The Secret History of Star Wars

lennier writes "How exactly did George Lucas develop the script for the first Star Wars? Why were the prequels so uneven when the originals were so good? Did he really have a masterplan for six, nine, or even twelve episodes, and why did the official Lucasfilm position keep changing? And just how big an influence were the films of Akira Kurosawa on the whole saga? Michael Kaminski's The Secret History of Star Wars, Third Edition is a free, thoroughly unauthorized, e-book that brings together a huge amount of literary detective work to sort fact from legend and reveal how the story really evolved. Download it or have your nerd credentials revoked."

nerd credentials?

"Download it or have your nerd credentials revoked."

I like programming in my spare time, when I'm not programming at work. But I hate Star Wars. I guess I'm just not nerdy enough.

I will have to hand write some PostScript to print my own nerd credentials and post them on my cubical wall.

Re:nerd credentials?

In addition to your credential revocation, your impressive /. ID will be reset to the current new user value.

Re:nerd credentials?

124937? It's just sad what passes for impressive these days. Have you all become so jaded?!?

Re:nerd credentials?

Yeah, I couldn't agree more.

Re:nerd credentials?

Do you oldfags. I mean, long time members just lurk and wait for posts like this?

Re:nerd credentials?

tag you're it

Re:nerd credentials?

Please forgive this from a mere low 6 digit...

Who are you? I am the new Number 2.
Who is Number 1? You are Number 6.
I am not a number, I am a free man!

Re:nerd credentials?

I think the author of the "nerd credentials" statement should have his nerd credentials revoked, if he ever had them at all. Star wars is Dorky, not nerdy. Nerds like math, dorks like D&D. Completely different. Nerds get girlfriends due to their thirst for all knowledge and experiences, while dorks grab onto obscure games and facts, because its something that makes them difficult to quickly judge and allows them to feel superior in a field. I am a nerd, perhaps a king or duke of their kind, but I am not a dork.

Re:nerd credentials?

I'm sorry, we're revoking your math license. [xkcd.com]

Re:nerd credentials?

Alternate definition: Someone who argues about the definition of nerd credentials on /. and is modded up for it, generally has nerd credentials. Welcome, o' nerdy brother!

Re:nerd credentials?

Picking up women.

(... who need their computers fixed.)

A child of Star Wars

I saw the original Star Wars at the theater when I was six. I saw the next two, Empire and Return, on the big screen when they appeared as well. Seeing these majestic space operas as a child had a profound impact on me. These movies set the stage, along with other contemporary "childrens" novels and sci-fi of the late-70s/early 80's, of a life-long love of science fiction and fantasy fictions. More importantly, this gestalt provided a novel framework for a belief in a limitless future, a need to challenge authority and an implicit belief in the use of technology to create a better future. (Not to sound too grandiose.)

Seeing Star Wars as a child has had a lifelong effect upon me and my worldview. /Can't say the same for the prequels though...

i recently saw "the hidden fortress"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hidden_Fortress [wikipedia.org]

and you have the two bumbling fools, the noble princess, and the hero trekking across hostile territory, doing various good deeds and engaging in various skirmishes. the scope of the movie and the plot are completely different, but you can immediately understand why this movie was the jumping off point for the picaresque characters of C3PO and R2D2

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picaresque_novel [wikipedia.org]

C3PO and R2D2, using their point of view, is really the most risky and rewarding aspect of star wars. now, i don't think lucas would ever admit it, but i think he was trying to conjure up the same sort of picaresque magic twice... with the character jar jar binks

except that character was a terrible failure, while C3PO and R2D2 are universally loved. i don't claim to understand why one worked and the other didn't, but clearly jar jar falls flat as a humours bumbling low life antidote to the otherwise deadly serious proceedings, while the two robots rocked in the same sort of role

which brings me to a final thought: movie magic isn't easy. i think a lot of fanboys need to cut lucas a break. he gave us star wars. did you forget that? ok, he fumbled with the final 3 movies. but holding him in scorn for that, while completely forgetting the first 3, is totally unfair of you. if, in your mind, you can't rise above your own frustrated expectations of the latter 3 movies to still cherish the guy for the first 3, you really are taking star wars way too seriously

oops

did i just suggest someone might take star wars too seriously? yikes, gotta run and hide now, i just awoke the rabid partisan fanboy beasts...

