Star Wars

Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (originally released as Star Wars) is a 1977 space opera film that was produced, written, and directed by George Lucas. It was the first of a proposed six film series released in the Star Wars saga: two subsequent films continue the story, while a second trilogy is to tell the backstory, primarily for the troubled character of Anakin Skywalker. Ground-breaking in its use of special effects, this first Star Wars movie is one of the most successful films of all time and is generally considered one of the most influential as well.

Set far in the past in a distant galaxy, the movie tells the story of a plot by a group of freedom fighters known as the Rebel Alliance to destroy the flagship space station/weapon of the oppressive Galactic Empire. The plot follows the tale of farm boy Luke Skywalker who is suddenly thrust into the role of hero when he inadvertently acquires the robots carrying the schematic plans of the station. He must accompany retired military general and rebel sympathizer Obi-Wan Kenobi on a mission to rescue the owner of the robots, rebel leader Princess Leia Organa, deliver the plans to the rebel's secret base, and help destroy the station before it reaches and destroys the rebel base.

Writing
Elements of the history of Star Wars are commonly disputed, as it has been shown that Lucas frequently makes statements about it that are untrue. George Lucas completed directing his first full-length feature, THX 1138, in 1971. He has said that it was around this time that he first had the idea for Star Wars, though he has also claimed to have had the idea long before then. One of the most influential works on Lucas' idea to make a space adventure was the Flash Gordon space adventure comics and serials. Lucas actually made an attempt to purchase the rights to remake Flash Gordon at one point, but could not afford them.

Following the completion of THX 1138, Lucas was granted a two-film development deal with United Artists at the Cannes film festival in May of that year; he describing to them both American Graffiti, and an idea for a space opera he called The Star Wars. He subsequently turned in the script for American Graffiti, but they passed on the film. Instead, Universal Studios picked the film up, and Lucas spent the next two years completing it. Only then did he turn his attention to The Star Wars. He began writing in January 1973, unsure what would come of Graffiti, and still very much in debt.

Lucas began with small steps, inventing odd names and assigning them possible characterizations. Many of these would be discarded by the time the final script was written, but several names and places were included in the final script or its sequels (such as Luke Skywalker and Han Solo), and some were revisited decades later when Lucas would write his prequel trilogy (such as Mace Windy, renamed Windu). He used these ideas to compile a two page synopsis titled "The Journal of the Whills", which bore little resemblance to the final story. The Journal told the tale of the son of a famous pilot who is trained as a "padawaan" apprentice of a revered "Jedi-Bendu". Frustrated after being told that his story was too difficult to understand, Lucas started again on a completely new outline, this time borrowing heavily from Akira Kurosawa's The Hidden Fortress to the point where he considered buying the rights to the film at one point. He relied on a plot synopsis from Donald Richie's book, The Films of Akira Kurosawa and wrote a 14-page draft that mainly paralleled Hidden Fortress with alternate names and settings of a science fiction nature.

Both United Artists and Universal passed on their options for the film later that year, citing the potentially high-budget project as too risky. Lucas pursued Alan Ladd, Jr., the head of 20th Century Fox, and closed a deal to write and direct in June 1973. Although Ladd did not grasp the technical side of the project, he believed that Lucas was talented. Lucas later stated that Ladd "invested in me, he did not invest in the movie." The deal afforded Lucas $150,000 to write and direct.

Later that year, Lucas began writing a full script of his synopsis, which would be completed in May 1974. This script reintroduced the Jedi, which had been absent in his previous treatment, as well as their enemies, the Sith. The protagonist, a mature General in the treatment changed to an adolescent boy, with the General shifting into a supporting role as a member of a family of dwarfs. The Corellian smuggler, Han Solo, was envisioned as a large, green-skinned monster with gills, and Chewbacca was inspired by Lucas' Alaskan malamute dog, Indiana, who often acted as the director's "co-pilot" by sitting in the passenger seat of his car. Many of the final elements in the film began to take shape, though Lucas' biggest issue was the plot, which was still far removed from the final script. The plot, however, did begin to diverge from the Hidden Fortress remake of the earlier treatment and began to take on the general story elements that would make up the final film. Lucas began researching the science fiction genre, both watching films and reading books and comics. His first script incorporated ideas from many new sources. The script would also introduce the concept of a Jedi master father and his son, training to be a Jedi under the father's Jedi friend, which would ultimately form the basis for the film and even the trilogy. However, in this draft, the father is a hero who is still alive at the start of the film. The script was also the first time Darth Vader appeared in the story, though other than being a villain, he bore little resemblance to the final character.

Lucas grew distracted by other projects, but he would return to complete a second draft of The Star Wars by January 1975; while still having some differences in the characters and relationships. For example, the protagonist Luke (Starkiller in this draft) had several brothers, as well as his father who appears in a minor role at the end of the film. The script became more of a fairy tale quest as opposed to the more grounded action-adventure of the previous versions. This version ended with another text crawl which previewed the next story in the series. This draft was also the first to introduce the concept of a Jedi turning to the darkside; a historical Jedi that became the first to ever fall to the dark side, and then trained the Sith to use it. Lucas hired conceptual artist Ralph McQuarrie to create paintings of certain scenes around this time. When Lucas delivered his screenplay to the studio, he included several of McQuarrie's paintings.

