Before creating Star Wars, Lucas had hoped to make a Flash Gordon film, but was unable to obtain the rights. Star Wars features many elements ostensibly derived from Flash Gordon, such as the conflict between rebels and imperial forces; the fusion of mythology and futuristic technology; the wipe transitions between scenes; and the text crawl at the beginning of the film.[149] Lucas also reportedly drew from Joseph Campbell's book The Hero with a Thousand Faces and Akira Kurosawa's 1958 film The Hidden Fortress.[37][149][150] Tim Robey of The Telegraph has compared C-3PO and R2-D2 to the two bickering peasants in Fortress, while a Japanese family crest in Kurosawa's film has been compared to the Imperial Crest in Star Wars. Robey has also suggested that the Mos Eisley cantina brawl was influenced by Kurosawa's Yojimbo (1961), and that the scene in which Luke and his friends hide in the floor of the Millenium Falcon was derived from that film's sequel, Sanjuro (1962).[149]
Star Wars has been compared to Frank Herbert's Dune book series in multiple ways.[37] Both have desert planets: Star Wars has Tatooine, while Dune has Arrakis, which is the source of a longevity spice. Star Wars, meanwhile, makes references to spice mines and a spice freighter. Jedi mind tricks in Star Wars have been compared to "The Voice", a controlling ability used by the Bene Gesserit in Herbert's novels. Luke's Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru are moisture farmers; on Arrakis, dew collectors are used by Fremen to collect and recycle small amounts of water.[151] Herbert reported that David Lynch, director of the 1984 film Dune, "had trouble with the fact that Star Wars used up so much of Dune." Herbert and Lynch found "sixteen points of identity" between the two universes, and argued that these similarities could not be a coincidence.[152]
Writing for Starwars.com in 2013, Bryan Young noted many similarities between Lucas's space opera and the World War II film The Dam Busters (1955). In Star Wars, Rebel ships assault the Death Star by diving into a trench and attempting to fire torpedoes into a small exhaust port; in Dam Busters, British bombers fly along heavily defended reservoirs and aim bouncing bombs at dams to cripple the heavy industry of Germany (also, Star Wars cinematographer Gilbert Taylor filmed the special effects sequences in Dam Busters).[153] The Death Star assault sequence has also been compared to the climax of the film 633 Squadron (1964), in which British aircraft attack a German heavy water plant by flying down a narrow fjord and dropping bombs at a precise point. Lucas used clips from both Dam Busters and 633 Squadron to illustrate his vision for dogfights in Star Wars.[154]
The opening shot of Star Wars—in which a spaceship fills the upper part of the frame—has been compared to the scene introducing the spacecraft Discovery One in Stanley Kubrick's 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey. Other similarities between Kubrick's film and Star Wars include the use of EVA pods and hexagonal corridors. Journalist and blogger Martin Belam has pointed out similarities between the Death Star's docking bay and the docking bay on the space station in 2001.[155] In 2014, Young observed a number of parallels between Lucas's space opera and Fritz Lang's 1927 film Metropolis.[156] Star Wars has also been compared to The Wizard of Oz (1939).[157]
