I'm getting e-mails from something called 'Quora' and occasionally there's a fun topic there: the last amusing one was 'Is Dune just a cheap Star Wars ripoff' (Dune came out 12 years before the first Star Wars movie) and the first answer was 'No Dune was an incredibly EXPENSIVE Star Wars ripoff because the author had to build a time machine to go back to 1965 and make it look like his work came out first.'
Now there's a discussion going that Wars is a Dune ripoff because there's so many commonalities. Um-there aren't. Desert planet? Um-every bloody Mars movie has that. Besides, Dune the planet is 'central' to the story of Dune while Tattooine is the next best thing to 'irrelevant' in Star Wars. In the very first movie, Luke himself says it's basically a shithole at the ass-end of nowhere. Plucky rebellion vs Evil Empire. Yea, that totally never happened anywhere before Dune. Melee combat in an age with laser weapons? Considered superiorly queer in Star Wars but the norm in Dune.
'Next time I let Superman take charge, just hit me. Real hard.'
'You're a princess from a society of immortal warriors. I'm a rich kid with issues. Lots of issues.'
'No. No dating for the Batman. It might cut into your brooding time.'
'Tactically we have multiple objectives. So we need to split into teams.'-'Dibs on the Amazon!'
'Hey, we both have a Martian's phone number on our speed dial. I think I deserve the benefit of the doubt.'
'You know, for a guy with like 50 different kinds of vision, you sure are blind.'
I mean, obviously the original novel can't be a Star Wars ripoff, but that doesn't mean that the movies can't be highly inspired by Star Wars. It can't really help it, though, since Star Wars revolutionized the SFX industry and how movies of its nature look and feel. I haven't watched the most recent movies, though, so I couldn't tell you what exact influence there is, however.
But yes, you would have an uphill battle convincing me that Star Wars is a Dune ripoff. It pays homage to so many things that frankly you have a much better case saying its a ripoff of Akira Kurosawa's movies.
Now, Warhammer 40K on the other hand...
"Still, I would love to see human beings, and their constituent organ systems, trivialized and commercialized to the same extent as damn iPods and other crappy consumer products. It would be absolutely horrific, yet so wonderful." —Shroom Man 777 "To Err is Human; to Arrr is Pirate." — Skallagrim
“I would suggest "Schmuckulating", which is what Futurists do and, by extension, what they are." — Commenter "Rayneau"
Star Wars and Dune, like so many modern movies and stories, pay homage to certain age-old story telling concepts.
The struggle against evil, finding friends in strange places, loss causing personal growth, etc.
That's not a problem.
The problem is with people that can't see more then a few years of recent history. Unfortunately, this is becoming alot of the younger general populace.
I've been asked why I still follow a few of the people I know on Facebook with 'interesting political habits and view points'.
It's so when they comment on or approve of something, I know what pages to block/what not to vote for.
Star Wars and Dune, like so many modern movies and stories, pay homage to certain age-old story telling concepts.
The struggle against evil, finding friends in strange places, loss causing personal growth, etc.
That's not a problem.
The problem is with people that can't see more then a few years of recent history. Unfortunately, this is becoming alot of the younger general populace.
It's really part of the faction mentality that plagues modern culture, that what you like must be the best and most original one and anything that looks even remote similar must be a mindless rip-off, kind of how some people claim that Warhammer and Warcraft are 100% identical (often claim that Warcraft is nothing more then a mindless rip-off of Warhammer) even though anything more then the most shallowest of analysis can tell they're very different, without comment to the quality of either product too.
I may be an idiot, but I'm a tolerated idiot
"I think you completely missed the point of sigs. They're supposed to be completely homegrown in the fertile hydroponics lab of your mind, dried in your closet, rolled, and smoked...
Oh wait, that's marijuana..."Einhander Sn0m4n
Another part of the issue is when people that should no better and have influence/are famous say something stupid/wrong, and no one calls them on their shit anymore.
I've been asked why I still follow a few of the people I know on Facebook with 'interesting political habits and view points'.
It's so when they comment on or approve of something, I know what pages to block/what not to vote for.
Star Wars and Dune, like so many modern movies and stories, pay homage to certain age-old story telling concepts.
The struggle against evil, finding friends in strange places, loss causing personal growth, etc.
That's not a problem.
The problem is with people that can't see more then a few years of recent history. Unfortunately, this is becoming alot of the younger general populace.
Young people have a myopic view of the past? I also hear that they drive too fast, their music is too loud, they use weird slang and sometimes you can't tell which ones are boys and which ones are girls!
Many years ago, Billy Crystal had a bit where his teenage daughter asked him:
I went through a similar "Damn kids!" moment when my nephew asked me why the Nazi planes in Dunkirk sounded like TIE fighters.
There is a fascinating video essay about how much Star Wars was influenced by Leigh Brackett's science fiction writing (and the works of her husband Edmond Hamilton), which predates Dune by 20-30 years. Check it out, as Joe Bob Briggs would say.
Star Wars and Dune, like so many modern movies and stories, pay homage to certain age-old story telling concepts.
The struggle against evil, finding friends in strange places, loss causing personal growth, etc.
That's not a problem.
The problem is with people that can't see more then a few years of recent history. Unfortunately, this is becoming alot of the younger general populace.
Young people have a myopic view of the past? I also hear that they drive too fast, their music is too loud, they use weird slang and sometimes you can't tell which ones are boys and which ones are girls!
Many years ago, Billy Crystal had a bit where his teenage daughter asked him:
I went through a similar "Damn kids!" moment when my nephew asked me why the Nazi planes in Dunkirk sounded like TIE fighters.
There is a fascinating video essay about how much Star Wars was influenced by Leigh Brackett's science fiction writing (and the works of her husband Edmond Hamilton), which predates Dune by 20-30 years. Check it out, as Joe Bob Briggs would say.
Thing is though that the consequences of myopia become increasingly dire in the modern era, both in terms of the speed of information propagation and in scale of effect, to the point that when it can't be ignored any more it's already far too late to do anything about it, because the destructive effects will be everywhere essentially.
