# Reexamining Star Wars 50 years later **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [January 19, 2026, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reexamining-star-wars-50-years-later/1026810 "2026-01-19T00:48:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2026, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reexamining-star-wars-50-years-later/1026810/101 "2026-01-20T14:15:33Z")
> [@Dinsdale](#): > > I suppose I could google, but why did the Kylo-Ren guy wear the mask? Just a Vader wannabe? Pretty much, yeah. That’s one thing that I thought the sequels got right: How do you follow up the greatest villain in cinematic history, without making the new guy a pathetic fanboy wannabe? Answer: You don’t. You accept that he’s going to be a pathetic fanboy wannabe. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2026, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reexamining-star-wars-50-years-later/1026810/102 "2026-01-20T14:35:34Z")
> [@Dinsdale](#): > > but why did the Kylo-Ren guy wear the mask? It wasn’t because his face was burned by acid or hot lava or something like that. It’s just they’re terribly comfortable. I think everyone will be wearing them in the future. That, and if you looked like pouty emo Kylo, no one would take you seriously. > [@Chronos](#): > > You accept that he’s going to be a pathetic fanboy wannabe. Just like in The Dark Knight Returns there was a street gang of fanboy wannabes that all wore Nixon masks, are we going to see the future of street gangs wearing blue suits red ties and trump masks? ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2026, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reexamining-star-wars-50-years-later/1026810/103 "2026-01-20T15:02:36Z")
I’ve said before that I think the reason that _Star Wars_ was a huge success and did so well is that it took all the pulp science fiction as a given and portrayed all that mind-blowing stuff naked and unashamedly. For years movie studios had been dabbling in science fiction, but didn’t really want to portray its tropes. I think they were afraid of alienating the vast majority of moviegoers. They didn’t think such off-the-wall stuff would “play in Peoria”. So we got watered-down and dumbed-down fare like _Moon Zero Two_ and _Damnation Alley_, despite the success of the TV show _Star Trek_ (which they took off the air because it was expensive and didn’t do great in the ratings – until someone broke the statistics down and saw that it was doing great in the categories they wanted to reach – young people with money). We’d get something like _Forbidden Planet_ or _2001_ every now and then, but the studios continued to play it safe. Then along came Lucas and made film with all the tropes and the trappings (if not the substance) or all that popular Sci Fi out there – Evil Empires and Rebels, Insterstellar Empires, Robots, Weird-looking aliens, That staple of SF, the Spaceport Bar. Blasters. Hyperspace travel. Weird mental capabilities and cults. Star Wars embraced then all. And he did it with the verve of the old Flash Gordon/Buck Rogers serials. The hell with scientific realism. After the slow pace of Kubrick’s gorgeous _2001_, the rapid-fire serial-based action of Star Wars grabbed you by the lapels and didn’t let go until the end. Lucas cobbled it together from Akira Kurasawa Samurai epics (especially _The Hidden Fortress_, with its proto-C3Po and R2D2, its kick-ass princess and Lovable Rogue), Dr. Doom with a mask that even covered his eyes and a samurai helmet on top, a climax taken from clips from _Squadron 733_ and _the Dam Busters_ (as I pointed out in a long-vanished issue of _Teemings_). I realized when I saw Lucas’ student-film version of _THX 1138_ that he’d used the frequency-shifting noisy radio transmission in that film and copied it to the chatter between the X-wings to give it all an air of versimilitude. He covered it with a coating of dirt to make it look lived-in instead of pristine (as all futures seemed to look until John Carpenter’s _Dark Star_ show us the REAL future) and wrapped it all up like a futuristic fairy tale (“A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away” instead of “Once Upon a Time…”) and everyone was hooked. I watched is seven times in the year it came out. I knew a guy who saw it 39 times in the same period. It played at the Charles Cinema in Boston for a full year unbroken. Then the re-released it to show the trailer for the sequel and everyone rushed back, both to see it and the trailer for _The Empire Strikes Back_. (It was reported that they had to guard the trailer against theft.) This was my evaluation of it at the time. A little later people started seeing the warts in the depiction. Hey, howcum Luke and Han got medals by Chewbacca didn’t? The robots are basically treated like slaves. Why aren’t there any people except white people in this universe? They fixed these things up gradually. Empire got us Lando Calrissian as a rogue who was morally ambiguous and wasn’t not white. Chewy eventually got his due. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2026, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reexamining-star-wars-50-years-later/1026810/104 "2026-01-20T19:45:31Z")
