7-2-09 Star Wars Blog

I remember seeing Star Wars in 1977 with my family at the Beverly theater in Peoria. I was almost 8 years old. At the time it was "cutting edge" technology. I'm not sure that anyone used music to heighten a scene and create so much drama as in this movie. The musical score won awards, as well as George Lucas, the director. The special effects were different than any movie produced so far.
The movie came out at a time in history where were were just fresh out of the Vietnam War, our government was turmoil and we were in the middle of the Cold War. We needed a villain to hate and a good guy that deserved to wear white. Luke Skywalker was a pure and unblemished character; both naive and "other worldly". Then enter in Darth Vader. He was the quintessential bad guy; ruthless and self serving. He fell from grace like Adam did in the Garden of Eden, and used his powers to further the evil desires of the empire. He was easy to hate, all dressed in black, and like the North Vietnamese and the Russians, which most of America didn't see, he too didn't have a face.
I think we needed someone to hate and Darth Vader fit the bill perfectly. He represented abuse of government power and the fall from good to evil. Luke Skywalker on the other hand was the perfect hero. He was not self-centered and represented everything that was good.
The part in the movie where Obie One and Luke rode into the town on the hovercraft was reminescent of an old western movie. They might as well tied their horse up outside the saloon and swaggered in with their hands on their guns. Even though the faces and bodies were not what we are used to seeing in a western, the general idea of the scene was the same, down to the fight over the alien not liking the way Luke looked. The music even sounded faintly like ragtime.
I love Hans Solo. Oh such a bad boy personality. Even at 8, I remember being attracted to him (not like adult attraction). He was cocky and good looking. Without Hans, Luke would never have taken the risks he did. Hans supported him in bringing a little "edge" to the table. He always had Luke's back, for instance in the destruction of the Death Star. He flew in helped defer Darth from killing Luke. Oh it didn't surprise me that Leah would fall for Hans. Of course he was like forbidden fruit to her. She was was a princess after all.
The only symbol I can think of from the movie is the light sabers being like phalus'. I could be projecting there, nothing unusual about that. It just seems that the way the men weild them is so much like a pissing contest. They are even different lengths and colors. They use them throughout the film to fight each other, similar to men in a bar use the talk of their's to feel superior to each other. I'm going to stop there, because I made my point, and maybe that point is totally off base.
I truly love this film, and everything it represents. In fact I own the dvd of the parody, Space Balls. It was nice to get to watch it again and really disect it here in my blog.