Saturday, December 17, 2016

Rogue One: Star Wars and the Gita

I saw Rogue One, an anthology movie set in the Star Wars universe, and enjoyed it. The movie is a prequel to the original 1977 Star Wars movie which featured Luke Skywalker destroying the first Death Star. It tells the story of the events leading up to that famous movie which launched the Star Wars franchise.



This movie features lots of interesting tie-ins to the original movie franchise. The story plot is built around addressing a central "macguffin" of the 1977 Star Wars movie and key questions around it. Compared to the original movies, this film has a darker, grittier tone, with possible comparisons to The Dirty Dozen, or even some of Kurosawa's movies.

http://akirakurosawa.info/2016/06/26/star-wars-rogue-one-borrows-from-akira-kurosawa/

If you've seen Rogue One and liked it, then you may also enjoy reading the novel it's based upon - Catalyst by James Luceno - which gives the backstory on the development of the Empire's big brahmastra super-weapon, the Death Star - and its unwilling inventor, who is like an Oppenheimer.



Like brahmastra, the Death Star's planet-destroying power is revealed to have a primordial origin, in the form of crystals formed in the hearts of stars, which the Empire collects by looting the Jedi temples. These crystals had been gathered up for ages by the Jedi, who used them to power their traditional weapon of justice, the light saber. This is then the hidden secret of the Star Wars universe - the basis for the sword of justice is the same as for the genocidal weapon of mass destruction.

The original title planned for the Rogue One movie was "Destroyer of Worlds"

http://www.denofgeek.com/us/movies/star-wars/260820/star-wars-rogue-ones-original-title-was-destroyer-of-worlds


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