"Star Wars" is a landmark work in the history of American cinema. Its appearance has had a profound impact on American genre movies and even American society and culture. Its birth itself can be called the new myth of Hollywood in the post-industrial era.
This series bears the distinctive personal stigma of the famous filmmaker George Lucas. Lucas was born in California in 1944. He belongs to a generation that grew up after the war and was influenced by technological progress. He is very sensitive to new technologies, new inventions, and trendy and fashionable pop culture. He grew up in the west, and was fascinated by Western films that advocating pioneering and adventurous spirits. In addition, his teenage years coincided with the expansion of American television, and some popular TV series such as "The Flash Gordon" also made him fascinated, all of which have an important influence on his future film creation. When he was still studying at the Film School of the University of Southern California, he produced short films on science fiction and won the first prize at the National Student Film Festival. As a result, he was able to follow the film crew to watch the film and was favored by director Coppola. Since then, Coppola has become his mentor and helpful friend and has greatly helped him in his career. In 1971, with the support of Coppola, he directed his debut film "THX-1138". This science fiction film describing the future of society, despite its creativity, was difficult to satisfy the investor Warner. It was edited by him when it was released. Box office revenue is not ideal. He was not discouraged, but set up his own Lucasfilm company to prepare for it. In 1973, he wrote and directed the semi-autobiographical "American Style Painting" for Universal at a low cost of 750,000 US dollars. This youth film that outlined the colorful lives of American teenagers in the early 1960s with romantic brushstrokes inspired American nostalgia. It caused a huge response in society and later became one of the masterpieces of American movies in the 1970s. Lucas also became a movie star overnight. For Lucas, the most important thing is that he can now display his ambitions: he wants to make an unconventional and unprecedented "Space Imagination." He wrote the "Star Wars" that had haunted his mind for many years as a summary of the plot and gave it to Universal, hoping to obtain investment, but Universal thought his idea was too weird. He turned to United States, but was also rejected. Only 20th Century Flowserve, although "unintelligible", was impressed with his "American Style Painting" and decided to take a risky investment. Then Lucas started writing and changed his draft four times in two years. The plot changed drastically, and the final draft did not take shape until the final draft. According to his original idea, a film could not be accommodated, and he was reluctant to give up his love. After much planning, I finally decided to shoot in the form of a series: the whole film has 9 parts, divided into three trilogy. The first three are about the demise of the Galactic Republic and the arrogance of the empire. The middle three show how the Republican Guardian-Jedai Knight-cultivated heirs and ultimately destroyed the Galactic Empire. The last three replayed the legendary story of the rejuvenation of the Galactic Republic. Lucas also decided not to write in chronological order, but to write the most brilliant middle three (this is the "Star Wars "The reason for the title "Part Four: New Hope" was added at the end of the title. After the audience's appetite was lifted, the first three parts were flashed back to explain the cause. Lucas played a slippery head here: if his "Star Wars" hits a hit, he will continue to write: If he becomes a dumb gun like "THX-1138", he will stop abruptly. This kind of intention can also be seen from his arrangement of the plot of the middle trilogy. At the end of the first part, it blows up the Death Star, good triumphs over evil. The second part is not to suppress evil, naturally "to be continued". The fall of the third empire can also be marked with a rest... This planning is also flawed, that is, audiences who have only watched the middle trilogy are confused because they don't understand the cause of the past. Lucas also wrote a novel of the same name while making the film. In the novel he provided more details, which can be supplemented here. The ancient Galactic Republic prospered under the leadership of the Parliament and the escort of the Jedai Knights. Later, the republic gradually deteriorated: bureaucratic politics prevailed and corruption breeds. Senator Palpatine played with power and was elected as the leader of the parliament. Later, he cultivated cronies, attacked dissidents, and finally declared himself emperor. The emperor also possessed strong Yuan Li. He used the dark side of Yuan Li to summon Anakin and gradually annihilate other Jedai knights. Kenobi tried his best to dissuade his apprentice from failing, and the two had a duel. Anakin fell into the molten pool, and after crawling out, he became a ruthless Weida. Anakin's wife became pregnant and secretly gave birth to twins, becoming the last hope of the