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To celebrate the release of Seth MacFarlane's riotously funny Star Wars spoof, Family Guy Presents Blue Harvest, available now to add to your list, Blockbuster.co.uk's Marshall Julius explores the origins of George Lucas's mighty franchise.
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, or more specifically, the summer of '77 in Hollywood, USA, came a film that changed the world and the lives of every nerd within it, myself included, though I and my British brethren had to wait a further seven months before it finally reached our shores. Denied a Star Wars summer, we had a Chewbacca Christmas instead. More of an event than a movie, Star Wars helped usher in the age of the blockbuster, forever raising the bars of marketing, merchandising and audience expectations.
The brainchild of filmmaker George Lucas, the director of baffling highbrow sci-fi thriller THX-1138 (1971), which almost killed his career, and the rather more humane American Graffiti (1973), which saved it, Star Wars was the film he was born to make. It took more than two years to write and, after Lucas finally found a home at 20th Century Fox, £5.5 million to make. Chicken feed by today's standards but much more than the studio had hoped to spend on a film that most of its executives expected to flop.
They were not alone. Few seemed to take the project seriously, as no one but George could picture the end result. As far as the majority of the cast and crew were concerned, not to mention the nervous execs whose constant interference drove Lucas to distraction, they were making a silly little film with laughable visuals that no one would see. Certainly Lucas's homegrown FX factory, dubbed Industrial Light & Magic, did little at first to assuage their fears, producing clunky effects that were all rejected by George. But then, they were in the position of having to invent the technology needed to make the movie, so teething problems were only to be expected. Eventually, they cracked it, but it took about half the movie's budget to get there.
Principal photography ran no more smoothly, particularly during the Tunisian shoot. On the first day of filming, the country experienced its first major rainstorm in 50 years, while days later a fierce sandstorm destroyed many of the sets. These acts of God aside, Lucas's introverted nature rubbed up many of the cast the wrong way, restricting his direction to muttering "faster" or "more intense". Stricken by laryngitis for a spell, Lucas was handed a board with those three words painted on it, and his directing style remained unaffected.
Even after the film's completion, with John Williams' rousing score and ILM's eye-popping effects in place, Fox remained so certain it was going to tank that they came within days of selling their stake as a tax shelter. Encouraged by unexpectedly positive audience feedback at a test screening, they changed their minds, and ultimately the profits saved the studio from bankruptcy.
By November 1977, Star Wars dethroned Jaws (1975) as the all-time box office champion, and today ranks as the 16th most successful movie of all time, with worldwide box office takings falling just shy of £400 million. The biggest profits, though, came from merchandising, and that's where Lucas made most of his money, having snapped up 40% of the merchandising rights from the studio. Between Star Wars, its sequels, prequels, TV spin-offs, DVDs, books, toys, clothes and all the other stuff we're so familiar with today, Lucas's baby has pulled in more than £10 billion, netting its creator a personal fortune of £1.8 billion, making him the 243rd richest man in the world.
Special effects blockbusters may be commonplace today, but in 1977, Star Wars was the most amazing thing that anyone had ever seen. Yet as thrilled as everyone was with it, Lucas remained unsatisfied, even embarrassed, determined to one day return to the film and fix what he saw as its mistakes. Released in 1997, the Star Wars Special Edition polished up the effects with computer assistance and, more ominously, changed details of the movie to make it more politically correct.
Regardless of the dramas and disappointments that followed the original theatrical release, Star Wars ( Episode IV: A New Hope) holds a special place in the hearts of fans, and with the original theatrical edition available on DVD, even Gen X obsessives like myself are finally happy. Star Wars also represents the most important job most of the cast has ever done, not counting Harrison Ford, of course, but those on the convention circuit will no doubt have bought autographs from the likes of Dave Prowse (Darth Vader), Anthony Daniels (C-3PO) and Kenny Baker (R2-D2).
Thirty years from now, we'll still be talking about Star Wars, and honouring those who had anything to do with it. It's a film that will survive the test of time. A film so strong it even survived the man who made it. May the Force be with you all.
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