Star Wars: The Legacy Revealed (2007)

Series, Sequels, Trilogies, Saga Movie Collections.

Moderator: Maskath3

Watch on Amazon   Merchandise   Collectables

Series, Sequels, Trilogies, Saga Movie Collections.
Post Reply

Star Wars: The Legacy Revealed (2007)

Post by bunniefuu »

Here they come.

It began as a simple tale of good versus evil and became a worldwide phenomenon.

Star Wars came out, and we went to school the next day unable to explain to our friends how everything was different now.

So much of my childhood was spent thinking, dreaming, watching, playing Star Wars.

Star Wars evolved into a six-chapter cinematic saga.

One that resonates with some of the most enduring themes found in literature...

Mythology...

Religion...

And history.

What "Star Wars" did was bring them right up to date and reach a new generation.

It broke new ground in terms of communicating a message.

Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi.

I was witnessing the creation of modern myth.

But just why is Star Wars considered the epic tale of our time?

Future generations will still be enthralled by it.

Find out, as the Star Wars legacy is finally revealed.

Star Wars was conceived by writer and director George Lucas during the early 1970s, a time of intense political upheaval and social unrest, especially in America.

It was not a hopeful time in America.

We were cynical.

We were disappointed.

Oil prices were through the roof.

Our government had let us down.

I shall resign the presidency effective at noon tomorrow.

America had become unhinged in a way, for good or for bad, depending on your point of view.

Everything from dress to the use of dr*gs to relationships.

The culture in this country had been turned upside down.

The country was desperately groping for real change.

Star Wars came along, and it revalidated a core mythology, that there is good and evil, that evil has to be defeated.

Star Wars was filled with imagery and characters that harkened back to many of the movies and books that had captivated George Lucas during his childhood in modesto, California.

And as the saga continued to unfold, each new chapter became richer and deeper by incorporating references to politics...

Philosophy...

Religion...

History...

And mythology.

What's so exciting about approaching the "Star Wars" cycle, it's very much like an archaeological excavation.

On the surface, all of us can say, "Ah-ha, Excalibur is to be seen in the lightsaber." If you go to a deeper level, you may come to the entering into the Death Star and say, "Ah-ha, let us remember the Greek hero Odysseus in the underworld." This is red five, I'm going in But then you can go deeper in the stratographic levels.

And what's fun for me personally is when I get to a point where I say, "Did George Lucas mean for this connection to be made, or am I making it?

Am I participating as part of the poet, the creator in seeing connections?" And that is the mythological process.

Everyone sees themself.

Mythic stories were originally designed as cautionary tales.

They're stories which instruct us how we should behave, how we should conduct ourselves.

Attachment leads to jealousy.

Train yourself to let go of everything you fear to lose.

Myths in every culture emerged out of religion.

They were ways to make sense of the Universe.

Then over time, myths began to accrue around warrior figures, hero figures.

And I believe that in all six Star Wars films, you just feel the sense of the whole history of myth and archetype.

The connection between "Star Wars" and mythology is also strengthened by the direct influence of famed mythological historian, Joseph Campbell.

Joseph Campbell was a professor, and he wrote a very important book about myth.

And this book was used on college campuses across the country.

And this was a book that George Lucas read.

In it, Joseph Campbell said, myth is a metaphor for the experience of life.

Myths and dreams come from the same place.

They come from realizations of some kind that have then to find expression in symbolic form.

Joseph Campbell was very influenced by Carl Jung.

And Jung's theories of psychology explain that we process experience visually, that deeper than ideas or feelings, there's a visual flow, very much like a movie.

George Lucas studied the work of Joseph Campbell, and, of course, he was also a filmmaker.

And in the "Star Wars" films, George Lucas has made a very compelling use of one of the myth forms, which is the hero's journey, and this is by far the most commonly found form in the history of mythology.

Star Wars is what's sometimes called the hero's journey.

It's the initiatory pattern that is a journey story that represents a transition, moving from one identity, say, young adulthood, into another identity, say, full adulthood.

Over the course of the "Star Wars" saga, two characters set out on the hero's journey, Anakin Skywalker and his son, Luke.

Each of them is called to an adventure.

Each of them does not expect to be a hero.

Each of them becomes drawn into this struggle between good and evil where they have to choose what side they will align themselves with.

For Anakin, the journey will be a tragic one, as his arrogance...

- Fear...

- I won't lose you, Padme.

And desire for power ultimately turn him from the hero's path and lead him to the dark side, where he becomes the evil Darth Vader.

If you only knew the power of the dark side.

And Luke's journey ultimately becomes a quest to redeem his father.

- Luke!

- Take these two over to the garage.

I want them cleaned up before dinner.

Luke starts out as being nobody.

And what he needs is a call to adventure to get him started.

Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi.

- You're my only hope.

- What's this?

He says that he is the property of Obi-Wan Kenobi, a resident of these parts, and it's a private message for him.

Rest easy, son.

- You've had a busy day.

- The call is an event that pulls us away from familiar comforts.

Ben?

Ben Kenobi?

It pulls us away from everything that is familiar to us, including what we know how to do.

This is our most desperate hour.

We're out in a situation that is enormously challenging.

You must learn the ways of the Force if you're to come with me to Alderaan.

Luke fulfills a role as a mythic hero because they usually start out as being very simple, slightly insecure characters.

For example, characters like Dorothy from "The Wizard of Oz," like Harry Potter, like king Arthur, they are what's called everyman.

They're us.

They have the same insecurities and fears as we do.

I can't get involved.

I've got work to do.

It's not that I like the Empire.

I hate it, but there's nothing I can do about it right now.

You must do what you feel is right, of course.

There is the possibility of rejecting the call.

That is, you see what is asked of you, you see what you could rise to and you say, "I don't want to go." But more often, it's a kind of struggle, and there's a preparatory time there, a kind of dress rehearsal while a person is saying, "I'm not doing this." In fact, mentally they're bracing themselves.

If they traced the robots here, they may have learned who they sold them to, and that would lead them back...

- home.

- Wait, Luke!

It's too dangerous!

The journey of Luke is an archetypal journey, like Odysseus, for instance, or even biblical figures like Moses.

They don't necessarily even want to do what they are called to do, but life contrives to send them on the journey.

- Uncle Owen?!

- At the heart of the story is some kid who is being called to service, to deal with something that is so much bigger than him.

Suddenly there's this violent, heartbreaking m*rder of his aunt and uncle, and all of a sudden, this kid's life changes.

There's nothing you could have done, Luke.

I want to come with you to Alderaan.

There's nothing for me here now.

Mos eisley space port.

You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.

We must be cautious.

The cantina scene is what Joseph Campbell referred to as the threshold crossing.

This is a moment when you are profoundly aware that you're not in Kansas anymore.

