Star Wars, Episodes IV, V, VI
My niece has been staying with me for a while now and this means that I have seen far too many movies to actually sit down and talk about them. She's really into films, she was actually quite upset when she told her class that her favorite actor was Clifton Collins Jr. and they had no idea who she was talking about. So in the past week, I've seen Clueless (again), Clue (again), Spaceballs (again), Map of the Sounds of Tokyo, Tiny Furniture, The Young Savages, and I started to watch Domino again.
And since I have the time, I guess I'll give you the short short version of these films. Map of the Sounds of Tokyo is a fascinating film on the concept of sound perception and the idea that this woman is haunting both men, but she in turn haunts the audience because we're never sure who she actually is. Rinko Kikuchi is so amazingly good in it that it makes me want to watch all of her films. Tiny Furniture was bleh. There were a few things I liked about it, like the fact that the younger self-absorbed sister isn't horrible, it actually showcases her in a rather affectionate light. But I kind of hated the main character. The Young Savages is great (I love Shelly Winters), wonderfully ethically complex. And Domino is a mess! Why did I ever like it in the first place? (Oh, that's right. Ahem) However, I give props to Kiera Knightly for actually selling that character.
The night we watched Spaceballs, I noticed that my niece wasn't laughing at some of the funniest scenes. She later revealed to me that she had never seen the original Star Wars films. I mentioned that we had all of them on DVD. And so, it was decreed that on Sunday, we were to watch all three. My niece insisted on watching them because she wanted to make fun of them. Here was this child sitting next to me, through all three films, absolutely silent. She loved them.
My relationship with these films was dated, considering the last time I had watched them, I was eleven. They had released them in theaters again and my dad, the science-fiction guru, insisted that his daughters were going to see them. He also said I should read Dune, but that's a story for another time. To be so young and to enjoy them, I thought it was just young age speaking. In fact, when I was watching Episode IV again, I kept telling myself, "I like Brazil and Blade Runner more. Star Wars? Meh." After watching all three again, I was shocked to discover that the films, despite being action-oriented, have psychological and mythological depth that keeps them fresh.
I tend to like films, books, what have you, that are centered on the idea of the father figure (such as D.Gray-Man, which I plan to analyze eventually). This is probably due to my relationship with my father. Don't worry, it's not bad, but as a girl I was an Athena archetype and I wanted badly to impress him all the time. Still to this day, I try to do things real covert like to try and catch his attention, like listen to a band I think he might like and slightly turn it up, hoping that he will come around and ask me who that is. For that reason, Star Wars still speaks to me on a personal level, on trying to impress a father, whether it be Luke's actual father or any one of his father figures.
George Lucas was a big fan of Joseph Campbell. This is the hero's journey; that's one easy way of looking at Star Wars. Every hero starts out on a journey with certain character archetypes that leads him/her to eventual growth. One could even look at this as the journey of the tarot cards. Luke is the fool, 0 which has no possibilities but also endless possibilities. This is true of Luke's character, who is capable of endless possibilities (the force) or no possibility (the dark side) of growth.
Jean Shinoda Bolen, in her book Gods in Every Man, related the Star Wars story to the creation myth. In her previous book, Goddesses in Every Woman, Bolen split the goddess into virginal and vulnerable, while Aphrodite had traits of both. For the gods, she separated them into father gods and son gods, and split the son gods into favored archetypes and rejected archetypes, while Dionysus was both favored and rejected. Bolen stated, "Men are often caught between the inner world of archetypes and the outer world of stereotypes." I will say that this is true of both genders, that there are traits favored and rejected in a patriarchal society that both men and women can play into. Thus, I don't like to think of the archetypes found in Bolen's books to be gender archetypes as they are personality archetypes. The ancient Greek gods deal more in their relationship to society while the goddesses deal more with their relationship to their selves, how they define their being.
