Everyone Has An Opinion!
Okay, if there’s one subject that can usually generate a response from someone, it’s Star Wars. People seem to love it or hate it. And even the people that love it usually fall into two categories. The either love everything Star Wars, or they love the original Star Wars, and hate the newer ones. There’s not a lot of people riding the fence when it comes to this series of movies.
A Long Time Ago, In A Notebook Far Far Away…
First, a little backstory. In case you didn’t know, Star Wars was created by a hairy young guy named George Lucas back in the early 1970′s. When Lucas sat down to write his “space opera”, he had just made a small fortune on his most recent film, American Grafitti. At this point, Lucas had very little idea where he wanted to take Star Wars, and looked towards inspirations such as Flash Gordon and The Hidden Fortress. Thus Star Wars started out as more of an homage to his favorite types of stories before it grew into the revisionist carved-into-stone never ending saga that it is today.
Here is what I believe. Star Wars, in the purest sense is one giant metaphor. It was written by a hungry young writer, who ached to dramatize and express himself artistically, his views on the Vietnam War. Look at it this way. George Lucas HATES to write. It’s not like he was an unknown director, as his American Graffitti did quite nicely, and he was living comfortably. He fought an uphill battle with outside forces to get Star Wars made, and he fought an uphill battle with himself to get Star Wars written. A little known fact is that George Lucas wrote an early draft of Apocolypse Now which portrayed the Vietname War in less than a positive way, and when this version failed to be produced, much of the elements were reused in Star Wars instead.
It Wasn’t Easy!
George Lucas, quite simply went through hell to make the original Star Wars, and no one expected it to go on to be as popular as it was. So the reason that George Lucas went through all of this, is because this was a story that very badly needed to be told, which started out as a social commentary on the United States War Machine. Some would argue that Star Wars started out as a remake of Kurosawa’s film The Hidden Fortress set in Outer Space, but it was this social commentary that motivated Lucas to finish Star Wars and make it his own.
However, what started out as pure quickly got corrupted by greed and ego. When Lucas saw that there was money to be made, things got out of hand… quick. Simply put, the Galactic Empire is a metaphor for the United States. The Death Star, with enough firepower to destroy an entire planet is the nuclear bomb, which can destroy an entire city. The concept of a rebellion to overthrow an established government seems radical until it is put into the hands of a very determined screenwriter. The fictional wars that take place in the Star Wars saga is one giant “What if?” that George was pondering about The United States back in the day.
Why Start With Episode IV?
A lot of people wonder why Lucas made Episode IV first. His “official” reason is that the first three episodes required special effects that were not possible in the 70′s, but I don’t buy that. The real reason is because Lucas wanted to portray the Empire as being pure evil and worthy of our scorn before turning around and revealing that the Empire is actually the United States. When this was revealed, it caused quite the controversy, as many people were upset when Episode III came out in 2005 and considered it to be little more than a criticism of then U.S. President George W. Bush.
Here’s my take on all of this. Star Wars was written as a stand alone film. Darth Vader was never supposed to be Luke’s father. Princess Leia was never supposed to be Luke’s sister. Yoda was created after Star Wars came out. Simply put, the writing is not perfect. George Lucas has revised history many times in the last 32 years in order to fit the notion that Star Wars was handed down to him by God or something. With every Star Wars movie or TV show that gets made, the series strays further and further from the original version that Lucas made in 1977. Although I prefer the film canon that existed before Return of the Jedi was made, I can settle with Star Wars as a complete, six episode saga. But as far as I’m concerned, everything after 2005 has been a bastardized, cheap knockoff, as well as all of the TV series, mini-series, and novels.
I was actually introduced to Star wars Return of the Jedi, I believe, when I was young. My brother took me (saw Star wars on Beta/VHS at a friends). It had nothing to do with the story. It had everything to do with the experience. I didn’t care what metaphor was used for the Death Star,IT WAS THE DARK STAR MAN!
How many hours of backyard reenactment came from that movie, I can’t say. But it was what it was. Some hold nostalgia like a tattered book.
I meant: It was the “Death Star” Man!
Shows I haven’t watched it in a while.
@ guy
Thanks for your input! Star Wars definitely holds different meanings for the fans than for the creator. A lot of people have the opinion that once Lucas released Star Wars, it belonged to us, and he has no right to go back and change the films like he has, and to rewrite history.
I certainly can relate to the people who grew up with Star Wars, and have history with it. My aim with this article was to illustrate how much the series has changed since 1977. George Lucas would have you believe that it hasn’t changed at all, and I find that absurd.
As a person who grew up with the entire Star Wars franchise, I thought it was complete once Jedi was released. Then Lucas f***ed it all up with the “Special Editions”, and further muddied the waters with Episodes I, II, and III. I think he should have left well enough alone, but money changes everything. I do tend to agree that the original story was lost as more was added to the saga.
Great commentary!!! Keep up the awesome work!
@ Midd13m4n
I was generally okay with the Special Editions with the exception of “Han Shot First”. I mean, he changed a lot of stuff that he didn’t need to, but he’s been doing that almost since the movies came out, nothing new there. The prequels were no where close to what I envisioned for the backstory, but I was willing to accept them. The breaking point for me was when he decided to release a Clone Wars movie… just because he could. That was the clincher, and proved to me that Star Wars had become a shadow of what it once was.