4 replies to this topic

[al-x]

Hello:

I was going to call this thread "movie derivatives"
but that actually is a finance term and also it has
been a while since I tutored calculus but I digress...

Some movies are derived from video games, comic
books, novels, TV shows, and so on. Other movies
however aren't so obvious.

Pulp Fiction is pretty much an offshoot of those
over the top black action movies of the early 70's.

Indiana Jones came from those weekly serial
cliffhangers that preceded the main movies back
in the 40's and 50's.

The Matrix was mainly from the Hong Kong martial arts/action
movies.

Star Wars is hard to say, but Lucas was into Joseph Campbell
philosophy and some Eastern religions.

If you know of more, please post and fill us in.


Al...

[brucegray666]

I think you'd be hard pressed to find any movie that isn't derived / pays homage to / blatantly steals from / tips a hat to / influenced by another movie or other source.

[lj cunningham]

Hello:

I was going to call this thread "movie derivatives"
but that actually is a finance term and also it has
been a while since I tutored calculus but I digress...

Some movies are derived from video games, comic
books, novels, TV shows, and so on. Other movies
however aren't so obvious.

Pulp Fiction is pretty much an offshoot of those
over the top black action movies of the early 70's.

Indiana Jones came from those weekly serial
cliffhangers that preceded the main movies back
in the 40's and 50's.

The Matrix was mainly from the Hong Kong martial arts/action
movies.

Star Wars is hard to say, but Lucas was into Joseph Campbell
philosophy and some Eastern religions.

If you know of more, please post and fill us in.


Al...

Lucas also borrowed heavily from Kurosawa's Hidden Fortress for Star Wars...R2D2 and C-3PO, the whole small band saving the princess from the impregnible fortress schtick, and more.

[Johnny Henning]

Originally, Lucas pursued the rights to Flash Gordon, but they weren't available. Also, I think DUNE was very influential as well.

The Matrix really took much of the story's style from cyberpunk and Goth culture. You can see a lot of similarity between Neuromancer and the movie. Also, naturally, I have to think Terminator was an influence.

As far as the philosophy, though, it was definitely inspired by the sort of Christian Gnostic theology that influenced a great deal of Philip K Dick's later work. You can see a bit of Ubik in there as well.

Just about everything Tim Burton does was influenced by the look of German Expressionism - especially the Cabinet of Dr Caligari. You can throw David Fincher and Alex Proyas under that bus as well. Of course, Burton's films also seem like bigger budget productions of Corman and AIP movies from the 60's. Like MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH, which is a beautiful, wild and hilarious movie without parallel.

[al-x]

The Seven Samurai (1954)

BY ROGER EBERT / August 19, 2001
Akira Kurosawa's "Seven Samurai" (1954) is not only a great film in its own right, but the source of a genre that would flow through the rest of the century. The critic Michael Jeck suggests that this was the first film in which a team is assembled to carry out a mission--an idea which gave birth to its direct Hollywood remake, "The Magnificent Seven," as well as "The Guns of Navarone," "The Dirty Dozen" and countless later war, heist and caper movies. Since Kurosawa's samurai adventure "Yojimbo" (1960) was remade as "A Fistful of Dollars" and essentially created the spaghetti Western, and since this movie and Kurosawa's "The Hidden Fortress" inspired George Lucas' "Star Wars" series, it could be argued that this greatest of filmmakers gave employment to action heroes for the next 50 years, just as a fallout from his primary purpose.

Al...