Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Precis 6: Star Wars 'People wanted to live onscreen'



  • to captivate - to attract someone very much, and hold their attention, eg. He was captivated by her beauty.
  • an archetype of - a perfect example of something, because it has all the most important qualities of things that belong to that type, eg. France is the archetype of the centralized nation-state ; Archetypal (adj), eg. Byron was the archetypal Romantic hero. 
  • to steamroller UK, steamroll US ( informal) - to make sure something happens by using all your power and influence, or to defeat your opponents badly, eg. He steamrollered the bill through Parliament against fierce opposition.
  • a crossover - 1 [countable]A the change a popular performer makes from working in one area of entertainment to another:, eg. J-Lo has made a crossover from music to the movies.  2 [uncountable and countable] the fact of liking, using, or supporting different types of things or groups, eg. There's some crossover between the musical genres. 
  • mainstream  [adjective only before noun] - accepted by or involving most people in a society, eg. Deaf children can often be included in mainstream education. The mainstream political parties.
  • a niche -1 [countable] if you find your niche, you find a job or activity that is very suitable for you, eg. Amanda soon found her niche at the club. He's managed to create a niche for himself in local politics. 2 [singular] nich in-  an opportunity to sell a product or service to a particular group of people who have similar needs, interests etc, eg.He spotted a niche in the market.
  • a prospect of  -[singular] a particular event which will probably or definitely happen in the future - used especially when you want to talk about how you feel about it , eg. The prospect of marriage terrified Alice. Greeks face the prospect of new general elections next month.
  • hardcore - [adjective only before noun] having an extreme way of life or an extreme belief that is very unlikely to change, eg. a hard-core drug addict. Hard-core racists.
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Gary Kurtz, Star Wars producer used to say that Stay Wars is just the movie, but people got obsessed with it and wanted to live on-screen.
George Lucas, the movie director never thought that the film would attract so many devoted people.
Star Wars arrived in to the cinemas at the right time and became the hit at once, with 80% of box office made in the first two weeks.
What made the Star Wars different and special was the sound, designed by Ben Burtt, who used intricate combinations of different sounds, like R2-D2's bleeps or the laser effect created when the space ships fire at each other.These sound effects made the film stand out.
It would be difficult to make that kind of movie nowadays when it's  impossible to keep anything secret. People know too much about the movie before it is released.
In 1977 only a few thousand people knew about Star Wars when it first arrived in cinemas,but it spread like wildfire and soon there were queues at the cinemas everywhere.
 

 

4 comments:

  1. Yes, Star Wars did get people obsessed and there's a huge SW fandom which, I believe, is active even nowadays. I've only seen the first three SW movies; haven't watched the rest of them. You?

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  2. I don't remember how many parts I watched, but for sure it wasn't more than 3. Are there any more ?

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  3. There are three made in the 1970s - 1980s (parts IV, V and VI) and parts I, II and III made a few years ago. Yes, in that order - that is, that's the chronology of the plot. But I've only seen Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.

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  4. In that case, from what I remember, I've seen only 2 parts: Star Wars and Return of the Jedi, but I still feel thrill when I think back, how the movie influanced my childhood. I was playing with my cousin Star Wars all the time and we really belived we are in Space ;)

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