The creation myth deals significantly with a father's relationship with his children. Chronos was told that he would eventually have a son who would defeat him. To stop this, he swallowed his children. However, Zeus was able to stop Chronos' plans and killed him while saving his siblings. Later, Zeus was told that he would eventually have a son who would defeat him. In order to stop this from happening, he swallowed his pregnant lover (Metis), and tried to stop the birth from ever happening. However, Athena popped out of his head, fully grown and dressed in a suit of armor. This idea, that eventually, one will rise above the rest and destroy the father, it provokes this strange competitive nature in society. By destroying the father, one is only following the cycle, ensuring that another son will come up and kill that father. In this kind of society, everyone is a threat. "If a child cannot think or act independently, he or she will not be a threat."
In order to gain control of the family, a father will abuse the mother, try to keep her quiet, while the child watches. Athena was born fully grown because children in that sort of situation have to grow up fast. By denigrating the mother, the father is also denigrating all strong "feminine" values found in society. We see this in Luke's parentage. What I appreciate about the Star Wars stories (not necessarily the films, because let's be honest about a certain set) is that the female characters are very strong. They represent core feminine traits in society that are exceedingly important. In order to have proven his worth to the Emperor, Anakin strangled Padme, snuffing out her force in society.
Unlike some children in abusive families, Luke has been afforded innocence. He has a strong father figure in his life, found in his uncle. One sees this with Luke, that he is constantly filling the void of father with the first fatherly figure he meets. Once his uncle dies, Luke transfers this need to Obi-Wan Kenobi and once Obi-Wan dies, he transfers this to Yoda. This is a force that he desperately needs in his life. The Emperor understands that if Luke kills Darth Vader and joins the dark side, he will have nothing to fear; the cycle will continue and his rule won't be stopped.
I have a feeling that if Luke had never been told that his father was Darth Vader, he would have never had the chance to forgive his father. I've spoken to someone before who was in an abusive family and she told me that the only way for her to have moved on from that was to forgive her father. If she held onto the anger, she wouldn't have grown as a person. And I've seen that in some people, that they hold onto this anger. But one has to forgive to grow from the experience. And if Luke never had the opportunity to deal with that shadow of his existence, he wouldn't have become a Jedi master. Right after Luke chops off Darth Vader's hand, he has a moment where he glances at his mechanical hand and then at his father. He realizes then that he's starting on that path, that he's going to become exactly like his father. And that's the final push in the right direction.
The difference between Luke and Darth Vader is that Luke didn't snuff out his female force. He saves his twin sister, Leia, from the patriarchy, a character Bolen refers to as Luke's, "female counterpart." When a female character is sacrificed for a position in the patriarchy, it represents the male character giving up his anima, his female counterpart, for power. Anakin killed Padme for a position in the patriarchy. Luke keeps Leia alive. And it's because of this that he doesn't turn to the dark side. In fact, if I recall, when Darth Vader mentions that if Luke won't turn, Leia might, Luke becomes incredibly protective of her. As if that's the one person he wouldn't possibly give up.
What I find interesting about Luke's character is the fact that he has a need for a father figure and not just any father figure. He wants an ideal father figure. In the beginning, he talks about his "good" father Anakin, who died fighting Darth Vader. Later, it's revealed that Luke also has a "bad" father in Darth Vader. Sigmund Freud had a theory on this, that the father image is split into two, the good father and the bad father, so that the child can keep this image of the ideal father alive. This allows the child to hold onto their ideal ego. In Luke, his ideal father was a Jedi master and his ideal ego is "good." In truth, Luke's father was a Jedi master but also a horrible monster and there is a very real possibility that Luke could become that monster. Often, the "bad" father helps the child see the truth. In The Sandman, said Sandman (Coppelius) gives Nathaniel glasses that help him see the truth. In A Tale of Two Sisters, the step-mother questions the main character's sanity. In Star Wars, Darth Vader honestly tells Luke the truth.
