Reading practically anything I can get my fingers on these days SW related. Found this article to be very satisfying, just as a film fan, to know that Abrams is aiming so high with his approach to TFA.
Before he started The Force Awakens, Abrams watched some movies. No, not those ones, Other ones. He looked at “the confidence” of John Ford Westerns. He took in the “unbelievable scene choreography and composition” of Kurosawa’s High and Low. And he studied “the powerful stillness” of Terrence Malick. “It’s not something I would normally have thought of coming to Star Wars,” he says. The spare visual style of Ford, Kurosawa and Malick points to a key mandate for Abrams’ approach to Episode VII: the distinctive less-is-more quality of the originals.
I’m really struck by the Malick influence that is mentioned. I’m pleased to hear that that is a goal of Abrams’. As has been noted many places, I’m really inspired by just specific interludes in the trailers; specifically the Tie Fighters flying in with the sun behind them, ala “Apocalypse Now” with the helicopter attack on the village.
Star Wars hasn’t exactly represented “high art” for several decades but I feel that with TFA and its sequels, we might get back to that. And that alone is enough to make me giddy!
😃