Star Wars
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Star Wars
Star Wars As a Mythology
“Fifteen years ago, I set out to make a movie for a
generation without fairy tales.”
-George Lucas
There exists in every culture a series of folk tales and stories, which make up a part of that culture's history. These stories, called myths, often venture into the magical and fantastic, with great heroes battling terrible monsters to save exotic lands. As the human race has evolved, we have moved beyond the need to attribute unexplained events to supernatural workings beyond our ken. As a result, modern culture puts its faith in science and organised religion, and for centuries there have been no new myths.
In the nineteen-seventies, a young and enthusiastic film maker/director put his imagination and heart into changing that. George Lucas's now legendary Trilogy of movies and books, Star
Wars, is the result. To the casual observer, the movies are only exciting science fiction stories, but a closer look reveals nothing short of a complete mythology within. George Lucas collaborated
with Joseph Campbell on the making of the first movie of the
Trilogy, A New Hope (A New Hope is more commonly known as
Star Wars, but to be accurate, Star Wars will be used when
discussing the entire Trilogy and A New Hope will be used when
discussing the first movie only.) Before he died, Campbell was
widely accepted as the foremost authority on myths and
mythologies in the world. Campbell strongly believed that every
culture's myths and legends were strikingly similar, even identical,
to those of every other culture. His The Hero With A Thousand
Faces compares the trials and traits of heroes from all legends.
Lucas incorporated Campbell's model of the Hero in developing
Luke Skywalker as the Hero in A New Hope.
The plot line of A New Hope is very similar to that of many
mythologies. In order to better understand how Luke evolves as a
Hero, it is necessary to examine the early events of the film and
note how these key events are typical of other myths. A New Hope
takes place in a typical science-fiction galaxy. There exist many
planets and races of intelligent life. The galaxy's government has
recently been thrown into turmoil by the emergence of the evil
Emperor and his Empire. The Empire is the typical tyrant of
mythological stories. In Greek legend, the creation of the universe
proceeded smoothly until Cronos, father of the gods, decided he
wanted supreme power. He took over and ruled ruthlessly, and it
was up to Zeus and his divine siblin...
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