The Hidden Fortress // Star Wars

It's still the season for Star Wars documentaries. Here's a quick one showing the original Japanese story.

Here's the trailer for The Hidden Fortress.

And here's the George Lucas interview quoted in that video.

Here's a Star Wars vs. The Hidden Fortress mashup.

Just to round things off, here's a mashup of The Hidden Fortress (1958) with the music of Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015).

Bohemian Rhapsody: Star Wars Edition

Based on Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen and Star Wars, this video mashup was produced by the students and faculty of the Digital Video Program at University of Advancing Technology in Tempe, Arizona, way back in 2013. This just seems to be the right time to look at it again.

Hidden Meaning of Star Wars

Okay, there's this new film out, a revisit to a 1977 movie with Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher and that other guy. To celebrate the occasion, here's a study of the hidden meanings of the original film, as explained by Garyx Wormuloid.

4 Rules to Make Star Wars Great Again

With the script for a new episode now in the hands of J.J. Abrams, the fans have started demanding that the story be returned to its roots.

Here's one such demand.

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"The Star Wars that I Used to Know"

We've all thought it: What happened to the Star Wars that I used to know? Now the question has been set to the music of Gotye, by Eddie King and Tyler Marshall of Teddie Films.

The parody tackles the most recent fan outrage, where a Star Wars: Episode IV scene was altered for the Blu-ray edition to show Han Solo shooting the alien Greedo only after first being fired upon. (In the original, Han fired the first shot, which many fans said was important to establishing his roguish character.)

You didn't have to change it all.
No more puppets, no more practical effects or nothin'
I don't even need your love
But you treat me like a wampa and that feels so cold.
No you didn't have to sell your soul
Do we really need to watch them all again in 3D?
Jar Jar was an all time low
What happened to the Star Wars that I used to know

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Just for comparison, here's the original Gotye version of the song.

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'Star Wars' dialogue and the vernacular

 How many of these lines do you NOT recognise?

 Origin unknown.

"Star Wars - Fantasy Football Draft"

Why should George Lucas Inc. restrict themselves to multi-million dollar movies? 

No reason at all. And so we find the Empire invading the humble world of web-television, via the Star Wars Channel of YouTube.

Some of it is funny. Like this...

And some of it is hard sell. Like this...

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The thing you need to know is that some archaeologists are now saying the inspiration for George Lucas's Star Wars may have been the Grocery Store Wars. Judge for yourself.

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Star Wars, Cello, and the Darth Vader accordion...

I couldn't resist this. Cello Wars by Al van der Beek and Steven Sharp Nelson of The Piano Guys.

Cello Wars took seventy days to make. That's more than 7,000 frames, 24 hours filming in front of a green screen, 72 audio tracks, a ton of props and costumes, several broken bows and strings, and over 1,000 hours of editing and rendering.

Tel Stewart edited every single frame in order to make the light sabers work (a total of over 7,000 frames).

Original music composed by John Williams. This arrangement written and produced by Al van der Beek & Steven Sharp Nelson.

    Steven Sharp Nelson: Electric Cellos/Vocals/Percussion (Jedi/Sith).
    Al van der Beek: Vocals/percussion (Darth Vader).
    Paul Anderson: Chewbacca.
    Costume design by Alison Morris. 

Now turn up the volume and listen to this!

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Terry Rossio, "Seven Samurai" and "Star Wars"

Back in the mid-90s, when I first became interested in screenwriting, the one source of information I stumbled across was Terry Rossio's Wordplay columns. At the time, I worked in desktop publishing for the Department of Defence at DSTO, Salisbury. I spent all day, every day, working with PageMaker. So it was natural for me to copy the Wordplay columns into PageMaker and turn them into a convenient-sized book. 

I lugged that homemade paperback around with me for ages, read it cover-to-cover at least three times, and was inspired, exhilarated and intimidated. [I went looking for it a few weeks ago, but couldn't find it. Probably the victim of some well-intentioned clean-up.]

I would like to take this opportunity to give a big shout-out of gratitude to Terry Rossio. Man, your columns kept me going. I grew up in a Housing Commission estate in the bush, a place where no one expected us to do much more than the occasional stint in prison. I avoided that option, but (until I moved far away) never hinted to anyone that I wanted to write. So, thank you for your encouragement. I am indebted.

I'm also indebted to a bunch of other wonderful people who share their knowledge on the internet. You can see their blogs listed on the side of this page. Take some time today to check them out; I'm sure you'll learn something.                                                                                                          

Anyway, back to Wordplay. The column I read most often, the one that intimidated me most, was Column 34, Throw in the Towel. It includes a section on "Knowledge," meaning knowledge of the film industry. Terry snaps out a series of questions designed to make the point that most people have, at best, a superficial knowledge of the movies. One of his questions was: 

Quick, George Lucas just asked you to name your favorite Kurosawa film.
 

That shook me. At the time, I knew zip about Akira Kurosawa, but I was determined to learn. A few weeks later Seven Samurai (1954) played at an art house in the city and I was there. Ran (1985), Rashomon (1950), Yojimbo (1961), High and Low (1963), and Dersu Uzala (1975) followed.                                                                                                    
To answer George's question, while I have a sentimental fondness for Seven Samurai (as the first Kurosawa film I ever watched), my real favourite is Yojimbo. I think it's also Hollywood's favourite. It was referenced in The Bodyguard (1992) and Rising Sun (1993), remade with Clint Eastwood as A Fistful of Dollars (1964), remade with Bruce Willis as Last Man Standing(1996), then remade again, with a major remix of the key elements by the Coen Brothers, as Miller's Crossing (1990). It's probably due for another remake about now.

Akira Kurosawa had a big impact on George Lucas and Steven Spielberg. They watched all his movies and later presented him with an honorary Academy Award in 1990. You can watch the presentation here on YouTube. 



One of the things about rewatching old Japanese movies is, you start to notice little details. This is especially true if you're familiar with the adage to "steal like an artist." The following frames are taken from Seven Samurai (1954) and the second Star Wars movie, The Empire Strikes Back (1980).

 
On the left we have Gisaku, the wise old man, who teaches the villagers to use hungry samurai to defeat the bandits. 

 

 
On the right we have Yoda, the wise old Jedi, who teaches Luke Skywalker to use the force to defeat Darth Vader. 
 

 









                
If you learn to steal like an artist, you're going to find yourself in good company.