Jedai Knights (the "new hope" in the fourth film title). To prevent being abducted by the emperor, Kenobi took Luke to Tatooine and was brought up by his brother and sister-in-law, while Leia was taken by his mother to Audland and adopted as Senator Ognat's daughter, Leiainmen. The first relationship became a princess (just a title), and was later elected as a senator and became a leader of the anti-imperialist alliance. At the same time, he also wrote a novel of the same name. In the novel, he provided more details, which can be supplemented here. The ancient Galactic Republic prospered under the leadership of the Parliament and the escort of the Jedai Knights. Later, the republic gradually deteriorated: bureaucratic politics prevailed and corruption breeds. Senator Palpatine played with power and was elected as the leader of the parliament. Later, he cultivated cronies, attacked dissidents, and finally declared himself emperor. The emperor also possessed strong Yuan Li. He used the dark side of Yuan Li to summon Anakin and gradually annihilate other Jedai knights. Kenobi tried his best to dissuade his apprentice from failing, and the two had a duel. Anakin fell into the molten pool, and after crawling out, he became a ruthless Weida. Anakin's wife became pregnant and secretly gave birth to twins, becoming the last hope of the Jedai Knights (the "new hope" in the fourth film title). To prevent being abducted by the emperor, Kenobi took Luke to Tatooine and was brought up by his brother and sister-in-law, while Leia was taken by his mother to Audland and adopted as Senator Ognat's daughter, Leiainmen. The first relationship became a princess (just a title), and was later elected as a senator and became a leader of the anti-imperialist alliance. At the same time, he also wrote a novel of the same name. In the novel, he provided more details, which can be supplemented here. The ancient Galactic Republic prospered under the leadership of the Parliament and the escort of the Jedai Knights. Later, the republic gradually deteriorated: bureaucratic politics prevailed and corruption breeds. Senator Palpatine played with power and was elected as the leader of the parliament. Later, he cultivated cronies, attacked dissidents, and finally declared himself emperor. The emperor also possessed strong Yuan Li. He used the dark side of Yuan Li to summon Anakin and gradually annihilate other Jedai knights. Kenobi tried his best to dissuade his apprentice from failing, and the two had a duel. Anakin fell into the molten pool, and after crawling out, he became a ruthless Weida. Anakin's wife became pregnant and secretly gave birth to twins, becoming the last hope of the Jedai Knights (the "new hope" in the fourth film title). To prevent being abducted by the emperor, Kenobi took Luke to Tatooine and was brought up by his brother and sister-in-law, while Leia was taken by his mother to Audland and adopted as Senator Ognat's daughter, Leiainmen. The first relationship became a princess (just a title), and was later elected as a senator and became a leader of the anti-imperialist alliance.
Lucas deserves to be a new generation of filmmakers with different concepts. His films are not only unique in themes and productions, but also in packaging and marketing. He planned a brand-new method of film publicity, not publicizing it beforehand, and suddenly launched an all-round publicity offensive after the prime time of summer movies (late May), not only in cinemas, television, newspapers and other media, but also made a big splash. He also promoted the novel of the same name to the society, supplemented by a set of commercial promotions: a series of "Star Wars"-related goods such as toys, T-shirts, clothing, audio tapes, digital watches, etc. came all over the world (Lucas Although he was not the initiator, this kind of all-round trend-building technique was indeed perfected in his hands and achieved great results. Since then, it has become a standard practice for commercial film-building). For a time, American society was consuming "Star Wars" everywhere, forming a peculiar cultural phenomenon. People lined up in front of the cinema, and some people watched it eight or nine times. The cost of the film was about 10 million U.S. dollars, and the box office revenue in North America alone was as high as 120 million in half a year, making it the best-selling film ever. Its final total income exceeded 400 million U.S. dollars, and Lucas alone made a profit of hundreds of millions of U.S. dollars. He used this huge sum of money to buy a piece of land near San Francisco and set up a "Skywalker Farm", which is actually the most technologically advanced film post-production center in the world. Lucas recruited a large number of talents to make films or Develop cutting-edge film technology. Lucas has suffered from big Hollywood companies, and is extremely disgusted with Hollywood style. On the other hand, through his creative practice, he deeply felt that the film production technology at that time (especially the visual effects and sound technology) was too backward, so when he had money, the first thing he thought of was to establish a creative base for himself and like-minded people.
