Despecialized Star Wars deconstructed part 1
Star Wars, as released in May 1977, begins with blue letters on a solid black background. “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. . . .”
The ellipsis is used to indicate trailing off, but there are one too many periods because this is not a sentence. There is no verb. This clause is merely a long adverb.
It’s weird that a science fiction movie with spaceships is said to take place in the past. Normally movies like this take place in the future. Even when I was a little kid, especially when I was a little kid, I didn’t understand why the movie took place in the past and not in the future.
The implication here is that humans didn’t evolve naturally on Earth, but we are actually descendants of the humans depicted in Star Wars, who must have settled on Earth at some point in time after the movie took place. This is a theme that George Lucas is borrowing from Erich von Däniken’s best-selling book Chariots of the Gods? which was published in 1968. Däniken theorized that astronauts visited Earth in the past and that various archaeological sites such as the pyramids and Stonehenge were created with the help of alien visitors. Däniken’s book may be cockamamie pseudoscience, but he has had a very strong influence on science fiction movies and television, from the voyages of the starship Enterprise where Kirk’s landing team is often mistaken for gods by the primitive natives, to the Stargate franchise which fleshes out the whole theory about the pyramids being built by aliens.
It has also occurred to me that perhaps the “humans” in Star Wars are not actually humans at all, but rather fill-ins for an alien race shown in a form that we can understand and empathize with. It would be hard, indeed, to follow a movie where everyone was wearing a wookiee suit. (On the other hand, the movie Avatar, which followed Star Wars by 32 years, did demonstrate that it’s possible to have a blockbuster movie in which the main characters are weird-looking blue aliens.)
In this opening clause, we also see the first influence of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, which was immensely popular in the 1960s, because like The Lord of the Rings, Lucas is establishing Star Wars as a fairy tale of good versus evil. The similarity of Star Wars to The Lord of the Rings will be a recurring theme in this series of blog posts.
Lion of the Blogosphere 
The aliens in avatar are human looking enough to have porn of it.
jjbees
September 1, 2014 at 11:37 AM
Have you ever read the “Earthsea” books by Ursula Le Guin?
It’s a different view on the good and evil debate. Whereas LOTR’s argument is that evil is on one pole and good on the other, Earthsea and Star Wars take a view that there is a balance in the universe between good and evil, which are contained in both of us. Kind of a yin-yang view.
jjbees
September 1, 2014 at 11:39 AM
Kind of like the AD&D alignment “True Neutral” , which I always thought was the dumbest thing I ever heard of.
Samson J.
September 1, 2014 at 2:31 PM
The first “Star Wars” movie had lots of non-human aliens, but fewer non-human alien characters were used in the next two movies. In the first movie, it is not clear that Darth Vader and the Emperor are human. People assume the Storm Troopers are human but we never see any of them not wearing their body armor.
For the backstory, Lucas should have thought more about how humans came to be spread around the universe and what exactly their relations with intelligent non-human species were.
Ed
September 1, 2014 at 11:49 AM
I doubt Lucas thought about these things at all. My sense is details of the storyline aren’t what he focused on.
http://www.funnyjunk.com/funny_pictures/28688/Ignorance/
Dan
September 1, 2014 at 4:01 PM
Of course Lucas didn’t give the origins of “humans” a second thought, any more than the creators of “Flash Gordon” did. For that matter even original Star Trek never tried very hard to justify the numerous “alien” races that looked exactly like us. In the 1970s the unconcious assumption was still that European humans were the highest form of life in the Universe.
Peter Akuleyev
September 2, 2014 at 1:43 AM
Since Plato wrote about Atlantis, and probably before that, people have speculated on the idea that in the past there were great lost civilizations, often more advanced than our own. We get to think about history and the future at the same time.
Of course, for the Europeans of the 700s looking over the ruins of the Roman Empire, this was not fiction, but fact.
BehindTheLines
September 1, 2014 at 12:31 PM
“Of course, for the Europeans of the 700s looking over the ruins of the Roman Empire, this was not fiction, but fact”
Right. True also of Detroit in 2014.
The territory that is now Northeastern Syria and Northwestern Iraq is less civilized today than at any time in the past 3,500 years.
McFly
September 1, 2014 at 3:17 PM
It has also occurred to me that perhaps the “humans” in Star Wars are not actually humans at all, but rather fill-ins for an alien race shown in a form that we can understand and empathize with.
Or maybe the movie was a half-baked idea that through the power of sheer dumb luck became one of the world’s greatest franchises.
