05/14/99- Updated 12:45 AM ET
05/14/99- Updated 12:45 AM ET
Next week, with the fervor of Muslims turning to Mecca,
Hindus bathing in the Ganges, and Jews and Christians trekking to the Holy Land, millions
of Star Wars fans will skip school, ditch work, call in sick and make their own sacred
journeys to gather in long lines for George Lucas' Star Wars, Episode I: The Phantom
Menace.
Fans overwhelmed theaters and phone and Web site ticket-ordering services Wednesday when
tickets went on sale. More than 45,000 attended the recent Denver Star Wars convention.
Thousands paid full ticket prices to see the Menace trailer when it premiered, not staying
for the movie that was showing. Ticket lines began forming at U.S. theaters two months
ago, and an estimated $1 billion of sacred relics (totems from toothpaste to toys) will
sell to the faithful this year.
Why is this film inspiring such a fervor? After all, it's only a movie. Isn't it?
Actually, it is much, much more.
The Force, it seems, has always been with us.
Lucas' films - Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi and now The Phantom Menace plus two more to come - are basically ancient cross-cultural fables of a hero's journey and good vs. evil with modern twists.
"There are mythical underpinnings to the movie and archetypes that have been around for thousands and thousands of years, most of them before Christianity," Lucas says.
He combines mythology, Jungian archetypes and Freudian symbols and blends them with pop culture, science fiction and high-tech fantasy. At its most basic, the Star Wars story is that of a young man's trials, temptations and transformation - what Joseph Campbell, author of The Hero With a Thousand Faces, called the "mono-myth."
Lucas designed Star Wars as nine episodes, with the first three films - centering on Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader - being the middle of the story. With Phantom Menace, opening Wednesday, Lucas goes to the beginning and introduces an earlier generation - a young Anakin Skywalker, who grows up to become Luke's father and Darth Vader. Lucas already has plans to make the second and third installments.
"The films are designed like symphonic movements," Lucas says. "I have various themes that I repeat in different keys or using different instrumentation but it's the same theme and it goes through all six movies."
Link to Greek myths
Star Wars is not unlike Homer's Odyssey, says David West Reynolds, 30, archeologist and author of five Star Wars books. "When Homer told the Odyssey to the Greeks, it was their dark ages and his story was about one man determined to make it home and everything that happened to him, how he never gave up.
"As a result, the Greeks never gave up, they survived to their Golden Age. Stories like that help people get through rough times, whether it's a personal thing or your whole civilization."
And people still get hooked by such stories of strength and inspiration. "No matter how civilized or complex we feel," says actor Liam Neeson, who plays Qui-Gon Jinn in Menace, "there is an innate need to hear these stories. They make a complex world much more palatable and understandable and give us all guidelines to find a passage through life."
Especially drawn to Star Wars, which premiered in 1977, are those who were exposed to the Force during the impressionable ages of 5-12.
"It's cliched to say this, but Star Wars really did change the lives of those of us who were 6, 7 or 8, when we first saw it," says Jody Reeves, 31, a fan from Arlington, Va. "Short of Disney movies and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, that's all we had. Star Wars gave us toys to play with. We grew up on this, were immersed in it. It was devastating after the third movie and that was it. To have something else again is quite a kick."
Touches of religion
Many say these outer space operas tap into an insatiable human hunger for spiritual guidance that used to be satisfied by religious teachings. Menace, in fact, seems to have the most overtly Christian references of the Star Wars films so far. Young Anakin Skywalker is said to be "the chosen one" and to have been the product of a virgin birth.
But Neeson points out that the Star Wars stories are taken
from myths and folklore and legends of every culture throughout the world. It is
essentially one story. "The idea of a virgin birth is thousands of years older than
Christianity. Every culture seems to have a goddess type who gives birth to this hero or
heroine who will eventually raise mankind onto another level of civilization. We will
accrue some knowledge through his or her ordeal or passage - be it the quest for the Holy
Grail or the Celtic mythologies."
