Five Movies to watch while waiting for the 30th Anniversary of Star Wars
May 5th, 2007 in Directors, Dvd, Top 5 List
I know there are a bunch of you out there who are excited about the forthcoming anniversary of the original Star Wars. What surprises me is that in spite of all the written material and interviews, there are some people who aren’t familiar with the films that inspired George Lucas. The following is a list of five films, four of which have elements that Lucas used in his films, and one film that was suppose to be the big science fiction film of 1977.
5. Damnation Alley. Only available on VHS. Based on a novel by Roger Zelazney, helmed by veteran director Jack Smight, starring the then hot Jan-Michael Vincent, George Peppard, and Dominique Sanda - the suits at 20th Century Fox were certain they had a winner, and the film’s reported budget was 17 million dollars. Fortunately Allan Ladd, Jr. decided that if Fox was going to make one sci-fi film, why not make two.
4. Dam Busters. The air battle at the end of Star Wars was modeled after this World War II film from 1955. Coincidentally, director Michael Anderson directed Logan’s Run in 1976, which was why big budget science fiction was not considered a sure thing in 1977.
3. The Searchers. The scene where Luke finds the house of his aunt and uncle burned down? Straight from John Ford’s classic western. Also the inspiration for Buddy Holly’s most famous song.
2. Swiss Family Robinson. Anakin Skywalker was named after filmmaker Ken Annakin. You’ve probably seen a couple of his films and not known it.
1. Hidden Fortress. George Lucas has admitted that his basic story line was taken from this Akira Kurosawa samurai classic. I was at least able to convince one Star Wars fanatic that if nothing else, Misa Uehara was cuter than Carrie Fisher. For awhile, Lucas even thought about giving Toshiro Mifune the role that was eventually given to Alec Guinness. Required viewing for all self-declared Star Wars fans. And if you want to make it a Kurosawa double feature, Lucas also borrowed a bit from Sanjuro.
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May 7th, 2007 at 9:53 am
Great suggestions, but I was only able to put 2 of them on my Gameznflix queue (Searchers and Hidden Fortress).
May 28th, 2007 at 10:38 pm
[...] into Lucas’s non-literary influences, like the five films Peter Nelhaus mentioned in his Five Movies to Watch While Waiting for the 30th Anniversary of Star Wars. The documentary did do an excellent job comparing the samurai to the Jedi, Han Solo to Gary [...]