Star Wars Analysis

In this essay analysis I will be looking at the Japanese influence on the Star Wars saga, looking at the similarities between certain films mostly made by Akira Kurosawa and a few others. I will also look at the cultural and social aspects of the time leading up to, and after the creation of Star Wars as well as the cultural and social impacts of the Star Wars saga. I personally find this topic very interesting due to some of the stark similarities between some of Akira Kurosawa’s work and George Lucas's Star Wars and I hope to show them in this report.

In 1910 Japan Arika’s father Isamu, a school teacher decided to start taking his son to see American Westerns like John Ford films instead of Japanese films. Isamu was open to western

After an argument the two characters part ways only to captured and reunited. They are made aware of a princess being hunted by an evil empire, and they become helpers of the Samurai general Makabe who is working to get the Princess through enemy lines to safety. She is headstrong, independent, and is heartbroken at the destruction of her people. During their travels Makabe is able to misdirect and outsmart his enemies with ease. The general must face a former friend in single combat, he wins but spares his enemies life who later returns badly scared. He has a chance for redemption and helps the heroes in the end. Outside the story and characters the film making techniques are very similar including the use of similar shot composition and blocking. It’s easy to see the similarities between the Star Wars films and Hidden fortress throughout the saga, even when including the prequel

Before Star Wars special effects hadn’t advanced much since the 1950’s. Star Wars also helped start the movement of computer generated imagery. The commercial success of Star Wars created a boom in state of the art special effects in the late 1970’s with companies like Industrial light and magic being created to provide them. This ultimately kick started the widespread use of digital special effects as can be seen in later films like Spielberg's “Jurassic Park”, a film that Industrial light and magic brought to life with their groundbreaking advancements in CGI. The 1977 Star Wars pioneered the genre pastiche, where several classic film genres are combined in one film. In Star Wars, the genres were science fiction, the Western, the war film, and the quasi-mystical