You are going into a bizarre place, and it's very dangerous.

And the characters you will be dealing with are not like the folks back home.

- He doesn't like you.

- I'm sorry.

I don't like you either.

You just watch yourself.

I'll be careful.

- You'll be dead!

- Ragh!

Aaagh!

Luke Skywalker's journey is the simple, classic hero thing of, "I am an adolescent who is about to break from a much smaller view of the world to a much larger one.

And I'm gonna go through a really painful journey in order to do that." Just as Hercules and other heroes of classic mythology had to undergo certain tasks to prove their worth, so Luke develops as a character through the tasks he undertakes.

For luck.

He rescues princess Leia.

He helps to att*ck the Death Star, where he is a key player.

- Are you alright?!

- I got a little cooked, but I'm okay.

He's swept up in the battle on Hoth and is able to deal with that.

Aiigh!

He rescues his friends from Jabba the Hutt.

Let's go, and don't forget the droids.

We're on our way.

All of these things are part of his proving himself.

Although his biggest struggle is with his own father.

How did my father die?

A young Jedi named Darth Vader, he betrayed and m*rder*d your father.

Luke.

The way Darth Vader looms as this dark, faceless figure over him is exactly the way the dead father of Hamlet looms in the play "Hamlet" as a walking ghost.

A ghost clad in armor with a sepulchral voice.

Your destiny lies with me, Skywalker.

The struggle between father and son is very present in Greek myth.

For example, Zeus came to power by struggling with his father, and his father before him struggled with his father.

His w*apon is a thunderbolt, lightning.

So when I saw Darth Vader fighting with Luke Skywalker with these light beams, I thought of the thunderbolt of Zeus.

The Luke/Vader relationship, it's actually a biblical theme in the sense that the Bible talks about the sins of the fathers will be passed on to the sons and daughters to the fifth and sixth generation.

You are beaten.

It is useless to resist.

Don't let yourself be destroyed as Obi-Wan did.

There's always a sense that, basically, evil is inescapable in all of us and guilt is inescapable in all of us, and we have to acknowledge that.

We'll take him together.

- You go in slowly on the left...

- No, I'm taking him now!

No, Anakin, no!

Luke's father is scarred.

Aah!

And passes the scar on to his son.

It's a passing down of the mark of Cain.

Aggggh!!

Finally, all this comes to rest in Luke Skywalker.

Obi-Wan never told you what happened to your father.

He told me you k*lled him.

No.

I am your father.

No!!

No!

Luke has to realize that he's a part of a family and to not carry on the sins of the father.

Join me, and together we can rule the galaxy as father and son.

In a drama, there will be a serious battle and a serious wounding.

Throughout the rest of the drama, the effect of that wound will shape the actions of the hero.

- Anakin!

- It is letting us know the dangers of adulthood.

Leia...

The real injuries of life add up as we go along.

That is the making of character.

Ow.

That is what makes us human and adult and, in a way, wise.

Hello, there.

Yoda.

You must unlearn what you have learned.

Qui-Gon.

Feel, don't think.

Use your instincts.

Obi-Wan.

Remember, a Jedi can feel the Force flowing through him.

In mythic tradition, these three characters share the role of mentor.

The Force will be with you...

Always.

Part wizard...

Part priest...

Part surrogate parent...

Mentors give philosophical and spiritual guidance to the hero.

I don't understand.

With time and training, ani, you will.

They often possess almost magical powers that reflect a lifetime of study, discipline, and acquired wisdom.

Let me see your identification.

You don't need to see his identification.

We don't need to see his identification.

These aren't the droids you're looking for.

These aren't the droids we're looking for.

He can go about his business.

You can go about your business.

Move along.

Move along.

Move along.

Obi-Wan Kenobi, while, you know, the least-played-with action figure in my collection, was essential to have because you need somebody who's gonna instruct you in the ways of the Force.

I can't understand how we got by those troops.

The Force can have a strong influence on the weak-minded.

Without Obi-Wan Kenobi, Luke Skywalker has no idea about his origins.

No, my father didn't fight in the wars.

He was a navigator on a spice freighter.

That's what your uncle told you.

He doesn't know that his father was a Jedi.

You fought in the Clone Wars?

Yes.

I was once a Jedi knight, the same as your father.

In moments of absolute disconnect and loss and confusion and fear, these characters arrived that gave purpose and confidence to our main character.

The figure of the mentor continues a mythic tradition that spans from Gandalf in "the lord of the rings" to the stories of the ancient greeks, like homer's epic poem, "the odyssey." When Odysseus goes off on his long journeys, he is concerned about the well-being of his son, telemachus.

So he asks a family friend, an older friend named mentor, to look in on his son.

And from this, we get our word mentor.

In "Star Wars," as in many ancient myths...

- I feel like...

- Feel like what?

The mentor does not always appear in what seems a normal shape.

I am wondering, why are you here?

Or size.

I'm looking for someone.

Looking?!

Found someone, you have, I would say, hmm?

Right.

In mythology, the story of Achilles tells us that he was sent to study with Chiron the centaur, who was a half-man, half-horse being who lived in an isolated spot on Mount Pelion.

And Achilles learned everything he knew from Chiron, including not only warfare but music, speech.

He got a complete hero's education from this composite being.

Far more strange than Yoda.

You're a Jedi knight, aren't you?

What makes you think that?

I saw your laser sword.

Only Jedis carry that kind of w*apon.

Usually, the mentor performs another important duty early in the hero's journey.

I have something here for you.

He must present him with a special gift.

Your father wanted you to have this when you were old enough The moment is crucial, and in the stories, it is a sword or a lightsaber, often something useful in the struggles to come.

What is it?

It's your father's lightsaber.

This is the w*apon of a Jedi knight.

Not as clumsy or random as a blaster.

An elegant w*apon for a more civilized age.

In our experiences, a mentor gives us a gift of an idea, of wisdom, of some discernment.

Let go your conscience self and act on instinct.

The lightsaber can cut.

So can discernment.

This is sorting out life.

Stretch out with your feelings.

Being able to make those distinctions allows the hero to move forward in the story.

Luke is reminiscent of king Arthur in a way.

King Arthur is given the sword Excalibur as part of his role to be king and to lead.

So also Luke receives his father's light saber from Obi-Wan, and it's really at that point that Luke realizes there is something special about him.

You know, I did feel something.

I could almost see the remote.

That's good.

You've taken your first step into a larger world.

In "Star Wars," the lessons the hero must learn are those of the Jedi master.

Use your feelings, you must.

They combine morality, spiritual faith, and strict physical discipline.

All right, I'll give it a try.

No!

Try not.

Do... or do not.

There is no try.

One could argue they are the Jesuits of this world.

These are the people who are the truth-bearers, who are the priesthood of freedom and who give their lives in order to stop evil.

