Finding Hope In Star Wars

The visual design in ‘Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope’ transformed the film industry, setting new standards for years to come. Through animation, detailed models, sets and computer-controlled motion photography, George Lucas created a futuristic sci-fi that was realistic and gripping. In Star Wars: A New Hope, one scene stands out from all others: the Binary Sunset scene. One of the most iconic moments from all of Star Wars, the scene uses elements of visual design that display the forces of good and evil, destiny, and most importantly, the recurring theme of hope.

“ The force will be with you, always.” This is advice given to Luke Skywalker by his mentor Obi Wan Kenobi. In the archetypal hero’s journey a wise and experienced mentor such as Obi Wan will often help guide or offer advice to the youthful and budding hero. Throughout time and across different cultures there are certain symbols, events and characters which can be found in literature and Star Wars IV: A New Hope follows this trend step by step. During the film Star Wars IV: A New Hope, the main protagonist Luke undergoes a stereotypical, or in literary terms an archetypal hero’s journey. Luke starts from humble beginnings and when he is called upon to save the galaxy; he then faces various tests which help him hone skills that he will need for the final life or death battle.

Episode IV was set during a time of war between the Rebellion, the good side, and the Empire, which is considered the evil side. The science fiction story is about a young man, Luke Skywalker, who travels into space to fight against the Empire. Luke is from the planet Tatooine, a desert, where he farms water with his uncle. Luke’s uncle buys two droids, R2D2 and C3PO, who happen to have been involved in the war and worked for the rebellion. Luke discovers a recording in one of the droids of Princess Leia saying she needed help, and that sparks the beginning of his journey. He meets Ben, also known as Obi-Wan Kenobi, who becomes his mentor, and teaches him how to use “the force”. In Star Wars, “the force” is a magical way for people to control things using their unconscious minds. Luke sets out on a journey into space to rescue the princess and join the Rebellion in the war effort. Luke and Obi-Wan meet Han solo, a pilot, and ask him to take them into space. They plan to go to Alderaan, Princess Leia’s home planet; however, they are unintentionally sucked into the Death Star, the spacecraft and weapon of the Empire. They find out that Princess Leia is being held in the Death Star, and they plan to help her escape. While Han and Luke try to help Leia, Obi-Wan is fighting Darth Vader, the evil leader of the Empire. Unfortunately, Obi-Wan is killed by Darth Vader; although, Luke, Han and Leia escape the Death Star. They go to a Rebellion headquarter and find the weak spot of the Death Star.

The creator and director of Star Wars, George Lucas, was incredibly successful for his movie series, but even more successful for its overall purpose: to sell toys to ten-year old boys. The use of ethos, pathos, and logos are very abundant in this movie. Ethos, Greek for “character”, is anything referring to or relying on the author’s credibility. Pathos, Greek for “emotional”, is anything that makes you feel emotion. Logos, Greek for “word”, is anything that makes you think. By using these he was able to persuade the audience into thinking, feeling, and loving Star Wars, making the audience want to purchase figurines.

Star Wars is a series that has been around since the late 1970s. When you watch the very first one “Star Wars A New Hope” which was released in May of 1977 and compare it to the new one “Star Wars The Force Awakens” which was released last year you will notice that there storylines are very similar. When it comes to similarities of these 2 films it isn't just the characters that are the same. In “The New Hope” R2D2 has a map that shows them how to blow up the Death Star. Their main focus is to keep the droid “R2D2” alive because he is the only one who has a map that shows them how to set off a chain reaction and blow up the Death Star.

Role of music in Hollywood films has come of age as a complex and sophisticated site of cinematographic art. Greater combinations of sounds expressing a wider spectrum of tones, textures, and volumes can be heard at the movies more than ever before. Moreover, this era has witnessed an increase of different artistic and professional approaches to sound. Since the start of the Hollywood film industry, music has played a great role in the success of Hollywood films. Star Wars: A New Hope, commonly considered one of the greatest films of all time, launched the space era craze backed by lovely and memorable music. John Williams created the musical score of Star Wars, reviving the grand symphonic scores from the early film era with the leitmotif inspired by the works of Wagner and Steiner. Star Wars: A New Hope is a film with a successful storyline, inspiring characters, and amazing visual presentation with an unforgettable musical score. The musical score of Star Wars returns to the basic features of classical film score with the use of a symphony orchestra, postromantic musical style, wall-to-wall scoring, and thematic transformation.

The entire plot of Return of the Jedi is the conclusion of a story of a young man and his friends trying to find their way in a battle between good and evil. Throughout the film, the characters each have their own, unique, inner struggle while all fighting in the same galactic battle. While the theme of darkness versus light is strong, there are also hints of other themes, such as power, corruption, love and sacrifice. All of these components are set in front of the backdrop of a nonstop battle between the freedom seeking Rebels and the evil Galactic Empire.

