films that aren't as original as you think

S

Sanya Ali

New member
recently for an english project i was looking at alot of folk tales and other simmilar tales and when ever i read one something in my head told me that is had read it before. it wasn't untill earlier today that i figured out where, star wars. i have never seen such copying of old tales, the incest story between luke and lela, the father of the hero been the villan and the story of one dark force wipping out all good are all different parts of folk tales. i was wondering if anyone else had any examples of old tales been retold in films.
 
Almost everything has its roots.... it appears to me from how you wrote your entry you have just had an early film/media lesson. :)

The example my lecturer used was how Star Wars is exactly the same as Harry Potter.... quite funny really.
 
LOL...Harry Potter is plagurism overload. ;)

Very few of the Disney movies are original tales either.

Someone took apart the original Star Wars trilogy years ago,exploring all the connections with ancient folk tales and if i remember correctly, most of them were East Asian in origin.
 
I can remember reading the first Harry Potter book and finding it incredibly derivative, there's hardly an original idea in there and it's not well-written so what is the appeal...? Why have I read them all... and seen all of the films?!
 
OK then........tell me the original stories behind: The Emperor's New Groove and Lilo and Stitch!! :p

While it's true that most of the Disney animated back catalogue is based on novels/fairy tales, what the original poster was getting at (I think) was indirect retellings, such as The Lion King actually being Hamlet.
 
The Emperors new groove...The Emperors new suit....
Only loosley but never the less... :p Lilo and Stitch..was apparently based on some Japanese thing.. :rolleyes:
 
I don't think there are any original films left to be made. Pretty much every film nowadays is an amalgam of films which went before it. The only thing you can do as a filmmaker is try to present your vision in an original way. I posted on a thread many months ago that every film has its roots in one of only seven basic idea. A few people had heard of that and someone found a link to a site that purported to explain these seven ideas.
The most recent 'original' films I can think off are the The Blair Witch Project and The Matrix. It doesn't matter whether are not they're any good, but they themselves spawned a whole load of imitators so they're original to a certain extent. Having said that, Blair Witch may or may not have been a copy of Jersey Devil and The Matrix was close to live action anime, so even they can't claim to be totally original.
As for Star Wars, Lucas himslef has always claimed that it's a space western. Tarantino is also a famous proponent of stealing from - sorry, paying homage to - everyone else's films.
 
Didn't George Lucas say he got most of Star Wars from 'The Hidden Fortress' and 'Throne of Blood' by Kurosawa which were in turn taken from ancient Eastern proverbs and folk tales.
 
The Hidden Fortress was the basis on telling parts of the story from the droid's perspectives. I have it on dvd but havent got round to wacthing it yet!
 
There is no problem with people using old ideas and making films based on previous films/books/concepts, aslong as they treat it with respect, and produce a good film.

If you look at Haute Tension (Switchblade Romance), it's a complete mish mash of old films of it's genre, and an absolute take off Dean koontz'a Intensity, but it is done with a new twist and is a great film.
 
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