The Jedi themselves are very samurai-like.

Jedi comes from "Jidai" in Japanese, jidai-geki, which are the samurai films.

Jidai-geki literally means history thing or "history piece," and that gets contracted down to "Jedi." In "Star Wars," the mentor's most important teaching concerns the spiritual phenomenon known as the Force.

The Force?

The Force is what gives a Jedi his power.

It's an energy field created by all living things.

It surrounds us and penetrates us.

It binds the galaxy together.

The idea of the Force is general enough that people of any religious background can identify with it.

One can see it as a personal god of western religion.

One can associate it with a more spiritual ideal.

I think the key thing to remember is that it means one is believing in something higher, that events in the Universe are not meaningless.

There is a purpose.

There is a meaning to life, and something is directing and guiding that.

It's energy surrounds us and binds us.

Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter.

You must feel the Force around you.

Here, between you, me, the tree, the rock, everywhere.

It's a life force, like chi.

And that is another very important aspect of these movies, to give us a sense of confidence that there is a world outside of our consciousness.

In the "Star Wars" Universe, spiritual enlightenment does not come without sacrifice.

Those who seek the power of the Force must study, train, and obey strict disciplines.

They must also overcome their own skepticism and self-doubt.

You work the impossible.

When a person is brought to enlightenment, you can't tell them what to do.

They really have to figure it out for themselves.

I don't...

I don't believe it.

That is why you fail.

You can't win, Darth.

If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine.

Unfortunately, during the hero's journey, the mentor cannot stay forever.

No!!

Our parents die.

Our teachers die.

The losses in life's long journey are great.

Run, Luke, run!

The first reaction is often, "I can't make it without this help." I can't believe he's gone.

It is crucial that the help not stay there.

N-o-o-o-o!!

That they either leave or die or we would never know that we have in fact taken in the teaching.

No more training do you require.

Already know you that which you need.

After people that we know have passed on, their spirit can stay with us.

Star Wars steps right in and picks up on that.

Use the Force, Luke.

The mentor is now within, and I'm able to survive.

From the death of Obi-Wan...

Yoda...

Qui-Gon...

Star Wars repeatedly shows that as valuable as the mentor relationship is, ultimately, we will outlive it.

Rejoice for those around you who transform into the Force.

Mourn them do not.

Miss them do not.

Death is a natural part of life.

Everybody wants a mentor, and we got to adopt Obi-Wan as our mentor.

And this is a dream for a boy, that they could find someone who they could trust, and who would tell them what it is they will do with their life.

You've been a good apprentice, Obi-Wan.

And you're a much wiser man than I am.

You never outgrow your need for a mentor.

I don't care how old you are.

And that they take different shapes, different forms is a great reminder to us if somebody stretches out a helping hand, don't look and see if it's green.

Just take the hand.

Aren't you a little short for a stormtrooper?

I'm Luke Skywalker.

I'm here to rescue you.

In his fight against the forces of evil...

Aiigh!

The hero needs more than courage and the teachings of a mentor.

Luke, we're gonna have company!

Get alongside that one.

He also relies on the help and the friendship of others.

Heroes need to start out with comrades.

They need that teamwork.

They need what they can learn from each other.

I got him!

Great, kid!

Don't get cocky!

That's it, we did it!

We did it!

Once the hero has undertaken his journey, they pick up companions along the way.

Dorothy meets up with the tin man and the scarecrow.

Frodo has the entire fellowship to travel with, and Luke has this wonderful menagerie of friends.

Each "Star Wars" trilogy ingeniously re-imagines the ancient archetypes of the warrior who befriends the hero.

Be careful.

You too.

And the damsel in distress...

Whom the hero must protect.

This is some rescue!

When you came in here, didn't you have a plan for getting out?

He's the brains, sweetheart!

But far from being helpless, the female characters of Padme Amidala and her daughter, Leia organa, are as courageous as they are clever.

The women of the Star Wars films are extremely assertive.

Will somebody get this big walking carpet out of my way?

Can wield weapons with the best of them.

You call this a diplomatic solution?

No, I call it aggressive negotiations.

We also see them physically and personally evolving from film to film, which is almost unique in contemporary culture, that is, Lucas' ability to speak to the emotional needs of men without in any way undermining the dignity and potential of women.

I'm not sure what you wish to accomplish by this.

I will take back what's ours.

Of course, Greek tragedy has enormously strong women.

And George Lucas has managed to capture the strength of these women.

But in fact, it's layered.

If you look at queen Amidala, she's strong and yet romantic.

The name of Padme's home planet, Naboo, gives a clue to her intellectual nature.

Nabu was the babylonian god of wisdom.

And so as queen of Naboo, Padme is the ruler of wisdom, and in fact, she embodies all of the female wisdom of that particular archetype.

Oh, Anakin, something wonderful has happened.

I'm pregnant.

As the future mother of Leia and Luke, Padme embodies another figure in classic myth, that of the nurturing earth mother.

Her environment is green, flourishing, nourishing.

She is love.

She is sensibilities.

She is all of those things that lie in stark contrast to technology-driven, control-driven realms beyond her.

But Padme's compassion and her love for Anakin also lead to her downfall when her husband turns to the dark side.

Padme is broken-hearted.

And this is the same experience of queen dido of carthage in that she loves and she cries and begs for her man, aeneas, to stay as he was.

You've changed.

I don't know you anymore.

Anakin...

You're breaking my heart.

So she's a marvelous blend of traditions, of the complexity of what it is to be a woman.

Oh, Luke.

Leia.

Although Padme Amidala is a tragic figure, her quest for peace and democracy is finally realized a generation later by her daughter, Leia.

Governor Tarkin, I should've expected to find you holding Vader's leash.

I recognized your fowl stench when I was brought on board.

Charming to the last.

What's great about Leia is that, from the first moment you meet her, while she is desperate, um...

She's anything but.

She is tough, and she's resourceful.

Looks like you managed to cut off our only escape route.

Maybe you'd like it back in your cell, your highness.

She doesn't hesitate to do what she needs to do.

What the hell are you doing?!

Somebody has to save our skins.

Into the garbage chute, flyboy!

The princess archetype is the young feminine ready to come into herself and blossom into herself.

You're trembling.

I'm not trembling.

You like me because I'm a scoundrel.

There aren't enough scoundrels in your life.

I happen to like nice men.

I'm a nice man.

No, you're not, you're...

It's about her coming into herself as a woman who can be in relationship to a man that she cares about as well as discovering a relationship to this brother and to the Force.

The Force is strong in my family.

My father has it.

I have it, and...

My sister has it.

Luke and Leia, they are, of course, Apollo and Artemis, the divine twins of mythology who come into the world, male and female, to restore it to order.

If I don't make it back, you're the only hope for the alliance.

Luke, don't talk that way.

