"I realized that there are really no modern fairy tales... I wanted to make a ... film that would strengthen contemporary mythology and introduce a kind of basic morality."--George Lucas (Star Wars Original Movie Script)
On May 25, 1977, Star Wars: A New Hope opened in theatres across America. Now virtually imbedded in popular culture, the Star Wars trilogy has been labeled as a part of many genres: ground-breaking science fiction, classic space opera, swashbuckling adventure. But it is hardly ever recognized for what it truly is: a fairy tale. Although we may find it difficult to attribute a great deal of meaning and psychological importance to a modern movie (especially one that has capitalized on the entertainment industry in such a monumental way), we must take a closer look, and not only identify in its basic story the elements of the classic fairy tale, but also recognize all the benefits these entail.
At first glance, it is difficult to acknowledge Star Wars as a fairy tale because of its label as a Science Fiction movie. Although the films were undeniably leaders in the technology of movie science fiction, this popular description often overshadows the real intentions of the movie. The story is set in a time when society is more technologically advanced than our own, but technology is not central to the plot of Star Wars: "Special effects are a tool, a means of telling a story"(Lucas- "from Star Wars to Jedi"). The technology or problems therewith were therefore not in any way intended to be the focus of the movies. This discredits the idea of Star Wars as primarily "Science Fiction". In fact, the expanded Star Wars story seems to teach that technology is not essential for power. For example, the little Ewoks in Return of the Jedi managed to overpower the Imperial forces, in spite of the fact that they pitted crude wooden armaments against gigantic chrome machine-monsters.
Another reason why many people have trouble accepting Star Wars as a true fairy tale is its format: it is a movie. Most people find it hard to accept a fairy tale in any other form than an old, dusty, hardcover book with no pictures. However, what these people fail to recognize is that, just as story telling was the major form of communication in rural communities long ago, movies and television are now the media through which values are presented to our children. Today, they learn from examples set by televison and movie characters in the same way that the children of the past learned their moral lessons from characters in books. Therefore, the movie format of Star Wars is an merely an adaption of the old oral tradition associated with folk and fairy tales; it is a way for a modern-day fairy tale to gain as large an audience as Rapunzel or Snow White. The presentation of the movie as well, i.e. the dazzling special effects, serves as a way to attract and hold the attention of an audience today. For as the fairy tale's mission is "to delight and instruct" (Bettelheim), it must first capture the audience before it even has a chance of transmitting its message. Therefore, the Star Wars story takes its shape under the guise of a "science fiction movie", incoporating three popular elements in order to appeal to a large majority of the world's population.
Fairy tales are not folk tales; unlike folklore, which is a part of a people's heritage and has been passed down from generation to generation over hundreds of years, the origins of most fairy tales are not lost to time. People compose fairy tales, Anderson, Grimm and Perrault being the most famous examples. However, because these men all lived in a past age, it has become difficult for us to believe that 'true' fairy tales can be written so close to our own lifetimes. This is another reason why Lucas' Star Wars trilogy does not get the credit it deserves: people cannot believe the writing of fairy tales to be a modern day process. But it is essential that people continue to write fairy tales, to present their unconscious messages in formats tailored to specific audiences. If this does not happen, entire populations of people will fail to be exposed to this most important ingredient to a healthy psyche.
The 'classic writers' recognized the necessity of revision in order to become more acceptable to their changing audiences. The Grimm brothers made significant modifications to their texts between the composition in 1812 and later publications in the 1850s:
"While [the Grimms] evidently tried to retain what they considered the 'essential' message of each tale, they tended to make the narratives for proper and prudent for bourgeois audiences. ...while editing the tales, they eliminated sexual elements that might be offensice to middle-class morality, added numerous Christian expressions and references, emphasized specific role models for male and female protagonists according to the ...code of that time."(Zipes, The Brothers Grimm, p13-14).
It is therefore not remarkable that the Star Wars story continues to undergo modifications in order to ensure its success with each generation. However in this case, it is not the morality of the story or characters that must be changed, but instead the upgrading of special effects is necessary in order to appeal to a critical generation of technology-immersed children. As a result of several reworked rereleases, Star Wars is succeeding in capturing the imagination and hearts of children thirty years after its production.
Once we recognize that Star Wars is in fact a modern fairy tale, it remains to be seen what models and values it is its duty to transmit. According to Bettleheim, "the form and stucture of fairy tales suggest images to the child by which he can structure his daydreams and with them give better direction to his life."(Bettelheim, 1976) In other words, the fairy tale provides a framework for children's fantasies, the play through which they can externalize their internal psychological problems associated with growing up. Since Bettelheim argues that this is the fairy tale's main purpose, the characters, situations, and motifs of Star Wars should in a way be reflective of the kinds of values and models that our children need today. Star Wars' true benefits as a modern fairy tale can only be recognized once we understand the unconscious messages that it is relating to our children, and we can identify these messages through the same process that Bettelheim applied to numerous fairy tales in "the Uses of Enchantment": the technique of logical analysis. In this paper, the Trilogy will be analysed with regards to two elements, character and plot.