The Undiscovered Jew
September 1, 2014 at 12:50 PM
“It’s weird that a science fiction movie with spaceships is said to take place in the past”
This was also the premise of the late 70s show “Battlestar Galactica.” (“There are those who believe…that life here began out there”).
Anyway, the idea of ancient astronauts has been around for a while, even before Daniken:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_astronauts_in_popular_culture
sabril
September 1, 2014 at 1:04 PM
In the finale of the rebooted Battlestar Galactica, we learn that the show took place 250.000 years in the past.
Mike Street Station
September 1, 2014 at 8:26 PM
Then how does this fit in?
Galactica 1980
Toad
September 2, 2014 at 12:02 AM
A series that all Galactica fans wished didn’t exist.
Lion of the Blogosphere
September 2, 2014 at 7:09 AM
The rebooted series was really a re-imagining of the original material. They didn’t try to keep the “canon” established by the original Galactica series. Many of the main characters are totally different from the original series and the Cylons were totally different.
Mike Street Station
September 2, 2014 at 10:40 AM
I never saw LOTR as good vs evil. Sure, Sauron was very evil, but everyone else were just normal folk resisting him.
CamelCaseRob
September 1, 2014 at 1:23 PM
Possibly the greatest fictional franchise ever. Now Disney owns it
grey enlightenment
September 1, 2014 at 2:01 PM
Tolkien didn’t invent the concept of good versus evil, and Star Wars wasn’t the first example of pop culture influenced by LoTR. Consider Led Zeppelin, for example.
Also, when George Lucas first screened Star Wars for his close friends, they laughed at it. The said it was like Wagon Train to the stars. They were right. It’s unwatchable today.
Dave Pinsen
September 1, 2014 at 2:26 PM
The similarity of Star Wars to The Lord of the Rings will be a recurring theme in this series of blog posts.
Frig yeah, some hardcore geekout! I can’t wait, man.
Samson J.
September 1, 2014 at 2:28 PM
Or maybe the movie was a half-baked idea
It wasn’t half-baked so much as lifted wholesale from long-established pop sf. genera.
LoTB, are you familiar with Edgar Rice Burroughs? The Star Wars storyline was a cheap and dirty rip-off of his Mars series. Star Wars is notable because it was the first movie with special effects in which viewer could suspend disbelief. Prior to Star Wars, special effects were campy jokes at best.
You should check out the book “John Carter and the Gods of Hollywood” by Michael Sellers.
Portlander
September 1, 2014 at 4:05 PM
I’ve read lots of Edgar Rice Burroughs, and besides the princess and the general fact that there’s a science fiction theme, I don’t think so. But Burroughs deserves much credit for being the father of all modern science fiction.
Lion of the Blogosphere
September 1, 2014 at 5:55 PM
Leon “But Burroughs deserves much credit for being the father of all modern science fiction.”
What??I don’t think so. I believe that honor goes to Jules Verne followed by HG Wells. I enjoy the latter’s work even if he was a political f*cktard. Still, I would argue that the real “father of science fiction” is actually a woman. Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein nearly 200 years ago. It may not be hard scifi but it definitely counts.
destructure
September 2, 2014 at 3:00 AM
Leon “But Burroughs deserves much credit for being the father of all modern science fiction.”
What??!! I don’t think so. I believe that honor goes to Jules Verne followed by HG Wells. I enjoy the latter’s work even if he was a political f*cktard. Still, I would argue that the real “father of science fiction” is actually a woman. Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein nearly 200 years ago. It may not be hard scifi but it definitely counts.
destructure
September 2, 2014 at 3:00 AM
Edgar Rice Burroughs is the father of most pulp SF movie tropes. The Mars series was ground zero for air cars, mixing swords and high tech, desert planets…basically almost everything that goes with a space opera came from ERB.
Mike Street Station
September 2, 2014 at 10:44 AM
Mike Street
I’ve read Edgar Rice Burroughs. But Vernes and Wells both preceded him. And Wells unquestionably introduced even more to the genre ie. time travel, space ships, alien invasions, lasers, genetic engineering, etc. About the only idea he didn’t pioneer was reanimating the dead because Shelley beat him to it. That’s why everyone considers either him or Verne to be the father of science fiction. Not Burroughs. He was a day late and a dollar short to make that claim.
destructure
September 2, 2014 at 11:42 PM
LoTB, are you familiar with Edgar Rice Burroughs? The Star Wars storyline was a cheap and dirty rip-off of his Mars series.
Didn’t Roddenberry also loosely derive the Star Trek from pulp comics?
