Star Wars: The Use Of Special Effects In Popular Films

Tyrone Ivy
Mrs. Helms
Honors English III
16 October 2015
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Popular movies such as The Avengers, Harry Potter, Pirates of the Caribbean, and many more all have one thing in common; these movies use special effects and other unique features to tell their stories. The use of special effects in films have continued to excite viewers with its different style of portrayal that has influenced many great movies over time. Of course, everything has a beginning, and it is important to know the beginnings of these special effects in movies that excites the people. The opening of Star Wars: Episode IV a New Hope in 1977 had such a huge impact on filmmaking, revolutionizing the film industry which inspired many great films such as Jurassic Park, The

The film industry continued to triumph by viewing content that was complex, violent, terrifying, or erotic. There were many concepts for filmmaking in the 1970s, but only two were trending. Several filmmakers in the United States and in Europe viewed cinematography as an art form; they produced movies that would challenge the mind, which were only viewed by a few. On the other hand, the major studios produced bestsellers known as blockbusters, films that attracted large crowds. The sequence of blockbusters began with the Godfather (1972), a mobster movie “which broke all box office records”; it was violent, sexy and compelling (“George Lucas”). The Exorcist (1973) also shattered box office records with its disturbing content that caused some viewers to even exit the theater. Special effects and science fiction themes were also on the rise in the movie business; they assisted in producing two of the biggest films of the 70s decade. The star of Jaws (1975) was an enormous fake great white shark created by director, Steven Spielberg. Star Wars (1977) too used a variety of special effects in order to tell its space adventurous story. These blockbusters definitely defined the film industry in the 1970’s with their distinctive content that makes the 70s one to

Star Wars “introduced the age of the special-effects action extravaganza, which has become filmmaking’s most commercial staple” (Johnson). Computer graphic imagery can be seen mostly throughout the film with distant planets, dinosaur like creatures, extra-terrestrials, lightsabers, flying star cruisers and more. The vvbbfilm is set in the past and future “in a galaxy far, far away” in “a classic tale of good versus evil” as Luke Skywalker, a young Jedi Knight, and his team ventures throughout space to save Princess Leia from the evil Darth Vader and his militant force (Gustainis and Bernardi). Like all movies, there is a writer and director; George Lucas both wrote and directed the Star Wars film. He is an “imaginative and creative individual” who portrays himself as a storyteller; he designs the necessary equipment to tell his tales in his works. (George Lucas). Lucas created the film simply “to give young people an honest, wholesome fantasy life” similar to the life he had as an adolescent and teenager (Frederick). He was influenced by many figures such as Flash Gordon, Superman, Batman, Scrooge McDuck, Donald Duck, Disneyland and other shows that were on television. Lucas spent four years writing the script to Star Wars was originally intended to be a “children’s Saturday morning serial” (George Lucas). However,