A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

In March of 1992, Lucasfilm Ltd., Paramount Television, and ABC Television gave viewers the first episode of  The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles , a series which explored the formative years of Henry Jones, Jr. a few decades before the events depicted in the  Indiana Jones Trilogy . Part  Indy  prequel, part history lesson, this was one of the rare television projects personally overseen by George Lucas, and it was intended to entertain fans of the archaeologist/adventurer while at the same time introducing many of them to important persons with whom a young Indy might have interacted with as he followed his father, Professor Henry Jones, Sr., and mother Anna on a global lecture tour as a ten-year-old, then later getting into more Indy-like situations during World War I and the post-war Jazz Age. The idea of Lucas' fictional hero interacting with real historical characters wasn't new; in 1989's  Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade , the Man with the Hat ...

 Under the evil gaze of Emperor Palpatine, the lightsabers of two Jedi Knights - a father and son - clash furiously in a final duel between the light side and dark side of the Force. Slowly, the young Skywalker is lured closer to the rage of the dark side, and Palpatine sits confident of the Rebellion's defeat and the acquisition of a new emissary to fulfill his evil legacy! But the young Jedi's resistance appears to be growing... -Hasbro Star Wars: The Power of the Force Final Jedi Duel Even as the Battle of Endor is raging in the cold, star-speckled blackness of space -- its explosions visible through the panels of the transaparisteel window of the Emperor's throne room -- a far more climactic and destiny-changing battle is being fought in the dark and austere chamber at the top of the second Death Star's observation power.  It's the ultimate confrontation in the Classic Star Wars trilogy -- the clash of lightsabers and wills between the Jedi-turned-Sit...

On September 18, 2012, almost a year after Lucasfilm Limited (LFL) and 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment released Star Wars: The Complete Saga on Blu-ray, LFL and Paramount Pictures released Indiana Jones: The Complete Adventures, a five-disc box set which, for the first time ever, includes all four Indy films in the Blu-ray format. Like its Star Wars counterpart, Indiana Jones: The Complete Adventures features each of the George Lucas-produced, Steven Spielberg films ( Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade , and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull ) on its own Blu-ray disc, along with a fifth disc which contains a mix of all-new extra features and "carryovers" from the 2003 and 2008 DVD sets. I've been a fan of "the Man in the Hat" since Raiders was released in June of 1981, and even though I already own the four films of the series and the three Adventures of Young Indiana Jone...

© 2005 Sony Classical and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL) One of the nicest things about Sony Classical's soundtrack album from  Star Wars - Episode III: Revenge of the Sith  is the bonus DVD that comes with the CD. Titled  Star Wars: A Musical Journey , this is a magnificent collection of 16 music videos that span the entire six-Episode saga. The Prequels' four major themes ( Duel of the Fates, Anakin's Theme, Across the Stars [Love Theme from Attack of the Clones),  and  Battle of the Heroes ) underscore beautifully edited montages from the 1999-2005 trilogy, while action/setting cues and major themes from the Classic Trilogy feature scenes from all six  Star Wars  films to follow the Skywalker family's pivotal role in the rise and fall of the Galactic Empire.  Photo: Courtesy of Marc Van Heuckelom. Of all the film series that feature classical-styled scores, George Lucas's  Star Wars  saga (which he personally calls  The T...

To: Mace Neufeld, Harvey Bernhard, Robert J. Anderson and Brian Taggert From: Perplexed Film Viewer Re:  Omen IV: The Awakening Gentlemen, As someone who has been watching and reviewing movies for a very long time, I am well aware of the film industry's true nature, i.e., that film studios and television networks' main focus is to make money for their corporate owners' stockholders - any real entertainment value of the projects that get "green-lit" is purely incidental. Because most businesspeople tend to be very conservative and risk-adverse, it's therefore not surprising that studios and producers are attracted to sequels, prequels and franchises, even when a film - such as  The Omen ­  is intended to be a stand-alone viewing experience and isn't - like the first two  Superman  movies - part of an organic multi-episode series. Franchises, when they succeed, often result in big payoffs for everyone involved in their creation; George Lucas, Stev...

Although the average film-goer may not be aware of this, some of Hollywood’s best films are often inspired by movies made in other countries, such as those directed by Japan’s Akira Kurosawa, whose  Rashomon, The Hidden Fortress  and  Yojimbo  inspired American films such as  The Outrage, Star Wars  and  Last Man Standing.  (Kurosawa’s  Yojimbo,  in particular, was also the somewhat controversial template for Sergio Leone’s  A Fistful of Dollars , but  Last Man Standing  is an officially sanctioned remake.)  Perhaps one of the most popular Americanized remakes of a Kurosawa “Easterner” is 1960’s  The Magnificent Seven,  a Western written by William Roberts and officially acknowledged (in the main title sequence) as being inspired by Toho Films’  Seven Samurai  (1954)   .  That  Seven Samurai  could be adapted fairly easily from a film set in a medieval Japanese setting ...