Why are star wars so popular. Rating of all parts of "Star Wars" - from the worst movie to the best

Let's say it without delay and categorically: "The Last Jedi" is the kind of movie that you will swear at with your friends for a long time. This is the most experimental episode, unlike, contrary to expectations, any other. Director Rian Johnson, who previously shot an arthouse and who for some reason was hired by Disney to make the main blockbuster of the year, spit on every canon, offended all the feelings of Jedi believers, trampled on half a century of traditions.

Star Wars has long been talked about as a kind of religion followed by fanatical fans of the franchise. It is logical to assume that the original trilogy is for them Old Testament, three prequels - New, and Disney films - this is, respectively, the Newest.

So, the Old Believers, without a doubt, will deny the new chapter of the sacred franchise and go underground to watch the good old, naive George Lucas movie about a guy with superpowers who almost single-handedly saved the entire Galaxy from an infernal tyrant.

The new movie is not like that at all. This is a strange movie, sometimes - almost brilliant, sometimes - dead boring, as if it was filmed by marketers. It is as if divided in half, like the Force - into the dark and light sides.

Let's start with light. Ever since the last part, everyone was expecting the appearance of Luke Skywalker, who lit up at the very end, where the new main character Rey holds out a lightsaber to him, and did not even have time to say a single word. Well, as it turned out, he reacted just as silently to the offer to help the forces of good: he takes a weapon, throws it on the ground and walks away.

All story line, which takes place on a rocky island, in a Jedi village, is the symbolic discarded lightsaber, trampled upon an outdated canon that can no longer be re-shot again and again. After "The Force Awakens", a thoroughly nostalgic film that replicated the very first "Star Wars" by George Lucas, Rian Johnson started to undermine the foundations.

Moreover, there is one scene in the film (we will not describe it in detail because of the general spoiler phobia), where all the traditions of the series literally fly into the air, are destroyed forever. Such a zeal for innovation in the most conservative franchise in the world cannot but impress.

"YouTube/Star Wars"

In general, historically, Star Wars borrowed a lot from very conservative, almost folklore samurai cinema. Even the word "Jedi", as everyone knows, comes from the Japanese "jidaigeki", the name of the costume-historical national genre of cinema.

Such films are characterized by a storyline with the hero's training in samurai by all these evil teachers with a mustache who beat negligent students with a stick. This is probably best known to Western viewers from the scenes with the mustachioed sensei in Tarantino's Kill Bill 2.

So, the line with the training of the new chief Jedi of the series, the girl Rey with a mysterious past, turned out to be unexpectedly ... erotic. Let's say a Padawan sits on a stone, meditates, looks for the Force in herself. Skywalker stands over her and asks if she feels something inside. Daisy Ridley answers almost languidly in an exciting whisper that, yes, there is something inside.

The Last Jedi could have been dedicated exclusively to the Last Jedi, and the viewer could have witnessed the fall of a great movement for good. Such pathos would sound good if the action was focused on it, but, unfortunately, we are constantly distracted by something.

To this we can only add that Rey, like an orphan, is looking for a new father in Luke, and then the situation becomes Freudian tense.

Further more. Rey begins to arrange with Kylo Ren, his sworn enemy, the new Darth Vader, a kind of spiritualistic Skype sessions, and during them conducts no less ambiguous dialogues with him, in which hatred seems to be about to turn into bodily love. Of course, Disney's managers aren't yet liberal enough to allow this, but Rian Johnson's attempt looks exquisite.

No less impressive is Adam Driver himself, who plays the role of an antagonist, perhaps best actor of everyone who has starred in the franchise over the long history. When he first appeared in The Force Awakens, the surprised audience laughed at the scene where the new Darth Vader removed his mask, and under it a lop-eared, awkward young man was revealed, all in confusion.

The duality of his character, a doubting, restless villain, Driver was allowed to reveal only in this film. He plays heroically, just bursting with emotions, in a second he manages to change, it seems, even his appearance in order to demonstrate both an old childhood resentment against a mentor, and dreams of an unrealizable bright future, and a sudden outbreak of love for one that will never reciprocate.

