Star Wars v Superman: The two biggest fantasy films of the 1970s

Superman (1978) had a lot in common with Star Wars

Episode Nothing has occasionally looked at some of the other big films of 1977.

But today I'd like to look at a film which arrived more than 18 months after Star Wars – Richard Donner's Superman. It was released 40 years ago this week, and I think it's revealing to compare this huge superhero epic with George Lucas's much cheaper creation.

When was the title Star Wars devised? It’s earlier than you might think

The title Star Wars as it appears in the film

Apart from its virtues as a film, Star Wars had one of the best titles ever to grace a movie.  But it could just as easily have been called The Adventures of Luke Starkiller. 

Today, we’re looking at the origins of the title Star Wars – and, at the same time, the meeting at Cannes that set George Lucas’s idea on the way to becoming reality.

What Mark Hamill and Gary Kurtz told science fiction fans about Star Wars in 1976

Charles Lippincott, Gary Kurtz and Mark Hamill promoting Star Wars at MidAmeriCon 1976

In 1976, well before Star Wars was ready for release, a campaign was going on to make science fiction fans aware of it. 

Charles Lippincott, who was in charge of merchandising and publicity for the film, organised convention appearances, at which he or producer Gary Kurtz would explain what the film was about. They would take artwork and information sheets with them and slow slides (yes, slides) to give some idea of the look of the movie.

As I wrote in a blog post at Amazing Stories recently, Gary Kurtz was the face of Star Wars for many fans back then, patiently explaining what the film was about.
One of those appearances is available on video – and it reminds us of a time when pictures from Star Wars seemed weird and exotic, and no one knew quite what the movie would be like.

Star Wars is now as old as Flash Gordon was in the 1970s. What does that tell us about its staying power?

Star Wars in 1977, when Flash Gordon was 41

Star Wars is as old today as the original Flash Gordon serial was back in 1977.

Today, Episode Nothing ponders that sobering thought – and considers how Star Wars has aged compared with some of the films that inspired it.

Carrie Fisher: October 21 1956-December 27 2016

Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia, unfazed by
Darth Vader in Star Wars 

Today, like every Star Wars fan in the world, Episode Nothing tries to process the news of Carrie Fisher's death – with a particular focus on how Princess Leia changed things for women in cinema.

The music of Star Wars that we never heard again – part 1

John Williams conducting the Star Wars score

Episode Nothing takes a look at a tiny fragment of music which played a memorable role in the original Star Wars – and was never to feature in the films again.

What came before Star Wars in 1970s science fiction?

George Lucas directing Star Wars

It's true to say no one, in 1977, had ever seen a film quite like Star Wars. But that doesn’t mean no one had been trying to get big budget, old fashioned entertainment off the ground.

Today, Episode Nothing looks at film makers who were trying to make science fiction and fantasy, or to revive old movie genres, in the 1970s.

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.