crack open a cold one with the boys anakin skywalker

#Crack open a cold one with the boys anakin skywalker series
#Crack open a cold one with the boys anakin skywalker tv

'Luke fulfills a number of the characteristics that you see in mythic heroes,' Feder said: 'A royal lineage that he grows up ignorant about in a simple, obscure way, and he has special powers and abilities that are brought out by a series of teachers.

'Campbell was impressed that Lucas had so diligently presented this large mystery in a way that was so accessible to large numbers of people,' Young said. Sound like Star Wars? Campbell thought so. They communicate a sense of universal order and show how people should live. In Campbell's teachings, myths inspire both awe and recognition. 'The idea of a calling, of being drawn away into a place of wisdom, finding allies and mentors, accomplishing the ordeals, and then returning.' 'Campbell was very grateful that Lucas presented the elements of Luke's initiation so clearly,' Young said. Jonathan Young, said Campbell compared Lucas to the masters. Letters and gifts exchanged by the two visionaries are on display in the Joseph Campbell Archives in Santa Barbara, Calif.

He was much more powerful as a speaker than he was as a writer.'Ī short time later, Lucas loaned his studios to PBS to produce the Campbell series. After Return of the Jedi, somebody gave me a tape of one of his lectures. When I started doing Star Wars, I re-read Hero with a Thousand Faces. 'He was an amazing scholar and an amazing person.

'Yes, I consider him a mentor,' Lucas said at a recent New York press conference. A storyteller needs a mentor as much as a hero does. Each step can be traced in the adventures of Star Wars hero Luke Skywalker.īefore Campbell died in 1987, the scholar and Lucas became friends. His books Masks of God and The Hero with a Thousand Faces are considered the ultimate guides to what has enthralled the world for centuries.Ĭampbell defined the Hero Cycle, a course of events that occurs as a rite of initiation in every myth, pinpointing the need for mentors, villains, elixirs and jesters along the way.

#Crack open a cold one with the boys anakin skywalker tv

Myths fulfill that in a way that science and facts don't always do, because science and facts don't always give us meaning.'Ĭampbell - known to mass audiences through The Power of Myth, the PBS TV series based on his books - was an expert in the construction and cultural resonance of mythology. 'The stories speak to something inside us that wants to know how our world lives, that wants to make order of it and find some meaning. 'Star Wars is an example of what Joseph Campbell called the Monomyth, which reaches a broader audience and is more enduring,' said Shanti Fader, editor of Parabola magazine, a publication of the Society for the Study of Myth and Tradition. Lucas' film series isn't merely a hit, it's a myth. The reason goes beyond state-of-the-art special effects and studio hype. Star Wars (known to Jedi disciples as A New Hope), The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi have grossed billions of dollars in worldwide ticket sales and merchandising. Lucas blended archetypes of legends and visionary cinema into three Star Wars chapters between 19. Indeed, Lucas' fascination with mythology led to an enduring friendship with the late Joseph Campbell, perhaps the best-known expert in the field. Luke Skywalker and Thor have more in common than you may think. Lucas always claimed that his lucrative Star Wars saga blends mythology and technology. Wednesday, George Lucas' epic of galactic good and evil will be seen by more people in one day than Homer or Malory ever dreamed of reaching in their lifetimes.ĭifferent eras, different heroes, yet Lucas' film series contains the same mythic qualities those ancient storytellers and others used to fuel imaginations throughout the ages. But, when Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace opens at 12:01 a.m. Nobody paid $7 to hear Homer read The Odyssey, or lined up to buy Thomas Malory's 15th-century version of King Arthur's legend. Move over, Odysseus, here comes Luke Skywalker By Steve Persall, Petersburg Times Film Critic