Star Wars: A Fantasy Not So Far From Reality
Star Wars, the single most recognizable science fiction experience to the date, hides a substantial amount of real life issues, and borrows a great deal from real life history. While feasting these senses, a lot can be gained by analyzing the saga, specifically A New Hope and The Phantom Menace by George Lucas. Ironic themes exist in the saga in the likes of an oppressive government, the horrid results of such governments, a strong presence of theology—all which demonstrates parallelism of real life; borrowing from some of history’s most notable governments, events, and theologies. From the first installment of Star Wars, it is overtly operant of George Lucas’ intentions to weigh in on
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War, murder, and neglect all chief contributors to this astounding death toll backed by the nefarious likes of Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler, Mao Zedong, and vast number of omitted others due to the length of the proverbial list. In Lucas’ first film, A New Hope, the empire destroys an entire planet, annihilating countless lives, and shows a distasteful lack of morality. A simple theme here—genocide and utter disregard for human life, and the dangerous of such power in the wrong hands. Lucas plays heavily on the audiences’ emotions with the destruction of the planet Aldaaran. The decision to destroy the planet is made over a strategic demonstration of force and to leverage to get the Rebel princess, Leigh, to divulge information (Episode I). The dramatic screenplay displays a force with overwhelming power and how dangerous it could be in the hands of force not checked, and likely has an inspired parallel event and a cautionary tale of what the future may hold. August 6, 1945, Hiroshima, around 8:15 AM, nearly 80,000 people face the wrath of United States, and pay with their lives to a bomb nicknamed “little boy”. Another is dropped, “fat man”, and another 36,00 perish (Shi 1127). The events that unfolded that day have been, and will continue to be argued for eternity, however, ethics aside, draws strong connections to a growing militarized world and the concern that comes with such advancements. In modern times, the aforementioned
The Star Wars franchise has been considered a staple of the cinematic universe for forty years, due to its popularity and ability to connect with its viewers. It also has one of the largest fan-bases in cinema, with fans clamoring to watch the latest films and elevating the actors in said films to instant stardom. The question that normally follows this understanding is how the space “epic” became so popular; how a relatively low-budget film would go on to gross over $750 million at the box office. This may be attributed to the “universal” themes found in its narrative, which creator George Lucas had in mind during inception. In this sense, the “universal” themes can be attributed from religious motifs found in many belief systems. The 1st film in the original trilogy, A New Hope, follows the hero Luke Skywalker and his friends as they help the Rebel Alliance defeat the Galactic Empire. Embedded in the film are religious concepts such as the battle between good and evil, heroic calling, and an omnipresent essence found everywhere. The religious themes found in A New Hope may be the answer for the film’s extreme popularity.
to destroy the Death Star is made. Luke is chased by Vader and Solo comes to the
In the beginning of the film, we see Princess Leia Organa (Carrie Fisher), the leader of the Rebel Alliance was captured and taken to the Death Star; a planet destroying mobile space station. Meanwhile, a young farmer named Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) unintentionally buys the two brave and ingenuous droids, who have stolen the architectural plans of the Death Star in the hope of finding its weakness. This leads Luke Skywalker to meet Obi-Wan Kenobi (Alec Guinness), who has lived in seclusion for years on the desert planet of Tatooine. When Luke's home is burned and his aunt and
We are delighted to have the opportunity to examine Star Wars because we feel intimately connected to the film and all that it represents. We grew up with R2D2, C3PO, Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Han Solo, and Chewbacca. We dressed up like them for Halloween, we played Star Wars games for countless hours, we imagined ourselves using their futuristic technology, and now we want to study how this artifact has affected our society and how it might affect our future.
Lethem is a Brooklyn, New York native and talks about that summer in 1977 when he take the subway to Astor Plaza, which is near Times Square, to see Star Wars. As he’s confessing that during that summer he saw the movie twenty-one times, it sounds like he’s on a stage admitting some sort of sin to the audience as if they were his priest, and he tries to make it very clear that he is ashamed of it. This works into the type of audience he’s aiming to gain. This essay is sort of a trap. Within the first sentence of the essay, “In the summer of 1977 I saw Star Wars—the original, which is all I want to discuss here—twenty one times.” (245), he uses the popular subject of Star Wars to reel any wandering reader. The
Episode IV was set during a time of war between the Rebellion, the good side, and the Empire, which is considered the evil side. The science fiction story is about a young man, Luke Skywalker, who travels into space to fight against the Empire. Luke is from the planet Tatooine, a desert, where he farms water with his uncle. Luke’s uncle buys two droids, R2D2 and C3PO, who happen to have been involved in the war and worked for the rebellion. Luke discovers a recording in one of the droids of Princess Leia saying she needed help, and that sparks the beginning of his journey. He meets Ben, also known as Obi-Wan Kenobi, who becomes his mentor, and teaches him how to use “the force”. In Star Wars, “the force” is a magical way for people to control things using their unconscious minds. Luke sets out on a journey into space to rescue the princess and join the Rebellion in the war effort. Luke and Obi-Wan meet Han solo, a pilot, and ask him to take them into space. They plan to go to Alderaan, Princess Leia’s home planet; however, they are unintentionally sucked into the Death Star, the spacecraft and weapon of the Empire. They find out that Princess Leia is being held in the Death Star, and they plan to help her escape. While Han and Luke try to help Leia, Obi-Wan is fighting Darth Vader, the evil leader of the Empire. Unfortunately, Obi-Wan is killed by Darth Vader; although, Luke, Han and Leia escape the Death Star. They go to a Rebellion headquarter and find the weak spot of the Death Star.
