What Would Cinema Be Like If Star Wars Had Never Been Made ?

[BAYLOR]

Who did different do you think movies would be today had George Lucas never done Star Wars at all?

 

[Harpo]

Firstly, he had already done THX1138, which inspired Stephen Spielberg. So we’d still have Close Encounters and so on.
And Lucas would have made other films instead of Star Wars.

 

[JunkMonkey]

Better.

 

[paranoid marvin]

It's quite possible that with Star Wars, we wouldn't have had Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones.

 

[KGeo777]

The blockbuster would still have happened.
Flash Gordon was going to happen anyway.

The question is--what sort of visual effects innovation would have happened if Lucas was not so actively searching for it. If ILM had never existed.

 

[Robert Zwilling]

Star Trek might have either been less competitive or more inclusive of Star Wars material.

 

[paranoid marvin]

I don't think Wrath of Khan would have been made, or at least not in that way. And it's quite possible that we wouldn't have had Last Starfighter or Battle Beyond the Stars. Which would have been a shame.

 

[BAYLOR]

I don't think Wrath of Khan would have been made, or at least not in that way. And it's quite possible that we wouldn't have had Last Starfighter or Battle Beyond the Stars. Which would have been a shame.

Or Star Crash which would have deprived us of it's Ground breaking 1950's cutting edge special effects ,editing and dazzling cinematography . It would havre also deprived the acting world of Caroline Munro Oscar winning proformace as Stella Star. Sadly Christopher Plummer failed to win supporting actor in this one.

And were it not for Star Wars , we wouldn't have gotten that other great cinema classic space opera Message from Space.

 

[BAYLOR]

I think Star Wars not being around would mean we might not have gotten shows like Star Trek the Next Generation ,and the subsequent spinoffs series, or Babylon 5, Stargate , or Ron Moores Battlestar Galactica act.

 

[paranoid marvin]

It's dificult to over-estimate just how influential and ground breaking Star Wars was. Fathers wpuld take their sons to tje cinema to watch it, then both would come out with their jaws almost scraping the floor. Then join the queue to buy tickets to watch it again.

The music, the scrolling text, that Star Destroyer, Darth Vader, the Death Star; wonder after wonder.

It created a new religion; it even changed some people's lives forever. Almost 50 years on people are still discussing it, going to conventions, cosplaying, buying the toys and reliving their youth.

Because it was special in a way that no movie had been before, or probably will ever be in the future. It opened their hearts, their minds, and made them see science fiction for the spectacle it had always promised to be. And that promised had been fulfilled.

 

[BAYLOR]

It's dificult to over-estimate just how influential and ground breaking Star Wars was. Fathers wpuld take their sons to tje cinema to watch it, then both would come out with their jaws almost scraping the floor. Then join the queue to buy tickets to watch it again.

The music, the scrolling text, that Star Destroyer, Darth Vader, the Death Star; wonder after wonder.

It created a new religion; it even changed some people's lives forever. Almost 50 years on people are still discussing it, going to conventions, cosplaying, buying the toys and reliving their youth.

Because it was special in a way that no movie had been before, or probably will ever be in the future. It opened their hearts, their minds, and made them see science fiction for the spectacle it had always promised to be. And that promised had been fulfilled.

Before Star Wars science fiction was not a big money maker genre for movie companies. Star Wars changed that.

 

[paranoid marvin]

Before Star Wars science fiction was not a big money maker genre for movie companies. Star Wars changed that.

As we saw with the raft of scifi movies that followed: some great, most awful.

Before SW, most sci fi movies usually involved aliens attacking Earth. Pretty much all involved Humans and Earth, and most were set in the future.

Star Wars had no humans, no Earth, and was not set in the future but in the distant past. It was unique on so many levels.

And it was pretty much the antithethis of 2001. If Kubrik's masterpiece was like listening to classical music in the tranquility of your home, Star Wars was like going to a Meatloaf concert.

