21-87
Directed byArthur Lipsett
Produced byColin Low
Tom Daly
Edited byArthur Lipsett
Distributed byNational Film Board of Canada
Release dates
1963 (1963)
Running time
9 minutes 33 seconds
CountryCanada
LanguageEnglish

21-87 is a 1963 Canadian abstract montage-collage film created by Arthur Lipsett that lasts 9 minutes and 33 seconds.[1] The short, produced by the National Film Board of Canada, is a collage of snippets from discarded footage found by Lipsett in the editing room of the National Film Board (where he was employed as an animator), combined with his own black and white 16 mm footage which he shot on the streets of Montreal and New York City, among other locations.[2]

Release and reception

21-87 premiered on the CBC program Explorations in 1964.[2]

Journalist Howard Junker dismisses 21-87 and Lipsett's other film, Free Fall, as repetitious: "the whole idea of wildly flashing stills and phrases wears quickly".[3] Critic N. Roy Clifton is frustrated by the seeming randomness of the images.[4] Critic John Fell suggests the film is evocative of parataxis, like a sentence without a conjunctive word.[5]

Influence on George Lucas

"21-87" would have a profound influence on director George Lucas and on Walter Murch, an editor and designer with whom Lucas worked. Lucas described it as "the kind of movie I wanted to make – a very off the wall, abstract kind of film".[6]

In response, Lucas created the pure cinema, short, 16mm movies: "6-18-67", "1:42.08", and "Look at Life". The later "Electronic Labyrinth: THX 1138 4EB", an experimental science fiction short, takes place in a dystopian future on 14 May 2187.[7] Lucas expanded the latter into THX 1138. His later works American Graffiti and Star Wars has shown "21-87"'s influence. Lucas and Lipsett would never meet.

The concept of the Force, so prominent in Star Wars and its sequels and prequels, is said to have been inspired by a statement made by Roman Kroitor in the short film.[8][9]

References in Lucas's works and Star Wars

Awards

References

  1. ↑ "21-87". onf-nfb.gc.ca. National Film Board of Canada. Retrieved 3 February 2023.
  2. 1 2 Kashmere 2004.
  3. ↑ Junker 1964, p. 25.
  4. ↑ Clifton 1983, pp. 221–223, quoted in Fell 1985, p. 59.
  5. ↑ Fell 1985, p. 59.
  6. ↑ Hassannia, Tina (2 March 2016). "Colin Low, Don Owen and how the NFB's Unit B changed Canadian cinema". CBC Arts. Retrieved 2 March 2016.
  7. ↑ Lucas, George (Director) (1967). Electronic Labyrinth: THX 1138 4EB (DVD [on the bonus disk accompanying THX 1138: The George Lucas Director's Cut]). USA: Warner Bros.
  8. ↑ George Lucas interview with Wired. Retrieved on 2008-12-22 from .
  9. ↑ CBC article on Star Wars. Retrieved 2008-12-22. Archived 11 October 2004 at the Wayback Machine
  10. ↑ "Star Wars – Finn's Stormtrooper Number Is A Reference To Leia in a New Hope". LRM. 14 April 2020. Retrieved 17 August 2021.
  11. ↑ "Star Wars: Meaning Behind Finn's Stormtrooper Name Revealed". CBR. 12 April 2020. Retrieved 4 February 2021.
  12. ↑ "21-87". onf-nfb.gc.ca. National Film Board of Canada. Retrieved 3 February 2023.

Sources

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