The Power of Star Wars (Spoilers Included)
Many people have loved Star Wars since it came out almost forty years ago in 1977. This year, the hype and love has reached a fever pitch as Disney has begun releasing more movies. What makes the movies so powerful that people continue to watch them?
The movies resemble the Romantic movement which developed in 1800s European plays, books, poetry, and music. The Romantics emphasized the grand and mystical over the small and mundane; the beautiful and heroic over the dull and normal. The Romantics oftentimes felt marginalized from society, and felt strong emotions, ranging from the very dark to the very joyful. Star Wars’ similarity to this movement speaks to us on a different level than realistic movies and books, and speaks to our grander selves that we don’t necessarily get to express in everyday life.
Romanticism developed from people who felt marginalized from society. According to Isaiah Berlin, a British philosopher, Romanticism originally developed from German middle-class intellectuals, who were not allowed to be a part of the French intellectual society. They were geniuses and wanted to be a part of the great intellectual debates of the day. Many of their writings speak of the pain of marginalization and the desire to become greater. In Star Wars, characters who begin out on the bottom rungs of society quickly become heroes saving the galaxy. In the old movies, Luke Skywalker was a simple moisture farmer who had to work for his uncle, but dreamed of greater adventures; Han Solo was a poor smuggler who operated under the death threats of powerful gangsters. In the new movies, Rey lived alone collecting scraps on a desert planet, and Finn was a garbage collector and a dispensable soldier who only had the serial number FN-2187. These characters quickly rose above their station to become great heroes, as many of us would like to do.
Romanticism and Star Wars both focus on the grand over the banal. Romantics painted grand landscapes with large mountains and oceans; humans were small and looked out on the grandeur of the Universe. In Star Wars, Luke and Rey look out on grand deserts bigger than the eye can see. The ships are tiny compared to the vastness of space. In the Wagner’s Ring Cycle, a classic opera of the Romantics, gods and heroes fought for supreme power, ultimately causing Armageddon. In Star Wars, all the actions of characters are grand. Rey must become the guardian of the good side of the force; the evil side builds a space station that can destroy planets; and the rebels must destroy the Death Star/Starkiller to limit the power of the evil side. The battles are huge with many ships and people duking it out for the fate of the universe.
The characters of Star Wars and the Romantics feel strong and large emotions. The emotions of the Romantic artists ranged far and wide from true despair, depression, and anger to happiness. Romantic paintings oftentimes emphasized these contrasts with dark parts and light parts. The characters of Star Wars feel grand emotions. Kylo Ren, the evil character of the new movie, feels anger and fear that he is not powerful enough to be greater than Vader. All the good characters rejoice at the destruction of the Death Star and Starkiller base. Rey feels a longing for her family. Han Solo and Leia are sad their son has turned to the dark side and killed many people. These strong emotions speak to the grandeur of human emotions, which many of us do not get to express in our daily public lives.
The strongest element of Star Wars and an important element of Romanticism is the love of the mystical. Romanticism developed in part as a response to the Enlightenment, an intellectual movement that praised rationality and science and believed the everything in the universe was explainable. On the other hand, the Romantics believed rationality and industrialization were turning humans into machines and were destroying the unique emotions of every individual. The Romantics countered the Enlightenment by believing in the mystical and the unexplainable. In Star Wars, the force is mystical. Obi-Wan Kenobi describes the Force as “an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us, penetrates us, and binds the galaxy together.” The Force is purposely vague, and we are each allowed to interpret the force in our own way.
Star Wars is more than a pop culture phenomenon with really cool lightsabers and spaceships (although those help); it speaks to us on a deeper level. Some of us are like the Romantics. We want to rise above our station to the grand mystical heights of the universe, revealing our individuality and emotions along the way. Of course all of this is not going to happen in reality, but we get to experience the grandeur and mysticism of the universe by watching the story of Star Wars.