Bolen refers to Darth Vader as simply a mask, a complete machine with no feeling. Considering that "persona" means mask, I find this fascinating. The Zeus archetype is said to be the persona of the Zeus-Hades-Poseidon relationship. He is simply the face presented to society, thus he exhibits all the supposed best traits. Zeus can maneuver society because he does whatever he can to please it and to climb up that ladder. Darth Vader fits in this role. Luke, on the other hand, is able to explore his connections to his father and understand the philosophy of the force, much like Hades. Barbara G. Walker said, "the pre-Christian 'hell' was a uterine shrine or sacred cave of rebirth, denoted by the Norse hellir." By accepting the female forces in his life, Luke is able to go through that rebirth. In fact, when he discovers who his father is, he is continually falling further and further down. Hades is seen as Zeus' connection to the collective unconscious, where understandings of the universe can be made. Darth Vader does not have a command of that realm as he is only a mask.
Hades archetypes tend to have fantasy female figures in their lives, too. Luke initially is enamored with Princess Leia. The only reason why he wants to save her is because he sees a pretty woman. And he's still trying to get into her graces throughout the films until he's told that she's his twin sister. But the fantasy female figure could be a projection of his anima. The dream woman, a female who will make him go through life and death until he understands a certain truth about the world.
This leaves Poseidon and another male character. Poseidon was considered Zeus' emotional shadow. He was said to be the wild man, "a symbol of masculinity that is instinctive, untamed by women, in touch with nature and part of nature - that will be dishonored and disregarded, even feared, until men seek to know and bring this source of strength and masculinity into consciousness, and into the culture." Well. Eventually he's tamed by a woman. I see Han Solo as the Poseidon figure. He's a loose cannon, he does what he wants, he follows his own set of rules, unless his emotions sway him otherwise. At the end of Episode IV, Han returns to help Luke and Leia not because there's money involved. He's become emotionally invested in the two. And because the rebels have those two forces (Hades and Poseidon) on their side, they're able to defeat the Emperor.
The message that Star Wars leaves me with is that emotional and psychological knowledge, a knowledge of man's functioning, and an acceptance of the female forces in society, are far stronger than a patriarchal society. And this is why I love these movies.
And since I have the time, I guess I'll give you the short short version of these films. Map of the Sounds of Tokyo is a fascinating film on the concept of sound perception and the idea that this woman is haunting both men, but she in turn haunts the audience because we're never sure who she actually is. Rinko Kikuchi is so amazingly good in it that it makes me want to watch all of her films. Tiny Furniture was bleh. There were a few things I liked about it, like the fact that the younger self-absorbed sister isn't horrible, it actually showcases her in a rather affectionate light. But I kind of hated the main character. The Young Savages is great (I love Shelly Winters), wonderfully ethically complex. And Domino is a mess! Why did I ever like it in the first place? (Oh, that's right. Ahem) However, I give props to Kiera Knightly for actually selling that character.
The night we watched Spaceballs, I noticed that my niece wasn't laughing at some of the funniest scenes. She later revealed to me that she had never seen the original Star Wars films. I mentioned that we had all of them on DVD. And so, it was decreed that on Sunday, we were to watch all three. My niece insisted on watching them because she wanted to make fun of them. Here was this child sitting next to me, through all three films, absolutely silent. She loved them.
My relationship with these films was dated, considering the last time I had watched them, I was eleven. They had released them in theaters again and my dad, the science-fiction guru, insisted that his daughters were going to see them. He also said I should read Dune, but that's a story for another time. To be so young and to enjoy them, I thought it was just young age speaking. In fact, when I was watching Episode IV again, I kept telling myself, "I like Brazil and Blade Runner more. Star Wars? Meh." After watching all three again, I was shocked to discover that the films, despite being action-oriented, have psychological and mythological depth that keeps them fresh.