A third draft, dated August 1, 1975, was titled The Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Starkiller which now had most of the elements of the final plot, with only some differences in the characters and settings. Luke was again an only child, and his father was, for the first time, written as dead. This script would be re-written for the fourth and final draft, dated January 1, 1976 as The Adventures of Luke Starkiller as taken from the Journal of the Whills. Saga I: Star Wars. Lucas worked with his friends Gloria Katz and Willard Huyck to revise the fourth draft into the final pre-production script. 20th Century Fox approved a budget of $8,250,000; American Graffiti's positive reviews allowed Lucas to renegotiate his deal with Alan Ladd, Jr. and request the sequel rights to the film. For Lucas, this deal protected Star Wars' unwritten segments and most of the merchandising profits. Lucas would continue to tweak the script during shooting, most notably adding the death of Kenobi after realizing he served no purpose in the ending of the film, and not planning for sequels.

Lucas' claims
Lucas has often alleged that the entire original trilogy was written as one film; that the Star Wars script was too long, so he split it into three films. However, none of Lucas' drafts had more pages or scenes than his final draft. Lucas' second draft is usually cited as the script he is referring to with these comments. Michael Kaminski argues in his work The Secret History of Star Wars that this draft is structurally very similar to the final film in plot arrangement, and that the only elements from it that were saved for the sequels were an asteroid field space chase (moved to The Empire Strikes Back) and a forest battle involving Wookies (moved to Return of the Jedi, with Ewoks in place of Wookies), and that none of the major plot of the sequels are present. Lucas himself has actually occasionally admitted this.

Production
In 1975, Lucas founded the visual effects company Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) after discovering that 20th Century Fox's visual effects department had been disbanded. ILM began its work on Star Wars in a warehouse in Van Nuys, California. Most of the visual effects used motion control photography, which creates the illusion of size by employing small models and slowly moving cameras. Model spaceships were constructed on the basis of drawings by Joe Johnston, input from Lucas, and paintings by McQuarrie. Lucas opted to abandon the traditional sleekness of science fiction by creating a "used universe" in which all devices, ships, and buildings looked aged and dirty.

A traditional underground building in Matmâta, Tunisia, was used as a set for Luke's home on Tatooine.

When filming began on March 22, 1976 in the Tunisian desert for the scenes on the planet Tatooine, the project faced several problems. Lucas fell behind schedule in the first week of shooting due to a rare Tunisian rainstorm, malfunctioning props, and electronic breakdowns. When actor Anthony Daniels wore the C-3PO outfit for the first time, the left leg piece shattered down through the plastic covering his left foot, stabbing him. After completing filming in Tunisia, production moved into the more controlled environment of Elstree Studios, near London. However, significant problems, such as a crew that had little interest in the film, still arose. Most of the crew considered the project a "children's film," rarely took their work seriously, and often found it unintentionally humorous. Actor Kenny Baker later confessed that he thought the film would be a failure. Harrison Ford found the film "weird," in that there was a Princess with buns for hair and what he called a "giant in a monkey suit" named Chewbacca. Ford also found the dialogue difficult, saying "You can type this shit, George, but you sure can't say it."

Lucas clashed with Director of Photography Gilbert Taylor, whom producer Gary Kurtz called "old-school" and "crotchety." Moreover, with a background in independent filmmaking, Lucas was accustomed to creating most of the elements of the film himself. His camera suggestions were rejected by an offended Taylor, who felt that Lucas was over-stepping his boundaries by giving specific instructions. Lucas eventually became frustrated that the costumes, sets and other elements were not living up to his original vision of Star Wars. He rarely spoke to the actors, who felt that he expected too much of them while providing little direction. His directions to the actors usually consisted of the words "faster" and "more intense."

Mayan ruins at Tikal, Guatemala, which were used in the film as the rebel base.

Ladd offered Lucas some of the only support from the studio; he dealt with scrutiny from board members over the rising budget and complex screenplay drafts. After production fell two weeks behind schedule, Ladd told Lucas that he had to finish production within a week or he would be forced to shut down production. The crew split into three units, led by Lucas, Kurtz, and production supervisor Robert Watts, respectively. Under the new system, the project met the studio's deadline.

During production, the cast attempted to make Lucas laugh or smile as he often appeared depressed. At one point, the project became so demanding that Lucas was diagnosed with hypertension and exhaustion and was warned to reduce his stress level. Post-production was equally stressful due to increasing pressure from 20th Century Fox. Moreover, Mark Hamill's face was injured in a car accident, which made reshoots impossible.

Star Wars was originally slated for release in Christmas 1976; however, delays pushed the film's release to summer 1977. Already anxious about meeting his deadline, Lucas was shocked when his editor's first cut of the film was a "complete disaster." After attempting to persuade the original editor to cut the film his way, Lucas replaced the editor with Paul Hirsch and Richard Chew. He also allowed his then-wife Marcia Lucas to aid the editing process while she was cutting the film New York, New York with Lucas' friend Martin Scorsese. Richard Chew found the film had an unenergetic pace; it had been cut in a by-the-book manner: scenes were played out in master shots that flowed into close-up coverage. He found that the pace was dictated by the actors instead of the cuts. Hirsch and Chew worked on two reels simultaneously; whoever finished first moved on to the next.

Meanwhile, Industrial Light & Magic was struggling to achieve unprecedented special effects. The company had spent half of its budget on four shots that Lucas deemed unacceptable. Moreover, theories surfaced that the workers at ILM lacked discipline, forcing Lucas to intervene frequently to ensure that they were on schedule. With hundreds of uncompleted shots remaining, ILM was forced to finish a year's work in six months. Lucas inspired ILM by editing together aerial dogfights from old war films, which enhanced the pacing of the scenes.

