21-87
21-87 is a 1963 Canadian abstract montage-collage film created by Arthur Lipsett that lasts 9 minutes and 33 seconds. The short, produced by the National Film Board of Canada, is a collage of snippets from discarded footage found by Lipsett in the editing room of the National Film Board (where he was employed as an animator), combined with his own black and white 16 mm footage which he shot on the streets of Montreal and New York City, among other locations. Release and reception. "21-87" premiered on the CBC program "Explorations" in 1964. Journalist Howard  Junker dismisses "21-87" and Lipsett's other film, "Free Fall", as repetitious: "the whole idea of wildly flashing stills and phrases wears quickly". Critic N. Roy Clifton is frustrated by the seeming randomness of the images. Critic John Fell suggests the film is evocative of parataxis, like a sentence without a conjunctive word. Influence on George Lucas. "21-87" would have a profound influence on director George Lucas and on Walter Murch, an editor and designer with whom Lucas worked. Lucas described it as "the kind of movie I wanted to make — a very off the wall, abstract kind  of film". In response, Lucas created the pure cinema, short, 16mm movies: "6-18-67", "", and "Look at Life". The later "", an experimental science fiction short, takes place in a dystopian future on May 14, 2187. Lucas expanded the latter into "THX 1138". His later works "American Graffiti" and "Star Wars" has shown "21-87"'s influence. Lucas and Lipsett would never meet. The concept of the Force, so prominent in "Star Wars" and its sequels and prequels, is said to have been inspired by a statement made by Roman Kroitor in the short film. 21-87 21-87