It’s easy to underplay just how monumental “Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope” was at the time of its original theatrical release in 1977. George Lucas’ decision to keep the licensing and merchandising rights for the film resulted in a multi-billion-dollar lesson for every studio in Hollywood, while the special effects pioneered by the movie paved the way for the VFX industry we have today. It’s also, quite simply, a very good film that combines an eclectic collection of influences to deliver a hugely entertaining space opera with the flair of Westerns and samurai flicks.
Still, while “Star Wars” is typically counted amongst the best sci-fi movies of all time (including by us here at /Film!), Lucas doesn’t entirely consider it a sci-fi film. In a 1977 interview with Rolling Stone, he even described the movie as being closer to a Western than, specifically, Stanley Kubrick’s classic 1968 sci-fi saga “2001: A Space Odyssey.” As Lucas put it:
“I am fairly pleased that they haven’t compared it that much to ‘2001.’ Actually, it is being compared more to Westerns than ‘2001,’ which is really what it should be. On a technical level, it can be compared, but personally, I think that ‘2001’ is far superior.”
But Lucas wasn’t merely being coy about his admiration for Kubrick’s movie, he was being practical about the stark differences between the two films. “You know, it had 10 times more money and time, and obviously, it came out better. In special effects, one of the key elements is time and money,” he continued. “Most of those special effects in ‘Star Wars’ were first-time special effects — we shot them, we composited them, and they’re in the movie.”
George Lucas is a big fan of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey
It’s neither news nor a surprise that George Lucas has always admired Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey.” After all, Lucas originally went to Douglas Trumbull, who had done the visual effects for Kubrick’s film, to work on “Star Wars.” However, it was only after Trumbull passed on the project that he recommended John Dykstra instead. This resulted in a collaboration that changed the special effects industry forever, as Dykstra pioneered a motion control camera that allowed Lucas to pull off the climactic Death Star trench run in “Star Wars.”
But it wasn’t just Trumbull that he tried to recruit from the crew behind Kubrick’s film. In fact, Lucas’ first choice of cinematographer for “Star Wars” was “2001” director of photography Geoffrey Unsworth, who seemed like an ideal pick to capture the documentary feel that Lucas wanted while at the same time being able to handle the movie’s visual effects demands. And when Unsworth declined the offer, Lucas ended up going with a different Kubrick cinematographer in the form of Gilbert Taylor (who had worked on “Dr. Strangelove”).
Yet again, this creative decision proved essential to making “Star Wars” as unique and effective as it is. Indeed, Taylor managed to ground the movie’s operatic spectacle, at times creating a fly-on-the-wall visual sensibility. It makes it seem as though you’re not just watching some grand fairy tale set in space but real events that happened a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away.