Star Wars' legacy

[garnish]

I heard in a film review (maybe Kermode) that the biggest problem with Star Wars is that it changed the direction of mainstream Hollywood sci-fi for decades, from thoughtful slow paced stuff full of contemporary metaphors to, essentially, cowboys and Indians in space.

Is this fair?

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Yes. It's a commonly held view and a valid point.

However, neither Star Wars nor Jaws intended to bring an end to the progressive New Hollywood era. Lucas and Spielberg wanted to make big crowd-pleasing pieces of popular entertainment, but they couldn't have foreseen the deleterious impact they'd have on mainstream cinema over the next 40 years.

[Blumf]

Wasn't the first or last time Hollywood got itself tied up in a fad. Big musical, westerns, remakes... So I'm not sure if blame needs to be placed anywhere away from lazy producers.

[Alberon]

It would have happened eventually. If it wasn't Lucas and Spielberg it would have others. Like the fall of the Roman Republic in retrospect it was always going to happen.

[mothman]

Wasn't it less what the films were about, and more about how they were released? That first big initial wide release, rather than opening films here and there in dribs and drabs, then going away, then coming back, the "second run" venues..?

[greenman]

Yes. It's a commonly held view and a valid point.

However, neither Star Wars nor Jaws intended to bring an end to the progressive New Hollywood era. Lucas and Spielberg wanted to make big crowd-pleasing pieces of popular entertainment, but they couldn't have foreseen the deleterious impact they'd have on mainstream cinema over the next 40 years.

I'm not really sure that either did directly, I don't think you see a clear dropoff in New Hollywood after 75 and films like Empire Strikes Back and Close Encounters seem like they were looking to bring a pretty serious edge.

The real shift I think happened more in the early 80's with the success of ET especially at the expense of Blade Runner and The Thing plus the likes of Once Upon A Time In America and Rumblefish also flopping shortly afterwards.

I think the idea of the modern blockbuster being driven mostly via producers and the studio really dates more to the early 90's.

[Panbaams]

I heard in a film review (maybe Kermode) that the biggest problem with Star Wars is that it changed the direction of mainstream Hollywood sci-fi for decades, from thoughtful slow paced stuff full of contemporary metaphors to, essentially, cowboys and Indians in space.

Is this fair?

It's not really fair that how other people make films later down the line is Star Wars' problem. Mind you, some people think that Robert De Niro being in Meet the Parents somehow makes Raging Bull a worse film, so who knows?

[Dex Sawash]

Glad to see Star Wars Legacy isn't yet another animated series