AOTC's Homage to "The Searchers"...

When George says that Star Wars is a sort of "Western in space", he's not kidding.

I recently rented the film, The Searchers. For those of you who don't know, it's a Western that was made way back in 1956. It was directed by John Ford, master of Western films, and starred John Wayne as the quintessential American cowboy. It is more or less considered to be the classic Western.

Anyways, while I was watching The Searchers, one of the scenes immediately jumped out at me; it was so strikingly similar to a scene in Attack of the Clones. As soon as the movie finished, I popped in my copy of AOTC to have a look. Sure enough, the scene in The Searchers and AOTC were practically mirrors of each other.


Could George Lucas, a big fan of adventurous westerns, be making an homage to one of the greatest Westerns of all time?


The motivations behind both scenes--Anakin rescuing his mother from a camp of primite savages in AOTC, and John Wayne rescuing a damsel in distress from a camp of Indians in The Searchers--are very similar. Both scenes even take place at night.

More than anything, though, it's a visual homage. The visual composition of four shots line up almost identically in both scenes. I took a few screencaptures from both films and compared them. After looking them over, there is no doubt in my mind that George was making a very distinct homage to this classic Western.

But don't take my word for it. Have a look at the screencaptures and let me know what you think.


IMAGE 1
[image=http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v706/Monkey2ewok/Searchers%20and%20AOTC/AOTC1.jpg] [image=http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v706/Monkey2ewok/Searchers%20and%20AOTC/Searchers1.jpg]


IMAGE 2
[image=http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v706/Monkey2ewok/Searchers%20and%20AOTC/AOTC2.jpg] [image=http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v706/Monkey2ewok/Searchers%20and%20AOTC/Searchers2.jpg]


IMAGE 3a
[image=http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v706/Monkey2ewok/Searchers%20and%20AOTC/AOTC3.jpg] [image=http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v706/Monkey2ewok/Searchers%20and%20AOTC/Searchers3.jpg]


IMAGE 3b
[image=http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v706/Monkey2ewok/Searchers%20and%20AOTC/AOTC4.jpg] [image=http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v706/Monkey2ewok/Searchers%20and%20AOTC/Searchers4.jpg]


IMAGE 4
[image=http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v706/Monkey2ewok/Searchers%20and%20AOTC/AOTC5.jpg] [image=http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v706/Monkey2ewok/Searchers%20and%20AOTC/Searchers5.jpg]


So, any thoughts? Is it an homage or merely a coincidence? Has anyone noticed this similarity before? Is this old news?

Either way, I'd love to hear your thoughts!

 

This was discussed quite a lot when Attack of the Clones first came out. Indeed, it IS a deliberate homage to The Searchers, and infact there are MANY homages to other films in AOTC.

Blade Runner is an obvious one, when Anakin and Obi-Wan are chasing Zam through the Coruscant and they come to the huge flaming chimneys.

 

Wow, Sithman, that's pretty cool.

"The Searchers" is my favorite John Wayne movie,
and I can't belive I missed that simularity.

Good stuff.

 

Wow, great eye. It seems very alike to me. Especially the camps.

 

It's alike because it's a direct and intentional homage to that scene in the Searchers. I know I've read somewhere official that Lucas did this. I thought he mentioned it in the commentary but I could be wrong. Either way, I thought this was well known but I guess not.

 

Good catch. As mentioned though, he has made direct homages to many films and filmmakers.

The monsters in the Arena battle are a direct homage to Ray Harryhausen famous for stop-motion fx and movies like Jason and the Argonauts.

When Obiwan is eaves dropping on Count Dooku, and the rest of the Separatist, it's a homage to the Universal monsters. Count Dooku(Count Dracula), Wat Tambor of the Techno Union Army(Frankenstein Monster).

If you listen to the audio comentary I believe Rob Coleman even mentions some of them.

 

While I've never seen The Searchers, there are definite parallels to it in AOTC and homage paid none the less.

 

Lucas even Homages his own movie; American Graffiti in Dex's Diner.

Even if you don't like Attack of the Clones, I imagine its kinda fun to watch it jsut to see if you recognise all the homages, because I think there are more than we've spoken about here?

 

Actually I think AOTC is the most intertextual film from SW series. It's in fact collage of hommages, a huge anthology of the history of cinema.