Re:i recently saw "the hidden fortress"

C3PO and R2D2, using their point of view, is really the most risky and rewarding aspect of star wars. now, i don't think lucas would ever admit it, but i think he was trying to conjure up the same sort of picaresque magic twice... with the character jar jar binks

The devil's in the details. Just drop all the analysis for a moment and actually watch it for what's there...

Jar Jar has a high, whiny, irritating voice. He appears to be based on an incredibly offensive stereotype. He looks goofy at best. He's clumsy -- he may try to help, but if he actually does any good, it's only because of pure dumb luck. That's just off the top of my head.

Comparing him to R2 -- R2 is cute. He's got personality, despite being a machine (almost because of it), and initiative. He usually knows what's going on (moreso than 3PO), and is actually helpful.

I actually liked most of the prequels alright -- saw the first when I was young enough to enjoy it (even Jar Jar), and didn't have high hopes for the second and third (by then I was old enough to hate Jar Jar). There were a few really horrible moments, and also a few moments worth watching.

But it does say something when Ryan vs Dorkman [ryanvsdorkman.com] is more fun to watch than most of the lightsaber duels in the actual movies.

Re:i recently saw "the hidden fortress"

Well.. perhaps because the robots didn't *bumble*

I suppose you could argue that C-3PO did some bumbling, but it was pretty quick and typically involved disassembly on his part rather than just getting hit on the noggin and mugging the camera.

And anyway, goldenrod was only even there to give a exposition for the mute clown*, R-2D2. *almost harlequin, if you read too much into it (you can map almost anything onto commedia dell'arte if you're not careful)

I think you're right though. In the prime-three, he polished some rocks and got diamonds. In the "first" three, he went looking for diamonds and found glass.

Cult of Lucas. I don't get it.

I enjoyed the original and Empire (though Empire felt like it had been cut short). I didn't think much of Ewok-ladden strikes back. The prequels got progressively worse. I was downright disappointed at how lousy the story was given that with the potential it had it should have been powerful and epic. I've even read a couple of novels.

What I don't get is the obsession with how ti was made. Clearly for the first couple of films the right people were in the right place at the right time. I don't think it was all Lucas by any stretch of the imagination and it's only those 2 films that I'd call good at all, so this idea of Lucas as genius with grand plans and grand vision just doesn't appeal to me. In fact unless you're in the movie business I fail to see how it can hold more than a passing interest. I'd rather watch paint dry than read this ebook cover to cover. I just don't care. I accept that Lucas is a hack who had a miracle year (or two).

Likewise with the actors. I don't mind Harrison Ford (even if he's getting worse not better as he gets older...Airforce One? What was he thinking!?) but Mark Hammil and Carrie Fisher weren't exactly any good.

As for continuity? Please! One minute Luke and Leia are about to get hot and heavy, and the next we're told they're brother and sister. Vader as Luke's father was unlikely though plausible, that is until the pathetic explanation that was Episode 3.

Re:Cult of Lucas. I don't get it.

As for continuity? Please! One minute Luke and Leia are about to get hot and heavy, and the next we're told they're brother and sister.

No. The next minute, THEY are told they are brother and sister. Big difference.

"Prequels" not good?

Why were the prequels so uneven when the originals were so good?

because those prequels are actually sequels. You know, they were actually made *after* the originals. Like all sequels, they are attempts to milk the cash cow created by the original franchise, i.e. ensure money will be made on the sequels just by vertue of the movie's name. And in many cases, the moviemaker thinks the name alone is enough, and forgets to make the sequel original or exciting because he has cold feets he didn't have when he made the first incarnation.

Examples of good movies with bad sequels:

Matrix
Rambo
Rocky ... shall I go on? you know them.

Star Wars; breakable like Firefly

Unlike those plastic action figures that emerged to commercialize the world forever, 'Star Wars' was an organically fallible piece much more in common with 'American Graffiti' than the blockbuster c--- that has dominated the last 30 years. I was a kid in the seats in 1977 and what captured my heart at the time was the gritty broken chaotic mess of the first film. Droids break, spaceships fragment, bizzare languages permeate every scene, plans go spectacularly awry. Even a kid could see that this was life. Spielberg used to capture this spirit in those wonderful scenes where everybody is talking at once; dialog that doesn't translate to the international export market. We all know, the true sequel of Star Wars is 'Firefly.' ---537

I don't know if its the writing style or what...

