Posted on 11/21/2010 3:35:27 PM PST by KevinDavis
Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, I think
Not just Star Wars.
Other influences in that trailer:
* 2001
* Jason and the Argonauts
* Invaders From Mars
It has better looking women than Star Wars.
And was that Christopher Plummer? He must have owed somebody a BIG favor!
Speaking of I heard a rumor was going to be remade by the same team that did Tron Legacy.
I want on the ping list
Then there was the movie with John Boy Walton, which was a variation of the Seven Samurai/Magnificent Seven in outer space. It had the Man from UNCLE in it ... (Robert Vaughn, I think??)
Battle Beyond the Stars. Which was indeed Magnificent 7 in space, and Robert Vaughn “reprised” his character from Magnificent 7. Simply awful. Like most Corman movies.
Don't dis Corman. Without him, MST3K wouldn't have happened! Besides, Battle Beyond the Stars had one of the best soundtracks ever. (James Horner, and I think he was 19 when he wrote it.)
I think you could say that any big budget (obviously not Corman) space opera type movie since 1977 could be considered "influenced" by Star Wars. In fact, you could say it is just like almost any hero story, including the story of Jesus Christ out of the New Testament, or Hercules from Greek lore. They all have the same basic plot.
I actually like a significant number of Corman movies for their cheesy fun. And I have a lot of respect for him as a talent scout, the list of people that “started” with Corman is truly scary. But some of his movies just don’t make the jump to cheesy fun, they just stink.
What Star Wars really brought to the table was epic fantasy with ships. There’s a freedom in the Star Wars influenced SF to not really worry about science, the ships and guns and other toys do whatever the writer needs them to, and we won’t even pretend to try to explain it. It’s a separation from the “hard science” SF where they at least try to come up with an explanation, even if it just uses a bunch of made up words (like Star Trek’s transporters).
Of course by bringing BBTS into it there’s another Star Wars influence: Kurosawa. Lucas has been pretty honest through the years that SW itself is a direct ripoff of Kurosawa’s Hidden Fortress, going so far as to do an extensive interview on the Criterion DVD of Fortress. And of course BBTS being a ripoff of Magnificent 7 makes it actually a rip off of Seven Samurai.
Retief TV series. IF they don’t screw it up, I am definitely up for that!
Comedy, babes, gratuitous violence, and making fun of the State Department. What more could screenwriters want?
The only thing that could go over better would be the Little Fuzzy movies.
I watched “Hidden Fortress” but I didn’t see that much in common with Star Wars.
The princess and the droids were there, but that was about it.
There’s the princess and the droids, and the “treasure” which will help defeat the bad guy. A lot of it is in the method too, like using the bottom rung characters as the POV for the audience, and cutting methods.
I thought it was boring as hell..
It is being remade, however there hasn’t been any news about it.. I’m kinda mixed about this movie being remade...
I considered posting an apology to anybody that watched it because of me.
That epi has to be nadir of Futurama.
The writers didn't even bother to phone it in, so to speak.
Wow, I didn’t know about Hidden Fortress. Excellent observations, thanks!
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