From The Wizard of Oz to Hidden Fortress: the moments from other films spotted in Star Wars

Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe (1940)

Star Wars

Read some of the original reviews and you’d think that making Star Wars was a lot like creating Frankenstein’s Monster: You just stitched together bits of other people’s films and then let it loose upon the box office. Critics of the time loved to show how clever they were by cataloguing the images and plot ideas they had caught Lucas lifting from other films.

Did everyone really think Star Wars would be a flop?

Star Wars: The At Long Last Love of science fiction?

Who knew Star Wars would be a hit?

Most written accounts suggest that Fox was bracing itself for a $10 million flop.

Life before Star Wars. There really was one.

Jimmy Carter, Sonny & Cher, Frost/Nixon, Annie Hall, Laverne and Shirley: America at 
the time Star Wars was released in 1977

A few facts about the world into which Star Wars arrived in 1977.