Was George Lucas "Star Wars" influenced heavily by J.R.R Tolkiens writings.

xpowderx

While I am not sure how much George Lucas was influenced by J.R.R Tolkien.  I believe he was somewhat inspired.  While I have read many articles saying Lucas was.  The only empirical evidence I found was this.

Still, Kenobi brings with him a new element to the script: comedy. Luke is attacked by Tusken raiders just before he meets Ben; they leave him handcuffed to a giant spinning wheel. Kenobi approaches with a “good morning!”

“What do you mean, ‘good morning’?” Luke responds. “Do you mean that it is a good morning for you, or do you wish me a good morning, although it is obvious I’m not having one, or do you find that mornings in general are good?”

“All of them at once,” replies Kenobi.

"Good morning!" said Bilbo, and he meant it. The sun was shining, and the grass was very green. But Gandalf looked at him from under long bushy eyebrows that stuck out further than the brim of his shady hat. "What do you mean?" he said. "Do you wish me a good morning, or mean that it is a good morning whether I want not; or that you feel good this morning; or that it is morning to be good on?"

"All of them at once," said Bilbo."

How much of a influence do you believe Tolkien have on Lucas?

d_20

That's an interesting find.

I'm sure Lucas had a chance to read LOTR, at least, and probably Tolkien did have an influence on him at least unconsciously. LOTR has had a pretty large influence on Anglophone cultures and beyond whether people have read it or seen the films or not. Basically, D&D and other rpgs were inspired by it tremendously up to this day even though many current generation gamers who are completely familiar with elves, dwarves, and orcs have never read Tolkien.

Tolkien basically resurrected those old European mythical archetypes back into the 20th century.

I think the greatest influence on Lucas was Joseph Campbell.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSyyqctan2c

I definitely recommend that anyone read this book. It has been one of the five most important and in many ways life changing books I have read, anyway.

http://http//www.amazon.com/Thousand-Faces-Collected-Joseph-Campbell/dp/1577315936/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1460959124&sr=1-1&keywords=joseph+campbell+hero+with+a+thousand+faces
 

d_20

That quote is an interesting find. Well done. I'm sure someone could write a pretty good paper on this topic.

Lucas has said that Joseph Campbell was the major inspiration for Star Wars.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSyyqctan2c

I would definitely recommend Campbell's book to anyone. It is the very same one that inspired Lucas to make Star Wars.

http://http//www.amazon.com/Thousand-Faces-Collected-Joseph-Campbell/dp/1577315936/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1460959586&sr=1-1&keywords=hero+with+a+thousand+faces+joseph+campbell

larryp11233

thats really interesting and I think there's no problem if his work was inspired by J.R.R. Tolkiens' LOTR

johndoep

I wouldn't be surprised actually.

Good find. Thanks for sharing!