Star Wars: An Intergalactic Joyride

Term Paper Title	Star Wars: An Intergalactic Joyride
# of Words	629
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)	2.52

Star Wars: An Intergalactic Joyride

     "Star Wars" is the highest grossing movie of all time.  It is also one of
my favorites.  It was released in May 1977 and re-released in a restored and
enhanced Special Edition just last month. There are many different criteria that
can be used to describe �Star Wars' appeal.  Gary Arnold and Edward Rothstein,
two movie critics who had the opportunity to review this great movie, explain
its appeal in very much the same way.  There is a difference though. Arnold
reviewed the original �Star Wars' twenty years ago and Rothstein reviewed the
recent Special Edition.  While they reviewed slightly different versions, they
both came to the conclusion that Star Wars is a great movie based on similar
criteria.  They judged �Star Wars' on its ability to draw on classic styles and
timeless stories to create something new and absolutely original.
     The main factor in both of their positive reviews is the skill of writer
and director George Lucas to blend the old with the new.  They were both
impressed with his miraculously fresh configuration of many different themes
from classic film and mythic origin into a cohesive and entertaining movie. He
has achieved a witty and exhilarating synthesis of themes and cliches from the
Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers comics and serials, plus such related but less
expected sources as the western, the pirate melodrama, the aerial combat
melodrama and the samurai epic.  The movie's irresistible stylistic charm
derives from the fact that Lucas can draw upon a variety  of action-movie
sources with unfailing deftness and humor. He is in superlative command of his
own movie-nurtured fantasy life. Gary Arnold, Washington Post Staff Writer
Mr. Rothstein along the same lines as Mr. Arnold, mentions that �the plot line
of Star Wars follows the mythic archetechture outlined by Joseph Campbell in his
study of myth, "The Hero with a Thousand Faces," which has influenced Mr.
Lucas.'
     Another aspect, unique to Rothstein's review of the new Spec...

Read entire document