But this aesthetic storyline is constantly interrupted by inserts as if from another movie. The fact is that, in addition to Rey, in the pool of main characters there is also an adventurer-pilot Poe Dameron and a stormtrooper-deserter Finn. Of course, it was necessary to somehow focus on them.

As a result, the heroes of the entire film simply fly away at the same speed from the enemy ship, the unfortunate Finn is looking for posh casino Benicio Del Toro, who plays a stuttering lockpicker, while Poe Dameron just walks around the deck and pretends to live through half of the movie.

The Last Jedi could have been dedicated exclusively to the Last Jedi, and the viewer could have witnessed the fall of a great movement for good. Such pathos would sound good if the action was focused on it, but, unfortunately, we are constantly distracted by something.

However, most likely, most viewers will have a problem with the technical features of the film. In those very insert scenes, there are defiantly badly written high-flown dialogues. Inexplicable physical miracles occur even for Star Wars (for example, a bomb bay is found in a space fighter, from which shells fall out into weightlessness).

There is also a character specially added to the plot, an introverted Asian, who speaks out loud very leftist conclusions in the spirit of "all evil from the rich", which, of course, is very funny to hear in the film produced by the most commercialized Disney company in the world.

Finally, which is especially annoying, they inserted as many as three different types cute new creatures, created solely to become material for fan gifs later. All of them are equally wet-eyed and unnecessary.

It is probably wrong to split The Last Jedi into parts, yet it is conceived as an integral work that should both shock those who are thirsty for change and satisfy conformists who only expect ships from the picture to fly beautifully to the immortal music of John Williams.

But on the other hand, one of the key themes of this episode, and all the others, was hope. Good Resistance will not lose completely to the evil Empire, as long as at least someone has faith in victory.

This is probably how the franchise itself should be treated: there is still hope that the established order will break and the director will be allowed to speak without self-restraint within the framework of such a regulated work as Star Wars. Rian Johnson partially succeeded, which means that there is still hope, now renewed, that such a completely original, unexpected, author's movie will ever be released. But not yet this Thursday.

Egor Belikov

Most of us are familiar with the fantastic blockbuster Star Wars. Who took it is also known. This outstanding director was Where the action of this cult epic saga takes place is also not a secret. It talks about a fantasy universe and its inhabitants. But for many years now, disputes regarding the principle of the release of the series have not subsided. It is completely incomprehensible why films 4, 5, 6 first appeared and only after a while 1, 2, 3? What is it connected with?

A short biographical note about the creator of Star Wars

George Walton Lucas Jr. was born on a small farm in California on May 14, 1944. He studied at a local school, and graduated from high school in Downey. At that time, he was very passionate about drag racing and dreamed of an incredible career as a race car driver.

However, an unexpected car accident changed everything completely. Immediately after a long recovery, the young man entered the University of Southern California, where he was to receive an education in directing.

It was there that Lucas studied, who later created the fantastic Star Wars saga. Who filmed, wrote the script for the stellar sequel, in this case it's easy to understand. All this was done by one man - George Lucas. How he did it, we will tell further.

Brief background

The idea to make an unusual fantasy film about life and adventures in space came to the young film director George Lucas during his student days. And although initially it was only a kind of mythical idea, a few years later it began to take shape and shape. According to Lucas himself, he was inspired to create a "star brainchild" by a painting by Akira Kurosawa's friend "The Hidden Fortress".

From that moment, George began to actively work on writing the script. As a result, it turned out small work on twelve sheets, with the complex title "The Story of Mace Windu, Reverend Jedi Bendu, Relative of Isibi CJ Tape, Apprentice of the Great Jedi."

Later, the format of the name changed. That's just the script, according to the director himself, was not yet ready. But even with these sketches, Lucas still managed to find a film studio that agreed to film adaptation of his creation. Filming began, one after another, new episodes of the Star Wars saga began to come out. Why filmed with 4 episodes, it's hard to say. According to eyewitnesses, the fault was the imperfection of the script, which was amended as filming progressed.

Premiere of the first film

According to George, the preview of the film "Star Wars. Episode IV: A New Hope" took place in a narrow circle of acquaintances, colleagues and friends. But they didn't take it seriously.

“Everyone except Spielberg said in unison that they had never seen anything more ridiculous before,” the director and creator of the Star Wars film epic shares his impressions. Why was it removed from episode 4? Who came up with strange and unlike any other characters? Similar questions from all sides rained down on the author. However, in his opinion, this was only the beginning.

