The Effect Star Wars Had on American Culture free essay sample

The use of Star Wars in American culture has helped to define culture in terms of new markets, the formation of a cultural community, and what it means to be modern in culture and society. George Lucas started his production company Lucasfilm Limited for the production of Star Wars, this in turn led to a new market and the creation of different companies, all with a pedigree leading back to Lucasfilm Limited and Star Wars. Star Wars also led to the formation of a new sub-culture in American culture, the culture surrounding the way people of all ages can interact and play, as well as creating infinite possibilities for Star Wars games and themes. Star Wars also shows us what it means to be modern, and in studying the great films one can see all the different technologies we have today that were a product of the Star Wars universe. Lucasfilm Limited, founded by George Lucas in 1971, is best known for the Star Wars and Indian Jones films and got the ball rolling for the domination of the film market in terms of special effects. Here is a quick list of subsidiary companies to Lucasfilm Ltd. : Industrial Light and Magic, Skywalker Sound, LucasArts, Lucas Licensing, Lucas Learning, Lucas Books, Lucasfilm Animation, Lucas Marketing, Lucas Online. Former subsidiary companies include THX Ltd. , and Pixar Animation Studios. These ten companies were all built off Lucasfilm Ltd. and show how Star Wars led to George Lucas domination over the special effects film industry. Industrial Light and Magic is an American Academy Award-winning motion picture visual ffects company founded in 1975 by Lucas. Skywalker Sound is the sound effects, sound editing, sound design, sound mixing and music recording division of Lucasfilm Ltd. LucasArts is an American video game developer and publisher, it publishes games based primarily off Star Wars. Lucas Licensing and Lucas Learning are both divisions under Lucasfilm Ltd. in charge of the licensing and merchandising of products, as well as the publishing of educational materials. Lucas Books is the division in charge of all book publishing under Lucasfilm Ltd. Lucasfilm Animation is an animation studio founded in 2003, its first major production was the Star Wars: Clone Wars television series. Lucas Marketing and Lucas Online are divisions of Lucasfilm Ltd. in charge of marketing of products and website production, respectively. THX Ltd. is a high-fidelity audio/visual reproduction standard for movie theaters, screening rooms, home theaters, computer speakers, gaming consoles, and even car audio systems. It was founded in 1983 by George Lucas in order to ensure that the soundtrack for the third Star Wars film, Return of the Jedi, would be accurately reproduced in the best venues. Pixar Animation Studios is a computer animation film studio, best known for its CGI-animated feature films. Pixar began in1979 as the Graphics Group part of the computer division of Lucasfilm Ltd. These are just some of the larger companies that are a part or were at one time a part of Lucasfilm Ltd. , which generated the majority of its power/revenue from the Star Wars franchise. Star Wars has created and funded the market of animated film in American culture through the growth of Lucasfilm Ltd. and the creation of enormous film companies such as THX and Pixar. Not only has this dynamic franchise created new avenues in the animated film market, but is has also become a popular commodity in our culture. The six-film Star Wars saga has had a significant impact on American popular culture, with Darth Vader being an iconic super villain and phrases like May the Force be with you being a popular good-bye phrase. Since that historic Friday in May of 1977, science fiction, particularly in film, has often been influenced and compared to Star Wars, and it also helped launch the sci-fi boom of the late 1970s and early 1980s, making science fiction films a blockbuster genre. The Hollywood-focus shifted from just meaningful stories based on dramatic conflict, themes and irony to the special effects laden blockbusters following these meaningful stories. Before Star Wars, special effects in films had not appreciably advanced since the 1950s, but the commercial success of the franchise created a boom in the special-effects industry, this surge being led by Lucasfilm Ltd. The American conductor, pianist and composer, John Williams, composed the film scores, or music in the film, for films such as Indiana Jones, Jaws and equally if not more important, Star Wars. Williams film scores have become iconic musical choices for fanfare, sporting events, or other Star Wars events. There have also been numerous amounts of Star Wars parodies and spinoffs such as Spaceballs, or television episodes from Family Guy, The Cleveland Show, and numerous other television episodes. The creation of Star Wars action figurines and other Star Wars toys is a huge market that is growing every year. One of Legos, construction toy sets, most popular sellers is the Star Wars themed Lego sets. With the rise of video games over the past two decades has also seen some growth due to the Star Wars community. LucasArts has produced over 80 individual Stars Wars video games since Star Wars first came out, creating its own sub-genre of the video game market. Most importantly with the cultural community aspect of Star Wars, we see the unification of many different individuals. How many people in American culture today cannot recognize Princess Leias cinnamon bun hairstyle, or the iconic sound of Darth Vaders breathing, or the quirky speech of Jedi Master Yoda? Star Wars has created a community of people who can recognize the different characters based off individual features, such as Vaders breathing or Leias hair, but it also gives many people a common ground to discuss different aspects of life, because Star Wars touches almost every aspect of life. One can equate a forest to the trees of Endor, or a construction machine to the movements of an AT-AT, or an icy climate to that of Hoth. The classic storyline that follows a poor, orphaned farm boy join a group of rebels to destroy his villain father and the evil he stands for is simple enough for kids of all ages to understand, and exciting enough to appeal to the kid in all of us. Then