You have a power I don't understand and could never have.

You're wrong, Leia.

You have that power, too.

In time, you'll learn to use it as I have.

She's not just a love interest as a lot of, you know, princesses in these stories tend to be.

She actually has her own story, her own mythology.

She turns out to be a Jedi, and that's very much a journey she has to take herself.

Corporal, we'll cover you.

Roger, Roger.

Uh-oh.

Blast them.

Anakin Skywalker, meet Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Hi.

Obi-Wan is an interesting character that we see develop throughout the films.

At the beginning he is clearly subordinate to Qui-Gon Jinn as a young and vital Jedi.

But then we see him in much more of a leadership role as he begins to school young Anakin.

Anakin!

She went into the club, master.

Patience.

Use the Force.

I try, master.

Increasingly, they develop a relationship like brothers.

You are strong and wise, Anakin, and I am very proud of you.

And you have become a far greater Jedi than I could ever hope to be.

Even though it's often called the hero's journey, it is usually done in groups.

Follow him!

We're gonna need some help.

There isn't time!

And this has several implications.

One, we need to be good team players, and teams are always imperfect.

That was some shortcut, Anakin.

He went completely the other way.

- Once again, you've proved...

- If you'll excuse me.

I hate it when he does that.

After all, they're people.

So we have to cope with the flaws of the people we're working with.

Whether you're talking about Jason and the argonauts or Frodo and the fellowship of the ring, you have some motley crew, some odd team that is able to take on terrible challenges.

So the team is very effective.

It's them!

Blast them!

- Get back to the ship!

- Where are you going?

Come back!

He certainly has courage.

What good will it do us if he gets himself k*lled?

Luke Skywalker finds an unlikely comrade...

In the person of Han Solo.

You don't believe in the Force, do you?

Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side.

Han represents another classic archetype.

You half-witted...

Scruffy-looking...

Nerf herder!

The mercenary pirate.

Who's scruffy-looking?

Most well-socialized people want to be liked by others.

But they're gonna k*ll her!

Better her than me.

Han Solo cares a little less about that.

His name's "Solo." He's out for himself.

She's rich.

Rich?

Rich, powerful.

Listen, if you were to rescue her, the reward would be..

What?

Well, more wealth than you can imagine.

I don't know, I can imagine quite a bit.

The character of Han Solo, he strikes me as not being so much from ancient mythology but more from... more like a western outlaw.

Keep your eyes open, huh?

There's something shady about him.

Why you slimy, double-crossing, no-good swindler.

You got a lot of guts coming here.

He's on the run from the law, but he's essentially good.

How ya doing, you old pirate?

So good to see you!

The cowboy is almost iconic in American imagination as someone who is an outsider, but he's a hero we look to precisely because we value that kind of independence, self-reliance, the fact that he depends on himself and nobody else.

Yes, Greedo, as a matter of fact, I was just going to see your boss.

Tell Jabba that I've got his money.

You have the sense of a wild west town.

I don't have it with me.

Tell Jabba...

And nobody even really cares if somebody gets sh*t in the bar.

Yes, I'll bet you have.

As long as they clean up the mess or pay for it.

Sorry about the mess.

I always thought Star Wars was a western in the future.

I really did.

I thought that "Star Wars" was the quintessential western played out in a different Universe.

Right here, Jabba.

You didn't think I was gonna run, did you?

You could've put Harrison Ford in a cowboy hat and put a star on him, and it wouldn't have seemed out of place.

It was that classic Gary Cooper riding into town, except in this case, it was Harrison Ford in a spaceship.

His hero journey path is that of the warrior and the lover.

He has to learn to commit himself to a cause outside himself, and he has to learn to open his heart to love.

There are many like me who think that possibly one of the sexiest lines ever said in any movie is uttered by Han Solo when princess Leia says...

I love you.

He doesn't say, "I love you, too." - He says...

- I know.

Be still, my heart.

Every woman who's ever loved a bad boy fell in love with Han Solo at that moment if they hadn't already.

He begins to actually think of someone else and not just himself, and that's a lesson that many people really need to learn to become more whole.

Don't move!

But also to learn the art of relationship and friendship.

I love you.

I know.

So it is realizing our need for one another that I think gets conveyed in a really profound way.

Yahoo!

May the Force be with you.

May the Force be with us.

May the Force be with us all.

Ya-hoo!

I am C-3PO, human/cyborg relations, and this is my counterpart R2-D2.

Hello.

Excuse me, sir.

Put 'em back together right now!

Might I...

Call them sidekicks...

Don't get technical with me.

Fools...

Or simply clowns.

During his journey, the mythic hero is usually accompanied by one or more faithful followers.

That little droid and I have been through a lot together.

Faithful if not always very helpful.

George Lucas is a smart man to know that you couldn't keep everything at the fever pitch of high emotion.

The possibility of successfully navigating an asteroid field is approximately 3,720 to 1!

Never tell me the odds.

Look!

You had to have comic relief in there to make the cake rise.

Now, there I agree with you.

I could do with a tune-up myself.

In R2-D2 and C-3PO, you have the classic comedy team, in terms of the thin guy and the fat guy.

In fact, they just both happen to be robots.

The droids strike me as going back to abbott and costello or Laurel and Hardy, the kind of knockabout stuff of old films where you needed somebody to provide slapstick and release...

We're doomed.

And physical comedy, because there's so much at stake that it would be oppressive if there weren't some kind of release.

This is madness.

C-3PO and R2-D2 give us a little bit of classic bumbling comedy shtick.

There's always the stalwart hero, and then there's the guy next to him going, "do we have to go into the dark place?!" I'm not getting in there!

I'm going to regret this.

When I first saw Star Wars, it was so hard to relate to what was happening at the, I mean, it was so not where I live, it's so not what I know.

Of course I'm worried, and you should be, too.

As soon as you had those two characters show up, immediately you're laughing and you're comfortable and you think, now I know who I am.

Now I know I can fit in here.

I can live here 'cause they're like me.

My obtuse little friend, you obviously have a great deal to learn about human behavior.

C-3PO seems more like us.

Like, what would I do in that situation?

I'd probably panic and run away.

And that's what C-3PO does almost every time.

Just open the door, you stupid lump!

R2-D2 and C-3PO are a little beside the action, looking at it.

So they are with us.

They are observers, and they add framing and perspective.

No, I don't think he likes you at all.

No, I don't like you, either.

And so they also serve as a Greek chorus.

In traditional Greek drama, the role of the Greek chorus was, in a sense, to comment on the action.

Throughout "Star Wars," while other people are acting out the scene...

I'm going there to end this w*r.

C-3PO and R2-D2, they're commenting on it.

Well, he is under a lot of stress, R-2.

If C-3PO and R2-D2 embody the character of the comic everyman, the amphibian, Jar Jar Binks suggests another timeless archetype, the childlike innocent.

