The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Star Wars Galaxy

The 2002 movie Reign of Fire depicts a time in the near future when gigantic fire-breathing dragons have conquered the world and the few human survivors struggle to stay alive. In one scene a couple of adults, bereft of modern entertainments, seek to amuse the children by reenacting Star Wars.

It is a smart choice. The Star Wars saga has entertained hundreds of millions, rewritten the way Hollywood makes movies and generated billions of dollars. More important, it has become a modern myth, a tale that will be as emblematic of our era as Hamlet was of Shakespeare's. With the release of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, George Lucas completes his labors. Here, as a kind of tribute, we share this trove of information that all Star Wars fans, casual or zealous, really ought to know.

The Man

Lucas is many things--enfant terrible, drag racer, überdork, USC film school graduate, shaper of modern myths, launcher of a thousand Gungan raiding parties, audiophile, FXophile, Francis Ford Coppola familiar, Steven Spielberg producer, Hollywood outsider, Thalberg award winner, renegade, dreamer, entrepreneur--but he is not a great director. In artistic terms he isn't in the same league with Coppola, Spielberg, Scorsese or any of the giants of his generation, but in cultural currency he has surpassed them all. Without Lucas there is no Harrison Ford, no Darth Vader, no American Graffiti, no Pixar, no Jurassic Park dinosaurs, no exploding Death Star. The opposite of most directors, Lucas values background more than foreground, texture more than taste. The operative lesson here: If you can convince people they're on another planet, they'll listen to what you have to say if they think you can get them a ride home.

His Creation

The Star Wars saga is a six-part movie serial whose final installment (the third in the cycle) appears this month. Over the years the films have grossed $3.4 billion, and the revenue from ancillary products has reached $9 billion. Lucas's personal fortune has been estimated at $3 billion, good for 194th place among the Forbes 400.

In the Beginning

Lucas's original text-cum-sketch of what he then called "The Star Wars" involved two Jedi--Luke Skywalker and Annikin Starkiller--who help rebel princess Leia of Aquilae escape Darth Vader with the aid of their "lazer-swords." In reading this crazy blenderized version of themes, characters and places from what would become the Star Wars saga, we see the series's roots in the flamboyant Saturday-matinee science-fiction tradition.

The Key Influence

Joseph Campbell was a master of comparative mythology who explored common elements of the myths held by cultures across the globe. These components, discussed in Campbell's 1949 book The Hero With a Thousand Faces, heavily affected Lucas's conception of the Star Wars story. Among the key elements: the call to adventure (Leia's message to Obi-Wan), supernatural aid (the Force, Obi-Wan), temptation away from the true path (the dark side), the meeting with the goddess (Leia) and atonement with the father (Anakin and Luke's reunion).

Multiculti Spice

Lucas also borrowed heavily from Asian myth in his construction of the Jedi order, with particular analogues to samurai culture in the master-apprentice relationship, the importance of mental discipline, nonviolent warriors, an emphasis on swordplay and an all-pervading mystic force that can be accessed through intense training.

The Dark Side

Okay. We have universal myth and bushido influences. What's missing? How about Nazi imagery? Consider how the high-collared gray uniforms worn by Imperial officers resemble those of the SS. Note how the flared bottom edge of Vader's helmet resembles the Wehrmacht's distinctive headgear. Geez, the term storm trooper itself comes from Sturmtruppen, as members of the Nazi militia Sturmabteilung (storm division), or SA, were called. Even the good guys find themselves touched by a Nazi: Episode IV's final scene, the ceremony in which Luke and Han are honored for their heroics, uncomfortably recalls some of the Nuremberg rally footage in Leni Riefenstahl's 1935 Nazi propaganda film Triumph of the Will.

But what's it about?

At the climax of The Empire Strikes Back Vader utters the line that connects the lasers and Wookiees to living rooms around the world: "I am your father." Once Vader (father in Dutch, by the way) gurgles this shocking revelation, the saga is exposed as a traditional father-son generation-gap story. Vader wants Luke to join the family business. Luke refuses to sacrifice his youthful idealistic values ("I'll never join you!"). Vader is frustrated with Luke's inability to understand that Death Stars, TIE fighters and fawning minions all cost money and that you can't support a family, let alone an empire, on what you're paid to be a monastic hippie space cop. For his part, Luke's rejection masks his anger that Vader never dropped by with offers to rule the galaxy when Luke was lubing droids on Tatooine. Then Luke tries to kill Vader. Is Dr. Freud in the house?

