A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

© 1977 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation  Star Wars  (as the film originally was titled) underwent many story changes from 1973 (when George Lucas first had to come up with his own space fantasy after Universal Pictures denied him permission to make a film version of  Flash Gordon ) all the way to 1976 (which is when principal photography began). Lucas went through four drafts of the  Star Wars  script before filming began, and in most of them, Ben (Obi-Wan) Kenobi survived and escaped from the Death Star with Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Han Solo, Chewbacca, C-3PO, and R2-D2. Up until the fourth unrevised draft, Ben lived on and stood by Leia’s side in the Rebel base during the climactic Battle of Yavin. However, Lucas (and perhaps even Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz, the writers of the  American Graffiti  screenplay and uncredited script doctors for  Star Wars ) ,  realized that after having established that Obi-Wan was not onl...

(C) 1977 20th Century Fox Film Corporation It's been over 40 years since George Lucas ( THX 1138, American Graffiti ) first shared Star Wars with millions of awestruck moviegoers in the late spring of 1977. Both the director and the studio executives at 20th Century Fox thought they'd have a modestly successful sci-fi fantasy film with "just okay" box office receipts. Instead, bucking their logic and lowered expectations, Star Wars became not only the biggest hit of its time, but it also launched both a multi-movie series and a huge merchandising/multimedia "empire" that made millions for the shy, unassuming USC film school graduate from Modesto, California. Star Wars (later renamed Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope ) begins with one of the most stunning opening scenes in movie history: After the 20th Century Fox Fanfare and a moment of silence for the "a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away" card, the Star Wars logo appears with t...

I don’t know if anyone reading this remembers Connections, a British TV import hosted by the congenial writer and commentator James Burke that was broadcast here in the U.S. by the Public Broadcasting System in the early 1980s. This 10-part miniseries explored the intricate and seemingly strange connections between individual scientific discoveries and simple inventions.  It also showed how those links forged the chain of our modern technological society.   Considering its theme and scope, Connections could have been about as exciting as watching paint dry, but Burke’s wit and effervescence made it both fascinating and indelible. I mention this seemingly irrelevant tidbit because after I watched that series while I was in high school, I became more aware that history and historical events don’t just “happen” and leave no lasting legacy.  After all, if this were the case, there would have been no Second World War 21 years after the end of the First World ...

World War II, for good or ill, has been the backdrop for hundreds – if not thousands – of movies produced by all the nations which participated in it even as it was being waged. Of course, though “combat” films along the lines of A Walk in the Sun, Battleground, The Longest Day and Saving Private Ryan often come to mind when the term World War II movie is mentioned, the genre actually straddles quite a few other film styles that aren’t restricted to movies about battles, campaigns or the hardware of the war.  Many love stories, dramas, comedies and even science fiction films have been set or partially set during World War II. Naturally, the sheer scope of World War II – fought on three continents and involving millions of combatants – and its more or less unambiguous “good versus evil” nature resulted in the near-mythologizing of certain events by Hollywood and writers of fiction. One of the most popular subgenres of World War II films is the “sabotage and comman...