But was anyone able to get past the introduction without the whole thing starting to narrate in ones head with the Simpson's Comic Book guy voice?

Re:Does anybody really care?

A movie that has permeated practically every culture on the planet--Jedi is a religion in some countries; when people cup their hands over their mouth and slowly and loudly breath, people recognize it as a Vader impression; and its success made ILM, Skywalker Sound, Harrison Ford, Lucas Arts, Lucasfilm, THX, and the list goes on.

You may not like the movie, but to say it's "just a movie" is like saying "the Bible is just a book"--perhaps in some literal sense it's "a book," but it's one that has shaped the course of human history.

Re:Does anybody really care?

I think the Jedi as religion was a bit of a joke (similar to a protest vote) done for censuses. I'm not sure if people really and truly consider it as a religion.

When I was 8, Star Wars came out. I went crazy for it just like most of my friends. We really wanted to see it and queued up for hours in the rain when it finally came to our cinemas. We bought the toys, played at Star Wars in the playground, and lived and breathed it.

But finally, after a few years, we just grew up a bit more and got into other things like other movies, girls, books, drinking, working, etc. My younger brother was mad keen on the return of the jedi a few years later; for him, it was his formative film, but since then, he also has grown up and sold off his toys.

We both have soft spots for our formative films and have happy memories of watching them and playing them, but to revere them as one of the biggest global cultural events is a little bit silly. It really is just entertainment with a bit of pseudo-religious babble mixed in there. People might recognise the Darth Vader sound, but it doesn't run their lives. They don't do things like quake in terror and get shocked like I a saw a elderly French woman do when she suddenly saw a dummy dressed in an SS uniform during an exhibition once.

In all of my travels, Star Wars has changed the world only for a small handful for people. For most, it really is just a movie and nothing else.

Re:Oh please

Have real life people been killed because of it?

Dude, real people have been killed because of an Xbox 360. What kind of metric is that?

Oh, and there's a military laser project named after it.

Are people willing to give their life, or alter their concept of what life is about in the most sacred way, because of it?

I'd say that's what "religion" means, and enough people call themselves Jedi to make it a religion.

to say that it has "shaped the course of human history" is a bit over the top.

Not going to debate that one, but I don't think that's what GP said:

You may not like the movie, but to say it's "just a movie" is like saying "the Bible is just a book"--perhaps in some literal sense it's "a book," but it's one that has shaped the course of human history.

So that "shaped the course of human history" is about the Bible, and why it shouldn't just be called "a book". There are other reasons that Star Wars should not just be called "a movie"...

And frankly, it's too early to tell. We've had the Bible for at least a millennium or two. We've only been able to make movies for a little over a century -- and only in color, with sound, for about half that time.

It's simply physically impossible for a movie to have had as much of a chance to become as world-changing (for better or worse) as the Bible is -- it's simply had more time.

Re:Does anybody really care?

Indeed. It seems as if there is a narrow range of ages that found the original spellbinding, and I was just a few years too old. I recall seeing in in the theater when it came out and, naturally being blown away by the special effects. The audience first gasped and then cheered in the opening sequence where the ship flies overhead. But it was a fairly average movie otherwise, utterly predictable, and is still even watching it now. But guys a few years younger - sat, 10-14 years old - were absolutely transfixed and immediately started memorizing every detail. I was 17 and drove my own car to see it.

          From what I consider an objective standpoint, btw, the prequels were every bit as good story and acting-wise as the originals. Everybody hates Jar-Jar but I don't see the various cutesy robots and critters in the originals to be a lot better, and the Ewoks beat the universe part was, is, and always will be embarrassing.

          Brett

Re:But does it explain...

why on earth jar-jar was allowed more than 3 seconds of screen time?

Lucas should have taken advantage of the JJ hatred and turned him into an accident-prone character who gets his tongue caught in food processors, gets hit by meteorites or low-flying ships, etc.; sort of like the intergalactic Wiley Coyote. People would cheer everytime he got it.