After watching a video called Everything is a Remix: Part Two by Kirby Ferguson, it is clear that without previous events, movies, books, tv shows, plays, etc. many of the like would not exist. One great example of this is the Star Wars series.
To quote Kirby Ferguson, “Star Wars endures as a work of impressive imagination, but many of its individual components are as recognizable as the samples in a remix.” The truth of this quote is proven as the video continues, and Ferguson states a countless number of other movies and books that existed at the time when George Lucas was creating Star Wars. The whole idea of Star Wars was based on a novel called The Hero With A Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell who popularized the structures of myth in his novel. It also follows the basic framework of The Monomyth on several stages throughout the series. More large-scale influences for Star Wars included the Flash Gordon serials (1930s) and the Japanese director Akira Kurosawa, who gave Star Wars some major staples, including its opening title design, and several important scenes in the movies.
Star Wars was also owes quite a lot of its features to war films and westerns. For example, the scene where Luke finds that his family has been obliterated somewhat mirrors a scene from The Searchers. Also, the scene where Han Solo shoots Rido appears to closely resemble a scene from The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. Another scene which was taken from other films was the air strikes from the run in the Death Star. Similar scenes occurred in other films, including: Dambusters (1955), 633 Squadron (1964), and The Bridges at Toko-Ri (1954). Even some of the existing shots from these films were used as templates for the special effects in Star Wars. To complete his argument that Star Wars was indeed a remix of other movies, he describes staple scenes, such as “grab the girl and swing,” a holographic projection, and a rally. These scenes were derived from The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1968), Forbidden Planet (1956), and Triumph of the Will (1935). Even some of the beloved characters from Star Wars were not original to George Lucas. C-3PO was adapted from a tin woman in Metropolis (1927) and R2-D2 was inspired by the robots in Silent Running (1972).
According to Ferguson, “Creation requires influence.” The perfect way to sum up his argument for Star Wars being a remix of a number of other films. I think that George Lucas was very good at taking something that already existed, and transforming and recombining it to make something the masses would love even more than they did in the movies that preceded Star Wars. I believe that for something to be considered as not “ripping off” another original, it should look somewhat familiar, but not enough so that the audience would remember it exactly from somewhere else they’d seen it.
Examples of other movies and books being used in Star Wars contributed by Kirby Ferguson’s video, Everything is a Remix: Part Two. https://vimeo.com/19447662
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