The Star Wars franchise has been a beloved series from Lucas Films since the first movie aired in 1977. Since then, the directors have composed a saga of movies that are dramatic and awe inspiring to the audience. In order to perceive what makes these films so popular to the audience, we must analyze the techniques used in one of the saga’s latest installments, Star Wars: Rogue One. This film was an installment meant to be set in the time period between Star Wars 3: The Return of the Sith, and Star Wars 4: A New Hope. The film pictures the events that happened in order to receive the plans for the Death Star, and interstellar spacecraft designed to be capable of destroying entire planets. (could
Star Wars: A New Hope directed by George Lucas was produced in 1997 and has many examples of archetypal patterns. Joseph Campbell was an american mythologist and he believed in something called a monomyth or “a hero’s journey” which was a theory that all stories are fundamentally the same. Campbell believed that these patterns were found in all stories and wrote a story called “A Hero with a Thousand Faces” he talks about these types of archetypal patterns found in all stories. The idea of a heros stages of their journey and how the hero goes through stages of transformation. The movie Star Wars: A New Hope fits into Campbell’s archetypal pattern and in doing so provides a certain truth about being separated from Luke’s old life and being
Ever wonder what the third highest grossing film EVER is? Think it could be a movie only so called “nerds” would like? Or one of the biggest classics of the 19th century? Star wars is a movie loved by millions. Star Wars The Force Awakens made over 2 billion dollars. Just a few hundred million away from #1. Avatar. Star Wars The Force awakens is part of the star wars galaxy created by the famous LucasArts. This is the 7th movie of the series, and there is more to come. It takes place a long time ago in a galaxy Far Far away. There is galactic empires. People with powers and swords that can cut through anything. It is very interesting. But the takeaway from the film is fear. Fear is within every single person in the world being a person with
The original three Star Wars films use the theme of individuality as a means of creating a fun mythical universe, as well as to create a contrast between the good and evil sides of the civil war. The original films celebrate individuality, since the Rebels glorify and utilize their individuality to destroy the Empire, which generally tries to suppress individuality within its army. The final scene of the original Star Wars film displays this perfectly. The members of the Rebel attack team each have titles and nicknames, such as Wedge, Biggs, and even Porkins. Each member is unique in their own way, and their individuality gives them an edge over the highly organized machine of the Empire. Leia runs the Rebel
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away… there were two exceptional leaders by the name of Darth Vader, and Luke Skywalker. As many know, these two men are the leading antagonist and protagonist of the immensely popular franchise, Star Wars. For those that do not know, Darth Vader is the villain who leads a heinous army known as The Empire. Through methods of fear and intimidation, Vader fabricates a mega-weapon capable of destroying entire planets known as the Death Star. Luke Skywalker defies all odds as he uses the methods of stimulation and team building to try to lead the Rebels in an uprising against the tyrants. Each of these leaders is very successful in their own unique methods.
Princess Leia, who is in charge of the Rebel Alliance, is being held hostage by the evil villians of the Galactic Empire in their effort to take over the galaxy. Luke Skywalker and Captain Han Solo team up with the lovable robotic duo, R2-D2 and C-3PO to rescue Princess Leia and restore justice in the galaxy.
George Lucas or the man I hope we would know by now as the creator of Star Wars, in various occasions has credited Campbell’s theory of the monomyth as the inspiration for his intergalactic series of films. It is quite easy to pick out many of the structures of a monomyth within the films. Often this popular example is used in classrooms when teaching the monomyth since it makes it easily relatable to younger audiences. By 1975 George Lucas had written two drafts for Star Wars and even though they were already written up and completed he felt they were lacking. He knew his drafts lacked
The entire plot of Return of the Jedi is the conclusion of a story of a young man and his friends trying to find their way in a battle between good and evil. Throughout the film, the characters each have their own, unique, inner struggle while all fighting in the same galactic battle. While the theme of darkness versus light is strong, there are also hints of other themes, such as power, corruption, love and sacrifice. All of these components are set in front of the backdrop of a nonstop battle between the freedom seeking Rebels and the evil Galactic Empire.
Most of the science fiction works contain a crucial message that the writer wishes to convey to the viewers. There are two categories of film message, one is positive and the other is negative. A positive message is one that is expected to have favourable outcome to the audience, and continuously aiming to promote better societal changes. In contrast, a negative message is one that could deliver threats or unpleasant information to the audience, which could have significant impact on the normal order of the society. This essay will argue that if the message contains positive elements, then it is not a bad sign to embed science fiction works with a message. First, this essay will suggest that the well-integrated message within a particular