The heroes of the movie saga woke up famous

Much more attention was attracted by the public premiere of the picture, which took place on May 25, 1977 in Chinese theater. Immediately after it, a real "star fever" broke out in the country: people shouted out phrases from the film and put on costumes that resembled the appearance of the main characters.

The first film is estimated to have grossed around US$775,000,000 at the box office. Then paraphernalia appeared with the image of heroes: cups, pens, T-shirts, comics.

This time, practically no one was interested in why Star Wars began to be filmed not from the first, but immediately from the fourth part. Fans tried to get any little thing with a photo of their favorite character. And some of them even staged a real hunt for actors.

They waited for them after filming, stalked them in stores, set up impromptu tent cities near their homes. In a word, contrary to rumors and words of ill-wishers, the case of Lucas has gone.

What is the release sequence of the movie episodes?

Fans of the saga demanded the continuation of the Star Wars movie masterpiece (you already know who directed it - George Lucas). And they didn't have to wait long. Adventure creator Luke Skywalker released first episode five, The Empire Strikes Back, in 1980, and then episode six, Return of the Jedi, in 1983.

Between 1999 and 2005 Lucas has released a new trilogy. This was the first episode to be called "The Phantom Menace" (1999), the second to be "Attack of the Clones" (released in 2002), and the third episode to be called "Revenge of the Sith" (filmed in 2005).

I wonder why Star Wars was filmed out of order? And in what sequence is it better to watch them for those people who have not previously seen any of the episodes?

Starting in 2015, a new trilogy-sequel to Star Wars will start. So, in 2015, the film "The Force Awakens" was released. In 2017, the premiere of the eighth episode is planned, and in 2019 - the ninth episode.

At the end of 2016, a new episode of the spin-off trilogy called "Rogue One" is also scheduled to be released. A film about the life of Han Solo will be released in 2018, and about Boba Fet in 2020.

Why was Star Wars episode 4 filmed first, and then 1, 2, 3?

One of the reasons is the desire of the director to shoot the last parts of the epic as soon as possible.

According to George Lucas himself, he just really wanted to release a film where we are talking about the flying Death Star, which, as you know, appeared only in the fourth part. This is why Star Wars was filmed out of order.

According to another version, there was no complete script as such. He literally "finished writing on his knee." Made it perfect different people. On one occasion, Lucas had to take the initiative quickly, as the writer of the episode "The Empire Strikes Back" suddenly died.

How was Star Wars Episode 4 filmed?

The filming process itself deserves special attention. According to eyewitnesses, work on the painting was associated with enormous financial difficulties. In particular, the film company XX Century Fox, which agreed to film the picture of Lucas, at that time was on the verge of bankruptcy.

To pay the bills, I even had to pawn film. And George himself had to give up his fee and accept only a percentage of the sale of related Star Wars merchandise.

Unexpectedly for the entire film crew, the actor who played Luke Skywalker was involved in a major car accident. His whole face was broken, and his nose literally had to be pieced together. Because of this, a professional stunt double was used in some shots of the episode.

In general, all the episodes turned out to be interesting and spectacular, although they were filmed inconsistently. Therefore, you can watch them as they come out or from the first episode. Now you know everything about the Star Wars saga: who directed it, wrote the script, how the first epic film was shot.

Is it possible to find a person today who has never heard or seen anything from the Star Wars universe? What is the secret of the popularity of the famous franchise? Who is he - George Lucas - a brilliant demiurge or just a lucky person?

About all this, about the uniqueness of Star Wars and its mediocrity, about the great achievements of the saga and the terrible mistakes of its creators, about how this multimedia project has penetrated into every sphere modern life says Chris Taylor in his research. His book is not an attempt to chronologically recount the history of Star Wars, not a biography of George Lucas, not a collection of scattered outstanding facts and curiosities that fill the history of this universe. Rather, Chris Taylor's book is an attempt to analyze what Star Wars is for modern culture. And yet - this is an attempt to comprehend the reasons for the phenomenal love that fans experience for this saga around the world. So what is the secret why we love Star Wars?