> [@Dinsdale](#): > > Given Lucas’ mania for backstory, isn’t this a pretty glaring oversight? I can’t believe I’ve been aware of/somewhat familiar with this franchise for 50 years, and I had always just sorta assumed she was the “Princess” of whatever body governed the “good guys.” The way everyone referred to her as “the Princess” always made me think it more significant than a minor royal on a minor planet. It’s not just that she was some minor royal on some minor planet. Bael Organa was a big member of the Rebellion, and Leia was fast taking on a leadership role. She was instrumental in transporting the Death Star plans. In fact, they were hoping the Imperials would respect the diplomatic immunity of her vessel as a member of the Galaxtic Senate. Afterwards, she was also the remaining ruler of the destroyed Alderaan and played an honorary role for all the surviving Alderaans (who were in space or in other planets, etc). And as her role in the Rebellion grew, she shed the Princess label and became _General_ Organa. > [@Kent\_Clark](#): > > That’s what kind of movie Star Wars was. Fun. Great fun. Fun with a happy ending. Any attempt to analyze it as sci-fi, or futuristic, or a rip off from Japanese bamboo fighting and the robot from _Metropolis_ completely misses the point. Hey, I love the first two and think Jedi is pretty good. It _is_ fun and about being fun. I’m just an analytical processor, so I overthink a lot of things. To me, the analysis is just an extension of my enjoyment, a way to take part in the universe. I will admit the prequel and sequel trilogies are disappointing. Some of that is because I’m no longer a ten year old. For an example, after Empire and seeing Luke levitating objects, my first thought was why couldn’t he levitate himself? So _my_ Luke Skywalker could fly. Similarly, in Jedi when Luke is being chased by the rancor, he _throws_ a rock to trigger the button. Why didn’t he use the force? I’m sure there are fanwanks that could explain away these inconsistencies. That’s not the point. It amuses me to speculate on variations to the story. > [@LSLGuy](#): > > Lots of what’s wrong w modern entertainment is people demanding more narrative quality, quantity, and consistency than the medium supports. Fair enough. I mean, I’m a fan of the movies, but I only ever read a couple of books - mostly “Splinter of the Mind’s Eye” and the Han Solo one of the same era. I have not gotten an invested in the EU and haven’t tried to follow the tv shows, as good as I hear they are. This is, I guess, a way for me to relive my childhood by digging in to the movies I fell in love with and exploring how _I_ would improve the stories. > [@Kent\_Clark](#): > > So does that make Otto the Autopilot in _Airplane!_ sentient when he reinflated and flew the plane off at the end? Well he does seem to enjoy getting reinflated manually. I would say yes. Airplane is after all a farce. A sentient autopilot is legit. > [@Smapti](#): > > IMO, the greatest flaw in the sequel trilogy is that Disney clearly had no master plan going in and hired three different directors with three wildly different visions for where they wanted the story to go - Absolutely! My head spun trying to follow the plot. > [@Smapti](#): > > Apparently, the script for Treverrow’s Episode IX leaked awhile back. I’m not sure it would have been a great movie, but it sounds a little more interesting than what Abrams came up with. Hard to judge the outcome of something not made, but it does sound superior in a number of ways. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2026, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reexamining-star-wars-50-years-later/1026810/105 "2026-01-20T19:51:25Z")
> [@Irishman](#): > > It’s not just that she was some minor royal on some minor planet. Bael Organa was a big member of the Rebellion, and Leia was fast taking on a leadership role. She was instrumental in transporting the Death Star plans. In fact, they were hoping the Imperials would respect the diplomatic immunity of her vessel as a member of the Galaxtic Senate. > > Afterwards, she was also the remaining ruler of the destroyed Alderaan and played an honorary role for all the surviving Alderaans (who were in space or in other planets, etc). > > And as her role in the Rebellion grew, she shed the Princess label and became _General_ Organa. But, as I noted upthread, all of that was only _implied_, at most, in the actual movie. We SW fans/nerds know all of that, but much of it was established in other sources (novels, comic books, later movies and TV shows, etc.) If all you have to go on (and what @Dinsdale is describing) is that first movie, none of that is necessarily clear. ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2026, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reexamining-star-wars-50-years-later/1026810/106 "2026-01-20T19:52:11Z")