Lucas suffered so much during the filming of the "Star Wars" location, so he vowed not to serve as the director. Since then, he mostly participated in the creation of movies as a plot provider and executive producer (sometimes also his favorite editing work). The sequels of "Star Wars" "The Empire Strikes Back" and "The Return of Jedai" were shot in this way. He selected some creative staff who could understand his intentions to serve as directors, reviewing their results from time to time, and focused his main energy on the special effects production and editing of the film. After the completion of the trilogy, Lucas felt that the original sensational novelty and visual impact of the "Star" film no longer existed, and it would be too difficult to renovate under the existing technical conditions. He didn't want to waste resources, so Lucas died after filming the middle trilogy. Whether the other two trilogy should be re-shot is left to be discussed in the future.
Lucas said that the most difficult part of the "Star" film was the literary and drama part, and he spent a lot of energy in characterizing the image. Luke is the one he writes the most. In fact, Luke is the ideal hero in his mind, the object of his identification, or in other words, himself (Luke alludes to Lucas). The film "Star" is the history of Luke's growth, and the surname Skywalker given to him by Lucas shows that he should be an unbelievable character, and he should be a man of heaven. He walked alone, first destroying the Death Star alone, and finally trying to awaken the remaining conscience of his father. Two generations of skywalker, father and son, joined forces to eliminate the culprit. Vectra is another figure that Lucas focuses on. In these trilogy, he is basically a typical representative of evil. Because he was disfigured in the molten pool, he always wears a black mechanical helmet that wraps his head, and a complicated respirator (the heavy breathing from this is always accompanied by Weida). In addition, he is tall and always wore a black cloak. This look gives people a dark and cold look from the appearance, so he is also called "Lord Black". He did almost all the bad things in the trilogy. On the surface, he was submissive to the emperor, but in fact always wanted to replace him. However, in the end, under the enlightenment of his son, his remaining Jedai conscience was finally recovered, and he tried his best to get rid of the emperor. The bright side of his vitality once again defeated the dark side, and his soul was saved. Lucas gave him a philosophical and even religious oracle, and he can be classified as a good or bad person. Han is the most successful character portrayed in the film. He is agile and courageous. At first he was a gray figure, smuggling, gambling, and thirsty for money. However, he was loyal and had a sense of justice. His interactions with freedom fighters gradually purified his soul. Eventually he became a member of the Allied Army and made great contributions. As one of the driving forces of transformation, Lucas also played his relationship with the princess. He is a model of the bad and the good. Leia is a staunch freedom fighter from beginning to end, and the backbone of the anti-imperialist cause in the film. However, as a female, she can only play the role of a vase in this kind of action thriller. The contradictory phenomenon of "center of gravity falling off" embodied in her is essentially a subconscious expression of the "male-centered" theory in the mainstream consciousness of American society. . Perhaps the most distinctive characters in the film "Star" are two robots, which Lucas has humanized and have distinctive personalities. C3PO is tall and thin, R2D2 is thick and short, the two can produce a comic contrast effect visually. C3PO looks like a human, but it also has many human weaknesses, such as being timid, fearing death, and admiring vanity; it understands almost all the languages in the universe, and often acts as a translator for heterogeneous people, but it is also a bit verbose and awkward. R2D2 is more machine-like, it doesn’t Can speak human words, can only send out electronic sound ideograms or put subtitles on the screen, but it can store and call computer information, decipher passwords, and manipulate machinery. It resolutely executes the instructions of the owner. It is often the key to the crisis. Function; it also has emotions, often turning heads, shaking, and making strange noises to express happiness, anxiety and other emotions. The two robots add a lot to the film, and at the same time make the film more sci-fi.