Luke Skywalker chooses to join Obi Wan Kenobi, and through their journey Luke was changed from a parentless boy to a Jedi in training (Star Wars IV). One of the biggest parts in a Hero’s Journey is the life changing event that causes the hero to leave his home in the first place. When Luke’s aunt and uncle are killed, he is alone and has no reason to stay on his home planet of Tatooine so goes with Obi Wan. He changes his whole life around in a very short period of time, like his master, all he has left is his training. Both Romeo and Juliet changed their lives around for each other, even though it resulted in death (Shakespeare). The feuding families could never know about their children’s relationship because they hadn’t adjusted to the idea of ending their fighting and still hated each other. Romeo went first and Juliet followed behind and the death toll went up, if the families had changed their views toward each other , no one would have lost their lives. Those who are open to change, will be introduced to many life altering

Leaving the trivial side of Star Wars, when asked as to how the films have succeeded, Lucas seems struggled to answer the question. He stated “None of these explanations can be shown to be wrong. The problem is that none of them can be shown to be right.” Perhaps, the most interesting thing about his deep thinking is that the theme he made appearing in all of the seven films is about the importance of destiny in the Star Wars universe. Some readers may still be unconvinced that the franchise is kind of deep. But Cass Sunstein’s infatuation with the Star Wars series led him to cross-reference the film series to nearly anything from Pokemon to human rights. The force is indeed strong to Mr. Sunstein.

Upon its release, Star Wars: A New Hope, had an immediate impact on society and aspects of this film are still embedded into popular culture today. This film is considered to be the pioneer of visual effects. These new-found visuals led the public to believe it was the inspiration for the United States Department of Defense to create a missile protection system during the Cold War.

Star Wars: Return of the Jedi strays from the hero tradition set in Beowulf due to Luke Skywalker’s struggle to maintain his morality. A true hero is morally righteous, and Wiglaf portrays an accurate example in Beowulf. While witnessing his king being defeated, Wiglaf announced, “ I’d rather burn myself than see flames swirling around my lord,” before going to his rescue (783). Wiglafs’s selfless and ethical nature strengthens his role as the stereotypical hero in the story tradition, while Luke’s internal conflict with the dark side derails Star Wars from following the hero tradition story. When Luke and Darth Vader face each other the emperor attempts to tap into Luke’s dark side when he yells, “Use your aggressive feeling boy. Attack! Let

Both films uses mentors to lead the protagonist to growth and progression through the film. In Star Wars, Obi-Wan Kenobi is sought out through a message found by Luke the protagonist of Star Wars. Obi-Wan Kenobi skills as a Jedi master and previous battles keeping peace in the galaxy allows Luke to accept him a mentor. The scene used to demonstrates the mentorship Obi-Wan has on Luke is when, Obi-Wan explains to Luke what the force is and how he trained Luke’s father. Not only does he explains the force to Luke, but also aids the battle against the side by handing Luke a lightsaber, a weapon of protection used by Jedi’s. The weapon is symbolic as it establishes a small growth and progression in the film as Luke becomes one step closer in becoming

A long time ago in a galaxy far far away…. A man named George Lucas created possibly the greatest movie trilogy of all time. Star wars is about a civil war between the Empire and the Rebellions. Only the Jedi’s can bring balance to the galaxy. The first movie first aired in 1977, it was the most anticipated movie ever. It was about rebels stealing plans from the empire of their new weapon called the death star a moon-sized space station with the ability to destroy an entire planet. and the Empire will stop at nothing to get them back, locate their base and destroy it. Little does the empire know there is still a Jedi knight alive, a mystical Knightly order trained to guard justice and peace all around the universe, The Jedi’s also have power

One of the many appeals of Star Wars is its extensive cast of unique characters. Every character is written creatively; even the one-off minor characters have a special flair to them. The interactions between these characters are what drive the story and create this vast universe. Ultimately, Luke Skywalker is the main character of the original Star Wars trilogy. The three films tell his story and journey of becoming a Jedi Knight. Starting out as a naive young boy, throughout the course of the films Luke Skywalker matures into a full fledged Jedi Knight who is tasked with defeating the Empire.

The reason myths are studied in today’s culture are because the stories are about the human condition, not about time or place. It is this versatility of myths, that allows Far East’s Ramayana to be mirrored in many ways by a far away galaxy’s Star Wars. The Ramayana’s lead hero is Vishnu, in the human form of Rama. The birth of Rama is divined by priests. The goal of Rama will be to defeat the evil Ravana. Star Wars starts in a similar fashion with the jedi legend of a chosen one, who can bring balance to the force. Unfortunatley, when Luke Skywalker is born, he his driven into hiding and is exiled to the outer rim of the galaxy. While living in exile in the Dune Sea, Luke makes a name forhimself as being the best pilot around town. Rama