> [@Irishman](#): > > Similarly, in Jedi when Luke is being chased by the rancor, he _throws_ a rock to trigger the button. Why didn’t he use the force? Using the Force requires focus and concentration. Throwing a rock just requires throwing a rock. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2026, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reexamining-star-wars-50-years-later/1026810/107 "2026-01-20T19:57:21Z")
If you only see the movie, then all you know is that she’s a princess, and an important member of the Rebellion. And that’s all you need to know, because it’s a fairy tale, and important princesses are exactly what you expect to find in fairy tales. ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2026, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reexamining-star-wars-50-years-later/1026810/108 "2026-01-20T20:09:38Z")
In hindsight, the brevity of the opening crawl is actually better than I remember. Just from that, we know there’s an Empire and there was a Senate and some kind of rebellion against it. Rebels vs Evil Empire set up quite nicely with general audience knowledge to fill in obvious gaps. We don’t need a lot more information than that to set things up for the first movie. By contrast, the Episode VII crawl was not great - who is the First Order? How are they related to the Empire? There’s a New Republic, I guess? But also some kind of separate Resistance? Who are they and how are they distinct from the Republic? Also, in hindsight, whatever else is true of George Lucas as a director, he’s actually pretty good at filming and editing WWII style dogfights. Between this movie and “Red Tails”, he’s got that stuff locked down, even if inspired or lifted directly from other movies. None of the space dogfighting in the sequel trilogy resonate in nearly the same way. ---
**Author:** ![robby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robby/32/11048_2.png) [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2026, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reexamining-star-wars-50-years-later/1026810/109 "2026-01-20T20:38:36Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > [This was, I believe, the original cinematic trailer](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_431FnZn1xw), though it clearly came out before the soundtrack music had been completed; the copyright on it says “1976,” so it predates the release of the film by several months. Wow, looking back on this trailer, it looks incredibly corny. And the voiceover with howlers like “light years ahead of its time” and “a billion years in the making” make it even worse. I guess they hadn’t come up with “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…" yet. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2026, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reexamining-star-wars-50-years-later/1026810/110 "2026-01-20T20:38:37Z")
> [@Great\_Antibob](#): > > Also, in hindsight, whatever else is true of George Lucas as a director, he’s actually pretty good at filming and editing WWII style dogfights. Between this movie and “Red Tails”, he’s got that stuff locked down, even if inspired or lifted directly from other movies. None of the space dogfighting in the sequel trilogy resonate in nearly the same way. Not just dogfights - he’s also good with fleet battles and large infantry engagements. At least with the OT, it feels like there’s some actual tactics in play in the major battles. Often, he does it with just a bit of radio chatter: “They’re targeting the medical frigates!” or “Concentrate all fire power on that Super Star Destroyer!” give the sense that there’s more to combat than just running at the other guy as fast as you can while shooting. Granted, it’s not a super-high bar. The Battle of Hoth stands out from most modern fantasy/sci-fi\* war movies for the way the defending force actually holds their fortified position, instead of immediately abandoning them in favor of a mass charge. \*Or even historical dramas: lookin’ at you in particular, _Last Samurai_ ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2026, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reexamining-star-wars-50-years-later/1026810/111 "2026-01-20T20:45:55Z")
> [@robby](#): > > Wow, looking back on this trailer, it looks incredibly corny. And the voiceover with howlers like “light years ahead of its time” and “a billion years in the making” make it even worse. Yeah, it’s not good. And it doesn’t really do a good job of establishing, or even teasing at, the actual story; it’s mostly just a bunch of action shots from the film, in random order. ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2026, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reexamining-star-wars-50-years-later/1026810/112 "2026-01-20T20:56:06Z")
