A Long Time Ago… Star Wars, Myth and Religion

 

Along with Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Star Wars helped to bring science fiction to the attention of Hollywood, producing a one of the first blockbusters and marketing it not on product placement, but on product sales. But beneath this cynical perspective lies a trilogy which successfully captured the imagination of a generation. How did this happen? The Star Wars trilogy has been labelled many things; Western, fairytale, a remake of the Seven Samurai in space, and reworking of Arthurian myth. Yet at heart it is a deceptively simple story; a young man travels a rite of passage with the aid of his friends, defeats his nemesis with the aid of magic, and in doing so saves the world.

 

Main Texts:

The Star Wars Trilogy:

Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi (A/S office)

The Phantom Menace

The Seven Samurai

 

Secondary Texts:

 

Joseph Campbell, The Hero With A Thousand Faces (Fontana: 1993)

Geoff King & Tanya Krzywinska, Science Fiction Cinema, (Wallflower Publications:2000) (case study of The Phantom Menace)

http://www.theforce.net

Troops (at www.theforce.net)

Any of the Star Wars novels or graphic novels

 

Discussion Topics:

 

• Why is it so easy to label the Star Wars Trilogy with so many different brushes? Do you think it really belongs to the domain of science fiction?

 

• Think of the roles of each character. In what ways do they support the traditional patterns of myths? Is there any challenge to these positions?

 

• What are your reactions to Darth Vader and Anakin Skywalker? Is either a sympathetic figure? Do you think there are any attempts to create sympathy or otherwise with Anakin in The Phantom Menace?

 

• What is The Force? How does it influence each film in turn?

 

•  What do you think about the introduction of midi-chlorines in The Phantom Menace?

 

• Luke was originally plotted as a girl. Would this have been successful? If so/not, why/not?

 

• Do you consider the prequel a worthy follow-up to the Phantom Menace? What about the new characters (in particular, Anakin, Amidala, Jar Jar Binks and the young Obi-Wan)?

 

 

Essay Questions:

• Is Star Wars a Western?
• Do you think Star Wars deserves its fame?
• What is the Dramatic Function of the Droids?
• Discuss the myth structure of the Star Wars Trilogy.
• What is the Force, and what is its narrative purpose in the Trilogy? Discuss with specific references to religions and belief systems.

 

Quotes:

 

“The extreme popularity of a Hollywood film such as Star Wars derives not so much from any fixed message it may be said to convey, or any single response it aims to provoke, but from the multiplicity of meanings that can be extracted from it, and from the multiple uses it can be put to. Referring to the Soviet Union as an ’evil empire’ or labelling Reagan’s missile defence programme  ‘Star Wars’ are two such uses, which may mobilise any of the meanings previously attached to the film or the term, and may also add new meanings to the existing repertory”

 

Peter Kramer, History Today, March 1999, pp41-47

 

“The actors are wallpaper, the jokes are juvenile, there’s no romance, and the dialogue lands with the thud of a computer instruction manual. But it’s useless to criticise the visual astonishment that is Star Wars”

 

Rolling Stone, May 1999

 

“The Jedi outfits are the ritual garb of a religious warrior order. Their lightsabers combine the qualities of ancient and futuristic, the sword and the hi-tech buzz. Qui-Gon’s pony tail and Obi-Wan’s position as an apprentice further encourage a reading in terms of the Samurai tradition.”

 

King. G & Krzywinska, T, Science Fiction Cinema, (Wallflower Publishing: 2000)

 

RANDAL: All right, Vader’s boss…

DANTE: The Emperor.

RANDAL: Right, the Emperor. Now the Emperor is kind of a spiritual figure, yes?

DANTE: How do you mean?

RANDAL: Well, he’s like the pope for the dark side of the Force. He’s a holy man; a shaman, kind of, albeit an evil one.

DANTE: I guess.

RANDAL: Now, he’s in charge of the Empire. The Imperial government is under his control. And the entire galaxy is under Imperial Rule.

DANTE: Yeah.

RANDAL: then wouldn’t that logically mean that it’s a theocracy?  If the head of the Empire is a priest of some sort, then it stands to reason that the government is therefore one based on religion.

DANTE: It would stand to reason, yes.

RANDAL: Hence, the Empire was a fascist theocracy, and the rebel forces were therefore battling religious persecution.

DANTE: More or less.

REANDAL: The only problem is that at no point in the series did I ever hear Leia or any of the rebels declare a particular religious belief.

 

Clerks, Kevin Smith, (Faber & Faber: 1997)

 

“Throughout the inhabited world, in all times and under every circumstance, the myths of man have flourished; and they have been the living inspiration of whatever else may have appeared out of the activities of the human body and mind. It would not be too much to say that myth is the secret opening through which the inexhaustible energies of the cosmos pour into human cultural manifestation. Religions, philosophies, arts, the social forms of primitive and historical man, prime discoveries in science and technology, the very dreams that blister sleep, boil up from the basic, magic ring of myth.”(Joseph Campbell: The Hero with a Thousand Faces,)