 

[wazz]

Maybe no marvel

Perhaps Dune by Jodorowsky becomes the first big sci-fi project, and sci-fi has to wait for its popularity but when it hits it hits on a more intellectual level and it doesn't get comic-book-ised

 

[KGeo777]

Superman would have still been a hit and it was already filmed before Star Wars came out.

It was too difficult to imitate the design and visuals of Star Wars--so all the copycats--especially Battlestar Galactica which had the most advantage since it hired Ralph McQuarrie and John Dykstra--still put the focus on character interplay rather than action scenes.

It couldn't imitate the action choreography. And it couldn't provide the same kind of fantasy immersion.

Likewise with Raiders of the Lost Ark, all the rip offs could not match the stunts or the ILM fx.
It was simply out of reach because in the days before digital involvement, very few could provide the kind of visuals (and sound design).

 

[paranoid marvin]

Superman would have still been a hit and it was already filmed before Star Wars came out.

It was too difficult to imitate the design and visuals of Star Wars--so all the copycats--especially Battlestar Galactica which had the most advantage since it hired Ralph McQuarrie and John Dykstra--still put the focus on character interplay rather than action scenes.

It couldn't imitate the action choreography. And it couldn't provide the same kind of fantasy immersion.

Likewise with Raiders of the Lost Ark, all the rip offs could not match the stunts or the ILM fx.
It was simply out of reach because in the days before digital involvement, very few could provide the kind of visuals (and sound design).

I went to a Star Wars exhibition a few years ago in London. The models uses for the movie are astonishingly detailed.

 

[BAYLOR]

In 1977 I was 15 years old My Sister and Brother in law took me to see it. I was blown away by what I saw. It was likens science fiction that I' d ever seen before, It was amazing and kept me hooked from. opening scene to ethe nd when the pinned. the medals on Luke, Han and Chewbacca after they took out the Death Star. But one thing I didn't do was go back and see it multiple time, that wouldrioed it for mer , Seeing that once in the theater made it special. I didn't see it again until it was first broadcasted on tv. It didn't quite have original magic but it still entertained me.

 

[BAYLOR]

Maybe no marvel

Perhaps Dune by Jodorowsky becomes the first big sci-fi project, and sci-fi has to wait for its popularity but when it hits it hits on a more intellectual level and it doesn't get comic-book-ised

I'd like to have seen that version Dune.

 

[Rodders]

I went to a Star Wars exhibition a few years ago in London. The models uses for the movie are astonishingly detailed.

I remember that. Great exhibition. I intend to visit the museum in Tenby which is where they built the full size Millennium Falcon for the Star Wars movie. There's a permenant exhibition there.

As for Star Wars, as much as i love it, i think something else would've taken it's place had it not been made. I mean, there was a great slew of great directors making their mark at the time.

I would argue that the biggest cultural impact would not necessarily have been the cinema, but in toys and merchandising.

 

[CupofJoe]

I doubt Alien would have got made. Or if it did would have looked far prettier. There is an interviews with Ridley Scott where he says that on watching Star Wars he knew what spaceships should look like. All used and lived in.

 

[wazz]

I doubt Alien would have got made. Or if it did would have looked far prettier. There is an interviews with Ridley Scott where he says that on watching Star Wars he knew what spaceships should look like. All used and lived in.

Alien also drew a lot of inspiration from Jodorowsky's Dune which had a very colourful take on how spaceships would appear. Maybe instead of 50 years of dry, grey shapes we could have had some mind-bendingly fun colours as the default.

Yes, that is Salvador Dali as the emperor, and Orson Welles as Vladimir Harkkonen. Pink Floyd were going to write an original score for it. One of the greatest films never made! And inspired, behind the scenes much of our imagery in scifi - HR Giger actually worked on it himself and replicated a lot of his models in Alien. So, I'd argue that Alien has far more of its DNA in this than star wars.