Sunday, December 21, 2003
The Return of the King
I saw the movie, and although the special effects were fabulous, the three and a half hour movie seemed long to me. This is strange, because I have always been the biggest fan of The Lord of the Rings, and everyone else says how great the new movie is.
Did you know that the plot of the movie Star Wars was stolen from The Lord of the Rings? Yes, think about it. In Star Wars, Luke Skywalker is an orphan living with his uncle. In The Lord of the Rings, Frodo Baggins is an orphan living with his uncle Bilbo Baggins. Luke Skywalker comes upon the secret plans that are the only way to destroy the Death Star. Frodo was given the One Ring which is the only way to destroy the power of Sauron. The Death Star was destroyed by dropping a photo torpedo into a vent in the Death Star while Sauron was destroyed by dropping the Ring into the Pits of Doom. But both quests involve impossible odds, and a diversionary battle to distract the enemy.
Imperial Stormtroopers come looking for Luke Skywalker, while the Nazgul come looking for Frodo. Frodo is aided by the wizard Gandalf. Luke Skywalker is aided by the wizard-like Ben "Obi Wan" Kenobi. In both cases they flee to a bar where they meet up with Han Solo/Strider. And then there is the scene where Ben Kenobi dies fighting Darth Vader buying time for the rest of the party to escape, which is identical to the chapter from The Lord of the Rings where Gandalf dies fighting the Balrog buying time for the rest of the party to escape from the Orcs.
In both cases, Gandalf and Ben Kenobi come back from the dead. (Ben's voice helps Luke at the end when he's piloting the fighter and finally launches the missile that destroys the Death Star.)
You are wondering, by this point, does this have anything to do with Battlestar Galactica? Not a whole lot, but (1) I figure I can throw in some other science fiction themes in here from time to time; and (2) I think it's incredibly hypocritical that George Lucas sued ABC because he claimed that Battlestar Galactical copies his ideas, while he so obviously copied J.R.R. Tolkien's ideas.