> [@Irishman](#): > > I will admit the prequel and sequel trilogies are disappointing. Some of that is because I’m no longer a ten year old. We were discussing our recent viewings with one of our kids, and they said something along the same lines - that each generation favors the trilogy of films that came out when THEY were young. ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2026, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reexamining-star-wars-50-years-later/1026810/113 "2026-01-20T20:56:23Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > Not just dogfights - he’s also good with fleet battles and large infantry engagements. At least with the OT, it feels like there’s some actual tactics in play in the major battles. Fair but those were directed by other people. I was mainly looking at the first movie. It may also be a generational thing. Action sequences, whether hand to hand or large scale battles, seem to be directed differently now than a generation or two ago. Even the LotR films suffer from this to some extent. There may be some relevant institutional skills and knowledge that have been lost as that generation retired. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2026, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reexamining-star-wars-50-years-later/1026810/114 "2026-01-20T21:24:03Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > This was my evaluation of it at the time. A little later people started seeing the warts in the depiction. Hey, howcum Luke and Han got medals by Chewbacca didn’t? The robots are basically treated like slaves. Why aren’t there any people except white people in this universe? When I was 15, three of my friends and I spent nearly every Sunday during the summer of 1978 watching three straight showings of _Star Wars_. Not a single one of those questions sprung to mind. Our enjoyment was entirely uncritical. I’m not sure if that is because I was only 15 or if nobody back then let those sorts of things bother their enjoyment of a good story. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2026, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reexamining-star-wars-50-years-later/1026810/115 "2026-01-20T21:30:20Z")
> [@Great\_Antibob](#): > > It may also be a generational thing. Action sequences, whether hand to hand or large scale battles, seem to be directed differently now than a generation or two ago. Even the LotR films suffer from this to some extent. There may be some relevant institutional skills and knowledge that have been lost as that generation retired. Distance from WWII is almost certainly a part of it - Lucas grew up on WWII films, which were often based on real events and so were depicting real (more or less) tactics. And there would have been lots of experienced people in the film industry who had actually served, and brought their personal experience to the set. Subsequent US military actions usually didn’t involve significant air or sea opposition, and not a lot of grand scale infantry engagements, so you have both less representation of that stuff in newer media, and less experience with it behind the camera. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2026, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reexamining-star-wars-50-years-later/1026810/116 "2026-01-20T21:45:35Z")
One of the most popular TV shows among my age group in 1977 was _Baa Baa Black Sheep_. Lucas’ audience was already well versed in dogfights. ---
**Author:** ![abcdefghij](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/43a26b/32.png) [@abcdefghij](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/abcdefghij)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2026, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reexamining-star-wars-50-years-later/1026810/117 "2026-01-20T23:04:53Z")
> [@Dinsdale](#): > > each generation favors the trilogy of films that came out when THEY were young Some of those generations are wrong ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2026, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reexamining-star-wars-50-years-later/1026810/118 "2026-01-20T23:11:01Z")
There[ was a British show called _Wings_ about World War I pilots that was quite a hit too. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2026, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reexamining-star-wars-50-years-later/1026810/119 "2026-01-20T23:42:19Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > I spent nearly every Sunday during the summer of 1978 watching three straight showings of _Star Wars_. Not a single one of those questions sprung to mind. I noticed and complained about Chewie’s medalsnub in 1977. I think I even had a letter to the editor on that subject published in Starlog magazine. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2026, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reexamining-star-wars-50-years-later/1026810/120 "2026-01-21T02:31:01Z")
> [@Horatius](#): > > Using the Force requires focus and concentration. Throwing a rock just requires throwing a rock. 😃 I’d miss if I threw the rock. > [@kenobi\_65](#): > > But, as I noted upthread, all of that was only _implied_, at most, in the actual movie. Yes. But my comment was in response to @Dinsdale pronouncing her a “minor royal from some minor planet,” and that’s not the impression the movies give at all. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reexamining-star-wars-50-years-later/1026810.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reexamining-star-wars-50-years-later/1026810.md?page=7)