with the extension of the trilogy to Episodes I, II, and III, the storyline is made even deeper and more complex as viewers watch the upbringing of the young Vader. The story following Anakin Skywalker appeals to many because of his rastic transformation from the innocent boy to the adult who gives in to emotions, just like many of the Star Wars viewers who may, every once in awhile, give in to emotion. The formation of the Star Wars community is an example of a common ground where ANY individual is welcome just due to their ability to recognize Star Wars in popular culture. This franchise also displays what it means to be modern in terms of technology, and we can see how technology today was affected by Star Wars. The cardboard TIE Fighters and fireworks explosions were what was used to create the special effects of the first Star Wars trilogy. Looking back on those films, the technology seems quite barbaric, where is the CGI?! But in the summer of 1977 the special effects of Star Wars was equal to the visual (not storyline) performance of James Camerons Avatar. When George Lucas founded Industrial Light and Magic he did so not just to improve on the technology and special effects surrounding Star Wars, but other film industries as well. Since Lucas moved the company to Marin County in 1978, Industrial Light and Magic has gone on to produce the special effects of nearly three hundred films, including the Indiana Jones series, the Harry Potter series, the Jurassic Park series, the Back to the Future trilogy, many Star Trek films, the Pirates of the Caribbean series, the Terminator sequels, the Transformers films, the Men in Black series, the Mission Impossible films, E. T. the Extra-Terrestrial, and of course the Star Wars franchise. All big blockbuster series or films, all special effects taken care of by Industrial Light and Magic, which was founded based on the special effect needs of Star Wars. The Star Wars franchise has also provided inspiration for the U. S. government when it come to technology. The Strategic Defense Initiative, created by President Ronald Reagan in 1983, aimed to used ground-and-space-based lasers, missiles and other weapons to help protect the United States from attack by nuclear missiles. Critics derisively referred to it as Star Wars. Reagan himself may have drawn upon Star Wars for inspiration when he referred to the Soviet Union as the Evil Empire, echoing the use of Evil Galactic Empire in the opening crawl for A New Hope six years earlier. Another link to the U. S. government and Star Wars lay in the ideas of U. S. Army Lt. Col. Jim Channon for a First Earth Battalion. As detailed in the book The Men Who Stare at Goats and fictionalized in the film of the same name, the U. S. military researched the idea of super-soldiers they called Jedi warriors, who could, among other abilities, adopt cloaks of invisibility, pass through walls, precognitive sense knowledge of the future and even kill goats by staring at them. A more recent example of how Star Wars influenced modern technology is election night, 2008. CNN presented correspondents as holograms much like the scenes from Star Wars, complete with partial translucence and a glowing blue haze around them. The process required 35 HD cameras and is called tomograms, made by capturing images of a person from all sides, reconstructing them with computers and displaying them on screen. The use of bionic hands and other limbs has also become more and more prominent with modern technology, and many amputees equate themselves with Star Wars character who were the first to be seen with bionic limbs that can be compared with todays standards. Star Wars has also influenced many modern military technologies. Wicked Lasers, a Hong Kong-based company, recently developed an ultra-powerful handheld laser, yes, a light saber. According to developers, it can cause permanent eye damage and even set skin ablaze. Called the Spyder III Pro Arctic, it contains a full watt into its sleek confines, and could even injure someone a mile away. Another technology which can be attributed to the Star Wars franchise is robotic technology. Intelligent droids such as R2-D2 and C3-PO captured the imagination of millions, and over the course of three decades the world has seen incredible steps in intelligent robotic technology. There are robotic vehicles that can be used to defuse explosive devices and save lives, but what about a robot that can go on the offensive to, like the droid army in Episode I: A Phantom Menace? The U. S. Army has developed the Modular Advanced Armed Robotic System (MAARS), which is a robot that can open doors and set explosives or remove object with a gripper claw. Its turret is fitted with an M24b machine gun, which gives it a lot of fire power, and it also has gunshot detection capability, so it can determine where shots are coming from and return fire. It also has 360-degree vision, two way communications, night vision, and thermo vision. Like R2, this machine is the ultimate Swiss-army knife. Technologies such as the MAARS or the Spyder III Pro Arctic are modern technologies influenced by the Star Wars franchise. Starting with the foundation of Lucasfilm Limited, George Lucas set off a urge for science fiction technologies, made Star Wars a commodity of popular culture, and dominated the market surrounding Star Wars and animated film. As Lucasfilm Ltd. rew and sprouted new divisions and companies, Star Wars became interlinked with most every animated film due to Pixar and Industrial Light and Magic both being subsidiaries to Lucasfilm Ltd. Many modern technologies, such as the MAARS, or bionic limbs, have culminated out of the Star Wars community, as well as Reagans Star Wars Initiative. Star Wars as a community engulfs much of American popular culture. Just look around on Halloween, how many Vaders, Jedis, Storm troopers are out and about? I personally have been Darth Vader on 3 separate Halloweens. On election night 2008, one of the most important dates in American history, CNN uses a Star Wars theme while correspondents discuss. Just the sheer size of the Star Wars universe can be daunting, but this universe keeps growing, and it is for that reason the Star Wars phenomenon will continue to live on with civilization. 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