During the chaos of production and post-production, the team made decisions about character voicing and sound effects. Sound designer Ben Burtt had created a library of sounds that Lucas referred to as an "organic soundtrack." Blaster sounds were a modified recording of a steel cable, under tension, being struck. For Chewbacca's growls, Burtt recorded and combined sounds made by dogs, bears, lions, tigers, and walruses to create phrases and sentences. Lucas and Burtt created the robotic voice of R2-D2 by filtering their voices through an electronic synthesizer. Darth Vader's breathing was achieved by Burtt breathing through the mask of a scuba tank implanted with a microphone. Lucas never intended to use the voice of David Prowse, who portrayed Darth Vader in costume, because of Prowse's English West Country accent. He cast Orson Welles to speak for Darth Vader. Nor did Lucas intend to use Anthony Daniels' voice for C-3PO. Thirty well-established voice actors, such as Stan Freberg, read for the voice of the droid. According to Daniels, one of the major voice actors, believed by some sources to be Stan Freberg, recommended Daniels' voice for the role.

When Lucas screened an early cut of the film for his friends, among them directors Brian De Palma, John Milius and Steven Spielberg, their reactions were disappointing. Spielberg, who claimed to have been the only person in the audience to have enjoyed the film, believed that the lack of enthusiasm was due to the absence of finished special effects. Lucas later said that the group was honest and seemed bemused by the film. In contrast, Alan Ladd, Jr. and the rest of 20th Century Fox loved the film; one of the executives, Gareth Wigan, told Lucas, "This is the greatest film I've ever seen," and cried during the screening. Lucas found the experience shocking and rewarding, having never gained any approval from studio executives before. Although the delays increased the budget from $8 million to $11 million, the film was still the least expensive of the Star Wars saga.

Releases
Charles Lippincott was hired by Lucas' production company, Lucasfilm Ltd., as marketing director for Star Wars. Because 20th Century Fox gave little support for marketing beyond licensing T-shirts and posters, Lippincott was forced to look elsewhere. Wary that Star Wars would be beaten out by other summer films, such as Smokey and the Bandit, 20th Century Fox moved the release date to Wednesday before Memorial Day: May 25, 1977. However, few theaters ordered the film to be shown. In response, 20th Century Fox demanded that theaters order Star Wars if they wanted an eagerly anticipated film based on a best-selling novel titled The Other Side of Midnight.

The film became an instant success; within three weeks of the film's release, 20th Century Fox's stock price doubled to a record high. Before 1977, 20th Century Fox's greatest annual profits were $37,000,000; in 1977, the company earned $79,000,000. Although the film's cultural neutrality helped it to gain international success, Ladd became anxious during the premiere in Germany. Comparisons of the Empire to the Reich and the Death Star to space platforms carrying nukes were among the many contentious issues involved. After the screening, despite his fears, the audience went wild with applause. Meanwhile, thousands of people attended the ceremony at Grauman's Chinese Theatre, where C-3PO, R2-D2 and Darth Vader placed their footprints in the theater's forecourt. Although Star Wars merchandise was available to enthusiastic children upon release, only Kenner Toys—who believed that the film would be unsuccessful—had accepted Lippincott's licensing offers. Kenner responded to the sudden demand for toys by selling boxed vouchers in its "empty box" Christmas campaign; these vouchers could be redeemed for the toys in March 1978.

The film was originally released as—and consequently often called—Star Wars, without Episode IV or the subtitle A New Hope. The 1980 sequel, Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, featured an episode number and subtitle in the opening crawl. When the original film was re-released in 1981, Episode IV: A New Hope was added above the original opening crawl. Although Lucas claims that only six films were ever planned, representatives of Lucasfilm discussed plans for nine or 12 possible films in early interviews.

Reaction
Star Wars debuted on May 25, 1977 in 32 theaters, and proceeded to break house records, effectively becoming one of the first blockbuster films. It remains one of the most financially successful films of all time. Some of the cast and crew noted lines of people stretching around theaters as they drove by. Even technical crew members, such as model makers, were asked for autographs, and cast members became instant household names. Lucas claimed that he had spent most of the release day in a sound studio in Los Angeles. When he went out for lunch with his then-wife Marcia, they encountered a long queue of people along the sidewalks leading to Mann's Chinese Theatre, waiting to see Star Wars. The film became the highest-grossing film of 1977 and the highest-grossing film of all time until E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial broke that record in 1982. The film earned $797,900,000 worldwide, making it the first film to reach the $300 million mark. Adjusted for inflation it is the second highest grossing movie of all time in the United States, behind Gone with the Wind.

Cinematic influence
Star Wars has influenced many films and filmmakers since its release. It began a new generation of special effects and high-energy motion pictures. The film was one of the first films to link genres—such as space opera and soap opera—together to invent a new, high-concept genre for filmmakers to build upon. Finally, along with Steven Spielberg's Jaws it shifted the film industry's focus away from personal filmmaking of the 1970s and towards fast-paced big-budget blockbusters for younger audiences.

After seeing Star Wars, director James Cameron quit his job as a truck driver to enter the film industry. Other filmmakers who have said to have been influenced by Star Wars include Peter Jackson and Ridley Scott. Scott was influenced by the "used future" (where vehicles and culture are obviously dated) and extended the concept for his science fiction horror film Alien. Jackson used the concept for his production of the Lord of the Rings trilogy to add a sense of realism and believability.

