Perhaps the most successful film franchise ever created, Star Wars has had a great deal of influence on films throughout the world, especially in Science Fiction. But where did George Lucas dream up that extensive universe that enticed millions of moviegoers? The answer is simple - they already existed. George Lucas utilized and blended existing story telling archetypes and film genres to create his own universe.
The first archetype exemplified by Star Wars is the Hero’s Journey, in fact, the Star Wars films contain five Hero’s Journeys, the primary being that of Luke Skywalker (Henderson: 1997 p. 20). In mythology, often the hero is unknowingly the offspring of important figures. Perseus is the son of Zeus, but a simple fisherman raises him – much like Luke is the son of Darth Vader and Senator Amidala, but his Aunt and Uncle raise him. The journey begins with a call to action; in Luke’s case this call to action comes when he accidently finds a message from a princess in a droid he has purchased.
The young hero often finds an obstacle early on that they cannot pass without help; in Luke’s case this is the Tusken Raider attack. The Tusken Raiders are about to end Luke’s journey rather abruptly when Ben Kenobi comes to his rescue. In mythology this aid is usually a guide or teacher - in the Arthurian legend, Merlin guides Arthur. Merlin gives Arthur a sense of direction and guides him to the tools he will need. In Star Wars Ben Kenobi serves as Luke’s Merlin, Kenobi’s tale about Luke’s father gives Luke the ambition to be something more, and he gives Luke his father’s lightsaber (The sword being its own symbol in mythology). On top of that, the two even look strikingly similar.
The hero must refuse the call before the journey begins; when Kenobi offers the journey to Luke he initially makes excuses, and only embarks after discovering the Empire has decimated his family. The first threshold in Luke’s journey is leaving Tatooine but he must find the means to do so – and so enter Han Solo and Chewbacca, the hero’s partners. The Argonauts along with their ship, the Argo, enable Jason to embark on his hero’s journey, just like Han and Chewy along with the Millenium Falcon allow Luke to leave Tatooine.
The labyrinth is what separates the hero from the objective. When Luke and his allies find themselves on the Death Star they are essentially finding themselves in a mythical dungeon filled with dangerous beasts. The Death Star follows the tradition of “hero-monster-woman” where the hero must defeat the monster (Darth Vader) so he can rescue the damsel in distress (Leia). This is perhaps the biggest stretch from tradition, in that Luke does not defeat Darth Vader in the altercation, and Leia is far from the traditional helpless princess. In the process the guide (Kenobi) is lost, not unlike the eventual separation of Merlin and Arthur. The slaying of the dragon is a common theme in mythology, in Star Wars the dragon is the Death Star instead of some fearsome lizard. The destruction of the Death Star does not signify total victory however; much Beowulf’s tale is far from over after the slaying of Grendel.
In the second film, The Empire Strikes Back Luke separates himself from his allies and immerses himself in the ways of the Jedi on Dagobah in order to gain the power to overcome the obstacles that still lay before him. During his training Luke is called away as he fears his friends are in danger – this danger comes from the classical betrayal. As Judas betrayed Jesus to the Romans, Lando Calrissian betrays his friends to the Empire. Also within the Cloud City sequence Luke faces his most harrowing test yet, his first confrontation with Darth Vader, and of course the fatherhood reveal. This struggle between father and son is ingrained in the hero’s journey with the story of Zeus and Cronus.
The opening of Return of the Jedi begins with Luke’s return to Tatooine and the point of The Hero’s Return. As Odysseus returns to Ithaca a tested hero, Luke returns to Tatooine where his new skills are put into action. In Jabba’s Palace Luke is tested by the Rancor, yet another beast. Following the escape from Jabba’s Palace Luke completes his training and the Empire has a resurgence of power with the second Death Star. It is on the second death star that Luke returns to the labyrinth scenario for a second time. This time the Emperor serves as the beast at the center. Similar to Theseus’ half man and half animal opponent in his labyrinth, Luke must also fight a half man, the half man and half machine Darth Vader. Upon defeating the Emperor and his resolution with his father, Luke has completed his hero’s journey (Henderson: 1997 p.20-113).
George Lucas perhaps did not intend for his story to follow the Hero’s Journey so carefully as he explained, “I was trying to take certain mythological principles and apply them to a story. Ultimately, I had to abandon that and just simply write the story. I found that when I went back and read it, then started applying it against the sort of principles that I was trying to work with originally, they were all there”. This makes a certain statement about the quality of the story being told in Star Wars, the same elements that give ancient myths the timelessness that they exemplify are subconsciously ingrained in the story of Star Wars as well.