Most Valuable Player

The key to the original movie's success resided in Alec Guinness's restrained, nuanced performance. His mere presence brought this juvenile science-fiction film credibility. After all, what's more credible than a British Oscar winner? And his performance infused the story with an underlying seriousness. With the pups around him doing dinner theater. Guinness played Chekhov, breathing subtlety, sadness and grace into his portrayal of an aging remnant of a dying order. His surprising death gave the film sudden depth, yet Lucas reportedly claims he killed off Obi-Wan only because there was nothing for him to do in the second half.

Unsung Heroes

For a generation raised on Sesame Street, the obvious puppetry at work in the first three films was nothing new. Sure, Yoda's bobbing gait is very Kermit the Frog, and Jabba's pal Salacious Crumb flaps about like a forgotten cousin from Emmet Otter's Jug Band Christmas. But in retrospect it's clear these foam rubber creations (brought to life by many of the same people who performed the Muppets) provided a volume and texture sadly missing in The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones, in which Lucas opted for the computer-generated imaging of the day.

Sung Hero

John Williams's theme for the original film is at once stirring, uplifting, hummable and campy. It proved so durable, it has survived middle-school orchestra concerts, a disco version and Bill Murray's immortal lyricization on Saturday Night Live ("Star wars/ Nothin' but Star wars...").

Attention to Detail

The breadth of Lucas's imagination is astonishing; the depth seems to suggest a neurosis that psychology has yet to name. In the series's various group scenes Lucas actually took pains to name the many background figures who have few or no lines. So let's raise a glass to Yarael Poof, Plo Koon and Sae-see Tiin (members of Episode I's Jedi Council); to Shu Mai, Po Nudo and Passel Argente (Episode II's separatist leaders); to Ponda Baba (Walrus Man), Momaw Nadon (Hammerhead), and Dr. Evazan (all cantina creeps in Episode IV); to 4-LOM, Dengar and Zuckuss (Episode V's also-ran bounty hunters); and to Droopy McCool and Max Rebo (Jabba's entourage in Episode VI). Guys, without you, the Star Wars saga would just be Daddy Dearest with lasers.

Where'd he think this Stuff Up?

Does Yoda look like the great journalist and historian Theodore H. White, or what?

Revisionist Thinking

Luke seems just as intrepid as he did on first viewing, and Han just as dashing. For some reason, though, what now stands out about Leia is how much of a ballbuster she is. It's one thing to hail the nefarious Governor Tarkin by saying, "I recognized your foul stench when I was brought on board." But why is she so cranky with Han? "Why, you stuck-up, halfwitted, scruffy-looking nerf herder," she says. She's harsh when he (correctly) suggests she's attracted to him ("Captain, being held by you isn't quite enough to get me excited"), when he suggests a smooch ("I'd just as soon kiss a Wookiee") and when he (absolutely correctly) suggests she loves him ("I don't know where you get your delusions, laser brain"). Han looks happy to be going off with her at the end of Return of the Jedi, but after a decade or so of wedded bliss she'll have worn him down to a nub.

Is that a sprocket in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?

Interesting Kink

The budding romance between Luke and Leia in Episode IV and Episode V provided many young filmgoers with their introduction to the subject of incest.

What might have been

Reading for a role in Star Wars seems to have been a rite of passage for actors of the era. Competition was stiff. But for a wiggle in the Force, Luke might have been Robby Benson (Ice Castles), William Katt (The Greatest American Hero) or Andrew Stevens (The Bastard). Leia could have been Cindy Williams, Amy Irving or Berlin lead singer Terri Nunn. And Han might have been Kurt Russell, Frederic Forrest (Chef from Apocalypse Now) or Perry King, who ended up playing Han on the radio.

An even nearer miss

Editing, man--it's a bitch. Young British actress Koo Stark might have hoped great things would come from her days spent on the set in Tunisia, playing Camie, a friend of Luke's who calls him Wormie. But Lucas left Camie on the cutting-room floor, and Stark was left to find fame via other avenues--performing in super-soft-core movies, then dating Prince Andrew. That combo finally, if briefly, got her name in the headlines.

