7 Classic Films George Lucas Ripped Off For The Star Wars Prequels

7. Battleship Potemkin

Steps From Anakin wanting Luke to have his lightsaber to Leia remembering her real mother, Revenge Of The Sith, for all its tying up loose ends, wasn't all that reverential to the story set out in the original trilogy. A major alteration is the death of the Jedi. Rather than the long, drawn out hunt Obi-Wan mentioned in A New Hope, what we got was over quicker, with Vader having the rather minor job of clearing the Jedi Temple. At least it made for one most iconic images of the film, with him leading the clones up the steps. Sadly, the scene is an almost exact copy of one from Battleship Potemkin. A film with a legacy that remains reverential almost 90 years after it was first released, even if you haven€™t seen Potemkin you'll recognise Odessa Steps and link it with the film's most famous sequence. The fourth out of five 'episodes' in the propaganda film is a telling of a fictional massacre, with Tsarist soldiers chasing citizens down the long flight of steps. All Star Wars changes is the direction (and the running, but lets not be pedantic here). A good thing Lucas didn't try to mimic one of the film's most famous shots; the baby in a carriage falling down the steps.
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Film Editor (2014-2016). Loves The Usual Suspects. Hates Transformers 2. Everything else lies somewhere in the middle. Once met the Chuckle Brothers.