My tongue.

You know, I find that Jar Jar creature to be a little odd.

My tongue!

Wrench.

If we think of Greek and Roman comedy, there is a character called the parasite, who is a Jar Jar Binks kind of tagalong person that is comic.

Now stay here.

And keep out of trouble.

Hmm...

Ahh!

Jar Jar Binks starts off as a rather silly character, not very responsible.

Oops.

But gains increasing roles of responsibility, to the point that he becomes a member of the senate.

So we see him in a genuine leadership role.

In a sense, he grows up in these films, and if you think of the children who might have related to him, they have, in a sense, grown up along with him.

But not all comic characters are innocents like Jar Jar, R2-D2, or C-3PO.

Enter Han Solo's nemesis, the grotesque space gangster, Jabba the Hutt.

You tell that slimy piece of worm-ridden filth he'll get no such pleasure from us!

Jabba the Hutt represents greed and excessiveness.

And I think that's represented by his sheer physical excess, his sheer corpulence.

Ugh!

Oh, I can't bear to watch.

I would argue with you.

Jabba is sexy, because what's sexier than the dude who's like risen to a position of power where he can just lay around?

You know, and things happen in front of him.

And he's that powerful, and he's that rich, and, yeah, he's a bit slobby, but I have to like Jabba the Hutt 'cause I'm shaped like Jabba the Hutt.

And without Jabba we'd never get to see Leia in a bikini, so thank god for Jabba the Hutt.

He is kind of a modern dragon, and what do the dragons of mythology do?

They capture maidens...

And they hoard gold.

And the dragons hold those hostage.

Characters like Jabba also reflect potentially deadly obstacles along the hero's path...

Obstacles that test and strengthen him on his journey.

That's a very prevalent motive in Greek myth, the hero becoming himself by being tested by various monsters.

Hercules is made to go through these labors in order to become himself.

Another theme is the journey into the belly of the whale, as Campbell called it, which references Jonah being swallowed by a big fish in the Bible.

So one sees that happening to the heroes throughout "Star Wars" as they're swallowed by large entities.

It seems to suggest going to the deepest part of oneself.

So there's a moment of darkness, and there's a thr*at to the self.

The cave is collapsing!

This is no cave.

What?

Evil is a monstrous force swallowing our heroes.

It's an experience of being in the belly of the whale.

The journey of the hero is very much one of overcoming doubt about themselves.

There's something not right here.

What's in there?

Only what you take with you.

There's usually many times in which they have to overcome their worst fears.

They have to confront their nightmares, basically.

We certainly have that bit of evil monster in all of us.

This is why monster combat is so prevalent in the hero's-journey narrative.

We have to fight the monsters of outside circumstances, but we also have to fight those demons that come from our own heart.

For every hero...

There stands a villain.

For if there is good, there also must be evil.

Evil does exist.

Don't kid yourself.

There's evil in the world, deep and abiding, powerful evil.

And by the time you recognize the evil...

It's too late.

In literature...

Mythology...

History...

and scripture...

lurks a legion of evil, twisted, and depraved characters.

Among them is Darth Vader, the Empire's ruthless enforcer.

We will discuss the location of your hidden Rebel base.

And confronting this dark lord of the sith and all that he represents is a critical part of the hero's journey.

Join me, and I will complete your training.

If you only knew the power of the dark side.

Darth Vader radiates the glamour of evil.

He's a visual emblem of pure willpower, and that is always attractive.

There's a Darth Vader swagger.

He's incredibly confident.

In my neighborhood, in the inner city in Detroit, we always thought a big guy with James Earl Jones' voice wearing all shiny black was the biggest pimp in the history of motion pictures.

What have you done with those plans?

He owned everything.

Everybody was afraid of him.

What kid isn't seduced by the idea of complete fearlessness?

Commander, tear this ship apart until you've found those plans, and bring me the passengers!

I want them alive!

I'd say, "When you're young," but I probably still feel this way...

Darth Vader is wish fulfillment at its finest.

Here's a guy who is unstoppable.

Don't try to frighten us with your sorcerer's ways, Lord Vader.

He doesn't even have to swing a punch to take you out.

I find your lack of faith disturbing.

Plus, he's got a cape.

Who doesn't want the cape?

The swirling cape!

That's a big part of it.

He dresses cool.

The dark characters always seem to get the cool costumes.

Which is to say, there is a dramatic reward, there is an excitement to choosing evil, to choosing corruption.

When Vader was introduced in "Episode IV A New Hope," there was little to suggest that underneath his protective black bodysuit stood the figure of a once-proud hero, whose personality would be revealed as more complex and resonant with each new "Star Wars" chapter.

I've encountered a vergance.

You refer to the prophecy of the one who will bring balance to the Force.

You believe it's this boy?

He is the chosen one.

As revealed in "Episode I The Phantom Menace," Vader was born Anakin Skywalker.

Rescued from a life of sl*very by Jedi master Qui-Gon Jinn, the young boy left his home and mother to fulfill his destiny.

I will come back and free you, mom.

I promise.

Here is a gifted person who grows up in an oppressive situation.

He begins life as a sl*ve who suffers terrible losses early in his life.

Don't look back.

Don't look back.

He's wrenched away from his mother.

and it is the rage, stemming probably from grief and fear, that leads to the fall of this particular hero.

We can look at Anakin Skywalker having to deal with the problem of loss and having great difficulties with it.

It begins when he loses his mother.

Stay with me, mom.

I...

I love...

It's setting in motion the events that will lead to him being Darth Vader.

"I went to find my mother, and she was dead, so I slaughtered a whole village full of sand people." I k*lled them.

And not just the men, but the women...

And the children, too.

I hate them!

It throws him into a dark state, and he believes that he could have done something to prevent it.

Why couldn't I save her?

I know I could have.

- You're not all-powerful.

- Well, I should be.

He's gripped by power, which is a temptation that Luke is able to avoid.

I will be the most powerful Jedi ever.


I promise you.

I will even learn to stop people from dying.

It has all the hallmarks of a classical epic.

In "The Iliad," Achilles, who is the hero of the Greek army, is dodged by anger.

The first 20 books, he's angry at agamemnon.

The 22nd through 24th book, he's angry at Hector.

He is angry.

This is exactly what "Star Wars" is dealing with, which is fear leads to anger leads to hate leads to suffering.

Take the first line of "The Iliad." "Sing, O, goddess, the wrath of Peleus' son Achilles, whose anger brought pains a thousandfold upon the Achaeans." If that's the lesson of "The Iliad," that unbridled passion leads to tragedy, which it certainly does in "The Iliad," well, isn't that the story of Darth Vader?

We do not grant you the rank of master.

What?

He wants power.

But he's kind of weak.

He's impatient.

