THE LIMERICK MAGAZINE
way before the advent of CGI and computer-aided
words, in an act of open rebellion. The firm belief that
weeks of the film's release. And by the time the movie
had a monster in his hands, one that would take a
make slowly set in among cast and crew.
year, Star Wars was well on its way to become the
cinematography.) The director soon realised that he heavy toll on him after months of gruelling filming
and editing work. The special effects required for Star Wars would turn out to be a constant source of pain
and frustration for Lucas and his team. For starters, shortly after Fox accepted to make the movie, Lucas learned that the studio's special effects department no
longer existed. Hence, he created his own, Industrial Light and Magic (ILM), a division of his own production company, Lucasfilm.
ILM would go from one challenge to another, as the team struggled to make things work the way Lucas wanted. George, always a man with little tolerance
for failure, would not accept technical limitations. He
believed the special effects would work by his sheer
Star Wars would be the last movie they would ever
At one point, Lucas would work a gruelling 12 or 14 hours day to get the movie editing done on time. The
Star Wars cultural and cinematographic legacy
He began suffering hypertension due to the immense
inexhaustible cash cow and single-handedly creating
Star Wars, he'd never film another shot, ever again. pressure he was under, and had to be temporarily checked into hospital for rehabilitation.
To make matters worse, Lucas showed an early cut
of the film to a few colleagues, Steven Spielberg and
Brian de Palma among them. Reportedly, Brian de
Palma spent most of the time laughing at what he
considered to be the “worst movie ever.” Spielberg however, more optimistic, did accurately predict that Star Wars would make millions of dollars.
It was in this panorama of uncertainty that Lucas
spaceships would be little more that plastic models
would be a massive flop that would effectively end
on strings. The planets, moons, etc. depicted on the
movie were actually painted balls, and if you think the escape pod used by the droids to blast off the Tantive IV frigate looks like two buckets of paint, that's
because it was indeed made out of the halves of two paint buckets glued together and painted over.
For a test screening for studio execs, stock footage of
WW2 aircraft was actually used, simply because ILM
could not produce anything workable at the time. The
studio people were aghast, and came out believing that the project would be a monumental flop.The actors hired did not fare much better. Because of the fractured nature of the filming process, scenes were shot in a random order, often without any sense of
what the actual storyline was, and with Lucas making constant changes. Lucas himself often treated his
actors with open disdain. His directions would often
be limited to “faster” or “more intense”. At the time when Lucas lost his voice during filming, the actors
actually gave him two hand written signs with those
phenomenon that it is today.
man swore that if he ever did manage to complete
determination to make them so, though this proved a fallacy more often than not. At the beginning, the
reached European shores around Christmas of that
finished the movie. Yet, utterly convinced that it
his career, he went on holidays to Hawaii with his pal Steven Spielberg, instead of attending the movie's premiere. During this holiday break, both men would
come up with the basic premise which would go on to
cannot be denied. Apart from becoming a seemingly the movie merchandise business, Star Wars heralded
what some believe to be the golden era of science fiction. George Lucas' tale of a young, idealistic boy's quest across an universe populated with bounty
hunters, beautiful princesses, and evil Imperial forces, wetted the world's appetite for all things sci-fi.
Battlestar Galactica (1978), for instance, would likely not have existed had it not been for the phenomenal success of Star Wars. The seminal Blade Runner and
The Thing were released in 1982, along with the more family-oriented Tron and E.T. The latter would actually topple Star Wars as the highest grossing
movie ever, albeit only temporarily. Star Wars would
retake the crown after its re-mastered re-release in 1997.
become Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981).
A myriad of films would attempt (and mostly fail)
flop, and in fact almost sold their stake in the film, to
budget sci-fi flick would flood the market. Some
Fox's people also believed the movie would be a total
minimize losses. However, this decision was reversed at the 11th hour.
Then, Star Wars premiered for the general public on May 25, 1977…
The Star Wars legacy From humble beginnings, and largely driven by Lucas' determination, Star Wars soon became a worldwide
phenomenon. The film was originally shown in just 32 cinemas across America. Back in those days of 1977, pre-release marketing of a movie was virtually
unheard of. Nevertheless, it soon became apparent
that Fox had a massive success in their hands. Indeed, the studio's stock value more than doubled within
to capitalize on Star Wars' success. Hundreds of low
would gain some notoriety; The last Starfighter (1984), Dune (1984), Enemy Mine (1985), an update of Hell
in the Pacific (1968), to name but a few. Others would
become great successes, e.g. The Terminator (1984), and Aliens (1986).
Today, Star Wars reigns king among kings. Its iconic
music, opening crawl, its characters, and its mythology
have long since entered into the fabric of society. And with Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015) heralding
the arrival of a new trilogy, the myth is still going strong.
Article by: Fernando Sanchez
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