May the Fourth be with you: The inspirations behind Star WarsLike this list

15 items

• The Hero With a Thousand Faces

  Campbell, Joseph, 1904-1987

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  Mythologist Joseph Campbell's 1949 text on the commonalities among heroic myths throughout the world was a key influence on the story structure and narrative motifs of the Star Wars saga.

• John Carter of Mars

  the Collection

  Burroughs, Edgar Rice, 1875-1950

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  Written over one hundred years ago, the John Carter of Mars series is the Ur-example of the pulpy space opera genre, featuring daring rescues, exotic creatures, and boundless adventure on the dying world of Barsoom (the name Martians have…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Shichinin no samurai

  Seven samurai

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  Akira Kurosawa's heroic and humanist masterpiece casts a long shadow over all the adventure films made in its wake, including the Star Wars series. Said Lucas, "[Seven Samurai] really had a huge influence on my life in terms of seeing…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Metropolis

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  C-3PO's distinctive look was taken from the villainous Maschinenmensch ("machine-man") from this 1927 classic of sci-fi cinema.

• Dune

  Herbert, Frank,

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  Star Wars borrows so much from Frank Herbert's 1965 science-fiction opus that Herbert himself noticed. Elements borrowed from Herbert include imperial galactic governments, desert planets, and characters with magic/psychic abilities, to…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Ben-Hur

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  The famous chariot race at the climax of Ben-Hur was the main inspiration for the pod race in The Phantom Menace.

• Classical Tragedy : Greek and Roman

  8 Plays in Authoritative Modern Translations Accompanied by Critical Essays

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  Lucas often called his original six films, "The Tragedy of Darth Vader." Anakin Skywalker's fall from heroism was heavily inspired by Greek tragedy, particularly the tendency of tragic heroes to bring about their own demise through…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich

  a History of Nazi Germany

  Shirer, William L. (William Lawrence), 1904-1993

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  The establishment of the Third Reich and the iconography of the Nazis were evoked in the backstory and aesthetics of the Galactic Empire.

• The Wizard of Oz

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  During A New Hope's original release, Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher tended to compare the film to the beloved 1939 adaptation of The Wizard of Oz, particularly the two films' good versus evil stories and quest elements. Both stories also…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Searchers

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  Westerns were a massive influence on the look and tone of Star Wars in general. Lucas explicitly references shots from the 1956 western classic The Searchers in A New Hope and Attack of the Clones. The quest to saved a captive loved one,…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Holst. The Planets

  Holst, Gustav, 1874-1934

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  Some of John Williams' musical themes from the original trilogy were inspired by movements within Gustav Holst's 1917 symphony, The Planets, particularly the "Mars, God of War" section.

• "Roman Republic." Gale Encyclopedia of World History: Governments, vol. 1, Gale, 2008.

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  The transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire was a major source for the worldbuilding of the series in general, especially in the prequel trilogy.

• Notorious

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  Both Alfred Hitchcock and George Lucas hinged stories on a plot device popularly known as "the Macguffin"-- that is, an object that all the characters in a story will do anything to get. In Hitchcock's 1946 thriller Notorious, the…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Buzzanco, R. (2021). Vietnam War. In S. P. Holland (Ed.), Encyclopedia of American studies. Johns Hopkins University Press.

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  Lucas has repeatedly brought up the Vietnam War as an influence on the worldbuilding of the series.

• George Lucas

  a Life

  Jones, Brian Jay,

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  This biography gives a detailed list of Lucas' many inspirations for the saga in Chapter Six.