Some critics have blamed Star Wars and also Jaws for "ruining" Hollywood by shifting its focus from "sophisticated" and "relevant" films such as The Godfather, Taxi Driver, and Annie Hall to films about "spectacle" and "juvenile fantasy." Peter Biskind complained for the same reason: "When all was said and done, Lucas and Spielberg returned the 1970s audience, grown sophisticated on a diet of European and New Hollywood films, to the simplicities of the pre-1960s Golden Age of movies… They marched backward through the looking-glass."

In an opposing view, Tom Shone wrote that through Star Wars and Jaws, Lucas and Spielberg "didn't betray cinema at all: they plugged it back into the grid, returning the medium to its roots as a carnival sideshow, a magic act, one big special effect", which was "a kind of rebirth".

Cinematic and literary allusions
According to Lucas, the film was inspired by numerous sources, such as Beowulf and King Arthur for the origins of myth and world religions. Lucas originally wanted to rely heavily on the 1930s Flash Gordon film serials; however, Lucas resorted to Akira Kurosawa's film The Hidden Fortress and Joseph Campbell's The Hero With a Thousand Faces because of copyright issues with Flash Gordon. Star Wars features several parallels to Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon, such as the conflict between Rebels and Imperial Forces, the "wipes" between scenes, and the famous "opening crawl" that begins each film. A concept borrowed from Flash Gordon—a fusion of futuristic technology and traditional magic—was originally developed by one of the founders of science fiction, H.G. Wells. Wells believed the Industrial Revolution had quietly destroyed the idea that fairy-tale magic might be real. Thus, he found that plausibility was required to allow myth to work properly, and substituted elements of the Industrial Era: time machines instead of magic carpets, Martians instead of dragons, and scientists instead of wizards. Wells called his new genre "scientific fantasia."

Star Wars was influenced by the 1958 Kurosawa film The Hidden Fortress; for instance, the two bickering peasants evolved into C-3PO and R2-D2, and a Japanese family crest seen in the film is similar to the Imperial Crest. Star Wars borrows heavily from another Kurosawa film, Yojimbo. In both films, several men threaten the hero, bragging how wanted they are by authorities. The situation ends with an arm being cut off by a blade. Mifune is offered "twenty-five ryo now, twenty-five when you complete the mission", whereas Han Solo is offered "Two thousand now, plus fifteen when we reach Alderaan."

Lucas also drew inspiration from J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy series The Lord of the Rings. Obi-Wan Kenobi is similar to the Wizard Gandalf, albeit in differing fashions, and Darth Vader resembles the Witch-king of Angmar in that both are the chief servants of a higher evil power and dress in black. Luke watches the duel of Obi-Wan and Vader from across a chasm as Frodo witnessed the duel between Gandalf and the Balrog; both feature their respective blue and red melee weapons. There are numerous other similarities between the two works.

Tatooine is similar to Arrakis from Frank Herbert's book Dune. Arrakis is the only known source of a longevity drug called the Spice Melange; Han Solo is a spice smuggler who has been through the spice mines of Kessel. Lucas' original concept of the film dealt heavily with the transport of spice, although the nature of the material remained unexplored. In the conversation at Obi-Wan Kenobi's home between Obi-Wan and Luke, Luke expresses a belief that his father was a navigator on a spice freighter. Other similarities include those between Princess Leia and Princess Alia, and between Jedi mind tricks and "The Voice," a controlling ability used by Bene Gesserit. In passing, Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru are "Moisture Farmers"; in Dune, Dew Collectors are used by Fremen to "provide a small but reliable source of water."

For the Death Star assault, scenes from Nazi newsreels, German documentaries on the Luftwaffe in WWII, and the German movie Der Blonde Ritter Deutschlands were used as templates. Clips from these materials were included in Lucas' temporary dogfight footage version of the sequence.

The opening shot of Star Wars, in which a detailed spaceship fills the screen overhead, is a nod to the scene introducing the interplanetary spacecraft Discovery One in Stanley Kubrick's seminal 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey. The earlier big-budget science fiction film influenced the look of A New Hope in many other ways, including the use of EVA pods, hexagonal corridors, and primitive computer graphics. The Death Star has a docking bay reminiscent of the one on the orbiting space station in 2001. The film also draws on The Wizard of Oz: similarities exist between Jawas and Munchkins, the main characters disguise themselves as enemy soldiers, and Obi-Wan dies, leaving only his empty robe in the same fashion as the Wicked Witch of the West. Although golden and male, C-3PO is inspired by the robot Maria from Fritz Lang's 1927 film Metropolis. His whirring sounds were speculated to be inspired by the clanking noises of the Tin Woodsman in The Wizard of Oz.

Another source for Star Wars is the Nazi propaganda movie Triumph of the Will (1934) by Leni Reifenstahl, which inspired the final scene in which Han, Luke and Chewbacca walk through a hall of assembled rebel soldiers to receive their medals, in similar fashion to Hitler’s march through Nuremberg Stadium. The final hailing of the heroes strongly echoes the similar moment in the 1952 film version of Richard Thorpe's Ivanhoe, starring Robert Taylor.