Star Wars is "filling a spiritual void to some extent," says Reeves, who
contributes articles on Lucas mythology to the Web site www.echostation.com. "It's hard to believe
anyone is so out of touch with their spirituality that they rely solely on a film, but
these films do inspire people to explore alternative spirituality, Buddhism, Taoism, what
I call different paths to the same destination."
Lucas has said he didn't set out to create a new religion, but he does admit to conceiving a larger purpose for his films: Getting young people to think about spiritual issues.
"What's happened with the hustle-bustle world and technology and everything we live in today, it seems, that a lot of kids just aren't even contemplating the idea of God or larger entities, regardless of what religion they are."
His movies, he says, are "a way of saying that it's something to think about and it's something to ask questions about - the great mysteries: 'Why are we here?' and 'Is there anybody or anything out there that has a relationship to us?' 'Where do we go when we die?' These are good things to ponder.
"The films basically take a lot of the speculation and theories on these issues that have been passed down over the last few thousands of years and try to put them in a new form."
Even theologians notice that Star Wars strikes a strangely deep chord with audiences.
"There are so many parallels to religious symbols and concepts that people can't help but notice, even if subconsciously," says John Wood, professor of theology at Baylor University in Waco, Texas.
"These obsessive fans have found what we call a functional deity. The films give them some sense of meaning, something greater than they are. When you get into that cosmic stuff, it has a deeper meaning for people."
A meaning deep enough to actually have an impact on their daily lives.
"I know a lot of fans who grew up trying to live up to the ideals - self-reliance, loyalty, trusting your instincts, never giving up, fighting dark impulses - that the movie proposes," says Shannon Moon, 30, a Minneapolis fan.
Although many Star Wars fans say their devotion to Star Wars is like "a religion," it's not altars and incense, prayer or meditation. It's life lessons about balance, trusting your instincts, caring for others, recognizing there is good and evil in everyone but never giving in to the dark side.
Life meaning in a movie
William Kemp, 21, British-born star of the Tony-nominated Swan Lake, tries to tap into his inner force to fine-tune his dancing and acting skills.
Reeves, who is an assistant administrator for Sen. Dianne Feinstein, asks herself every day at the office, "What would Luke do in this situation?" But, she says, "there are times I want to act like Darth Vader."
For Moon, one scene in Return of the Jedi has particular resonance: when Luke stares at his mechanical hand and realizes he is becoming like his father, the half-machine Darth Vader. "That always reminds me that when you are pursuing your goal, don't let the journey change you into something you don't want to become and defeat the purpose of the journey."
And when Luke and Han Solo fight the Death Star in Star Wars, "They were going up against overwhelming odds. The message to me was 'Don't ever give up.' "
But what most fans appreciate about Lucas's Word is self-determination.
"His teachings are more to 'Look to yourself, look inside yourself' rather than to a higher power," Moon says. "It's the message that you can do it if you just don't get carried away or get too selfish."
Reynolds agrees. "The films very much validate the power of the individual, and that's a wonderful message, so rare these days. It says, whoever you are, you count. You can win your battles and make a difference for everyone around you. The flash and dazzle is all on the surface, but that message is behind it. And that's what keeps the frenzy going."
The story and underlying message of the Star Wars films are undeniably ancient. Only the medium of conveyance has changed, reflective of advancing technology.
In prehistoric times, tribes of humans listened to tales of bravery and self-sacrifice around a flickering fire. Perhaps modern cinemas, when they depict stories of rebirth and redemption, are becoming a new generation's cathedrals, not necessarily places of worship, but arenas for young people to learn lessons they once absorbed around those community flames - or in Sunday school or Bible class.
"People are looking for some way to make sense out of life, and since the church is no longer the place where most people are finding it, movies have stepped in," says theologian Wood.
"We can rejoice that this movie has some sense of wholesomeness and that, while evil may win the occasional battle, good does win out in the end."
Contributing: Mike Snider and Susan Wloszczyna