CT Should Star Wars have only been one film?

Sooo true...

I'm a big Terminator fan...and to me there are only 2 - That's it!

 

Personally, none of the other movies have surpassed the original for me. However, I'm pretty satisfied with what we've gotten since then, so I don't think it should have been one and done. Besides, there would have eventually been another one anyways.

 

Definitely not (for me anyway).

Stars Wars and all the subsequent prequels, sequels and spin offs have provided me with a huge amount of enjoyment. I'm not for one moment saying the GFFA is the only thing in my life, but it has thoroughly entertained me over the past 30 odd years.

So purely, from a certain point of view I'm delighted that A New Hope was the catalyst for much more and was not consigned to a one off.

 

While I don't think the Star Wars series should have been confined to one film, I do think the original Star Wars movie totally works as a single film. Tonally, that's what it is. It's structurally meant to be a middle piece that you never see what came before or what came afterwards. It's styled like what Lucas intended, it's a sci-fi serial you walk into the middle of. The viewer missed the parts before, All of this stuff happened before and the viewer is just playing catch up. Vader escaping is way less "going to make more movies" than a thing that happened in serials, the bad guy would curse and fly off to fight another day in another installment you would miss because it's a random serial episode you just happened to see one part of. The movie itself while it has references that stretch out in both directions is really more of a stylistic serial thing than genuinely putting in "sequel/prequel bait". Those weren't a thing when it was made! So, yah, Star Wars may be just one movie that led to many but it totally works as a single shot.

 

Oh definitely. If Star Wars was all there was, it would still be a classic film, just like something, for example, E.T.
Feeling like it is one episode in a pulp serial was it's style, and absolutely could be left at that.

I sort of look at it as being "prehistoric".
It is different to the later movies which are built with the intention of being part of something larger. With an eye and ear to being consistent. It has odd bits of terminology... The Stolen Tapes for example... that are just throwaway lines that the audience is supposed to hear and forget and put no weight on.

 

I agree that the subsequent films have somewhat lessened the impact and importance of that original movie, but I’m grateful to have such a rich and diverse story across several films.

Also, I disagree that there the Han/Leia relationship isn’t hinted at in the original movie. There was the line where Han said “Either I’m going to kill her or I’m beginning to like her”, then later “I don’t know. What do you think? You think a princess and a guy like me...” Plus their general bickering is similar to how many romances begin in the screwball comedies of the ‘30s, which is of course the time period that the Star Wars films draw most of their influences from.

 

Many of their film influences, yes (though not solely: major exceptions being 2001, Dambusters, and Kurosawa's films). But in litterary SF terms SW was much more in tune with the contemporary zeitgeist of things like Dune, Logan's Run, and even George RR Martin's Analog short stories.

 

@BlackRanger I’ll give you Dune to an extent, but I think Star Wars stood in sharp contrast to most of the bleak Sci-Fi such as Logan’s Run at the time. This was even explicitly mentioned in the Empire of Dreams doc.

Anyway that’s beside the point. Of course I meant film influences. Yes Lucas was certainly influenced by elements of those other films you mentioned, as well as others such as the work of Ray Harryhausen in places, etc., not to mention visual references to many other films as well, but Star Wars was very much framed within a throwback to the movie serials and other films of the ‘30s. Although it might be more fair to say that it’s attuned to Lucas’s nostalgia of watching those ‘30s and ‘40s films while growing up in the ‘50s.

Ultimately it’s really an amalgam of everything that had fascinated him and captured his imagination throughout his life, including history, anthropology, mythology, and psychology along with his love of racing and many other things. So I was certainly oversimplifying with that statement a bit, but I still stand by the point I was making.

 

Empire is the universally agreed best film of the saga so your points are false. It's a great sequel and it expands on the Original film in exciting and unexpected ways. I guess a point could be made about ROTJ being a structurally similar film to ANH but it had to finish the story! Job done.

 

Yup, agree with these views, ill add Raiders Of The Lost Ark to that discussion although I prefer The Last Crusade over Temple Of Doom.

 

In my opinion, it should’ve ended after Return of the Jedi. The story’s richer and deeper for being a trilogy but everything since has been divisive, at best and, in my opinion, quite disappointing.

 

The prequels were going to be made one day; That was inevitable. Everyone would be asking why on earth there is no Episode I to III? And I actually believe Disney's version of Episode I to III would have been poorer than George's in terms of world building and imagination. The story had to be finished.
I'd pass final judgment on the sequel trilogy once Episode IX is out. Episode VIII was very disappointing.

 

I'm not so sure. After Jedi, it really seemed apparent that Lucas wanted to be done with Star Wars forever (he later changed his mind obviously), and without the backlash to both the Special Editions and the prequel trilogy, I highly doubt that Lucas ever would’ve sold it to Disney.

