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George Lucas on the ANH commentary: “It’s more of a fantasy film than a science fiction film.”
“The ability to destroy a planet is insignificant next to the power of the Force.” - DV
Science Fiction or Space Fantasy - what is Star Wars — Page 9
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I honestly don’t consider Wikipedia a good enough resource in this instance on the exact definition of space opera as automatically under the umbrella term of science fiction, Wikipedia is good but I doubt the author of the article was diving deep into the minutia of the semantics they were implying, unless explicitly stated.
Understand where you are coming from by saying it is not only science fiction if it applies hard science, and it would be disingenuous for anyone to say Star Wars doesn’t contain elements of sci-fi, but I think there’s some similar biases in making space inherently science fiction. This doesn’t discount the droids, blasters, tractor beams and photon torpedoes, but I think most arguing fantasy believe those aren’t quite as muddled by the usual fake tech jargon. George did know what he was doing, he never even brings up how a lightsaber is made, too much Errol Flynn heroics to dwell on kyber crystals. Reminds me of the pitch that never came to be I believe at Warner Brothers to produce an adaptation of The Odyssey with Brad Pitt (roughly close to the time Troy was released) except set in space, in a way without changing much anything else, really trading one unexplored ocean for another, does this mean sci-fi really only needs a coat of paint for consideration? If so…then, well sure I guess that’s fair enough. But I think you had it right when you said Lucas needed to distinguish his movie as more on the side of Flash Gordon than movies like 2001, which is less relevant now because Star Wars mostly succeeded those. The heart of Star Wars is much closer to Wizard of Oz than most sci-fi and that’s how those like myself recognize it first.
Honestly though my truthful opinion is that other genres have just as much crossover and ambiguity but there’s more debate on what qualifies as sci-fi or fantasy because we’re all nerds.
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The films work better as space fantasy rather than science fiction. All that advanced technology on display and people still have trouble shooting straight.
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I’d consider it fantasy simply because it’s a fairy tale. Change a few things of the setting here and there and boom - fairy tale. There’s a princess, an old wise wizard, the coming of age protagonist, a dark evil knight, a giant fortress… it even starts with “Once upon a time, in a land far away…”!
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Lord of the Rings: Fantasy on “Earth”
Star Wars: Fantasy in Space
Jurassic Park: Science Fiction on Earth
Star Trek: Science Fiction in Space
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yotsuya said:
Science Fiction or Space Fantasy - what is Star Wars
Absurdist tragicomedy.
/thread
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I’ve come to feel Star Wars would’ve worked better if it had either skewed more towards sci-fi or more towards fantasy, taken the Star Trek route or the Dark Crystal route. As-is, it’s too much of a genre-confused ouroboros.
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It’s a western set in space (which is how it was first described to me before I saw anything other than a trailer).
I had seen a trailer for it before a Peanuts film and wanted to see it, this is before it blew up and it was all word of mouth.
It was playing in my hometown at the theatre the farthest from my home and I couldn’t find anyone to drive me.
About a month after it was released I had lunch with my father, his sister (who my dad took the opinion of very seriously) and my brother. My aunt asked, “Bob, have you taken the boys to see that Star Wars movie yet?” I almost fell off of my chair. An ally! My dad was I think amazed that his sister and seen this, let alone was probably going to endorse it. “No.” She replied, “Oh, you really should. It’s great. And you should go, too. You’d like it, it’s like a western but set in space.”
We went to see it that weekend.