Star Wars: An Intergalactic Joyride :: essays research papers fc

Star Wars An Intergalactic Joyride"Star Wars" is the highest grossing submit of all time. It is also one ofmy favorites. It was released in May 1977 and re-released in a restored and raise Special Edition just last month. There are many different criteria thatcan be used to describe Star Wars appeal. Gary Arnold and Edward Rothstein,two movie critics who had the opportunity to review this great movie, explainits appeal in very much the same way. There is a difference though. Arnoldreviewed the original Star Wars 20 years ago and Rothstein reviewed therecent Special Edition. While they reviewed slightly different versions, theyboth came to the conclusion that Star Wars is a great movie based on similarcriteria. They judged Star Wars on its ability to draw on classic styles andtimeless stories to create something mod and absolutely original.     The main factor in both of their positive reviews is the skill of writerand director George Lucas to blend th e old with the new. They were bothimpressed with his miraculously fresh configuration of many different themesfrom classic film and mythic origin into a cohesive and entertaining movie. Hehas achieved a witty and exhilarating synthesis of themes and cliches from theFlash Gordon and Buck Rogers comics and serials, plus such cogitate but lessexpected sources as the western, the pirate melodrama, the aerial combatmelodrama and the samurai epic. The movies irresistible stylistic charmderives from the fact that Lucas can draw upon a salmagundi of action-moviesources with unfailing deftness and humor. He is in superlative command of hisown movie-nurtured fantasy life. Gary Arnold, Washington Post Staff WriterMr. Rothstein along the same lines as Mr. Arnold, mentions that the plot lineof Star Wars follows the mythic archetechture outlined by Joseph Campbell in hisstudy of myth, "The Hero with a Thousand Faces," which has influenced Mr.Lucas.Another aspect, unique to Rothsteins rev iew of the new Special Edition butnot quite different from Arnolds assessment, is the way in which the moviecelebrates the past and not the future. This aspect of Star Wars, Rothsteinsays, is what screams out in opposition to the high-budget, high-tech, special-effect spectaculars that it (Star Wars) spawned. This is where, Rothstein says,that Star Wars gets its authenticity. The whimsical ramshackleness is actuallymeant to be a sign of the heroes authenticity what is older is more powerful...technology, when it appears in Star Wars, is evil, ghastly, massive andbrutish..." modernistic" invention is most evident in the space ships of the evil