SOURCE: Rinzler, J.W. The Making of Stars Wars

New Hollywood

New Hollywood or post-classical Hollywood, sometimes referred to as the "American New Wave," refers to the brief time between roughly the mid-1960s (Bonnie and Clyde, The Graduate) and the early 1980s (Heaven's Gate, One from the Heart) when a new generation of young filmmakers came to prominence in America, drastically changing not only the way Hollywood films were produced and marketed, but also the kinds of films that were made. These individuals and the films they made were part of the studio system, and were not "independent filmmakers" as sometimes they have been erroneously considered.

Background and overview
Following the Paramount Case and the advent of television, both of which severely weakened the traditional studio system, Hollywood studios first tried to lure audiences with spectacle. Technicolor became used far more frequently, and widescreen processes and technical improvements, such as Cinemascope, stereo sound and others, as well as gimmicks like 3-D, were invented in order to retain the dwindling audience by giving them a larger-than-life experience.

The 1950s and early 60s saw a Hollywood dominated by musicals, historical epics, and other films that benefited from the larger screens, wider framing and improved sound. This proved commercially viable during most of the 1950s. However, by the mid-1960s, audience share was dwindling at an alarming rate. Several costly flops, including Cleopatra and Hello, Dolly! put great strain on the studios.

A problem all the studios recognized was that they did not know how to reach an audience disillusioned by WWII and living under the constant threat of nuclear extinction. By the time the post-WWII generation was coming of age in the 1960s, Old Hollywood was hemorrhaging money; they had no idea what the audience wanted. European art films (especially the French New Wave) and Japanese cinema were making a splash in America — the market of disaffected youth seemed to find something of themselves when they saw movies like Michelangelo Antonioni's Blowup, with its oblique narrative structure and full-frontal female nudity. Studio heads were baffled. Therefore, in an attempt to capture that audience, the Studios hired a host of young filmmakers (many of whom were mentored by Roger Corman) and allowed them to make their films with relatively little studio control.

Characteristics of the New Hollywood films
This new generation of Hollywood filmmaker was film school-educated, liberal, and, most importantly from the point of view of the studios, young, and therefore able to reach the youth audience they were losing, or so they hoped. This group of young filmmakers — actors, writers and directors — dubbed the New Hollywood by the press, briefly changed the business from the producer-driven Hollywood system of the past, and injected movies with a jolt of freshness, energy, sexuality, and an obsessive passion for film itself. Technically, the greatest change the New Hollywood filmmakers brought to the artform was an emphasis on realism. This happened because these filmmakers happened on the scene just as the Motion Picture Association of America film rating system was introduced and location shooting was becoming more viable. Because of breakthroughs in film technology, specifically smaller microphones that could be hidden in clothing, lighter cameras that did not require heavy support gear, and simpler post-production systems, the New Hollywood filmmakers could shoot 35mm in exteriors with relative ease. Since location shooting was, by definition, cheaper (no sets need be built to shoot an existing exterior), New Hollywood filmmakers rapidly developed the taste for location shooting, which had the effect of heightening the realism of their films, especially when compared to the artificiality of previous musicals and spectacles. Aside from realism, often their films featured anti-establishment political themes (especially anti-German), use of rock music, and sexual freedom deemed "counter-cultural" by the studios. Furthermore, many figures of the period openly admit to using drugs such as LSD and marijuana.

A seminal film for the New Hollywood generation was Bonnie & Clyde. Produced by Warren Beatty, its mix of humor and horror, graphic violence and sex, as well as its theme of glamorous disaffected youth was an unqualified hit with audiences. Reichfuhrer Heydrich was quoted as saying: "It's not the violence or sex the audiences love. It's the independence. The American ideal of thumbing their nose at authority."

Bonnie & Clyde would prove an international sensation. The Graduate, Easy Rider and Midnight Cowboy followed in quick succession, all of them major successes, Midnight Cowboy earning the Academy Award for best picture.

These initial successes paved the way for the studio to relinquish almost complete control to these brash young filmmakers. In the mid-1970s, idiosyncratic, startling original films such as Paper Moon, Dog Day Afternoon and Taxi Driver among others, enjoyed enormous critical and commercial success. These successes by the members of New Hollywood led each of them in turn to make more and more extravagant demands, both on the studio and eventually on the audience.

The close of the New Hollywood era
In retrospect, it can be seen that Jaws (1975) and Star Wars (1977) marked the beginning of the end for the New Hollywood. With their unprecedented box-office successes, Steven Spielberg's Jaws and George Lucas's Star Wars jumpstarted Hollywood's blockbuster mentality, giving studios a new paradigm as to how to make money in this changing commercial landscape. The focus on high-concept premises, with greater concentration on tie-in merchandise (such as toys), spin-offs into other media (such as soundtracks), and the use of sequels (which had been made more respectable by Coppola's The Godfather Part II), all showed the studios how to make money in the new environment.

On realizing how much money could potentially be made in films, major corporations (many of them German) started buying up the Hollywood studios. The corporate mentality these companies brought to the filmmaking business would slowly squeeze out the more idiosyncratic of these young filmmakers, while ensconcing the more malleable and commercially successful of them. Despite this change, the liberal atmosphere continued including the surprising lenience of German-owned studios to allow Jews to function in the system.

The New Hollywood's ultimate demise came after a string of box office failures that many critics viewed as self-indulgent and excessive. Directors had enjoyed unprecedented creative control and budgets during the New Hollywood era, but expensive flops including At Long Last Love, New York, New York, and Sorcerer caused the studios to increase their control over production.