What is the charm of "Star Wars" so popular? This charm is mainly reflected in the creativity of the picture. The film shows the story of another time and space and another world, which is very different from our daily life: space fortresses, space destroyers, laser guns, laser swords, holographic images... these incredible and imaginative super Modern high-tech products and spectacular space offensive and defensive warfare suddenly appeared in front of them on a large scale and high frequency, and it was so lifelike. How can this unprecedented and extremely visually impactful experience not make the audience rush to the theater. Woolen cloth? In other words, the selling point of the "Star" film is first of all the originality of the picture, that is, it strives to be innovative and unconventional. On the one hand, this originality is reflected in the above-mentioned sci-fi-rich props, and on the other hand, it is also reflected in the abundance and strange shapes of space creatures in the "Star" film. These various space creatures are essentially slanderous species. The cosmic law of diversity entertains the audience. There are many different kinds of different species in the film, and all human beings are white. This kind of "racial omission" caused strong dissatisfaction with black audiences. Lucas added a black comrade, Rando, to Luke in "The Empire Strikes Back". However, there is still no yellow race in the entire trilogy. The second reason for the success of "Star" is the fidelity of the pictures. Lucas's principle of making the film is "the plot can be fictitious, but the picture must be absolutely realistic." He believes that the power of filmmaking lies in making absurd things real and believable. This principle distinguishes the "Star" film from the ghost film. Lucas spent a lot of energy on this, and the enthusiastic response of the audience is the best reward for his rigorous style.
Some people criticized Lucas for "borrowing" too many things from predecessors. For example, the structure of the "Star" film was born out of "The Flash Gordon" in 1936, and the artistic style of the space scene is similar to "2001 Space Travel", C3PO The shape of "Metropolis" is referenced, and the personality is similar to "The Wizard of Oz"; in addition, some people have found the shadows of "Victory of Will" and "The Searcher" from it. Such demanding is unfair. Culture is inherited, and it is impossible for any literary and artistic work to be born without absorbing the nourishment of the predecessors. It is not surprising that there is inheritance, the question is whether there is development and innovation, whether there is something of your own, for which the audience is the best judge. In fact, Lucas also borrowed a lot of techniques from Western films and war films. In the movie "Star", the abandoned republic of the empire draws on the history of ancient Rome and the history of the Nazi coming to power, and the Jedai knights have the legacy of the Knights of the Round Table. The most mysterious thing in the film "Star" is Yuanli and his theory of transforming the light and dark sides. In fact, this also draws on Indian yoga and Chinese qigong. It can be said to be a product of the combination of east and west. Chinese audiences There will be a sense of deja vu. However, Hong Kong and Taiwan filmmakers completely apply it in Chinese culture, such as calling JediKnight as "Jedi Knight" and translating the title of "Jedi Return" as "Samurai Revenge", which is completely contrary to Luca. Si's original purpose (If the Jade Knight wants revenge, he will be influenced by the dark side of Yuanli). Although the film "Star" belongs to popular culture, the differences between Chinese and Western cultures should still be respected.
The charm of the "Star" film comes from novelty and lifelikeness. The main reason for this effect is that Lucas attaches great importance to the production of special visual effects (hereinafter referred to as "special effects", so-called "special effects"). Lucas, who regards creativity and realism as his life, is extremely dissatisfied with the special effects of previous movies. In order to make a good "Star" film, he specially established ILM (Industrial Light Illusion) special effects company. He recruited a group of young professionals with new ideas, and comprehensively applied all the most advanced technologies at the time to produce special effects. If you use computer motion control technology (also known as linkage matte technology) to synthesize an active scene, the effect of the synthesis is seamless, as if something really happened. This alone greatly improves the viewing of the film, which is one of the secret weapons that give the "Star" film a visual impact. The application of computer technology has also greatly reduced the cost (the full special effects cost is only 2 million US dollars) and shortened the production time. Lucas also attached great importance to sound effects. Not only did he use the most advanced Dolby stereo at the time, but also required the theater to have corresponding facilities. His strict requirements triggered a sound revolution in the theater.