My hunch is that Lucas probably never would’ve revisited Star Wars if it hadn’t been for things like the disastrous failure of Howard the Duck and the lackluster response to Willow. It’s worth remembering that for all his wealth, he’s actually only had three hits throughout his entire career: American Graffiti, Star Wars, and Indiana Jones (and in the case of Indiana Jones, you have to give at least half of that to Steven Spielberg). If he’d had non-Spielberg hits after Return of the Jedi, I don’t think there would’ve been a prequel trilogy.

 

I think the cynic in all of us would say George Lucas made the prequels purely for the money, but I don't believe that money was the sole motivation at all. Lucas sat down and wrote out entire scripts on all three movies and directed all three too, so clearly this was a very personal project for him which he saw as his baby, so to speak. He could have taken the more laid back position as producer and basically pulled the strings behind the scenes without any sort of 'work' to do.
He'd had enough of Star Wars in 1983 because he'd been involved with it intensively since about 1973-4, these trilogies took 10 years to make from conception to completion; 1973-1983 and 1993-2005.
Whether Lucas had made hit movies or not during the mid 80s to early 90s wouldn't have suddenly made Star Wars irrelevant, as the fan-base would have still been there.

 

To say that he only made the prequel trilogy for the money is overly simplistic. There clearly was a creative drive there. But I do think he was ready to move past it by 1983, and I think had his attempts to move past it been more successful, he simply would’ve continued going down that route, rather than being forced to rethink his career path and return to Star Wars. To me, it’s similar to Coppola doing The Godfather: Part III after the failure of most of his ’80s films or Peter Jackson doing The Hobbit after the failure of The Lovely Bones.

Star Wars always would’ve been relevant in the minds of the fans, but to Lucas himself? He might’ve just said, “That was something I did 20 years ago.” Look at Spielberg as a contrast. E.T. is hardly irrelevant, but Spielberg has managed to make hits like Jurassic Park and win a bunch of Oscars since then. He’s moved on from it, even if he’s still proud of it. Lucas never had that chance to move on from Star Wars, which has defined his career.

 

Star Wars was a monster hit. It totally changed the game in its day. It was also hard work to make those films.
E.T doesn't demand a sequel because it's a totally unique story. Lucas definitely had written a whole outline of his saga from the beginning so he clearly was hoping at the back of his mind, to make more films in the future based on his The star Wars

 

Steven Spielberg could have decided to hitch his career to ET. "E.T. Returns".
Perhaps linked it up with Close Encounters and made it his life's work to be the Extraterrestrial movie guy.

It might have made him equally wealthy and famous and we'd be writing nonsense on forums about it now.
But aren't you glad he didn't? That he went on to make so many other wonders.
What if SW was One and Done, and George put more of his heart and mind into other stories?

 

Definitely not true. No points are "false" just because they express a different opinion from yours. If Empire were "universally agreed" to be the best then I'd like to see some facts to prove this. And don't try to "prove" your opinion with stuff like Rotten Tomatoes or similar. You'd have to give me something a little more solid, and in addition to that a worldwide survey, not just some site made in your country. If something is "universal" then that means by definition that all fans in the whole world would agree on it. Until you show me such a study I will simply not buy your statement.

 

I believe there was always a plan to make a sequel; A Splinter of the Mind's Eye was what was going to be made had Star Wars not been a big hit. Anyway, I disagree that the sequels have diminished the original: Darth Vader is a much more interesting villain as this tragic figure who falls from grace and then is redeemed. And it is clear from the wink that he gives Leia during the awards ceremony that Han has become friendly with the princess. The sequels also introduced great characters like Lando Calrissian and Yoda, gave us as the satisfactory demise of The Empire, and best of all, the completion of Luke Skywalker's quest. For me, Empire Strikes Back is as perfect as Star Wars, and while I have reservations about the third movie, it rivals the other two in its finest moments (e.g. until Rogue One was made, it had the best space battle scenes in the series).

 

Whilst ANH is a wonderful, self-contained sci-fi / fantasy masterpiece, it is based on those republic serials and so lends itself also to forming part of a greater story. That's why it has endured. Personally, if it had only been the one movie, we wouldn't have had the sublime, superior The Empire Strikes Back, which is still the benchmark in my opinion.

 

Star Wars probably should have been a stand alone film, but it's uniquely positioned status was never going to allow for that.

 

No, Lucas should have made the Holiday Special, and then declare ANH non canon and make the Holiday Special be the sole canon Star Wars media.

 

That Boba Fett found his humble beginnings there is incredible!