The Undiscovered Jew
September 1, 2014 at 8:59 PM
George Lucas the Thomas Edison of sci-fi.
Gil
September 1, 2014 at 10:56 PM
Star Wars wasn’t innovative in the least, other than in the film technology of the time. It was basically just one of those cheesy Flash Gordon style serials from the 30s and 40s, updated with some mumbo-jumbo bong philosophy about The Force.
Film nerd debate question: how much of Star War success was due to John Williams rousing score, with specific themes for different characters? Try to imagine Star Wars without the music and it’s really difficult. Like “Jaws” without the duh-duh-duhhh-duh music signaling the shark.
peterike2
September 1, 2014 at 4:07 PM
Good point. Star Wars walks a very thin line between being a fairly stupid generic space opera and a real artistic achievement. It could easily have toppled into stupidity with a few minor changes.
Peter Akuleyev
September 2, 2014 at 9:04 AM
“as a fairy tale of good versus evil. ”
Actually there’s something bigger in play, which is known as the “hero myth” or the “monomyth.”
The classic hero myth has some dude who is an ordinary schmuck who is recruited to play a critical role in the battle of good versus evil. Usually he has a mentor (Obi Wan Kenobi in Star Wars; Dumbledore in Harry Potter; Gandalf in the Hobbit; Ramirez in Highlander; etc. ) who helps him at first but eventually he must face the evil alone and succeed. Typically he defeats the bad guys, saves the universe, and gets the girl. Sometimes it’s 2 out of 3.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monomyth
sabril
September 1, 2014 at 4:32 PM
Thanks for bringing this to our attention. It’s basically the idea behind most fantasy of the LOTR type, isn’t it?
CamelCaseRob
September 1, 2014 at 9:48 PM
Yes, exactly. Lucas has said he read and incorporated Joseph Campbell’s Hero with a thousand faces into Star wars and if we look at most successful movies, they are a variation on this theme. The great mass of humanity really likes stories like this. We have for a long long time, and we likely always will.
What I always find amusing is that quite a few oddballs, whether they be highly intelligent a-social types or highly weird schizotypals they don’t like the mono myths. It’s not enough for them, it’s too simple or not weird enough and they can’t identify with the main character. These folks go on to write strange literary and hard sci-fi stuff that departs from the norm, wins awards and readers among other nerds/weirdos but somehow never catches with the general populace. Imagine that.
Sisyphean
September 2, 2014 at 8:26 AM
Joseph Campbell wrote about this stuff. He’s been a go-to for screenwriters for decades.
Dave Pinsen
September 2, 2014 at 10:10 AM
“A long time ago in a galaxy far way…” was meant the evoke fairy tales, princesses, and and knights with swords…that’s all Star Wars was…
TwentySixDotOne
September 1, 2014 at 5:00 PM
I thought it was because the story is being told from the perspective of someone in even further future than the time of Star Wars.
AsianDude
September 1, 2014 at 6:13 PM
OT, but can anyone (i.e., feminists) credibly deny that women, in general, are narcissists after the release of all those nude selfies by Hollywood actresses? I’m sure there are SOME men who like taking selfies of themselves, but most men I know have pictures taken of them by another party, they don’t take photos of themselves. http://www.wwtdd.com/2014/08/kate-upton-got-topless-with-justin-verlander/
Curle
September 1, 2014 at 6:53 PM
According to an unfinished, non-canon Star Wars novel series, the humans of the long ago Star Wars galaxy were to have been our descendants, not our ancestors.
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_references_to_Earth_in_Star_Wars
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Alien_Exodus
“In the outline and sample chapters for Robert J. Sawyer’s cancelled novel and therefore non-canon Alien Exodus, Earth is revealed in a flashback story to be the original home of the Human species. A group of refugees and dissidents from Earth commandeer a spacecraft and flee a computer-controlled society (a society which, apparently, will later become the setting of George Lucas’s first film, THX 1138). They accidentally travel backwards through time and through intergalactic space to arrive in the Star Wars galaxy.”
Oswald Spengler
September 1, 2014 at 7:14 PM
According to an unfinished, non-canon Star Wars novel series, Princess Frito is a naive young reporter who interviews a rogue smuggler, Qin Mono, who made his fortune assisting the Rebel Alliance. Qin is an enigmatic man with a psychological disorder rendering him only able to function sexually in the presence of a Wookee. While doing sex stuff in the cockpit of the Centennial Eagle, they are sucked into a wormhole that takes them to a galaxy far, far away and also a long time into the future. With no hope of returning, they search for an inhabitable planet in order to repopulate humanity. That planet later becomes known as … Earth. It is also the origin of Furries.