I tend to like films, books, what have you, that are centered on the idea of the father figure (such as D.Gray-Man, which I plan to analyze eventually). This is probably due to my relationship with my father. Don't worry, it's not bad, but as a girl I was an Athena archetype and I wanted badly to impress him all the time. Still to this day, I try to do things real covert like to try and catch his attention, like listen to a band I think he might like and slightly turn it up, hoping that he will come around and ask me who that is. For that reason, Star Wars still speaks to me on a personal level, on trying to impress a father, whether it be Luke's actual father or any one of his father figures.
George Lucas was a big fan of Joseph Campbell. This is the hero's journey; that's one easy way of looking at Star Wars. Every hero starts out on a journey with certain character archetypes that leads him/her to eventual growth. One could even look at this as the journey of the tarot cards. Luke is the fool, 0 which has no possibilities but also endless possibilities. This is true of Luke's character, who is capable of endless possibilities (the force) or no possibility (the dark side) of growth.
Jean Shinoda Bolen, in her book Gods in Every Man, related the Star Wars story to the creation myth. In her previous book, Goddesses in Every Woman, Bolen split the goddess into virginal and vulnerable, while Aphrodite had traits of both. For the gods, she separated them into father gods and son gods, and split the son gods into favored archetypes and rejected archetypes, while Dionysus was both favored and rejected. Bolen stated, "Men are often caught between the inner world of archetypes and the outer world of stereotypes." I will say that this is true of both genders, that there are traits favored and rejected in a patriarchal society that both men and women can play into. Thus, I don't like to think of the archetypes found in Bolen's books to be gender archetypes as they are personality archetypes. The ancient Greek gods deal more in their relationship to society while the goddesses deal more with their relationship to their selves, how they define their being.
The creation myth deals significantly with a father's relationship with his children. Chronos was told that he would eventually have a son who would defeat him. To stop this, he swallowed his children. However, Zeus was able to stop Chronos' plans and killed him while saving his siblings. Later, Zeus was told that he would eventually have a son who would defeat him. In order to stop this from happening, he swallowed his pregnant lover (Metis), and tried to stop the birth from ever happening. However, Athena popped out of his head, fully grown and dressed in a suit of armor. This idea, that eventually, one will rise above the rest and destroy the father, it provokes this strange competitive nature in society. By destroying the father, one is only following the cycle, ensuring that another son will come up and kill that father. In this kind of society, everyone is a threat. "If a child cannot think or act independently, he or she will not be a threat."
In order to gain control of the family, a father will abuse the mother, try to keep her quiet, while the child watches. Athena was born fully grown because children in that sort of situation have to grow up fast. By denigrating the mother, the father is also denigrating all strong "feminine" values found in society. We see this in Luke's parentage. What I appreciate about the Star Wars stories (not necessarily the films, because let's be honest about a certain set) is that the female characters are very strong. They represent core feminine traits in society that are exceedingly important. In order to have proven his worth to the Emperor, Anakin strangled Padme, snuffing out her force in society.
Unlike some children in abusive families, Luke has been afforded innocence. He has a strong father figure in his life, found in his uncle. One sees this with Luke, that he is constantly filling the void of father with the first fatherly figure he meets. Once his uncle dies, Luke transfers this need to Obi-Wan Kenobi and once Obi-Wan dies, he transfers this to Yoda. This is a force that he desperately needs in his life. The Emperor understands that if Luke kills Darth Vader and joins the dark side, he will have nothing to fear; the cycle will continue and his rule won't be stopped.
I have a feeling that if Luke had never been told that his father was Darth Vader, he would have never had the chance to forgive his father. I've spoken to someone before who was in an abusive family and she told me that the only way for her to have moved on from that was to forgive her father. If she held onto the anger, she wouldn't have grown as a person. And I've seen that in some people, that they hold onto this anger. But one has to forgive to grow from the experience. And if Luke never had the opportunity to deal with that shadow of his existence, he wouldn't have become a Jedi master. Right after Luke chops off Darth Vader's hand, he has a moment where he glances at his mechanical hand and then at his father. He realizes then that he's starting on that path, that he's going to become exactly like his father. And that's the final push in the right direction.