Most recently, the movie “Rogue One. Star Wars. Stories ”, which has already collected a good box office around the world, despite the disapproving reviews of critics. Fans, apparently, still liked this picture. Let's try to understand the Star Wars phenomenon together with Chris Taylor.

1. Star Wars is not science fiction. As the history of the saga shows, scientific accuracy and accuracy of details are not at all what Star Wars fans need.

Chris Taylor writes: "Since the first movie was released in 1977, fans and critics have been squirming around explaining Star Wars' popularity and placing the film in a dozen different genres. No one has succeeded in this more than George Lucas himself, who compared the picture with spaghetti westerns, stories of sword and magic, the films "", "Lawrence of Arabia", "Captain Blood", the James Bond cycle - and this is even before the original film has been completed. Circle an asteroid field of various influences, and at the center of Star Wars you'll find a distinct, if quirky, subgenre: space fantasy.

It looks like the genre of science fiction that gave birth to it, much like Luke Skywalker to Darth Vader. Science fiction looks at the future through the lens of the present. The main theme is the development of technologies and their consequences. When working in this genre, you must reckon with the laws of physics. These are stories about science, while space fantasy is fantasy where the action takes place in space. Science fiction is an echo of our world; space fantasy - goes far beyond our world. It is nostalgic and romantic, it has more of a pure spirit of adventure, and the technology in it is only a starting point. The laws of physics are discarded in favor of bright events. "I was afraid that SF fans would say things like, 'You know that sound doesn't travel in space,'" Lucas said in 1977. “I just wanted to forget science.” In space everyone will hear yours Pew Pew».

2. The Star Wars Universe Is Ruled By Simple Universal Laws

"Lucas' goal in the films was to squeeze out existing religions̆ rather than creating a new one. “Knowing that the film is aimed at a younger audience, I tried to convey to the viewer in an accessible way that there is a God, and there are also good and bad sides,” Lucas told his biographer Dale Pollock. “You are given a choice between them, but the world is a better place if you choose the good side.”

Power is such a simple concept that it suits everyone: religion for a secular age is convenient these days because it is not burdened with details.”

3. Jedi have very cool lightsabers

Here is what the author of the book writes: “Lightsabers, apparently, have become a worldwide fad. There is an international competition for The best video with the Sabercomp lightsaber on YouTube (the results are impressive and worth a look). In Germany, I met with Project Saber, a large and serious group that makes fluorescent lightsabers that had a massive sword fight ahead of a special 30th anniversary screening of Return of the Jedi. In 2013, scientists at Harvard and MIT were able to bind together two microscopic molecules made up of photons. "Scientists have created lightsaber technology," screamed the headlines.

4. All these stories remind us of something very familiar.

Chris Taylor writes: “Tolkien died in 1973, just as Lucas was starting to work on the first draft of the script, and the Middle-earth books were at the height of their popularity. Between the third version of the script and you can find a surprising similarity. Both are full of strange creatures speaking carefully crafted languages. R2 and 3PO are Frodo and Sam, innocent creatures on a big adventure, whether they carry blueprints or a ring of omnipotence. Both pairs are accompanied and guarded by a group of heroes. Death Star, that infernal war machine is Mordor. Stormtroopers are orcs. Grandmoff Tarkin - this time on the side of evil - exact copy Saruman. Darth Vader, the Dark Lord of the Sith, is like Sauron, the Dark Lord of Mordor. Gandalf - Kenobi - carries a magical sword with him and sacrifices himself to return in a slightly altered and more magical form.

There was another book that Lucas often thought about at the time and which he later mentioned in interviews: Tales of Power by Carlos Castaneda, one part of Castaneda's supposedly autobiographical series about the philosophical trials he went through to gain almost magical powers. The relationship between Luke and Ben largely mirrors the relationship between Castaneda and the Yaqui shaman don Juan. We've come a long way from Flash Gordon. We mixed space fantasy with classic, added a layer of mysticism and sprinkled with jokes and comic characters.

5. The Star Wars universe is limitless

“We have a huge amount of ideas, and characters, and books, and a bunch of everything else,” said the Creator (that's what George Lucas calls himself - ed. note). “We can make Star Wars for another hundred years.” “There will always be dissatisfied, no matter what you do. So the best thing you can do is go ahead and try to tell the most best story what you can."

