The creation of Star Wars. Original?

The creation of Star Wars. Original? 

There may never be a more iconic trilogy of movies than Star Wars. From, "The Empire Strikes Back" to "The Return of the Jedi", the list goes on! For those of you who don't know, Star Wars is a sequence of movies, centred on a film series created by George Lucas. But were the movies really original ideas from Lucas himself? 

In the three short films by Kirby Ferguson, he outlined the history of the remix and films, as well as the parts of other movies that may have been used as influences for newer ones, like Star Wars. On many accounts, Kirby displayed the similarities and likeliness that certain scenes from Star Wars depicted from movies before it was made. Some examples include: scenes from Flash Gordon seen as updated versions in Star Wars are very similar, scenes from Hidden Fortress, and even Yojimbo when the character has his arm chopped off. Something very similar happens in Star Wars. 

When depicting the majority of Lucas's films, it is safe to say that the ideas are original, but maybe add-ons or come from influencers in previous movies like the ones listed. In one way or another, George Lucas has used some ideas that were deprived of movies made before Star Wars but in my personal opinion little to none credit needed to be given because of the good job Lucas did on making the ideas seem like his own. None were too similar where anybody was able to really point it out besides professionals. The Star Wars movies can be strongly compared to that of an honest and original writer. If Lucas was to copy directly from other movies it can be looked at as an act of plagiarism. Using prior ideas and scenes as an influence for more developed and original ideas is nothing but pure genius and that was what George Lucas was able to do. 

In closing, I truly believe Lucas did a very good job of taking innovative ideas and making them his own without copying or getting into any trouble illegally. Creation requires influence. Star Wars is something that is a part of so many people for so many different reasons. Perhaps it was because of how clever and intelligent Lucas was when it came to shaping his ideas from prior cinema masterpieces.