The difference between Luke and Darth Vader is that Luke didn't snuff out his female force. He saves his twin sister, Leia, from the patriarchy, a character Bolen refers to as Luke's, "female counterpart." When a female character is sacrificed for a position in the patriarchy, it represents the male character giving up his anima, his female counterpart, for power. Anakin killed Padme for a position in the patriarchy. Luke keeps Leia alive. And it's because of this that he doesn't turn to the dark side. In fact, if I recall, when Darth Vader mentions that if Luke won't turn, Leia might, Luke becomes incredibly protective of her. As if that's the one person he wouldn't possibly give up.
What I find interesting about Luke's character is the fact that he has a need for a father figure and not just any father figure. He wants an ideal father figure. In the beginning, he talks about his "good" father Anakin, who died fighting Darth Vader. Later, it's revealed that Luke also has a "bad" father in Darth Vader. Sigmund Freud had a theory on this, that the father image is split into two, the good father and the bad father, so that the child can keep this image of the ideal father alive. This allows the child to hold onto their ideal ego. In Luke, his ideal father was a Jedi master and his ideal ego is "good." In truth, Luke's father was a Jedi master but also a horrible monster and there is a very real possibility that Luke could become that monster. Often, the "bad" father helps the child see the truth. In The Sandman, said Sandman (Coppelius) gives Nathaniel glasses that help him see the truth. In A Tale of Two Sisters, the step-mother questions the main character's sanity. In Star Wars, Darth Vader honestly tells Luke the truth.
Bolen refers to Darth Vader as simply a mask, a complete machine with no feeling. Considering that "persona" means mask, I find this fascinating. The Zeus archetype is said to be the persona of the Zeus-Hades-Poseidon relationship. He is simply the face presented to society, thus he exhibits all the supposed best traits. Zeus can maneuver society because he does whatever he can to please it and to climb up that ladder. Darth Vader fits in this role. Luke, on the other hand, is able to explore his connections to his father and understand the philosophy of the force, much like Hades. Barbara G. Walker said, "the pre-Christian 'hell' was a uterine shrine or sacred cave of rebirth, denoted by the Norse hellir." By accepting the female forces in his life, Luke is able to go through that rebirth. In fact, when he discovers who his father is, he is continually falling further and further down. Hades is seen as Zeus' connection to the collective unconscious, where understandings of the universe can be made. Darth Vader does not have a command of that realm as he is only a mask.
Hades archetypes tend to have fantasy female figures in their lives, too. Luke initially is enamored with Princess Leia. The only reason why he wants to save her is because he sees a pretty woman. And he's still trying to get into her graces throughout the films until he's told that she's his twin sister. But the fantasy female figure could be a projection of his anima. The dream woman, a female who will make him go through life and death until he understands a certain truth about the world.
This leaves Poseidon and another male character. Poseidon was considered Zeus' emotional shadow. He was said to be the wild man, "a symbol of masculinity that is instinctive, untamed by women, in touch with nature and part of nature - that will be dishonored and disregarded, even feared, until men seek to know and bring this source of strength and masculinity into consciousness, and into the culture." Well. Eventually he's tamed by a woman. I see Han Solo as the Poseidon figure. He's a loose cannon, he does what he wants, he follows his own set of rules, unless his emotions sway him otherwise. At the end of Episode IV, Han returns to help Luke and Leia not because there's money involved. He's become emotionally invested in the two. And because the rebels have those two forces (Hades and Poseidon) on their side, they're able to defeat the Emperor.
The message that Star Wars leaves me with is that emotional and psychological knowledge, a knowledge of man's functioning, and an acceptance of the female forces in society, are far stronger than a patriarchal society. And this is why I love these movies.