Empire

I watched “The Empire Strikes Back” today. It’s such a good film and by far my favorite of the Star Wars saga.  Star Wars films are such great examples of translation of media.  I remember that in 1997 I had a “The Empire Strikes Back” calendar.  It’s really neat that 17 years after the release of the film there were calendars still being made featuring the characters and events depicted in this film.  In addition to the calendar, video games have featured elements of the film, most notably the Battle of Hoth which is shown at the beginning. 

 Scenes from this film have been used to advertise products such as Energizer batteries and Pepsi and have produced some of the most memorable lines in film history (i.e. “No Luke, I am your father.”).  

In recent memory, The Lord of the Rings trilogy and Harry Potter series have enjoyed some of the same treatment.  The difference is that these stories originated as books then were turned into films, merchandising, etc.  Students could make a list of all the forms that these stories take and learn how media translation is a huge part of their world.