Today is the first Friday of my blog, and I figure that at least one day of the week should be dedicated to something non-political, just laid back - because everyone needs a break. That day is Friday! Every Friday from here on out will be "Casual Friday," in which I will write about random things that I enjoy talking about! So throw on that Rebecca Black song, choose which seat you're going to take, and get ready to have some fun!
As everyone should know, I am a Star Wars fan. A big Star Wars fan. And today I would like to talk about the influence of Star Wars on entertainment for the past 30 years. Whether you like the saga or not, George Lucas and the entire Star Wars universe has single handed shaped the special effects and sci-fi industry that we see today.
Some people may not know, but everything started with George Lucas in the early 1970's. In 1971, Lucas created Lucasfilm, the company responsible for every Lucas movie, and inspiration or in connection with a handful of others. In 1975, Lucas founded Industrial Light & Magic, another company that revolutionized the industry, this time with special effects. And in 1977, Star Wars was created, a movie that nobody thought would work or become legendary.
Star Wars really revolutionized the American film industry. If ask any special effects guy, they can tell you that in the 70's and 80's, no other film was as advanced as Star Wars, and no other film took the industry so far. From the birth of Star Wars, we've seen 8 total live-action movies - counting The Ewok Adventures, an animated movie, a successful animated series, tons of merchandise, and a whole lot more. All of that is just under the Star Wars name, but we should take a look at the hundreds of movies that wouldn't be what they were without George Lucas.
I think it's safe to say that George Lucas had a major impact on Steven Spielberg's career, or at least a big connection. Working together over the years, they created so many amazing films over the past few decades including the Indiana Jones movies. If you want to move on to other "geeky" films, let's look at the company I mentioned earlier - Industrial Light & Magic. This company is responsible for and/or influenced the special effects of movies and TV shows such as Alien (1979), Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982), Battlestar Galactica (1978), Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991), Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993), Jurassic Park (1993), Starship Troopers (1997), Saving Private Ryan (1998), and much more.
Through this company, we see the birth of Pixar, put on the map by the famous Toy Story movies. Other companies to become greatly influenced in their creations are Sony Pictures Imageworks, which worked on Spiderman 2 (2004).
As mentioned before, Industrial Light & Sound is responsible for Terminator 2: Judgement Day. This movie being my favorite by James Cameron, really furthered his career as a director, writer, and producer in the film industry. It is definitely safe to say that Star Wars had a big role to play in this career.
Another successful business created from George Lucas would be Skywalker Sound, which started THX sound (you may see the large THX symbol before many movies start). This sound company has become very great over the years, doing the sound for movies like Fight Club (1999) and Finding Nemo (2003).
To conclude the post for this day, I would ask you to really research the Star Wars universe that has created a world of wonders and innovation. If you enjoy movies, figure out how we've come so far in such a short period of time. George Lucas changed the film industry, arguably more than any other person has in history. For that, I think he deserves a little bit of our time.
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