets out on a journey, steps into an unknown world. He overcomes several major crises with the help of a helping hand, and eventually faces the ultimate ordeal. And in the end, he achieves victory and returns to his original world as a hero, or as a "prophet," "the one (the almighty being)," "the divine child," and so on. Harry Potter, Luke Skywalker, Moses, Muhammad, Neo from "The Matrix," Frodo from "The Lord of the Rings," and of course, Christ are also such heroes.
According to the storytelling researcher Vincent Bruzzese, the three important elements of a story are "inspiring people," "being able to empathize," and "suspense."
The hero must be an ordinary person with flaws who achieves victory after much hardship. That is what inspires people.
The audience wants to see themselves in the hero when they watch a movie. In other words, the hero is not a perfect being, but needs to have a human-like quality of resisting fate.
Furthermore, on the road to glory, various elements of failure must be added, and the audience must be kept on the edge of their seats many times.
The basic structure of a story does not change, and all hit movies are just a matter of presentation and a little arrangement, which is understood as a standard in story studies. Will the Star Wars movie released today, December 20th, be a story that moves people? I will probably go to the movie theater for the first time in a while.