Star Wars is not losing popularity. Photo: vanityfair.com

Today marks the 40th anniversary of the most famous science fiction franchise of the twentieth century. Her symbols are so ubiquitous that even those who haven't seen the series know a lot about her.

For example, everyone remembers who Ewoks are and what they look like. However, this word is never heard in the original trilogy. Films and their marketing have become so widespread that some things from this universe seem to us to be taken for granted.

Star Wars is 40 years old, and on the birthday of the universe, they released a teaser for the eighth part - "The Last Jedi" (or " The Last Jedi", many argue). And this means that interest in films has increased again.

But what is the success of Star Wars? Why this weird sci-fi movie has become so popular since 1977 cultural phenomenon?

Reason 1: "Star Wars is a great mix of old and new"

The Star Wars universe is built on various films: stories about World War II test pilots, films by Akira Kurosawa, and even B-movies.

Nevertheless, the plot of the film is quite universal - the teenager Luke, like any person of his age, is bored with the monotonous planet Tatooine. Suffice it to recall the moment in which Luke looks at the two suns of Tatooine - it's a familiar feeling for 17-year-olds when we realize that there is something else beyond this world, although we are not sure what it is.

Star Wars is literally built on the bones of other films. But Lucas turns a familiar plot into something people haven't seen before. The original Star Wars is the perfect impulse generator. It begins with Luke meeting several robots, and ends with the kid blowing up a huge, deadly space station. The construction of history is gradual and entirely inevitable.

The trilogy was also captivating from a technical point of view at that time, although now it is almost not noticeable. And Gilbert Taylor's cinematography beautifully transforms scenes on Earth into views of other worlds.

Reason 2: Star Wars is the most engaging fictional universe

Critic Drew McWeeny points out one important thing that few people notice: everything has a name. He wrote: "One of the things that really makes Star Wars such a powerful fantasy world for young viewers, is the detail density. They want to know the names of every strange and bizarre thing they see on the screen, and they like to say the names, they like to brag to each other that they remember them. They can dig as deep as they want, and they keep coming up with little things to look at, talk about or add to the current game of the imagination.”

Children like to know what is called, they like to know everything about their hobby or favorite thing. This can manifest itself, for example, in remembering each indicator about each player in a particular sport. Star Wars is tempting to memorize everything, because the universe is spelled out in detail.

People love things with the Star Wars logo. Photo: tbo.com

Reason 3: It's a marketing machine

Star Wars has long been a brand. An incredible amount of merch made Lucas a real rich man. Star Wars stuff is sometimes more important than the movie itself. Such things become fashionable, and even those who have not seen a single part are already wearing them. This helps the franchise to remain incredibly popular year after year, even if new films don't come out for decades.

Sometimes it seems that the prequels were filmed solely so that children could be interested in collecting goods.

It's very easy to be cynical about certain aspects of the Star Wars machine, as they are now, in many ways, turning into a series of blockbusters similar to previous films.

This is especially true now, since Disney acquired the rights to Star Wars and all of its characters in 2012. The Force Awakens got huge promotion, and the studio basically eliminated Lucas from production process. What this means is that films are now turning into placing favorite characters in various life events. Some of the films are likely to be quite good. But the important thing is that you keep buying things with the Star Wars logo.

Reason 4: Star Wars was the first - and we are all living in their shadow

Star Wars has generated many references, and many modern heroes are similar to the characters in the universe. Between another famous movie, Gone with the Wind, and the first Star Wars film are also 40 years apart. However, it is much easier to make connections with Star Wars and modern heroes than with Star Wars and pre-franchise characters.

But at the same time, this history consists of problems that have existed for millennia, of basic values and beliefs. Star Wars, no matter how strange it may sound, is one of the first built on myth in modern processing. And that means they touch everyone. After all, everyone in childhood heard fairy tales about the beautiful young guy, a princess, a wise old man, a group of like-minded people and a dragon to defeat.

On January 23, 2013, there was an awakening and everyone felt it. Filming has begun on the seventh Star Wars movie. Directed by JJ Abrams. This event has become breaking news of the year. Hope has replaced rumors: will Luke, Leia and Han return? What about R2D2, C3PO and the Millennium Falcon? Even the now-laughed prequels couldn't dampen the anticipation when the first commercials for The Force Awakens appeared. The internet was flooded with reaction videos to the video, with people laughing and crying as they watched every detail of the video looking for clues as to what the movie's plot would be.

