# Lucas/Tolkien: Haven't I heard this before? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 26, 2002, 9:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lucas-tolkien-havent-i-heard-this-before/120904 "2002-07-26T09:33:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2002, 9:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lucas-tolkien-havent-i-heard-this-before/120904/41 "2002-08-07T09:53:05Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Skeezix \* > \*\ ***Rilch** : Gollum, actually. I was thinking of that whole bit with him leading Frodo and Sam through hell and back, to get to Mt. Doom. > > Looking back at the OP, I guess that one **does** fall into the framework I was thinking at the time. Frodo and Sam pick up Gollum in Two Towers, and Luke and R2 meet Yoda in Ep. 5. And the little green guy talks funny in both of 'em, too. I love it. 😃 \*\* I never pictured Gollum as green, though. He spent years and years in a cave, so he’s more likely to be albino, with smudges of coal dust. (I know I should find the appropriate thread in which to say this, but I’m here already…anyone yet dig the **Two Towers** preview on the **Fellowship** DVD? Looks like they’re doing a brilliant job with Gollum! It’s cool that the same actor supplying his voice is also doing the action for the CGI!) ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2002, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lucas-tolkien-havent-i-heard-this-before/120904/42 "2002-08-08T02:43:18Z")
Number Six writes: \> Much of the plot and several of the characters in Star Wars \> were adapted from the Kurosawa film “The Hidden Fortress”. Perhaps that’s why both SolGrundy and I have already mentioned that movie. But it’s not true that “much of the plot” was based on _The Hidden Fortress_. A little bit of it, yes, but not that much. ---
**Author:** ![mattcolville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/90db22/32.png) [@mattcolville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mattcolville)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2002, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lucas-tolkien-havent-i-heard-this-before/120904/43 "2002-08-08T02:53:43Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by KGS \* > \*\*In all of literature, only 3 original storylines have been created: 1) Boy Meets Girl, 2) The Man Who Learns Better, and 3) The Little Engine That Could. > > Everything else is variations on a theme. \*\* You’re misquoting Robert Heilein who thought the three plots were Boy Meets Girl, Brave Little Tailor, and Learns Better. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Rieux](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Dr.Rieux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Rieux)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2002, 11:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lucas-tolkien-havent-i-heard-this-before/120904/44 "2002-08-08T11:49:40Z")
Endor was mentioned in the Bible long before either Tolkien or Lucas came along. ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2002, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lucas-tolkien-havent-i-heard-this-before/120904/45 "2002-08-08T13:55:57Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Number Six \* > \*\*Much of the plot and several of the characters in Star Wars were adapted from the Kurosawa film “The Hidden Fortress”. \*\* I have just watched the Criterion DVD of _The Hidden Fortress_, which includes an interview with George Lucas. He admits that the early drafts of _Star Wars_ followed Kurosawa’s movie a bit more closely than the final version. However, aside from the idea of a princess that needed protecting (because that’s an original idea :rolleyes: ), just about the only elements left in the final draft was the way the story was told. In both movies, the POV was the two lowliest characters - two down-on-their-luck would-be-warrior peasants in Kurosawa’s case, and the two droids in Lucas’s case. In both movies, they provided the comic relief and larger events would unfold around them, pretty much out of their control. ---
**Author:** ![Skeezix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/839c29/32.png) [@Skeezix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skeezix)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2002, 8:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lucas-tolkien-havent-i-heard-this-before/120904/46 "2002-08-09T08:16:06Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by **Rilchiam** _ > **I never pictured Gollum as green, though. He spent years and years in a cave, so he’s more likely to be albino, with smudges of coal dust.** Yeah, I know it. (Waitaminnit, what coal? :)) And while that _sounds_ plausible enough, I’m a victim of Rankin and Bass. Until December of this year, I’m **still** gonna visualize Gollum as a little green/grey ring chasing booger, who kinda looks more like a frog than an old Hobbit. Well, not literally, but… you know. On a related note, despite Sir Ian’s performance, I also still hear John Huston both as narrator and Gandalf when I read the books. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lucas-tolkien-havent-i-heard-this-before/120904.md?page=2)