There are some who argue that George Lucas‘ "Star Wars" saga has entered the realm of modern mythology. And certainly, that it’s a tale involving heroes, villains, The Force, and other archetypes, a convincing case could be made. According to the creator himself, his idea in making the toy-selling, sci-fi blockbuster series was to examine the very qualities of storytelling, and how stories are shared and passed down from generation to generation.
In a chat in Chicago with Charlie Rose earlier this month, Lucas discussed why he set out to make "Star Wars," and central among his reasons was to explore "psychological motifs in mythology," in particular elements that resonated each time a story was told.
He added: “With ‘Star Wars,’ it was the religion. Everything put into a form that was easy for everybody to accept so it didn’t fall into a contemporary mode where you could argue about it. It went everywhere in the world.”
And there’s no doubt Lucas’ attempt at mythological level storytelling was massively successful; he certainly cracked the code of what makes a story popular. Watch below. [io9/HNGN]
"Hero With a Thousand Faces" didn\’t really become a Lucas guidebook until he started writing "Empire," before that "The Golden Bough" has arguably more influence on the writing of \’Star Wars.\’ And just because Campbell was able to point out how the story coincides neatly with a template he had outlined — of course he would make a case for it, who wouldn\’t want to be linked to the biggest pop cultural phenomenon of the moment, sell a few more books in the process? — doesn\’t mean it\’s "cookie cutter." Hollywood is littered with the corpses of would-be franchises that follow the Hero\’s Journey faithfully, *none of which* would be valued at $4 billion (as per the Disney acquisition). Those are the "cookie cutter" examples. It\’s reductive and silly to ascribe the success of \’Star Wars\’ to one book; if Joseph Campbell\’s teachings are the ONLY thing you need to create a billion-dollar franchise, then how come no one\’s been able to replicate that level of success in the 40 years since? Sorry for the rant, I\’m not even a fanboy, but this is simple common sense.
He did and he was a close friend of Joseph Campbell. In "The Power of Myth" series of interviews, Campbell all but points out that Star Wars was a cookie cutter example of Campbell\’s thesis on heroes and myth. Well executed in theatrical form, but it followed the "formula". In so doing, it tapped into the pop culture like few films had at the time.
@ Petaire – Yup, all he had to do was read Hero with a Thousand Faces. That\’s why everyone who has read that book has gone off and made a billion-dollar movie empire. They write themselves!
AND he studied anthropology AND psychology at USC.
OR, he read the Hero with a thousand faces.