"Star Wars" shocked the entire United States with its unique concept, ingenious production and clever propaganda, and its subsequent impact on American social life and even human civilization can still be felt. The great success of the "Star" film immediately blew two strong winds in the American film scene. One trend is sci-fi movies, especially space sci-fi movies, such as "The Third Kind of Contact", "Star Adventure", "Alien", "Aliens", etc., and even the popular 007 series of films are also immediately following Killed in space ("007 Breaking the Space City"). Previously, the attendance rate of sci-fi films in the United States was not very high, but sci-fi films have often become the highest-grossing films of the year since the "Star" film. The other is nostalgia. Some popular comics and other popular works in the past have been adapted into movies, such as Superman, Flash Gordon, Popeye, Tarzan of the Ape, Hina, the Queen of the Forest, Batman and others are active on the screen. In the early 1970s, American movies were in a recession, but since the mid-1970s, mainstream American movies have become active again. Among them, the role of "Star" films cannot be ignored. The "juniors" represented by young academic filmmakers such as Coppola and Lucas challenged the declining old Hollywood and formed the "New Hollywood" with them as standard bearers. "Star Wars" is one of the masterpieces. one. The "Star" film not only influenced the creative tendency of American films, but also triggered a revolution in film production. Lucas has set up several subsidiaries under his own company to engage in high-tech film development and research. For example, Pixar specializes in the development of computer technology, including digital post-production technologies such as CGI (computer generated image) technology and nonlinear film editing systems. Skywalker Audio Company specializes in movie audio, and its THX standard has become the highest standard in the audio industry. Today, theaters all over the world must be recognized by it to meet the THX standard. The most famous department in the Lucas Empire should be ILM. ILM uses the most advanced digital technology (including CGI) to produce special effects. The films it has taken part in almost constitute a complete history of digital special effects movies: "Star Wars", "Indiana Jones", "Star Adventures", "Back" To the Future" and other series, as well as "Alien", "Who Framed Roger Rabbit", "Abyss", "Ghost", "Terminator II", "Jurassic Park", "Forrest Gump", "True Lies", "Tornadoes", "Independence Day", "Landslides"...
By the mid-1990s, the rapid development of computer technology has made film special effects photography almost omnipotent. Lucas, who led the digital technology revolution in film, felt that the technical obstacles that prevented him from shooting the "Star" film as he pleased had been basically removed, so he decided to continue filming the "Star" film. He first used digital technology to make up some CGI special effects shots for the existing trilogy (such as adding 4 minutes to the first scene, mainly in the space port scene where Jiaba and other space creatures were added), and then At the beginning of 1997, the 20th anniversary of the premiere of "Star Wars", the "Star Wars Trilogy Special Edition" was launched with great fanfare, repeating the grand occasion 20 years ago. Then he announced that he would use digital technology to shoot "Star Wars", the first trilogy. These three films will be released in succession from 1998 to 2003. It is not difficult to imagine that this new trilogy will once again set off a round of excitement around the world; and it is certain that film production technology will face new breakthroughs.
The United States in the 1970s has entered a transitional period of post-industrial society, and cutting-edge technologies such as aerospace, computers, and lasers have increasingly become hot spots of concern. Lucas keenly captures these hot spots and uses his extraordinary artistic imagination to interpret them. From the perspective of literary and cultural studies, the ultra-modern expression of "Star Wars" fits in with the popular content, which clearly highlights the two major characteristics of post-industrial culture. In the post-industrial and information age, the social realism and social critical functions of literary works are gradually eliminated, while the entertainment function is greatly strengthened. The advent of "Star Wars" accelerated this process. It not only occupies an important position in the history of film development, but in a sense it is also the primrose of information civilization. Intellectual audiences may think that it is not of high taste, but whether you like it or not, it represents the direction of future culture. The history of 20 years has fully proved this point.
As a thrilling style movie, "Star Wars" has many and strong confrontational actions, and is based on ultra-modern space warfare. This inspired the inventors of interactive computer games (until today there are still some RPG games). It is based on "Star Wars"). The advent of controllable computer games has opened up a new entertainment space for modern people, and it will be an important part of the computer culture of the information society.
The large-scale space offensive and defensive warfare in the "Star" movie also inspired the inspiration of American military strategists. In the early 1980s, when the Reagan administration formulated the US strategic space defense plan, it simply called it the "Star Wars Project." It can be seen that "Star Wars" has long gone beyond the scope of entertainment and has affected many aspects of American social life. In fact, it has become one of the symbols of modern American culture.
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