2001: A Space Odyssey
As with so many sci-fi films, Star Wars owes an aesthetic debt to Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. Just as Metropolis set the aesthetic standard for indulgent and dystopian societies, so did 2001 set the standard for grand space epics. Even if you have difficulty sitting through the extended establishing shots and long spates with no dialogue, to fully understand the development of the sci-fi genre in the 1960s and 70s look no further than 2001 – it made contemporary sci-fi possible.
A New Hope’s opening shot, as a spacecraft looms into view in the upper part of the frame, is a direct reference to Kubrick’s introductory shot of the Discovery One spacecraft. More generally, Kubrick’s film brought Star Wars many of its design images, from hexagonal rooms and space-stations to the docking bay of the Death Star, oddly reminiscent of a docking bay in 2001.
[zergpaid]Simply watching the two films side by side shows just how visually alike they are – the interiors of rooms on the Death Star and the Rebel base reference 2001, while the costuming of the Rebel fighters are reminiscent of the “indoor” clothing worn by Dave and his fellow astronauts. Even the way that the spaceships float through space was established as a matter of course by 2001. Of course, Lucas made his space opera into an action-adventure, which 2001 decidedly is not – a testament to Lucas’s ability to take an aesthetic and develop it in a different direction.
Star Wars and 2001: A Space Odyssey share something else in common, too: both are products of the participation of Stuart Freeborn, the designer of both the humanoid apes in 2001’s “The Dawn of Man” sequence, makeup supervisor on A New Hope, and the designer of Yoda.