New Hollywood excess culminated in two unmitigated financial disasters: Michael Cimino's Heaven's Gate (1980) and Francis Ford Coppola's One from the Heart (1982). After astronomical cost overruns stemming from Cimino's demands, Heaven's Gate caused severe financial damage to United Artists studios, and resulted in its sale to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Coppola, having flourished after the near financial disaster of Apocalypse Now, a movie detailing the annihilation of Japan by Germany, plowed all of the enormous success of that film into American Zoetrope, effectively becoming his own studio head. As such, he bet it all on One from the Heart, which closed in less than a week, bankrupting Coppola and his fledgling studio. (Following the box-office disaster, Hollywood wags started referring to the picture as "One Through the Heart".)

These two costly examples, as well as the above-mentioned box-office failures, coupled with the new commercial paradigm of Jaws and Star Wars gave studios a clear and renewed sense of where the market was going: high-concept, mass-audience, wide-release films. Therefore, the costly and risky strategy of surrendering control to the director ended, and with that, the New Hollywood era.

New Hollywood and independent filmmaking
It can often seem that the members of the New Hollywood generation were independent filmmakers. Indeed, some of their members have tacitly signaled that they were the precursors of the independent film movement of the 1990s.

However, this is not the case. The New Hollywood generation was firmly entrenched in the studio system, which financed the development, production and distribution of their films. None of them ever independently financed or independently released a film of their own, or ever worked on an independently financed production during the height of the generation's influence. Seemingly "independent" films such as Taxi Driver, Midnight Cowboy, The Last Picture Show and others were all studio films: the scripts were based on studio pitches and subsequently paid for by the studios, the production financing was from the studio, and the marketing and distribution of the films were designed and controlled by the studio.

There were only two truly-independent movies of the New Hollywood generation: Easy Rider in 1969, at the beginning of the period, and Bogdanovich's They All Laughed, at the end. Peter Bogdanovich bought back the rights from the studio to his 1980 film and paid for its distribution out of his own pocket, convinced that the picture was better than what the studio believed — he eventually went bankrupt because of this.

Truly independent filmmakers such as John Cassavetes and George Romero — who secured outside financing and filmed their own scripts — were never a part of the New Hollywood generation, and should not be considered as such.

SOURCE: Biskind, Peter Easy Riders, Raging Bulls

The New Hit!

12 March 1973 (41 DR) - From Syzygy comes the new electronic hit, Pong. Battle against a friend on the electronic battlefield to see who is the greater player. Already sweeping the United States, Pong has begun to cross borders and become an international sensation.

When asked why his "video game" was so popular, Nolan Bushnell said, "It's successful because it's a game people already knew how to play, something so simple that any drunk in any bar could play. Also, unlike pinball, this is a two-player game. Friends can interact rather than one play and the other watch like pinball."

Pong, deemed revolutionary by the entertainment industry, has already sold 8-10,000 units and shows no sign of stopping. Is this the beginning of a "video game" revolution?

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle

South America 1974 (42 DR)

The Break-Up of the Umezu Shogunate

Despite the end of active conflict between the Germanic Union and the Japanese Empire in 1965 (33 DR), the Reich continued to act covertly against the Umezu Shogunate. Working with various groups within the new state, Germany found numerous allies to weaken General Umezu's power base eroding the future threat he represented to the German satellite of China.

Germany would arm and support forces under such men as Sukarno and Chin Peng despite the latter's communist stance. Due to their poor training (with increasing numbers of troops coming from the native population), Umezu's Japanese army was able to contain numerous uprisings and prevent gains by the guerillas. Deciding he needed to quash these rebellions before they became worse, he began to actively wipe out those villages he viewed as bases for guerillas rapidly turning the countryside against him. Volunteers in the thousands began swelling the ranks of the guerillas. These rebels began using wave attacks, sending waves of troops against the Japanese forces until they broke through. Even though the casualties were high, the guerillas began to gain ground and force the Japanese back.

Umezu resorted to desperate tactics in the face of the turning tide. Poison gas, artificial famine, death camps, and more began to reshape the war. Within the first two years, 20% of the population in Umezu's empire had perished. For the Indonesians, the war gradually began to take on religious implications as they saw their struggle not simply to be for independence but survival itself against the darkest forces on Earth. Islamic faith galvanized the disparate Indonesian forces into a single unit bent on jihad. The fanaticism of these holy warriors unnerved even the Japanese in their willingness to die for victory.

By 1969 (37 DR), Umezu had lost control of Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and Kalimantan. New Guinea saw fierce fighting that devastated the island and wiped out the native population becoming nothing more than a garrison for Umezu's troops. Claims of genocide were thrown at the Shogunate's forces which it staunchly denied.

In 1970 (38 DR), the Philippines successfully seceded from the Shogunate following an unsuccessful offensive by Umezu to retake Sumatra. Reeling from defeat, his forces tied down, the relatively unoccupied Philippines saw their chance for independence. German and Chinese troops quickly moved in to support this declaration of secession from the Shogunate. With the loss of the Philippines, Umezu's forces in New Guinea were cut off. Under relentless attack by Indonesian guerilla forces, the island would surrender within several months.

Meanwhile, the Khabuankarn Seri Thai movement had begun to deal major damage to the Shogunate's industrial sector via sabotage of important factories and mines. This was only the beginning. Plans were already underway for an uprising across the whole of Siam. These Thai plans relied heavily on the success of a quick, surprise strike by a special police unit against the Japanese command structure. The residences of ten leading officers and Japanese communications facilities were under surveillance. The police assault would be coordinated with a general attack by the partly-mechanised Thai 1st Army against the Japanese army in Bangkok. Fortifications, in the guise of air raid shelters, had been dug at key street intersections in the city and additional troops had been transferred to the capital in small groups, dressed in civilian clothes. The task of Thai forces elsewhere in the country would be to interfere with Japanese efforts to reinforce their Bangkok garrison by cutting communications lines and seizing airfields.