Toad
September 1, 2014 at 10:35 PM
It is claimed that while writing the script for the original star wars movie, George Lucas was influenced by the 1958 Japanese movie “The Hidden Fortress” directed by Akira Kurosawa. “The Hidden Fortress” is considered one of the greatest samurai movies ever. George Lucas morphed the samurai into the Jedi Knights.
mikeca
September 1, 2014 at 7:37 PM
Vader’s mask resembles Samurai designs.
The Undiscovered Jew
September 1, 2014 at 9:02 PM
Hidden fortress has begins with two bickering ronin just like star wars and features the resue of a princess, it’s a pretty straightforward homage to it. The visual style owes a lot to frank frazetta, the great sci fi cover illustrator.
dana
September 1, 2014 at 9:36 PM
In ET, when ET sees the kid in a Yoda costume on Halloween, he says “Home, home”, implying some kind of familiarity. Maybe yoda’s race, persecuted by the Empire because of their Jediness, was forced to flee their home galaxy in long-range generation ships. They have to periodically stop off at inhabited planets to refuel and restock their hydroponic gardens. They have been traveling so many generations that they have changed from their yoda-like form to ET’s appearance. ETs telekinetic abilities are actually on account of him being a Jedi knight. He didn’t bring his lightsaber with him because he was just going to be collecting plant samples.
Toad
September 1, 2014 at 11:09 PM
Tolkien was a genius (and the fact that he agreed with me on most controversial issues – his collected letters are very revealing on his opinions – does not sway my opinion at all). Lucas is an obvious non-genius with Hollywood connections and a rare feel for his zeitgeist, who had a really good idea, which made a lot of money, and which allowed him to hire lots of creative people for purposes of putting their best efforts into the little world he created (the comments above mention John Williams, Depression-era sci-fi, and other influences, but don’t forget the still un-filmed genius of Dune, Alex Guinness and his hard-won Shakespearean delivery, Debbie Fisher’s winsome daughter, the guy with natural charisma from American Graffiti, the best costumers and prop-makers in Hollywood, and not to mention, by Lucas’s own admission, the use of every potential type of location you can find on earth). To summarize the comparison- Tolkien, the genius, Lucas, more like a guy who runs a little magazine full of good stories and hired artwork.
referencing Proverbs
September 1, 2014 at 11:57 PM
Star Wars
Vs.
LOTR
Vader can sense Luke when he is in the area.
Vs.
Sauron and wraiths can detect person when he is wearing ring.
Glowing swords.
Vs.
Glowing swords.
Death Star can only be destroyed by secret vulnerability, by firing torpedo down a hole to reactor.
Vs.
Saurons power can be broken by dropping the ring down hole in a volcano.
Death Star defenses bypassed by going in trench.
Vs.
Mordor defenses bypassed by going through tunnel.
Luke has special power to shoot torpedoes into holes.
Vs.
Frodo has special power to be able to drop the ring.
Rebel fleet vastly inferior, sacrificed to serve as a distraction while Luke torpedoes porthole.
Vs.
Middle-Earth armies vastly inferior, sacrificed to serve as a distraction while Frodo sneaks in.
Luke’s ship attacked and damaged at last minute by Vaders ship, rescued by Han’s ship.
Vs.
Frodo attacked and wounded at last minute by spider, rescued by friend.
Toad
September 1, 2014 at 11:58 PM
“Death Star can only be destroyed by secret vulnerability, by firing torpedo down a hole to reactor.
Vs.
Saurons power can be broken by dropping the ring down hole in a volcano.”
Man, everything in life, including life, depends on getting it in the hole.
peterike2
September 2, 2014 at 9:01 AM
If you’re going to compare something to LOTR then I’d recommend Harry Potter. The basic premise is a complete ripoff. Both involve an enormously powerful and evil wizard who was vanquished against all odds. Yet both seek something that was lost in order to return from limbo and regain power. In both cases, they are foiled by a small fellowship led by a humble and unlikely hero.
destructure
September 2, 2014 at 3:06 AM
Harry Potter is closers to the Earthsea trilogy including a wizard school than anything in LOTR.
superdestroyer
September 2, 2014 at 8:59 AM
I’ve never read Earthsea. But the basic storyline of Harry Potter is too similar to LOTR not to have influenced it. Maybe Earthsea borrowed from LOTR? Maybe Harry Potter borrowed from both?
destructure
September 2, 2014 at 11:49 PM