Although in 1977 common theme The unifying film was fate, it seemed that the fate of the first Star Wars, later called A New Hope, would be shame. George Lucas was still trying to make a name for himself. In 1972, he made American Graffiti, and that's about it. The actors were skeptical. Garrison Ford later said, “There was a big guy walking around in a dog suit. This is ridiculous". Fox made a hundred film copies and were terrified of failure. On the opening weekend of the show, George Lucas went on vacation to Hawaii, fearing the worst. On its opening weekend, the film played in dozens of theaters and was outperformed by Smokey and the Bandit at the box office.

Context

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Wired about the new Star Wars episode

Wired Magazine 12/17/2015 But the film soon took off and overtook Jaws a few months later to become the top box office hit for the time. These days, inflation-adjusted, it has beaten every other film ever made except " Gone with the wind”, who took 38 years more to do it. In The World According to Star Wars, Harvard Law School professor Cass Sunstein tries to explain why such an unremarkable film is popular with not one, but several generations. His book is for everyone - those who love, those who barely like and those who do not like Star Wars. But this is not the main goal of ambitious work. He wants to show how Star Wars reverberates and influences every aspect of our lives. Everyday life whether we notice it or not. "Avatar" by Jim Cameron brought a huge fortune. "But can anyone remember a single phrase from there?" he asks. Star Wars rules the galaxy.

The central question of the book is whether Star Wars was timely, was it a shot that accidentally hit the target - or is the film simply too good to fail? He collects information, does research, and even grabs an unfinished script to put the pieces of the puzzle together. There are two explanations for the popularity of Star Wars - the cascade effect, where popularity is based on what others thought of the first film, and the network effect. The second means that so many people know about Star Wars that you should find out about them. But information and theory would not have worked without Mr. Sunstein's admirable style. A mixture of cultural allusions and research, his work is balanced: informative without being boring, funny without being silly. These 200+ pages are well worth the read. The analysis is sustained in a dynamic and elegant rhythm.

We learn that Luke and Leia, the most famous twins from a galaxy far, far away, weren't supposed to be related at first. Lucas added this twist while writing The Empire Strikes Back in 1980, when the green, shriveled Jedi Master Yoda says, "There is one more (hope)." When it came time to decide who would be this very hope, Leia fit the role perfectly. Lucas still had to explain where she got the Power from. Then he reworked the original script and made Leia Luke's twin sister. This made an awkward impression on the audience, as there was apparently a romantic attraction between Leia and Luke - and a kiss. Sunstein is great at separating fact from fiction in original story. We learn, for example, that Lucas's early sketches were influenced by Akiro Kurosawa's 1958 film Three Rascals in the Hidden Fortress. That's where The World According to Star Wars responds best to Lucas's followers.

Leaving the territory general information, he struggles to answer the question of what made the film so successful: “None of the explanations seem to be wrong. The problem is that none of the explanations seem right." Then he tries to consider all the possible components of the meaning of the film, from the spiritual to the political. He teases fans of the saga, asking about what, of his own, was bad in the Empire? Sunstein claims that Emperor Palpatine, the chief negative character, had virtually no impact on the lives of its subjects. He gave a page to the theory that Jar Jar Binks was a Sith Lord. Lucas denied this, but Sunstein writes that "Lucas should deny it, shouldn't he?" In terms of politics on planet Earth, Sunstein writes that Barack Obama's unexpected rise in the 2008 election is largely due to a cascade effect similar to the one that led to unprecedented success"New Hope". As soon as both of them secured some support, the number of people who wanted to support them began to grow rapidly.

Perhaps Sunstein's most interesting speculation relates to the role of fate in the Star Wars universe, a central theme in all seven films. While fate and prophecy are important to the characters, they all make their own choices at a crossroads: Dark side tempts both Luke and Anakin, but only one of them succumbs to the temptation. But the book's main attraction is Sunstein's infectious passion for the entire film series, allowing him to resonate with Star Wars everywhere from Harry Potter to same-sex marriage. The Force is with him.