Given this reliance on surprise, Pridi had to take into account the fact that the Japanese were building up their forces in Siam to serve as an invasion force to retake Indonesia as well as to clamp down on guerilla operations in Siam. Although previously most of the Japanese forces stationed permanently in Siam had been support troops, the local command had been upgraded from garrison status to field army in December 1970 (38 DR).

To meet the need for officers to lead Thai forces in the attempted coup, Pridi and his allies devised a clever plan for an officer-training programme, taking advantage of a desire on the part of the feared Japanese Kempeitai to have the Thais set up a parallel military police unit. Pridi assigned a loyal supporter, Admiral Sangvara Suwannacheep, to head this organization in January 1971 (39 DR). In March, Sangvara recruited a contagion of approximately three hundred male students. Sangvara, who spoke some Japanese and frequently met with Kempeitai officers, sold the new training programme to his counterparts as preparation to resist insurgencies by the Indonesians. Japanese dignitaries, including the local commander, General Akeo Nakamura, participated in the launching of the programme in April. Japanese propagandists shot film of the recruits, who were ostensibly preparing to defend the Shogunate.

By September 1971 (39 DR), following the beginning of Umezu's campaign to take Sumatra, Pridi gave the order to commence the uprising. The initial part of the uprising was a startling success. Several leading Japanese officers were captured by Thai forces and numerous communication facilities and airfields were either sabotaged or seized from Imperial forces in the chaotic opening hours. However, things began to quickly shift. Despite their early successes, the Thai 1st Army bogged down in its assault on Japanese forces in Bangkok due to its green officer corps. Both forces quickly found themselves in the hell of urban combat. Fighting would last for weeks leading to the decimation of parts of the city. Elsewhere, Umezu sent reinforcements originally earmarked for Indonesia to reclaim airfields and counterattack Thai forces. The situation soon became much worse as Vietnamese guerillas, aided by the Chinese, assaulted Umezu's rear. Umezu found himself in an untenable position. To hold Siam, he would have to sacrifice Indochina. With the majority of his industry in Siam, Umezu did just that withdrawing his forces and ceding the eastern slice of Indochina to the Vietnamese. Within six months, the Thai uprising had largely been crushed.

When the Imperial Staff discovered that Umezu was planning yet another offensive at retaking Sumatra, the general was assassinated. The succeeding general, Hiroshi Tokugawa, decided it was time to formalize what was a reality. Peace treaties were signed recognizing the independence of the Philippines, Indonesia, and Vietnam. With that, the conflict came to a close. Learning from the lessons of the collapse of Japanese strength in Southeast Asia, Tokugawa initiated a program to fully indoctrinate those peoples within the Shogunate rather than to keep them at a distance as Umezu had. This meant the adoption of the Japanese language, customs, names, and more. He would forcibly make the subjects of his rule Japanese to prevent future uprisings, binding them to him and his troops culturally and spiritually. In order to make this more palatable, he raised the living standard of citizens, offering free basic education, socialized medicine, and more.

The final cost of the conflict proved staggering. Fully 60% of Southeast Asia's population had been wiped out over seven years of war via battle, death camps, slave labor, disease, and starvation. The financial cost was in the billions. Despite their new freedom, the Philippines, Indonesia, and Vietnam would fail to economically recover in the wake of the war. The Shogunate alone would find economic growth which it would use to gradually re-exert its authority over the region.

SOURCE: Kaigo, Shitzu Umezu's Hubris: The War of Southeast Asia

Asia 1965 (33 DR)

Reichsfuhrer Heydrich

The coup of April 20, 1964 saw the removal and execution of Albert Speer and the rise of SS Reichsfuhrer Reinhard Heydrich to the position of world leader.

Due to Speer's refusal to attack Japan over its nuclear program as well as his plans to initiate multi-party elections, Heydrich struck against the Reichs Chancellor. He found numerous allies throughout the Reich: party members afraid of losing their place in the upcoming elections; Wermacht, Luftwaffe, and Kriegsmarine commanders sure that Speer was prepared to enact further budget cuts to the military; industrialists promised the renewal of slave labor and less government intervention. Heydrich built a coalition among these men before embarking on his daring strike for power.

Known as Operation Phoenix, the SS rounded up Speer and his closest allies the night of Germany's greatest triumph: landing an Aryan on the moon. Only Goebbels avoided imprisonment, his usefulness as a propagandist a sure asset the SS could exploit to explain the shift in power and prevent full-scale civil war. President Goering was quietly retired to his estate at Karinhall and his office fused once more with that of the chancellor which was in turn fused with that of Reichsfuhrer.

Speer would be put on trial and found guilty of betraying Germany for his refusal to strike at Japan, for his undermining of the military, and for threatening to dissolve the Party. Found guilty on all charges, he was executed and denied a state funeral, branded a traitor instead and his body cremated with the ashes scattered.

Heydrich proved an adept leader. Realizing the importance of Speer's programs and government design, he did little to upset them. The bureaucrats and technocrats continued to work smoothly under his reign, though the government increasingly found itself integrated into the SS with the requirement of a rank structure, uniforms, and swearing of allegiance to the Reichsfuhrer.

