A Chivalric Romance in a New Setting

Rating: 10/10 (6 January 2007)

Many years after the 1977 release of Star Wars, a science fiction fan who grew up in the 1940's and 1950's related to me an interesting observation upon his first viewing of this movie. He felt the scene in which a young and melancholy Luke Skywalker looks out upon the two suns from his home on a distant planet was a direct homage to the science fiction fans who essentially created interest in the genre from its beginnings in pulp novels, comic books, and Saturday matinÃ©e movies. When he saw this scene, he immediately decided that the filmmakers understood the spirit of science fiction and had made this movie for the hardcore science fiction fans.
However, before its first release, rumors were spreading among studio execs that the 20th Century Fox Science Fiction epic called "Star Wars" by the director of American Graffiti would bankrupt the studio. Their reasoning: science fiction was only for a very select audience and not mainstream. What the studios did not recognize was that the young-adult crowd that made up much of the movie-going public were the same people that had been children in the 1940's and 1950's who grew up with the likes of comics, pulp novels, and Saturday matinees, much like the fan I had met. These were the first readers and viewers of such classics as Superman, Flash Gordon, the Lensmen, and Robert Heinlein. And these people came in droves and waited in long lines to see a new spin on what they had read and saw when they were children.
Strangely, Star Wars was aimed at the same crowd that George Lucas appealed to in American Graffiti. However, instead of reminding his audience of their coming-of-age as 18-to-20-year-olds in 1959, he reminded them of the comic books they read and the movies they saw when they were between the ages of 8 and 14 in the 1940's and 1950's. Lucas had, in fact, updated the sophistication and reputation of the science fiction genre that had been marginalized, to some degree, in the 1950's. And it appealed to their children, a new younger audience who were not as aware of the earlier pulp and comic years of pop culture. Star Wars not only exceeded all expectation, but redefined science fiction as a marketable genre to larger audiences.
In truth, Star Wars was a hit for a host of subtle reasons that have its roots in human mythology. Star Wars is essentially a chivalric romance of the Arthurian variety in a new setting. The entire trilogy is the coming-of-age of Luke Skywalker as a knight, much like Sir Gawain in the Arthurian legends. The themes that appear in Star Wars are some of the same themes that characterize countless myth tales, from the tales of Odysseus to the voyages of Sinbad.
Here are a few of the different mythological subjects that appear in the original Star Wars movie: the cryptic message asking for help from a princess imprisoned by a black knight; the old but wise knight who befriends the novice and becomes his teacher and mentor; the black knight in the black castle; the mercenary who is met at a bar; the young knight who tries to save the princess and liberate her from the castle of the black knight.
But instead of these subjects being literal, their forms are changed. The knights use light sabers instead of swords. A large space station that destroys planets is the black castle. Instead of horses, the knights and heroes fly in x-wing fighters. The mercenary's "ship" is a complex spaceship capable of going into light speed. And the kingdom being fought for is not a forest but a large expanse of space. The theme of "The Force", whose central idea is very Buddhist, hearkens back to earlier mythology in which God or the gods are present--not always seen but do influence the outcome.
It may be that movie studio executives are the ones that finance and green-light certain films, however, thank God they are not the ones who decide which films capture audiences' imaginations. Part of the challenge of science fiction films is partially due to the name of the genre. "The Planet of the Apes" is also regarded as a science fiction film, but its theme and purpose is so different from "Star Wars" that it is like classifying "The Ten Commandments" and "Oh God!" as both being religious movies.
The magic of "Star Wars" does not rely exclusively on its being a science fiction movie. Certainly, the new era of film effects helped its cause. Its characters also brought a higher level of complexity to the story, as well as comic relief. Simultaneously, it is about old sagas and myths being cast in a new updated landscape in which the story that has been told and re-told countless times for countless millennia appears new and fresh. This will still be Lucas' greatest triumph. Unfortunately, the third installment (part VI) and the prequel trilogy failed to capture the mythological magic of this first movie.