Why is Star Wars so popular?
To explain why Americans are obsessed with "Star Wars", the first thing we must understand is the national conditions of the United States.
The United States is a young immigrant country with only 239 years of history. Like the United Kingdom, it lacks its own systematic mythology. The United Kingdom has Tolkien and can create "The Lord of the Rings" based on Norse mythology; but as for the United States, unfortunately, no one has been able to make up for this shortcoming until the release of "Star Wars" in 1977.
Audiences who have watched the "Star Wars" movie will definitely remember the yellow subtitles at the beginning of the film - "A Long Time Ago, in a Galaxy" (A Long Time Ago, in a Galaxy Far Far Away). What's this? This is the beginning of the most classic story telling! From the beginning, George Lucas told "Star Wars" as a mythical story.
Look again at the story structure of "Star Wars": an ordinary person (at least he thinks so) dreams of escaping from his ordinary life and venturing into the outside world; a mysterious figure appears and tells him that he is extraordinary life experience, and brings him into a brand new world; the protagonist realizes that he is the prophesied savior. After experiencing a series of hardships, he grows into a truly wise, brave, and responsible hero; in the end, he saves the world and realizes prophecy.
Does it sound familiar? In fact, Harry Potter in "Harry Potter", Neo in "The Matrix", and Frodo in "The Lord of the Rings" all That's it. Many classic myths also have this story structure.
I remember someone once did some research and said that all kinds of stories of us humans can be summarized into several specific story templates, which never change. This makes sense.
The "Star Wars" formula of "the weaker party overcoming seemingly insurmountable obstacles and ultimately defeating the powerful enemy" can be traced back to David defeating the giant Goliath in the Bible. story. David was a young shepherd, and Goliath was a Philistine general. When Goliath led the army to attack Israel, no one dared to challenge him. Only David defeated Goliath and killed him by throwing slings and stones. Got him.
The stories of national myths must be easy to understand. Star Wars did this too.
In the Galactic Kingdom, there are clear boundaries between black and white, heroes and villains. The most complex character, Darth Vader, can also be described as "a good guy in the early stage and a degenerate in the later stage." gone bad" to understand. The audience can figure out the plot without using their brains.
In "Star Wars" there are many basic human emotions such as love, family affection, fear, betrayal, sadness, failure, victory, etc. These emotions are expressed in the simplest and most direct way, which can not only satisfy adults , easier for children to understand.
But just having a classic story structure and being easy to understand is not enough for "Star Wars" to become the national myth of the United States. It must also have something unique of its own.
At this point, Lucas cleverly added Eastern philosophy and culture.
In the 1960s and 1970s, Akira Kurosawa's films were popular in the United States for a while, and "Seven Samurai" was remade into "The Magnificent Seven." Lucas also loves watching Akira Kurosawa's movies. In fact, "Star Wars" was his inspiration after watching "Heroes of the Warring States".
Now you go back and compare the similarities and differences between "Heroes of the Warring States" and "Star Wars". After all, Lucas gradually deviated from the original vision in his subsequent creations. . But things like princesses and warriors have remained.
Speaking of Jedi Knights, everyone will think of lightsabers, which are derived from Japanese samurai and their katana swords. For the Japanese samurai, the katana was the most important thing to them. They would give it a name and regard it as their soul. Jedi Knights have the same relationship with lightsabers.
In addition, warriors must be absolutely loyal to their master and must not fear death, which is something that the Jedi also inherited.
Jedi Knights also have levels, and they must go through various trainings to become masters, and their training is not only fighting skills, but also includes the cultivation of mind, which is also the same as the ancient Eastern philosophy.
Similar to the Jedi Knight, "The Force" is also an Eastern concept. Its origin is "Prana" in Indian philosophy, which refers to the energy and breath of life.
The addition of oriental elements makes the Western mainstream audience feel very fresh, especially children, who will find it cool when they play with lightsabers in their backyards.