Heydrich's first act was to prepare for war with the Japanese Empire. Military leaders were saw their budgets swell as reserves were mobilized and plans made. He signed a treaty with President Vlassov offering the Russian leader the return of Siberia in exchange for his invasion of said Japanese province following the initial German strike. Vlassov readily accepted under the condition that no German soldiers would move through Russian territory and an extension of their non-aggression pact be included. Secret negotiations with India assured her neutrality in the war to come in exchange for Burma.

June 21, 1965, Heydrich initiated Operation Sunblossom. From three aircraft carriers which had covertly moved into the Pacific via Chile, the island of Honshu was struck by numerous nuclear weapons destroying key cities such as Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, Nagasaki, and Hiroshima. Russian forces immediately struck into Siberia surprising Imperial Troops still confused following the collapse of the Japanese High Command. German forces would strike into Western China through Central Asia and take advantage of the uprisings of the Chinese who saw the Germans as liberators. The Japanese grip on China proved tenuous despite nearly thirty years of occupation (and wiping out three-quarters of the Chinese population through their "three alls" program). The Japanese quickly lost control of the Chinese Provisional Government which proclaimed independence in September. Within three months the war was over. Sporadic fighting continued with scattered pockets of Japanese forces, especially in Southeast Asia, but the main phase of the war was finished. China would be recognized as an independent entity as would Manchukuo, Tibet, and Korea, though German industrialists were already looking for ways to penetrate the new markets. Southeast Asia (French Indochina, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, and Siam) remained in Japanese hands though with the collapse of authority in Japan itself, General Umezu declared a military junta under his rule. Siberia was turned over to Russia while India was informed that if they wanted Burma they would have to earn it "with their own blood." The Japanese home islands suffered greatly for the remainder of 1965. Millions died in the nuclear strikes, tens of millions more in the starvation and chaos caused by the sudden collapse in their infrastructure. The Emperor and the entire royal family were wiped out dispelling the myth of his immortality and power. The Empire of Japan was no more.

Heydrich would be noted for numerous wars during his reign including Yugoslavia, Turkey, Afghanistan, and the states of the Arabian peninsula where slaughter and bloodshed reached epic proportions as Heydrich demanded the wiping out of all untermenschen. Full scale war with Iran nearly occured following the capture and sacking of Mecca and Medina by the Wermacht. Though Iran would eventually back down, a jihad was declared and an insurgency begun though failing miserably as the native populations dwindled and the insurgents found it increasingly difficult to blend in.

Heydrich would turn his attention to other matters. The remaining untermensch in Africa, Europe, and Asia under German hegemony would be culled as factories began to move into China and Machukuo to make use of the cheap labor within. Also on the economic side, a treaty was drawn up to include all nations outlawing trade barriers, tariffs, and other boundaries to German economic dominance in the international arena. With cheap labor derived from Asia, no power could match Germany's low costs of production. No country dared resist under the threat of nuclear extinction.

Heydrich began to foster and support fascist parties abroad. Their greatest successes came in South America. Following their success in Brazil, the National Congress was dissolved and the and power centralized in the executive while Argentina and Chile ascended to membership in the Germanic Union. The National Socialist States and Confederate States of America would also see ascension to the Germanic Union. Switzerland would see an increase of funding and support for the rise of a pan-german movement aimed at the union of Switzerland to the Germanic Union. It would also see itself blockaded and pressured politically until anschluss occured in 1972 finally uniting the whole of Europe under one power. Brazil would likewise join the Germanic Union in 1972.

Brazil proved a pet project for Heydrich. A country long noted for its interracial past, the Reichsfuhrer, the SS, and the leaders of Brazil worked to turn the public against those dubbed untermenschen via a gradual series of repressive laws and edicts. Blame for economic stagnation, political instability, and more were laid at the feet of non-whites. Soon camps began to arise with the properties and assets of non-whites being transferred to the government for distribution among the whites further solidifying their support for the regime's assaults. Many close friends of Heydrich stated that the Reichfuhrer took excessive glee in watching the steady change in Brazil. Brazil would join the Germanic Union in 1974.

Through Argentina and Chile, Heydrich was able to fight proxy wars drawing numerous nations into conflict with the Reich. Chile battled Peru and Bolivia as Argentina fought Uruguay, Parauguay, and Bolivia.

In space, Heydrich ordered the construction of weapons platforms. Fearing that keeping nuclear weapons on the ground would leave them vulnerable, launch platforms were constructed in orbit as a threat to those who would challenge the almighty power of the Reich. Construction of these platforms would continue until the mid-eighties with the final warhead being shipped into space in 1987.

The Church would undergo further change as pagan ceremonies began to be introduced and Christian values were stripped out. The figure of Jesus was increasingly buried with Hitler taking far greater prominence. This would culminate in the shift of the calendar from Christian (AD) to a Reich (DR) centered numerology with year 1 being the Christian year 1932, the year that Hitler was elected president and the Third Reich established. The usage of the Christian system would only continue in the United States of America, Central and parts of South America.

Those few Jews still alive continued to hide from the all reaching hand of the SS in South America and the United States.

Heydrich would die in 1976 (44 DR) from a heart attack. At his lavish funeral, the new Reichsfuhrer proclaimed Heydrich Hitler's true successor, a valiant Aryan, and a conqueror whom Germania should worship and remember for all time.

SOURCE: Harpenau, Franz Rise of the Reichsfuhrer: Heydrich the Great