Origins of the story

Rating: Null/10 (31 August 2008)

I seem to remember that many years ago George Lucas admitted that the basic core idea for the movie was wholly derived from the Seven Samurai. Just as the Magnificent Seven had lifted that plot and re-located it from Japan into Mexico, so Lucas took the very same idea and re-located it into Outer Space. Count the heroes: Obi Wan, Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Princess Leia, Chewbacca, R2D2 and C3PO. Seven, right? And they have to take on the whole menacing force threatening a nice, peaceful civilisation and restore order and justice. Which of course they do. OK, that basic plot is hugely embellished and adorned with highly impressive special effects (even now they still look great), but at the heart of it the original Star Wars film is essentially a hi-tech sci-fi re-telling of the Seven Samurai. BTW, I still can't bring myself to think of it as anything other than Star Wars, "in brackets the first one". How can it be Episode IV when it was the first one to be conceived? Is Lucas ashamed to admit he's just milking his cash cow? Or ashamed to admit he's not really done anything else of note outside of the Star Wars franchise? As for earlier comments about this movie having changed the world - or even just the world of cinema - all I can say is get real, get a life and get out more. It's a couple of hours of entertaining fantasy, and not all that original at that.