Posted by zaryzary2003 on 07/24/07 03:43

On Jul 23, 9:56 am, sli...@slidge.com wrote:

> And this is my problem with the Star Wars franchise. Lucas didn't set out
> intending to draw us in with "mythic archetypes" - he set out to make a
> Western in outer space. These westerns have plenty of pre-packaged
> "mythich archetypes" and they translated well to the setting. Then Lucas
> got wind of these archetypes via Campbell, and then he set out to inject
> the "mythic archetypes" into the films, and failed miserably, which is why
> the prequels suck so bad.

Well, I obviously don't have first hand evidence of it, but both Lucas
and Campbell said that Lucas specifically had the Campbell myth stuff
in mind when he came out with the first "Star Wars." And it seems
plausible to me. The book "The Hero with a Thousand Faces" came out in
1949 (i.e., well before "Star Wars"), and before he made "Star Wars"
Lucas was into weird, avante garde films - not just westerns and the
like.

Of course Lucas was influenced by Westerns too. For instances, he's
said that "The Searchers" was a big influence on certain scenes in the
first "Star Wars," as well as a lot of Japanese movies from the 50s
and 60s (e.g. Akira Kurosawa). And it's true that Westerns and some
of those Japanese films had some of the archetypes that Campbell talks
about, but that's the point - these are themes that show up a lot in
heroic stories.

None of that means that you have to like the movies, of course. If
you're really into movies with crisp dialog or psychological tension
in a very naturalistic setting, then clearly these movies aren't for
you. But it's not as if every single film that comes out has to be
like that.

[Back to original message]