Essay 1:Star Wars

This is an essay we did for English 155:

Norma Lopez

Eng. 155

Professor K. Cornelius

March 29, 2011

Star Wars Interpretation

George Lucas is the creator of the well known Star Wars saga film. The Star Wars saga films have won many awards including; six Oscars, a People’s Choice Award, a BATAF Award, a Golden Globe, and a Grammy. The three original episodes were released in 1977 and 1980, and 1983. An additional three episodes were later released in 1999, 2002, and 2005 giving further background. The main characters are princess Leia, Luke Skywalker, and Darth Vader (Anakin Skywalker). Darth Vader and Padma are parents to Luke and Leia, who were separated at birth. The films are widely popular with many interpretations about the meaning behind them. Charles Ealy, author of “Understanding Star Wars,” gives an account of these various interpretations. In his article, Ealy states that the Star Wars series interprets the world as good vs. evil and that it presents a reflection of current political ideas. I agree that the Star Wars saga portrays the ideas of a fantasy fiction story with good characters and evil villains, and it contains political and social concepts, but I argue that the purpose in creating the series was just to create a story.

Every story needs a plot that grabs the viewers’ attention in order for it to be successful. In every fairy tale there are archetypes, there is a damsel in distress, a hero, and a villain. For example in the fairy tale Cinderella, there is a princess (Snow White), a prince (Prince Charming), and a villain (Cinderella’s stepmother). In the Star Wars Saga is no exception, the character of Princess Leia as  the damsel, Luke Skywalker as the hero, and Darth Vader as villain. As a writer, George Lucas had to come up with a story engaging enough to bring to life. In Episode, Four (released first in 1977), Darth Vader completes the space station know as the Death Star, with which he plans to destroy the Rebel Alliance. While attempting to steal the plans for the Death Star Princess Leia is captured by Darth Vader. . She then hides the plans in a droid, known as R2-D2, who is accompanied by his counterpart C-3PO both of which Luke Skywalker later buys. While cleaning the droid, he triggers a message to Leia to install in the droids embarking Luke in search for help. Luke gets help from an old hermit (Obi-Wan Kenobi). They end up in a space station in which Obi-Wan Kenobi dies purposely so that the group can escape, and so that the Death Star can be destroyed. Three years after Luke finds out that his father was a Jedi he decides to start his Jedi training, and so he goes in search of Yoda, an old Jedi master. Yoda is the only Jedi who can help him with his training. During his search for Luke, Vader captures Luke’s friends, which was in turn a trap to capture Luke and try to get him join the dark side.

Princess Leia portrays a social status women had during the 1970s. The films do not portray Leia as the typical defenseless princess. She is seen as a character that fights in this film which relates how women were gaining power in the time period the movie was released. Women at that time were usually not portrayed with strength since during the 1970s society still viewed women as fragile. Although feminist were trying to change this concept put upon women, the film shows women still did not have as much power as men because in the film it does not show Princess Leia control the space ship or anything like that instead it shows a hegemonic society. Lucas did not do this on purpose, his job was just to create a story which can turn into a film for all public to enjoy. There were some few alterations but Princess Leia is one of the archetypes. Even though she does reflect some of the social issues, the main purpose of Princess Leia is to portray the damsel in distress. She needs to be rescued from Darth Vader.  Luke is the “prince” that will rescue her from the villain, Darth Vader.

Luke Skywalker can be identified as the equilibrium between good and evil, making it balanced. He is the prince of the fairy tale. Luke manages to rescue his friend and escape. He then returns with Yoda to continue his training, Yoda is nearly dying. Before Yoda dies he confirms to Luke that Vader is his father. A spirit then tells Luke he must confront his father in order to be a Jedi. Luke is also told that Leia in his twin sister. Luke decides to face Dark Vader while the Rebels are trying to destroy death star. During the light saver fight Luke gets really angry and beats Vader. Palpatine became angry about this and tried to kill Luke which Vader stops but suffers terrible wounds. He then dies in his son’s arms. After all of this Luke becomes a Jedi and the empire along with the second death star gets destroyed. The plot can easily be identified, further more it can be said it is the typical fairy tale story. The hero must go rescue the princess from the villain’s threats, but there are obstacles to overcome in order to be successful. Lucas wrote this film so that it is clear that there are two sides, the good side and the evil side.

He intentionally made the films in outer space since his purpose was for viewers to enjoy a fresh film with an unusual setting. Ealy’s article also mentions Mr. Biskind, the author of Easy Riders, Raging Bulls states, “You always have to view films in context, in certain historical periods,” he goes on and says “Films can’t help but to carry social and historical baggage. It’s an integral part of viewing movies. And in the case of Star Wars, there’s a lot of baggage.” Mr. Biskind believes that movies tend to incorporate themes about society that occur while it is being filmed. It is not intentional but since society changes over time, a film can provide a lot f insight about the world during a given time. If this were the case, Lucas would have chosen another setting. The setting obscures the time period, it does not reflect any time period in specific. It is very neutral.  The unusual setting like outer space further more stresses it is a fairy tale.

In everything that deals with art and film and even books, there will be some type of political and or social forces within the work. For instance in many art pieces it not only is art but it says something about the time period it was in and the society during that time period. Much old art depicts history itself and political views. Social forces and political also impact films like Star Wars.

“Others see the saga as a political commentary, with the ‘evil emperor’ representing former President Richard Nixon and the dark lieutenant, Darth Vader, representing Henry Kissingger. (George Lucas, having grown up in the Vietnam era, has given credence to this interpretation in various interviews.) George Lucas might not have intended to do so but it tends to happen”.

His film not only tells a fictional story but it also contains insight in the society and political views during that time. Ultimately the film was a creation of a new story brought to life that accidentally ended up similar to political concepts. In his interpretation Ealy chose to emphasis the fact that it connects very well with political issues such as President Nixon as ‘emperor’.

If Ealy was correct about his interpretation of the films being political and not only for entertainment, the theory can apply with other time periods with other presidents such as the Bush presidency.

The films Star Wars Saga are one of the most well-known movies. George Lucas was the creator of this film which many decided to interpret what their message was. It has been a topic that has become controversial when it came out and it still has been over time. One of the many people who have interpreted the message is Charles Ealy. He believes that the films give out the good vs. evil sense. The films however convey much more than that. They not only give the sense of good vs. evil but they also have political and social concepts about the time period it was made.

Works Cited

1. “Understanding Star Wars”. Charles  Ealy
2. “The Myth and Magic of “Star Wars”: A Jungian Interpretation..” ERIC – World’s largest digital library of education literature. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Mar. 2011. <http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/search/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true&_&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue&gt;
3.  Sakibv. “Understanding Star Wars by Charles Ealy « Sakib’s Weblog.” Sakib’s Weblog. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Mar. 2011. <http://sakibv.wordpress.com/2008/10/02/understanding-star-wars-by-charles-ealy/&gt;
4. “Story Telling – “Cinderella”.” BGfL – BGfL Homepage – BGfL Homepage 2010. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Mar. 2011. <http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custom&gt;