How can you do this?

This is outrageous.

It's unfair.

How you can you be on the council and not be a master?

Take a seat, young Skywalker.

He's kind of like a spoiled teenager.

Forgive me, master.

Some people were like, "Oh, he's too whiny.

Why would the galaxy's greatest villain be some whiny teenager?" That's who the galaxy's greatest villain would be!

He would start as a whiny teenager.

He'd start as an emo kid with some issues.

I sense great fear in you, Skywalker.

You have hate.

You have anger.

But you don't use them.

As Anakin continues on his hero's journey, the role of mentor is assumed by the scheming chancellor Palpatine.

I hope you trust me, Anakin.

Of course.

Anakin's relationship with Palpatine grows stronger, and the role of mythic mentor takes on a darker shade.

This is the same narrative role as the serpent with Eve in the garden of eden.

The serpent says, "You can have the power of god." Only through me can you achieve a power greater than any Jedi.

And then he says, "God is afraid of the power." Be careful of the Jedi, Anakin.

They see your future.

They know your power will be too strong to control.

This is exactly what is laid before Anakin.

Anakin, help me!

Anakin is also tormented by horrifying nightmares concerning his wife, Padme.

You die in childbirth.

It was only a dream.

I won't let this one become real.

He gets too possessed by the fear of losing again the main woman in his life.

And that leads him to the dark side.

Darth Plagueis, he had such a knowledge of the dark side.

He could even keep the ones he cared about...

From dying.

Is it possible to learn this power?

Not from a Jedi.

In keeping with the mythic overtones of "Star Wars," Anakin succumbs and makes this Faustian bargain.

The Faust story in its classic form is the story of a man who sells his soul to the devil in order to achieve power.

Anakin receives his baptism as a dark lord of the sith.

Henceforth, you shall be known as Darth Vader.

Now his story directly parallels that of the devil himself.

As told in John Milton's epic poem "Paradise Lost," Lucifer was once one of God's most beautiful and favored angels.

But Lucifer's conceit and his lust for power over god caused him to wage w*r on heaven.

Defeated, he was cast out and created his own kingdom in hell.

Like Milton's Satan, Anakin Skywalker is the...

Is the man who can not resist the temptation of power.

I am becoming more powerful than any Jedi has ever dreamed of, and I'm doing it for you.

Part of Lucifer's downfall was his own pride and his own arrogance.

I am more powerful than the chancellor.

I can overthrow him.

And together, you and I can rule the galaxy.

And pride always goes before a fall.

You're going down a path I can't follow.

Stop.

Stop now!

Come back!

You're with him!

You brought him here to k*ll me!

No!

Let her go, Anakin!

Anakin...

Let...

her...

go.

Lucas is also harkening back to Greek tragedy.

Anakin loses Padme.

His attempt to save her by going over to the dark side of the Force kills her.

That is the fundamental Greek tragedy.

You turned her against me!

You have done that yourself!

The battle between Obi-Wan and Anakin on the planet mustafar has apocalyptic resonances to it.

Unh!

We see lava and fire all around, and this mirrors what is happening to Anakin internally.

We really have descended to hell, because we're about to see Anakin's own damnation.

You underestimate my power.

Don't try it.

Ra-a-gh!

And I love what George Lucas does with the symbolism here.

I hate you!

He's so passionate that it burns him and consumes him.

Aggh!

The dismemberment of Anakin goes to the extent symbolically of how much he really lost his humanity.

He's become cut off from himself but also from others.

It actually feels kind of wagnerian to me, that the price of evil becomes apparent.

This is George Lucas looking to mythology, specifically the Greek myth of Nemesis.

The notion that you are somehow going to be the victim of the things that you sow.

Now Anakin has to live in hell.

And for someone that passionate, hell for him is to become a mechanical monster...

To have really no humanity left.

As Anakin is turned into a half-man, half-machine, another classic archetype is evoked, this time from the world of gothic horror.

Finally, we have the answer of how this strange hybrid creature was, in fact, constructed, as a kind of Frankenstein's monster.

Lord Vader...

Can you hear me?

Yes, master.

Master Windu.

I must say, you're here sooner than expected.

In the name of the galactic senate of the Republic, you are under arrest, chancellor.

Are you threatening me, master Jedi?

The senate will decide your fate.

I am the senate.

If the mythic hero is a figure of freedom, the villain he faces often stands as a symbol of tyranny.

That tradition is continued in the first three episodes of the Star Wars saga, which offer a dark drama of political intrigue and corruption.

Begin landing your troops.

Is that legal?

I will make it legal.

The story draws from more than myth and literature.

It reflects a cycle in our own history.

The fall of republics and the rise of dictators.

Hundreds of senators are now under the influence of a sith lord called Darth Sidious.

It's no longer just a small band of adventurers having fun in a dangerous place, but it's now grown into a sort of a geopolitical meltdown.

Vote now!

Vote now!

Order!

It concerns itself with the corruption of government.

With a government that is trying to seize power for itself...

I will be chancellor.

And so generates these sort of artificial crises that it can then respond to.

A thr*at from outside, actually being generated from within.

Wipe them out.

All of them.

At the center of the story is the scheming Darth Sidious.

Disguised as the kindly Senator Palpatine, he uses the Republic's fears of rebellion and w*r to gradually seize absolute power.

We know what Lucas draws on a great deal, which is Germany in the '30s, which is the same animal.

Sieg!

Heil!

Sieg!

Heil!

Here, there's a very strong analogy in "Star wars." You have a chancellor, Palpatine, who wants extraordinary powers.

Well, that's exactly what chancellor h*tler requested in 1933.

The so-called enabling act basically said, "You can do pretty much anything you want." It's an emergency power, naturally, but of course, emergency powers rarely go away.

This is a crisis.

The senate must vote the chancellor emergency powers.

He can then approve the creation of an army.

Dictators always start out saying they're gonna help the little guy.

It's the big daddy.

Here is this powerful person.

And he is committed to taking care of me.

And these powerful men who represent repression, dictatorship, and evil, do have a charisma about them, the charisma of power.

S*ddam Hussein had terrific...

What the m*llitary calls command presence.

Walked tall, upright, tended to dominate any landscape he occupied.

His message was "follow me, and I'll take care of you." One can see the attraction.

Naboo's system has been invaded by the droid armies of the trade...

I object, there is no proof!

You really do see this theme, that is, you see government becoming very, very messy, very, very corrupt.

And this goes back to the Roman Empire.

Free societies, republics, do not collapse from without until they've destroyed themselves within.

The morality necessary to support a free society, of a Republic, has to erode.

And hand in hand in that, of course, in ancient Rome is the idea of corruption, the senators themselves growing more concerned with maintaining their own power and the senate sort of willing itself almost out of existence.

The senate is expected to vote more executive powers to the chancellor today.

