Why was 'Star Wars' such a ground breaking movie?

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‘Star Wars’- English Coursework

Why was ‘Star Wars’ such a ground breaking movie?

        There are many reason for ‘Star Wars’ being such a ground breaking movie. ‘Star Wars’ is a science fiction film, a science fiction includes new world and civilisations that are discovered and aliens are featured in a lot of science fiction films, the setting of the films are usually set in the future and where the world is in danger. There are some characters that are computer generated and they sue special effects for fighting scenes when they use lasers. These are some of the things that are included in that particular genre.

        The plot of ‘Star Wars’ is simple and easy to understand. The hero Luke Skywalker lives on the planet Tatooine and wants to get off the planet, but his uncle wants him to help for the next harvest. Meanwhile in the galaxy an evil force is destroying planets that gets in its way, the ship is called the Death Star. Princess Leia, the leader of the Rebel alliance sends 2 droids to give a message to Obi-Wan Kenobi to help Princess Leia destroy the Death Star. The droids meet Luke and they find Obi-Wan Kenobi and Luke joins them on their mission. They meet Han Solo who helps them out, they get into the ‘Death Star’ where they find Princess Leia imprisoned and they rescue her and then they try and defeat the ‘Death Star’ with the help of Luke and in the end Han Solo helps Luke and they destroy the ‘Death Star’ and get rewarded.  There are many reason for it being such a ground breaking movie, I will be looking at the many different aspects that made ‘Star Wars’ such a ground breaking movie and how it captured the audience’s imagination.

        The characters are different from other sci-fi movies; the characters follow the 8 basic characters of a fairy tale in Propp’s theory. A man named Vladimir Propp studied fairy tales and found out that the 8 basic characters that is included in many fairy tales are the hero, the villain, the donor, the dispatcher, the false hero, the helper, the princess and the princess’ father. In ‘Star Wars Luke Skywalker plays the hero, Han Solo is the donor because he provides Luke and Obi-Wan Kenobi the space ship, Princess Leia is the princess and also plays the role of her father because she rewards Han Solo and Luke at the end, Obi-Wan Kenobi is also the donor who gives he force to Luke, Darth Vader is the villain who captures the princess and the droids are the dispatcher because R2D2 shows the message to Luke. Propp’s theory is a much more simple way of looking at ‘Star Wars’ as a fairy tale however there is another way but is more complicated than Propp’s theory. The story plot always has a battle between good and evil, the hero becomes a man after leaving home and going on a quest, the hero becomes stronger by wrestling with his conscience and listening to advice from the spiritual leader, the hero rescues an imprisoned princess who is found asleep. ‘Star Wars’ plot fits into all these ingredients that make ‘Star Wars’ a fairy tale story and different from other films. The characters in ‘Star Wars’ are easily recognisable by the audience because it includes the 8 basic characters that make up a fairy tale.

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        In the opening sequence the scene starts off with the Rebel ship being attacked and shows a battle between the stormtroopers and the Rebel guards. In this part of the scene they used special effects for the lasers that are used along with explosions causing the scene to fill with smoke making the tension build up. Here this shows a battle between good and evil and the princess gets captured by Darth Vader. The droids escape to Tatooine with a message for Obi=Wan Kenobi in R2D2. This fits in with Propp’s theory as in this scene shows the villain and ...

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