Star Wars – A “Force” to Be Reckoned With

I have to admit I have already watched the Star Wars: The Force Awakens trailer more times than any non-geek would think is proper. (You might have already guessed at the level of my love for Star Wars from the countdown to the right.) Afterward, I always end up contemplating the uniting force (pun intended) that this movie has had upon at least the United States, if not a significant portion of the world. The pictures from the gathering at San Diego Comic-Con both astounded me and made me proud to be a lifelong Star Wars fan. Besides the fact that Star Wars is an amazing universe and deserves a second (or third, or fourth) chance, I can’t help feeling that something else is at work here.

The X-wing does look pretty fraking cool…

At first, I thought that the Disney marketing titan might be the reason behind it. While it is true that there is a lot more tie-in merchandise…well, everywhere, it seems to be more than the PJ pants or LEGO X-Wings. This is an intangible hype.

Is it J.J. Abrams influence, holding the information tightly under wraps? Maybe. I remember when the prequels were in production Star Wars Insider had new pictures and information about the movies in every issue. But then again, most people that I’ve talked to this time are trying to limit their spoilers so that they can have go in to the theater with no preconceptions or previous knowledge. So even if behind-the-scenes information was plastered everywhere, it would not necessarily have diminished the hype.

It could just be that we have been disappointed before and we want so badly to receive the sequel we’ve all been yearning for. (Sorry, Mr. Lucas.) The idea of the prequels was great, but let’s face it, I think most people wanted to continue forward, not dive into a tragedy for which we already knew the ending. Then again, if fans truly wanted to see the future of the universe they could go to the Expanded Universe, which is what I did, for a time.

In the end, I believe that the reason why the world seems primed for this movie is that we are hungry for heroes. The original trilogy gave us a modern mythology, something we hadn’t seen in decades. Look at how it has become so pervasive in our society. Have you met anyone who doesn’t recognize R2-D2, or who doesn’t know the phrase, “May the Force be with you?” It’s akin to Greek mythology, not everyone has heard, watched, or read the stories, but a typical person would know who Hercules or Zeus is. They probably would even understand a Mount Olympus reference. I have to say though, thinking of Star Wars as a mythology was not my idea, it came from Joseph Campbell.

Several years ago I read an amazing book that I recommend to all writers called, The Power of Myth. It is actually the transcript of a TV special by Joseph Campbell and Bill Moyers. In it, Star Wars is mentioned quite a lot, and is described as a classic mythology. Myths are described as the world’s dreams, that open the audience up to a “dimension of mystery.” To me that is the same as bringing back a piece of childhood, because what is adulthood, if not the revealing of the truth of all the world around you?

These ‘dreams’ help those that hear, read, or watch them learn how to deal with problems in our world (i.e. The Bible) and are part of the search to discover what it means to be alive. So myths address the question the most essential question that we all get to when we have either stayed up way too late, or have imbibed a bit too much: what does it actually mean to be human? Mr. Data would sympathize, because he worked on it for years and never figured it out. Now that technology has a finger in almost every aspect of our lives, that has added another piece to this equation. Does what we do online really count as living? Can it be part of what it means to be human? Or are we just distracting ourselves from our real, offline lives?

I think that Star Wars has answered the question of what it means to be human for us before, and that we are all yearning for it to do so again. At a time when we were first venturing into space it was vital for us to look at just what exactly we were going to be sharing with the galaxy. Star Wars showed us the human side of space. Today, the mammoth that is the Internet is just another new frontier, where humanity can be sorely lacking. We need to be shown again just what it means to be human.

From another angle, with our world seemingly sinking to new depths of depravity, we need a shining kingdom on the hill to strive toward. Among all of the…let’s just say it…horrific events that have inundated the nightly news every day, we want to be reminded of what it is to be human, and how to make a difference in the world.

He’s somewhere just over that dune. Or was it that one? They all look alike…

Just like Luke Skywalker, we all want to be able to be the nobody that rises from obscurity and changes history, but the path to doing that has become less clear over the past decade.Not that I’m advising someone to go searching for Old Ben out in the the canyons of Tatooine in order to find that path. But what I am saying is that Star Wars once showed us that if we embraced nature and everyone around us, and believed in the good of others, we could save the galaxy. But I think we need to hear it again, because we humans tend to take things for granted unless we are confronted with them regularly and in new ways. I think that this new episode has the power to make a real difference in the world beyond box office sales, by reminding us to be mindful of the world and people around us, and to do, not try.

What do you think? Can this new Star Wars change the world, and give us the mythology we need to change the world for the better?