[Vanders9]

Yes, Lucas cannot write and his direction is very pedestrian. Large chunks of Star Wars were lifted directly from other movies. The escape from the Death star from Douglas Fairbanks. The attack on the Death Star at the end is taken from "633 squadron". (Seriously. Watch it. The situation and scenes are almost identical. Even the dialogue is pretty much the same).

Lucas's genius was cobbling together all those elements into a new and genuinely exciting format. That's what made Star Wars work. It might not be original but its fundamentally a very good action-packed coming-of-age story and it hit the cinemas at a time when there was a dearth of such stuff. In other words, George Lucas got lucky.

[Tijeras_Slim]

Better stealing 633’s dialogue than their special effects. ;)

[RansomOttawa]

The attack on the Death Star at the end is taken from "633 squadron". (Seriously. Watch it. The situation and scenes are almost identical. Even the dialogue is pretty much the same).

Really? I'm going to have to look this up. I always thought the final battle scene of Star Wars was a mashup of Battle of Britain (which also has surprisingly similar dialogue) and The Dam Busters.