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21-87

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Wikipedia article




'21-87' is a 1963 Canadian abstract montage-collage film created by Arthur Lipsett that lasts 9 minutes and 33 seconds. 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.

Release and reception



'21-87' premiered on the CBC program 'Explorations' in 1964.

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". Critic N. Roy Clifton is frustrated by the seeming randomness of the images., quoted in . Critic John Fell suggests the film is evocative of parataxis, like a sentence without a conjunctive word.

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".

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. 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.George Lucas interview with Wired. Retrieved on 2008-12-22 from https://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.05/lucas.html?pg=3&topic=lucas&topic_set=%20Life%20After%20Darth.CBC article on SW. Retrieved on 2008-12-22 from http://www.cbc.ca/arts/features/starwars/.

References in Lucas's works



*In 'Star Wars', Princess Leia's prison cell on the Death Star is numbered 2187.

*In 'Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith', the order to initiate the Great Jedi Purge (Order 66) can be found by subtracting 21 from 87.

References



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