The Star Wars Episode VIII Cast Were Given a 6 Film Homework Assignment by Rian Johnson

Right off the bat, a lot of the excitement surrounding Star Wars Episode VIII: The Unconfirmed Subtitle was centred around the fact that Rian Johnson (Brick, Looper, Brothers Bloom, that episode of Breaking Bad with the fly) had been given the director’s chair to park his butt in. Johnson isn’t want you’d call a conventional Hollywood director, in sci-fi or any other genre. His breakout film, Brick, was an ingenious cross pollination of high school drama and gritty noir with dialogue so rich you could serve it with brandy cream, and his foray into science fiction was Looper, a cerebral time travelling actioner far more concerned with character development and themes of motherhood than explosions and getting Bruce Willis to make some kind of oblique Die Hard reference.

As such, many are expecting VIII to be a completely unique entry into the Star Wars cannon, something more subversive, more off-kilter. According to what little information the cast have been allowed to reveal, this is exactly the case, and now a fascinating new little tidbit has been unearthed. Johnson himself revealed that he’d given the cast members a list of films to watch before principal photography (which has just wrapped) officially began. There’s no 2001, no Silent Running, no The Andromeda Strain, there’s nothing even remotely spacey, or even anything with Kevin Spacey. Here’s the full list, and short summaries of each:

Gunga Din (1939) – Three British soldiers and a water carrier in India band together to thwart a cultist uprising.

Sahara (1943) – A tank crew get separated from their unit during an operation in the Libyan Desert and must find their way back.

Twelve O’Clock High (1949) – A brigadier is charged with the command of a disaffected air squadron and motivate them to carry out dangerous daytime bombing raids.

The Bridge Over the River Kwai (1957) – A British colonel is charged with leading the construction of a bridge for his captors, unaware that the Allies plan to destroy it.

Letter Never Sent (1960) – A group of geologists find a diamond stash in the depths of a Siberian forest, but a fire traps them inside.

Three Outlaw Samurai (1964) – Two samurai are tracking a group of bandits who have kidnapped a magistrates daughter when they run afoul of a wandering Ronin.

You’ll notice one particular common thread among a few of them – war. Four of the films deal with different, morally sensitive aspects of it, and Johnson mentioned that Twelve O’Clock High was particularly important, likely because of the challenges Gregory Peck’s character faces in winning his new squadron around. Add to that the moral fog of The Bridge Over the River Kwai, the cultist uprising on Gunga Din and the isolation of Sahara. Some links are more obvious, like the samurai and Kylo Ren’s knights, as well as the pre-existing link between Star Wars and feudal Japanese history – Kurosawa’s Throne of Blood was a huge influence on the original trilogy. For my money, Letter Never Sent is the most interesting specimen, it’s about desperation, desolation and madness taking hold. This, to me, suggests that some of the characters may spend the film in similar circumstances, providing a more sparse, introspective aspect to the film which hasn’t really been seen in a Star Wars movie yet.

When you combine this information with the images we’ve seen of the production – many of them delightfully retro in feel, you start to get a clearer picture. We’re likely looking at something very sinister, and heavily concerned with character development. Still no word on where new cast additions Laura Dern and Benicio Del Toro stand in all this, but we’ve got Rogue One to get out of the way first.