Ron Fricke’s “Baraka”
“A film called ‘Baraka’? It’s one of my favorite movies, that was a big reference,” Edwards shared. “Obviously, stylistically, we went handheld, but [on the planet] Jedha you feel it a little bit more.”
Certainly, some of the scenes on Jedha that are overcrowded, shanty town-esque and poverty stricken look as though they are borrowed from the non-narrative documentary “Baraka.” The film also depicts many different overcrowded cultures, ethnicities and landscapes that all seem to seep into the diversity on display on the mecca planet in ‘Rogue One.’
Terrence Malick’s “The Thin Red Line”
“I don’t think in any way we achieved the level of those movies, but we tried to set a really high bar for ourselves,” Edwards said.
You’ve likely already seen Terrence Malick’s tone poem war film set in the Pacific Theater of World War II, the environment being not that dissimilar to the jungle scenes of ‘Rogue One’ shot in the Maldives.
Gillo Pontecorvo’s “Battle Of Algiers”
“We grew up with the original [‘Star Wars’ films] and I think they’re masterpieces and the idea of making a film that connects to it, you’re like, ‘Oh my god, it can’t be just good. It has to be fantastic.’ ”
In an interview with Slashfilm, Edwards name checked Gillo Pontecorvo’s landmark guerrilla resistance film, “Battle of Algiers.” Not named specifically by the director, though not disagreed with either, the Slashfilm writer also posits Jean-Pierre Melville’s seminal French underground resistance movie “Army Of Shadows” as a touchstone. And indeed, the do-or-die stakes and convictions of the characters in that movie do seem to bleed into ‘Rogue One’ based on the footage we witnessed: soldiers and spies doing all they can to survive, resist and defy.
Akira Kurosawa’s “The Hidden Fortress”
Chirrut Imwe (Donnie Yen) and Baze Maibus (Jian Wen) owe a debt to Kurosawa, an influence that George Lucas also used in ‘A New Hope.’ The two bickering buddy characters are not unlike the model borrowed for C3PO and R2-D2. “They’re inspired again, by what inspired George in ‘The Hidden Fortress,’ ” Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy told EW. “You could say to some extent it’s [the] R2 and C3PO [dynamic]. A little bit of that.”
“Black Hawk Down”
During “Star Wars Celebration” in 2015, author and resident Lucasfilm expert Pablo Hildago — who is literally on staff because he knows pretty much everything about “Star Wars” — said some of the movie’s inspirations were “Saving Private Ryan” and “Black Hawk Down.” “It’s called Star … Wars,” Edwards added at the time.