I mean, the plot follows the Campbellian “Hero with 1000 faces” storyline to a T.
That’s a pretty funny thing to say since the whole point of The Hero with a Thousand Faces is that all these hero stories have elements in common. Lucas was just explicitly using that book as a source.
What’s far more obvious is a big chunk of A New Hope was cribbed from EE “Doc” Smith’s book Triplanetary (where the Darth Vader character is named “Roger”…which is far less impressive). I’ve heard that Kurosawa’s movie The Hidden Fortress has a lot of the same plot, too.
That’s a pretty funny thing to say since the whole point of The Hero with a Thousand Faces is that all these hero stories have elements in common. Lucas was just explicitly using that book as a source.
What’s far more obvious is a big chunk of A New Hope was cribbed from EE “Doc” Smith’s book Triplanetary (where the Darth Vader character is named “Roger”…which is far less impressive). I’ve heard that Kurosawa’s movie The Hidden Fortress has a lot of the same plot, too.