Originally posted by: lordjedi
Saying that Lucas stole every idea from a bunch of authors before him, while giving the previous authors a pass on what they "borrowed" is complete hogwash. Sure a lot of ideas were recycled in the O-OT, but name another story or movie after 1970 (I picked a random year, I'm sure you could go back even further) that didn't borrow ideas from someone else. There hasn't been a completely original story in some time. What makes new stories that rehash old ideas look like they're fresh is the way they're presented. Lord of the Rings is a perfect example. It wasn't the first fantasy story and it wasn't the first story about a ring. It was the first story where the quest was to destroy the ring instead of to simply find a magic ring (I'm getting this from the documentary, so it may not have really been the first). That's what made it fresh and original. The only other thing that was new was calling halflings Hobbits (which I believe Tolkien copyrighted). Everything else was a rehash of old ideas.
Saying that Lucas stole every idea from a bunch of authors before him, while giving the previous authors a pass on what they "borrowed" is complete hogwash. Sure a lot of ideas were recycled in the O-OT, but name another story or movie after 1970 (I picked a random year, I'm sure you could go back even further) that didn't borrow ideas from someone else. There hasn't been a completely original story in some time. What makes new stories that rehash old ideas look like they're fresh is the way they're presented. Lord of the Rings is a perfect example. It wasn't the first fantasy story and it wasn't the first story about a ring. It was the first story where the quest was to destroy the ring instead of to simply find a magic ring (I'm getting this from the documentary, so it may not have really been the first). That's what made it fresh and original. The only other thing that was new was calling halflings Hobbits (which I believe Tolkien copyrighted). Everything else was a rehash of old ideas.
That's what the whole point of Hero With a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell (which he cites as a heavy influence in Empire of Dreams). There is no new story under the sun, and it is our duty to tell and retell these myths and legends to future generations...