Who's in my camp here? I only truly like the original 1977 release of Star Wars (no effing Episode IV stuff, no modifications). For me, it stands alone. Empire was visually beautiful but I thought the story was bonkers, and Jedi was a little too far into kiddie territory for my taste. All the prequels and sequels and spinoffs, while some are entertaining, are basically irrelevant to me. Star Wars was really amazing for its time. Now it's just another stale, dying franchise they will try to "force" (heh heh) down our throats. Haters can hate on me now.
Simply speaking: the original film was heavily based on mythological stories that are prevalent all over the world, hence why it single-handedly was internationally appealing to so many, as it was using basic mythos of the 'mono-myth'. All humans find it internally appealing, and this is why the current crop of films are utter disaster-wrecks, and why the prequels are unsatisfying. The people working at Lucasfilm now, have no understanding of what mythology is, and seem to be doing what the people at CBS are doing: applying the same logic you would apply to a generic sci-fi story, and just putting a Star Trek/Star Wars label on it - believing it will tick the box. No understanding on what the mythology of Star Wars is, will lower and reduce the impact of any stories you want to tell. THIS IS WHY: I have been a stalwart dis-supporter of the new Star Trek Discovery, as you could just change the name of the ship and show, and just call it "sci-fi weekly show" and it would have the exact same lack of impact. I have found the current crop of Star Wars movies to be completely unappealing, as (again) you could change the name of the films and characters and call it "sci-fi movie", and it would have the same impact. In any event, this is a Star Wars spam thread, and would be happy to discuss mythology. On my bookshelf: Spoiler
Yeah I read that and one of his other books back in the 80s after I'd read another "ponderous tome" entitled The Golden Bough. That one is pretty exhaustive in its examples. The version I had was close to 5 inches thick, and that was an abridged edition. Apparently the original ran 12 full volumes, IIRC. I didn't get there through Star Wars, though. The musical group The Doors used to play a song called Not to Touch the Earth, which is the title of one of the chapters in The Golden Bough, which led me to it. Then I was talking about it to a hippie friend of mine (well, more a hermit than a hippie) and he led me to Joseph Campbell. This knowledge later allowed me to hook up by impressing a college chick who was taking comparative religion as one of her subjects. So hats off to Joseph Campbell and company!
I can also recommend these books: Spoiler Very interesting reading and kinda 'required reading' at college for creative writing, but uncovers the structure of 'story' extremely well. Fun novelisation I've had since the 80's, good fun stuff. The original 'shooting script'. Very very very interesting behind the scenes of the movie. If not for you, a great gift in the run up to the holidays. More college required reading stuff, but a book I picked up in the 90's as a creative guide to structure of story very much like Robert McKee, but the sort of thing you can put in your back pocket. As Star Wars used a lot of mythology, you will find synergy in these books and have a broader understanding of mythology in visual representation and how the structure of story is based on mythology. A book which is on my list for this year is: Spoiler And his other book on a similar and perhaps, more related topic to mythology: Spoiler Phew, I think that will keep you busy until 'The Rise of Skywalker' comes out and proves me right on the lack of understanding on mythology at Lucasfilm Ltd. I hope I'm wrong. I hope.
I think J.J. Abrams and Michael Bay need these books a lot worse than I do (not to mention David Beniof and D.B. Weiss) I think I'll check out those Stephen Fry books, though. He's a pretty astute fellow.
Well, I kind of agree but the universe itself has a lot of potential. This was perfectly clear when playing SW VR on some oculus that my friend has. You'll never get as close to living in their galaxy than this, no movie can compete.