Be careful of your friend, Palpatine.

Lucas is showing us democracy is fragile.

It can always be destroyed from within.

As my first act with this new authority, I will create a grand army of the Republic to counter the increasing threats of the separatists.

Palpatine's playing both sides because he knows that w*r means the accumulation of power.

And in a sense, that's what happened in ancient Rome.

People like Julius Caesar raised armies that became private armies, and that was really what led to the decline of the Roman Republic.

Star Wars further connects its galactic republic to ancient Rome with scenes like this one.

In "Episode I The Phantom Menace," the populace is distracted from the gathering storm of w*r by spectacles, like this high-speed pod race, reminiscent of Roman chariot races.

Later in the saga, as Palpatine consolidates his power, the citizens indulge in lurid rituals of sacrifice and slaughter.

There is a reference to gladiatorial combat, such as one finds in ancient Rome.

You have the idea that empires can turn to that kind decadence.

In showing the fall of a Republic, "Star Wars" also reflects the story of Napoleon, who crowned himself emperor after the horrors and chaos of the French Revolution became too much for the French people to bear.

Even early American history offers an example of how a Republic is vulnerable to the ambitions of the powerful.

It's important to remember that Washington, after the American Revolution is offered by his officers to replace the continental congress and establish a dictatorship.

And he says to them, "Do you truly believe that I led the rebellion against George III in order to become George I?" And I think he would find in Star Wars a great deal that he would have agreed with, and a great deal that he would have understood.

It's testimony to just how significant "Star Wars" is that people see our own society, our own moment reflected in it.

Anakin, my allegiance is to the Republic, to democracy!

If you're not with me...

Then you're my enemy.

In "Revenge of the Sith," when we hear Anakin say you're either with me or against me, it's almost impossible not to hear that quote and think of another very famous quote.

Either you are with us or you are with the t*rrorists.

Some people say that the new "Star Wars" trilogy has analogies with Iraq.

And I think that that's only very narrowly, because Lucas is looking much wider at the Roman Republic and all republics.

Lucas is telling a very familiar historical story, the story of a tyrant who comes to power by exploiting circumstances, by capitalizing on fear, is a story that's been told again and again and again.

In "Revenge of the Sith," the hidden evil within Palpatine is made manifest during his battle to the death with Jedi master Mace Windu.

I am going to end this once and for all.

You can't.

He must stand trial.

He has control of the senate and the courts.

He's too dangerous to be left alive.

No.

No!

No!

You will die!

Palpatine is now physicalized evil.

He's ugly and crusty and monstrous.

Power!

Palpatine becomes the evil emperor.

You see the desire for power, the desire for control.

Power!

The cunning Palpatine even uses his physical deformity to win sympathy and support as he seizes total power.

The attempt on my life has left me scarred and deformed.

But I assure you, my resolve has never been stronger!

Lucas correctly perceives that politics are cyclical and that there is never a final solution to anything involving the construction of human societies, that they are in continual process of construction and of self-destruction.

When Palpatine takes over, it's the most chilling thing I'd seen since the first movie.

I mean, I had actual dread in that wonderful sh*t...

Where they're coming down on him, and everybody's cheering.

In order to ensure the security and continuing stability, the Republic will be reorganized into the first galactic empire!

There is a timeless moral that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

We have to safeguard democracy.

That thr*at is always there.

So this is how liberty dies, with thunderous applause.

Look at him, he's heading for that small moon.

I think I can get him before he gets there.

He's almost in range.

That's no moon.

It's a space station.

It's too big to be a space station.

In most mythic tales, the hero and his comrades must take part in an epic battle.

The "Star Wars" saga draws on iconic images of good and evil, to evoke a mechanized empire on the verge of crushing democracy.

In order to make the Empire seem particularly evil, Lucas calls the Emperor's troops stormtroopers, which were, of course, h*tler's personal bodyguards.

He uses the black, white and red when he shows the Empire, and in fact, those were colors that h*tler liked and used for what was called the blood flag, a symbol of the third reich.

When you look at Darth Vader with what looks like what they call the upside-down coal kettle of the German helmet, those were very powerful symbols of evil in America that took you instantly to the dark side as soon as you saw that shape of that helmet or heard the phrase stormtroopers.

Symbolically, the mask really represents someone who's lost their humanity.

So they are just going to do what they're told.

To your stations.

But not necessarily what's right.

In "Star Wars," the Rebel resistance and the heroic guardians of the old Republic embrace diversity...

In contrast to the uniformity of the Empire and the sith.

The Empire is sterile and lifeless.

There are no women in the Empire anywhere.

If the scanners pick up anything, report it immediately.

And this may be because women are associated with life, the power of life- giving, with nature.

You are part of the Rebel alliance and a traitor.

Take her away!

All of which are things that are opposed to the Empire, as it is based on death, destruction and v*olence.

Master Windu.

How pleasant of you to join us.

This party's over.

It's the resistance of the champions of diversity.

And they're not just ethnically various.

They're zoologically various...

Against the enforcers of uniformity.

In that sense, if you go back and look at the Cold w*r, where the united states had reached across the planet from Japan and south Korea to Europe, there was a very broad coalition of people representing many different value systems and structures but who had collectively concluded that they didn't want a Soviet tyranny imposed on them.

Many people like to read the Soviet Union as the Empire.

But I think that Lucas was thinking of the Empire in the original film, "A New Hope," as the system.

The man, you know.

The monolithic faceless side of power that's threatening to squelch us all.

Joseph Campbell thought that perhaps the great moral question of our time is will we live for the machine, or will we live for humanity?

Magnificent, aren't they?

And he thought the Star Wars films presented this in stark contrast.

In "Star Wars," technology is symbolic of the loss of humanity.

We see that in Darth Vader's robot body that displaces his human existence.

Or the Imperial walkers...

The Imperial cruisers...

Or the Death Star itself.

This station is now the ultimate power in the Universe.

I suggest we use it.

The Death Star looks like a planet, but it's not.

It's a machine.

And when you go inside of it, it's hollow.

And so it shows you that the heart of that society is completely hollow.

Continue with the operation.

You may fire when ready.

What?!

You're far too trusting.

Dantooine is too remote to make an effective demonstration, but don't worry.

We will deal with your Rebel friends soon enough.

No.

Commence primary ignition.

And we are torn about technology.

When homer wrote about the ancient greeks battling, they had the power to destroy one another.

But they could not destroy the whole world.

Lucas uses machines to great effect and the fact that it's how humans use them that makes the difference of whether it's good or it's bad.

It's true of our computers.

It's also true of a g*n.

So uncivilized.

The Rebels obviously use technology, too.

They have spaceships, too.

They're happy to use it.

They're moving to att*ck position.

But the Rebels win not through superior firepower but because they trust in something larger than themselves.

