STAR WARS and Moral Certainty

It's been a while since I've done a long, wall-of-text piece like this, but it seemed like a pertinent topic, given that the last Star Wars saga movie will be coming out soon, and our own series the month after.

Recently I finally got around to finishing a video essay called “The Phantom Menace 20 Years Later,” and it got me thinking about the relative reception the original trilogy received, as compared to the prequels. Now, many people have written articles and recorded video essays about this topic, and most of them make good points, but I still think there's one vital element that has yet to be discussed. We can talk about the writing, the acting, the use of mythic elements, CGI, whatever, but all of this ignores a vital element. Us, as the viewers, and the world we live in.

Star Wars first came out in 1977. That was only a couple years after the Vietnam War ended, and the Watergate scandal ended the Nixon presidency. We had just lost a war that we were unsure if we should have ever begun, and our own institutions were shown to be corrupt. Faith in anything was at an all-time low. The top movies of the decade to date were things like A Clockwork Orange, Taxi Driver, The Godfather, and One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest. Stories of antiheroes, madness, personal degradation, and loss.

Then came Star Wars. It burst onto the scene with a message from a different time. It said yes, there is good, and there is evil. Not everything is just a gray morass. Heroism exists, and even a simple farm boy can stand against an empire. All things we needed to hear, in a time when we were adrift in a sea of uncertainty. Star Wars reminded us that there was a North Star to navigate by.

Now fast-forward to 1999. Life is good, the Cold War ended a decade ago, the economy is booming, and George Lucas is about to release the latest Star Wars movie! Then the Phantom Menace comes out, and it's... a story about the fall of a Republic. How the decadence and apathy of its people allows for the rise of an Empire. That was not a story we wanted to hear, nor would it be, in the years to come, as we gave up civil liberties in exchange for security, a story mirrored in the galaxy far, far away. “So this is how Liberty dies; with thunderous applause.” I think part of why the prequels didn't sit well with us isn't just the writing, because let's be honest, it's always been a bit wooden. (Harrison Ford telling Lucas that “you can write this, George, but you can't say it,” springs to mind.) It isn't just the overuse of CGI, because there were a lot of models used in the prequels; nor because of annoying alien sidekicks, as Ewoks were not highly thought of, either. I believe it was because the story itself was not something we were ready to hear. When we were flush with affluence, it told us that decadence kills freedom, and when we desperately wanted to be assured that we were on the right path, we were told that our path leads to a totalitarian state.

Why do I say this? For the first part, there was an article written several years ago about the rise of Jennifer Lawrence, and the fall of Anne Hathaway as the lead actress of the time. The article made an interesting note. It said that, in times of recession, audiences prefer thinner actresses, but in an economic boom, we want to forget any signs of deprivation, and our preference shifts to fuller-figured actresses. When times are good, we don't want to be reminded that they were ever bad, or ever could be. That was the environment of The Phantom Menace. For the second part, I will now bring out our second case study: The Lord of the Rings.

The Fellowship of the Ring came out in December of 2001, barely three months after the events of 9/11. That was the moment that shook our world. That upended it, in a way. The year before, I saw an ad for a game called Fortress America, and that's what we believed at the time, that we were untouchable. America, the greatest power in the world, that no-one could challenge. Then, that Tuesday morning, our illusion was shattered, and within mere hours, over 3000 people were dead.

The America that was, died that day, and we were once again looking for something, looking for some assurance in a world turned upside down. Then came The Lord of the Rings, the film adaptation of the most popular fantasy series of all time. It brought us a message from a different time, a story from a man who had been through the worst war the world had ever seen. A story that said that there is good, and there is evil, that through fellowship we can face the darkness, and even the smallest person can change the course of the future.

While some of you are too young to remember, there are those of us who, as Theoden says “what can men do against such reckless hate?” in our mind's eye, saw the airliners crash into the World Trade Center. Aragorn's response? “Ride out and meet them.” To many young fans at the time, including some of my own friends, the thunder of Rohirrim hooves became that of Blackhawk helicopter blades, as they rode out against those who had attacked us.

Photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Clayton Weis, U.S. Navy

Aragorn's speech at the Black Gate held even more weight. “I see in your eyes the same fear that would take the heart of me. A day may come, when the courage of men fails. When we forsake our friends, and break all bonds of fellowship, but it is not this day. An hour of wolves, and shattered shields, when the age of men comes crashing down. But it is not this day. This day we fight! By all that you hold dear on this good earth, I bid you stand, Men of the West!” You couldn't get much more pointed if you tried.

The Lord of the Rings was a movie for its time, shot while The Phantom Menace was in theaters. It, like the Original Trilogy before it, offered us moral certainty in a time where we were questioning everything we thought we knew. It gave us an anchor for a while, before being swept away again by the swells of politics and moral relativism. So, in a way, one can say that the Lord of the Rings was the story our hearts and souls needed for the dark night, but that it would have been even better if we had also heeded the warning of the Prequels. Take care that your security does not become slavery, for the road to an Empire is paved with a thousand little compromises, and if we do not rule ourselves, then someone else will.