But would it have mattered?

Harrison Ford, of course, achieved stardom. The others? Mark Hamill has become a voice-over actor. Carrie Fisher writes semiautobiographical novels and gets cameos in movies that need the boost only a Carrie Fisher cameo can provide. Billy Dee Williams pitched malt liquor. Even Lucas fizzled, making Howard the Duck and abandoning directing until he revived the franchise. One theory is that Ford won everyone else's career in a poker game. But how do you account for his past six films?

Can you go home again

After a 16-year gap Lucas resumed the Star Wars saga in 1999. Although the two films that followed did well, he may have waited too long. The new movies suffer from a certain solemnity and CGI coldness. Worse, Lucas siphoned the poetry from the concept at the heart of his universe. Instead of leaving the Force as an inchoate mystery, Lucas got all CSI: Tatooine and revealed that there are tiny creatures called midi-chlorians that live in our blood. The more you have, the more magic you can perform. In Jungian terms, he turned the Force from a symbol (an archetypal expression that can mean many things to many people) into a sign (a closely defined concept). It was better when we didn't think the Jedi had some form of galactic scabies.

Everybody wants get into the act

Undoubtedly the most egregious, exploitative and obscure Star Wars entertainment is 1978's Star Wars Holiday Special. In it Han tries to get Chewie home for the queasily saccharine Life Day, but that's irrelevant. The point is that this youth-oriented smash film was turned into an exhausted 1970s variety show featuring such warhorses as Beatrice Arthur and Harvey Korman. The low point? Five minutes of Wookiee-to-Wookiee dialogue--without subtitles.

Fans Wait...

The saga has inspired many people to lay their life on the line, literally. Devotees have camped out for months for tickets to early screenings. Jeff Tweiten of Seattle has been waiting since January 1 for the opening of Revenge of the Sith. And yes, he's blogging it (at waitingfor starwars.blogspot.com).

Create...

The saga has spawned a film festival's worth of fan tribute movies. Among the best is one of the first, Kevin Rubio's 1997 Troops, a Cops-style ride-along with storm troopers on Tatooine. Luke's Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru, it turns out, are prone to domestic violence, particularly when she drinks. See these films at theforce.net/fanfilms.

...And Accumulate

Star Wars, the film series: big. Star Wars, the licensing deal: phenomenal. Inevitably, however, scarcities emerge. The original rarity is Blue Snaggletooth, the action figure for a minor character in the cantina scene. The Kenner toy company sculpted it with only a head shot for (concluded on page 162)Star Wars(continued from page 96) reference. Left to guess the rest, it gave him a regular body, blue suit and silver boots. As it turned out, Snaggletooth wears a red suit, goes barefoot and is short. Kenner swiftly issued an accurate version. A Blue Snaggletooth now costs $80.

The rarest figures are Vader and ObiWan with "double telescoping" light-saber action. According to Gus Lopez of ToysRGus.com, fewer than 50 are known to exist, and on the rare occasion that one becomes available, it can command several thousand dollars.

Insolence is the highest form of flattery

Spaceballs may not be Mel Brooks's best movie, but it's the best star wars parody. It pits space bandit Lone Starr, cranky Princess Vespa and elf Yogurt against Pizza the Hutt and the evil Dark Helmet. "So, Lone Starr, now you see that evil will always triumph," says Helmet, "because good is dumb." Brooks's commentary on the new DVD version is hilarious.

Red Galaxies, Blue Galaxies

Democrats like Star Wars, but Republicans speak it. Ronald Reagan was first. He copied the title for his missile defense system, described the Soviet Union as an "evil empire" and dispatched space shuttle astronauts by saying, "May the Force be with them." Others have emulated: "I'm Luke Skywalker trying to get out of the Death Star," said John McCain, campaigning in 2000. "We also have to work, though, sort of the dark side," said Dick Cheney about our intelligence agencies.

"I have a bad feeling about this"

Menace and Clones have interesting plot movement and thrilling action sequences, but the volume of twaddle (Jar Jar, the Anakin-Padmé romance) makes them nearly unwatchable. We hope Lucas can pull off something special with Sith. But if not, just go home, slip in a DVD of the original, and play Luke's Death Star run on an endless loop.

Darth Maul vs Darth Vader

¿Quien es mas macho?