The Star Wars saga also finds itself derived from a great deal of more contemporary sources as well. The most obvious being science fiction films, in which it has been a source of inspiration for films that followed as well. Science fiction, according to Merriam-Webster is “fiction dealing principally with the impact of actual or imagined science on society or individuals”. With perhaps the two exceptions of Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) and Tarkovskiy’s Solaris (1972), science fiction films were lower budget B-movie productions. Star Wars is differs from both of these styles, it’s a major science fiction movie on the scale of 2001 and Solaris, but without the art house focus - it has more of the adventurous feel of serials like Buck Rogers. The themes of science fiction during the 1970’s were generally apocalyptically themed and were far from what Star Wars was all about (Empire of Dreams: 2004). So, with these considerations, perhaps Star Wars added more to the science fiction genre than it derived, by bringing large-scale sci-fi action to the big screen.
George Lucas was a fan of Westerns since his youth, so naturally the genre would have an influence in his career to follow, and it is not difficult to see a plethora of Western conventions in Star Wars. The Western enjoyed its golden age just after World War II, and had largely fallen out of fashion by the 1970’s (Henderson: 1997 p. 126), but with the space race came a new frontier. George Lucas took the conventions that had previously been found in stories of the American frontier and put them in space. On Tatooine, with his Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru, Luke enjoys life on the frontier. Their moisture farm far outside the space ports just like the traditional Western cabin. Native Americans often served as the villains to the settlers; the natives of Tatooine, the Sand People raid the settlers in Star Wars. The Tusken Raiders riding around on their Banthas are just like Native American warriors riding on horseback. Both are shown with a great technological disadvantage and generally nomadic lifestyle, like the tipi, Tusken Raiders were even later shown to live in homes made of animal skin.
Other Western standards are re-skinned in Star Wars, like the saloon. The Mos Eisley cantina is essentially a Western saloon filled a variety of alien species instead of hardened gunslingers and prostitutes. The character Greedo (and later Boba Fett) is bounty hunter, a common villain archetype in Westerns such as Sergio Corbucci’s The Great Silence (1968). The lawless of the cantina, (as shown when Han Solo shoots Greedo in the face and no one cares) is seen in the Western saloon as well. Han Solo himself is derived from the Western. The smuggler and pilot of the Millenium Falcon is hardly different from a Clint Eastwood character, the loner out to make a buck, who turns out to have a heart in the end.
Another Western convention is found in Return of the Jedi, in which the hero returns to clean up a town overrun by bandits. Luke returns to Tatooine, where Jabba the Hut has an unlawful grasp over the locals. Luke’s discovery of the destruction of his moisture farm and murder of his aunt and uncle is extremely reminiscent of John Ford’s classic Western The Searchers, when Martin returns home with Ethan to find his family murdered and his home burning (Sparknotes Editors 2005).
The Japanese samurai films such as Akria Kurosawa’s The Seven Samurai (1954) and Yojimbo (1961) were an inspiration for Star Wars as well as the American Western genre. The heaviest influence of the samurai films and culture in Star Wars is in the Jedi. The dress of the Jedi and their weapons are the most telling sign of the samurai influence. The under robe worn by Obi-Wan Kenobi is a Japanese-style kimono (Henderson 1997: 187) and the two handed lightsaber is not unlike the samurai’s legendary katana. Darth Vader’s costume is partially inspired by samurai as well; his helmet was partially modeled after the Kabuto style helmet (Henderson: 1997: 189).
Finally, George Lucas derived much of the style of Star Wars from World War I and II films. In order to make the space combat sequences, Lucas and the visual effects supervisor, John Dykstra, created a montage of video from aviation combat (Henderson 1997: 174). This is scene as well in the design of the Millenium Falcon, with its cockpit being modeled after the famous B-29 “greenhouse” style (Henderson 1997: 173). The art of Star Wars owes much to the World War II itself, costumes for the Empire were largely inspired by Hitler’s SS, and many of the props were actually made from actual World War II weaponry (Henderson 1997: 184).
Star Wars has received plenty of flak in recent years with the release of the prequel trilogy, which was unpopular among many fans, and the release of further Star Wars media like the children’s cartoon series. The original trilogy however remains largely untainted by the backlash, and remains one of the most cherished stories ever told in American cinema. This success is undoubtedly related to the multitude of classic story and cinematic devices that form the foundation of the Star Wars universe.
Works Cited
Henderson, M (1997). Star Wars: The Magic of Myth. New York, NY: Batham Books.
Interview with George Lucas, Skywalker Ranch, Calif., September 27, 1996.
Lucas, George, Perf, Empire of Dreams. Prometheus Entertainment: 2004, Film.
SparkNotes Editors. (2005). SparkNote on Star Wars Episodes IV–VI. Retrieved
November 8, 2010, from http://www.sparknotes.com/film/starwars/
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