“Does it have to be in space?” or something along those lines George Lucas was asked after he’d pitched his ideas to STAR WARS to producers. Over 40 years later, we can answer this question most definitely: Yes, it absolutely has to be in space! What film saga compares to the STAR WARS franchise in terms of impact, fandom and, considering merchandise sales, theme parks and cookies, revenue? What other film from the 70s that was aimed at an adult audience still has fans all over the world watching it for the first time aged four or five? If ever there was a classic, it has to be this film. Maybe it’s fitting that it was off to a bad start and still found this overwhelming success despite being seen as a box office bomb and dead end not only by the producers and the studio but also the actors that were in it.
It is impossible to look at STAR WARS as a mere film these days. And it has been impossible to do this for quite some time now. Some claim the same about the LORD OF THE RINGS franchise but they’re not playing in the same ballpark. STAR WARS is just too big. Much bigger than a film could ever desire to be. There’s something magic about it, maybe even Disneyesque. When watching STAR WARS, a strong subtext evolves automatically. In other words, STAR WARS stimulates your imagination. Whether or not George Lucas intended this and had the writing and directing skills to execute it that effectively is doubtful. Self-evidently, he would probably claim otherwise. The film’s strength is blending dirty science fiction with concepts we are already familiar with. There’s knights. We know that. There’s a princess in dire straits. We know that as well from the fairytales we listened to as kids. And there’s a lone cowboy, an outlaw and gunslinger, cool and naughty, fighting authority. The western again. Even though several genres are mixed for STAR WARS, it is best described as a western in space. And while dirty science fiction, despite fans certainly disputing it, wasn’t invented by George Lucas, this characterization soon became too small for his film anyway. The first film to use this concept was probably John Carpenter’s DARK STAR in 1974, a satirical science fiction comedy film that is a cult classic these days.
I felt a great disturbance in the Force… as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror, and were suddenly silenced. I fear something terrible has happened.
Obi-Wan Kenobi
Before STAR WARS succeeded (DARK STAR was unsuccessful with audiences) science fiction was futuristic, organized, technical and first and foremost cold. Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (1968) is a prime example. As impressive and thoughtful as it is, it’s also, let’s say, not the most exciting film to watch. The special effects also look cleaner than they do in STAR WARS. But there’s no question what film is more fun to watch, is easily approachable and stimulating. Nothing about STAR WARS is cold. The dirtiness is exciting. And it’s not techy in any way. Lucas doesn’t concern himself with reason or reality or facts. Which is good. Who cares if TIE-Fighters make any sound in space? The setting is only the stage, nothing more. Who knew if audiences would know how to cope with this, as they were used to watching John Wayne riding through a western, in other words a fictionalized account of romanticized American history, or pessimistic films about the unpleasant present of the 70s like TAXI DRIVER (1976), a testament of its time but also hard to look at. STAR WARS is an escape, a thrill ride far from reason or responsibility. People needed that. A messed up place a long time ago, where forces of evil thrive but are fought by the good-hearted, where the Millennium Falcon goes faster than anything on the intergalactic highway even though it doesn’t even have cup holders and where a beautiful princess that’s deprecating and cocky at first just yearns to be saved by a trigger-happy cowboy.
There’s no need to look at the plot or acting performances or camera work or anything else that would be of great importance to a conventional classic. None of this matters when it comes to STAR WARS. It does what it invented, not George Lucas, as effectively as nothing else for over four decades. Who cares if the actors needed gas money and a sandwich and hated the script? Who cares if, true or not, Mark Hamill told Anthony Daniels (C3PO) that he was lucky to be in that itchy costume because nobody could see his face? And who cares if George Lucas’ first cut was junk and had to be saved at the editing room? STAR WARS is a canvas for your imagination to paint on. It’s a starting point for all those stories fans and geeks are coming up with and keep fantasizing about. We all believe in technology and that it improves living conditions but at the same time, there’s naggy teachers, boring jobs to throw just for some cash coming in and all the security but also boredom of postmodern life. It’s just more fun to dream yourself away and imagine that we’d invent all those computers and spaceships and blaster weapons to go out to space and live like outlaws smuggling moonshine. There’s aspects to STAR WARS that speak in its favor, like special effects, costume design and creativity. But there’s also plenty of reasons why it wouldn’t be a classic if you kept it in perspective. The truth is, this phenomenon just can’t be sufficiently explained, which makes STAR WARS the fairytale of several generations that already grew up with it but also many more to come.
Nothing’s bigger than STAR WARS. That’s a fact. There’s haters and also some that won’t care but they’re a minority. It’s unlikely to ever find, or ever again produce a film that appeals to such a multitude of people. And even though you could criticize this film for what it gets wrong, you shouldn’t. STAR WARS is a canvas for your imagination to paint on, remember? Plenty of people painted on it later and will add to it. Some of it was and will be good, some of it just fails to deliver. But STAR WARS wouldn’t be STAR WARS if you didn’t buy the ticket and watched it anyway, at least getting something from it. It has that staying power. We always want to know what’s going on in that galaxy far, far away. Against reason and concerns and better judgment and that scenario we imagined for ourselves that has no correlation with the last installment. Only a true classic could start something as big as that.