  |
 |
|
 |
Star Warsby John
So, just what is Star Wars all about? Although it mixes together elements found in everything from the films of Akira Kurosawa to Goethe's Faust to ancient Roman history, a brief discussion about its two broadest and strongest influences is a good place to start in addressing what exactly makes up the saga.
Essentially, Star Wars is science fiction fantasy - that is, it uses the vocabulary of science fiction to tell a mythic tale. The science fiction is the easiest aspect in the series to discern because it's the most visible, and certainly one of the series' heaviest inspirations. More specifically, the series draws its science fiction roots from the Saturday matinee serials of the 1930s, movies based on space adventure comic strips like Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers that George Lucas used to watch as a boy. In fact, Lucas' original idea for Star Wars was to remake Flash Gordon as a full-length movie, but he wasn't able to obtain the rights to do so. However, to call the films just a re-imagining of Flash Gordon action serials is an incomplete description. That boyhood inspiration for Lucas explains why there are spaceship battles and fantastical aliens and robots in Star Wars, but not why the series is a story about fathers and sons, about mentors and students, about the corruption and redemption of individuals. Enter Lucas' other major influence: the works of scholar Joseph Campbell, which enabled Lucas to apply mythology and religious themes to the saga. From here we get the basic story of the series, onto which the action and sci-fi elements become attached.Certainly, the format of Star Wars is in the Flash Gordon vein, but within that flashy, popcorn-movie package, there is a basic core that relates directly to Campbell's views on myth, partly influenced by the works of Jung and key 19th century scholars of religion.It was Campbell's 1949 work The Hero with a Thousand Faces that heavily influenced Lucas in the telling of his story. In the book, Campbell traces the story of the hero through many of the world's mythologies, all of which he believes to be true metaphorically, not literally.Campbell asserts that common to all mythologies, which deal with issues that help people orient themselves in their lives, there is one archetypal hero with tasks and experiences that trigger automatic responses in our unconscious minds. In the original Star Wars trilogy, you see this theory applied to Luke Skywalker, a character modeled after heroic archetypes who comes to terms with his place in life and fulfills his ultimate task and destiny, which is redeeming his father. Other archetypal characters include the wise wizard-mentors Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda, and the evil warlock-tyrant Emperor Palpatine. In addition, the concept of the Force could be described as a symbol for the transcendent, a greater mystery to life beyond what we can directly see and touch, something that concerns all myths. Mythic themes have been cropping up more directly in the new prequel trilogy: we learn in The Phantom Menace that Luke's father Anakin, destined to become Darth Vader, was born from a virgin birth, a common mythological concept with a wide variety of meanings and functions. And in Revenge of the Sith, during Anakin's journey to corruption, he will enter the Star Wars version of hell (or, more loosely, the underworld) that in the film is portrayed by Mustafar, a fiery planet covered in volcanoes. So, the Star Wars saga is best understood as a mix between these two elements-the science-fiction of Flash Gordon and mythic concepts as interpreted by Joseph Campbell. Lucas has said that he wanted Star Wars to primarily entertain kids, but also introduce themes in an easily accessible way that might lead young people to think about issues often found at the center of world mythologies more deeply. Whether he has succeeded equally in both tasks is hard to judge, but one thing is certain: his saga has surely struck a remarkable chord with moviegoing audiences, and it's not solely because of the flashy space battles and special effects. |
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