Luke, trust your feelings.

And right at the conclusion of "Episode IV A New Hope," you see this very clearly.

Use the Force, Luke.

Where Luke turns off his targeting computer, doesn't trust in the technology but trusts in the Force, and this allows him to destroy this huge machine, which the Empire did not suspect.

The irony is that so much of what happens in "Star Wars" could not have been done if you turned the machines off.

So it ends up being about the relationship, the balance between who we are, what our intent is, and the technology, the tools we use to realize that intent.

Great sh*t, kid!

That was one in a million!

I think the message is don't rely on the technology.

You know, rely on yourself.

Star Wars touches the ancient theme.

It's been repeated time after time after time with history.

Recognize that even after evil has risen and is full-force on, that the best that's in us is to resist that and that one person can make a difference.

Yee-ha!

This is the Rebel that surrendered to us.

Although he denies it, I believe there may be more of them, and I request permission to conduct a further search of the area.

He was armed only with this.

An important part of Joseph Campbell's model was reconciliation with father.

That is, to reconnect with one's own father perhaps after adolescent rebellion or perhaps after some feeling of betrayal or something.

But on a larger scale, it's reconnecting with a larger human framework.

The Emperor has been expecting you.

I know, father.

By "Return of the Jedi," you'll notice that Luke is now wearing an all-black costume.

He's gone from a white garment in the first film, which shows his innocence and his naivete.

He's passed through this tremendous initiation period, and he has accepted the negativity within himself, and he has found a way to deal with that.

I feel the conflict within you.

Let go of your hate!

It is too late for me, son.

As soon as Luke finds out that Darth Vader is his father, he has a fundamental choice.

What will he do about this fact?

On the one hand, the Emperor and Vader believe that he will be drawn to the dark side.

Welcome, young Skywalker.

I'm looking forward to completing your training.

On the other hand, he can do what Obi-Wan and Yoda want.

He can preserve himself from that attachment to his father and so destroy Vader and the Emperor.

But Luke invents a third alternative.

Never!

He does something totally unexpected.

Agh!

He goes not to k*ll his father, not to turn to the dark side, but to turn him back to the good.

Your hate has made you powerful.

Now...

Fulfill your destiny and take your father's place at my side.

Never.

I'll never turn to the dark side.

You've failed, your highness.

I am a Jedi, like my father before me.

Luke saves everything through his attachment to his father.

So be it...

Jedi.

This is a very Christian redemptive moment in the film.

There's no hatred in him, and it's through his own offering up of himself...

Father, please!

That he's able to bring salvation to his father.

You could kind of see Luke Skywalker as a messianic figure who comes from humble origins and rises to a place where he redeems the father.

The father's redeemed through the son.

Luke...

Help me take this mask off.

But you'll die.

Nothing can stop that now.

The path to self-knowledge requires us to understand where we came from.

It's the relationship of Odysseus to laertes.

Ultimately in the journey home of "the odyssey," Odysseus becomes his own father.

And it is only through becoming your own father that you actually grow up.

Just for once...

Let me...

Look on you with my own eyes.

Anakin wants to see Luke through his own eyes.

So he would rather recover his humanity, which means also facing death, to see out of himself as father to son.

One of my favorite scenes in "The Iliad" is when the great hero Hector takes his little baby boy.

He has his helmet down.

He's about to go off to battle.

The baby is scared.

He's looking at his helmeted father, and he can't see his face, and then the lovely Hector pushes his helmet back and looks on his baby son and kisses him and says, "my son, one day the trojans will say you are like me.

You are strong and the bravest in battle.

And then again, one day they will say, no, he is greater than his father." Now... go, my son.

Leave me.

No.

You're coming with me.

I'll not leave you here.

I've got to save you.

You already have, Luke.

The last act that Luke performs for his father is to burn all that's left of Vader.

In Episode III, you see Anakin Skywalker with his humanity quite literally and figuratively b*rned away.

At the end of Episode VI, you see all that machine man b*rned away.

Burning a body on a pyre is the ultimate heroic burial.

In "The Iliad," the father, priam, takes the body of Hector back and there is a massive pyre built.

And then the people of Troy can mourn him properly.

It brings honor and distinction, and the smoke rises to the gods.

In the "Star Wars" films, we learn that we're all in this together and in a very large sense need to cooperate in order to survive.

We are now a part of the tribe.

You see an embrace of people who can get together for common goals, rather than believe that they know what's best for everybody else.

At the end of "Return of the Jedi," Leia and han ultimately form a couple.

They're linked to nature, linked to new life, and life can now go on in the sense that the destructive Empire is gone.

Leia represents the feminine force which needs to come back to the galaxy to bring it life.

Star Wars is about balance.

George Lucas has a message.

The power always belongs to the people, and that is where anyone who has power derives it from.

Never think that a handful of committed people cannot change the world.

In fact, it's the only thing that ever has.

After more than three decades, "Star Wars" has influenced nearly every aspect of popular culture.

And as it draws many of its themes from literature...

Mythology...

Religion...

And history, the epic saga has, in turn, created a mythology all its own.

It's become a cultural touchstone for us.

I can quote from Shakespeare or dostoyevsky and know that some of the kids in the class will probably get the reference.

But the second I mention "Star Wars," they immediately know exactly what I'm talking about.

These aren't the droids you're looking for.

Myths pre-date literature.

I think everyone acknowledges that culture has changed radically.

And there is absolutely no reason why a great film series of this kind cannot be considered the equivalent of a printed book.

The Force is with you, young Skywalker.

It's a very literate story, but it is not a literal story.

People are able to connect to it in their own way.

I love you.

I know.

It has become what the Greek myths were in the past.

I think the legacy of "Star Wars" is that it helps us to open our hearts to the dimension of mystery in our lives.

Use your feelings, you must.

And it also gives us some guidance in conducting our own hero's journey.

You've failed, your highness.

I am a Jedi, like my father before me.

Star Wars gives you a feel for a way of storytelling and the moral purpose and value of stories being told.

You can see the nature of teamwork.

You're all clear, kid!

Now let's blow this thing and go home!

The nature of defiance.

You can talk all you like about how "Star Wars" has a bit of the Bible and it has a bit of Greek mythology, but none of those stories have R2-D2 or C-3PO, Jabba the Hutt, the spaceships, the Death Star.

To me, what is great and wonderful about "Star Wars" is the sheer brilliance of the imagination of the stuff in Star Wars that we have never seen before.

I got him!

Great, kid!

Don't get cocky!

Fought well, you have.

This is just the beginning.

A hundred years from now, someone will be sitting here discussing the impact of "Star Wars," and they will be seeing different things in it than we are seeing today.

Has it changed the culture?

Absolutely.

Is it with us forever?

You bet.

Remember, the Force will be with you... always.
Post Reply