The Books of My Life: Star Wars

I first saw George Lucas's film Star Wars in the fall of 1977 in Muncie, Indiana when I was taking classes at Ball State University. By the time I saw it I had seen several Alfred Hitchcock films, several Howard Hawks films, Forbidden Planet, Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, and Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange. To put it bluntly I was not impressed with Star Wars, which seemed like kiddieporn to me. I was never into film or television serials. Nor was I impressed with the cult mania surrounding the film.

Written some thirty years after Star Wars debuted in American cinemas Will Brooker's Star Wars (London: BFI, 2009), argues that Star Wars needs to be taken seriously echoing a point made by Robin Wood about Alfred Hitchcock some forty-four years earlier. In the book Brooker compellingly argues that too many critics have seen Star Wars and Lucas's earlier film American Graffiti (which I did and do like) and Lucas's college and post-college experimental films as too dissimilar and discontinuous. Brooker notes, as have others before him, that Lucas borrowed or referenced several other films in Star Wars including David Lean's Lawrence of Arabia, World War II flicks, which Lucas and company used as a guide for the dogfight sequences in Star Wars, Akira Kurosawa's Hidden Fortress, and even Leni Riefenstahl's Triumph of the Will. Booker notes that Star Wars is much less optimistic when seen from the vantage point of all the sequels and prequels. Brooker compellingly argues that Star Wars reflects in its rebels and its Empire Lucas's split personality of rebel with an undermine traditional Hollywood cause and emperor of the assembly line that became Lucas's film company.

So why did I read a book about a film I really have little aesthetic interest in? I wanted to see what Brooker would make of Star Wars. Brooker's Star Wars was a quick read and his assertion that the two sides of George Lucas is represented in Star Wars itself is an interesting argument. I also agree with Booker that Star Wars, like any significant and influential artifact of popular culture, needs to be explored by historians and social scientists.