If I’m not mistaken, it was either our first or second hum core lecture that Dr. Lazo had shown us a clip of Star Wars’ depiction of empire. The movie’s aptly named “Empire” showcased form, respect, power, and drive- all characteristics that empires are commonly known to characterize- a fair introduction to the concept of the “empire” section in the courses main theme: “Empire and its Ruins.” But Dr. Steintrager’s focus on the “ruins” portion of “Empire and it’s Ruins” led me to realize that the multi-billion dollar franchise has many more parallels to classical Empire’s that go mostly unnoticed to the common moviegoer.
Ruins to the humanities are seen as pieces to study and learn from- they’re aesthetically and intellectually pleasing. Typically, when one looks at ruins, they learn or wish to learn of the past: “what happened here? What was this structure’s purpose? How does this fit in to the bigger picture of the society that it functioned for?”. looking and pondering ruins is the introspection of humanity’s past for the implemented in the contemporary. And the Star Wars franchise’s newest additions have held those past/ruin-study elements very closely.
First and foremost, some of the movies crucial elements heavily portray empire, ruins, and sometimes empire causing ruins. The movie opens with showing how a new empire had risen from the ashes (or ruins) of a previous one, the hero of the story is introduced as a scavenger of ruins, and the catalyzing individual of the movie is hiding in the ruins of his heritage’s temple. Without getting too specific into the actual details of each situation- they all can easily be seen as parables for ruins of empire and their role in the empire’s life cycle/ their use other than being a pile of rubble and a place to hide. The ruins of the “Empire” and “Jedi” literally serve as memories of the past which are used to strengthen the present/future within the movie. More specifically, the First Order rises and builds off of the foundations of the last empire becoming more formidable than their predecessor, and Luke (the last of his Jedi heritage) surrounding himself with the ruins of his heritage as a reminder of what had happened and what needs to be done in the future to remedy it. While historians would usually emphasize learning the past through ruins, the fictional story portrays another valid way of utilizing ruins- for the betterment of the future.
To make the connection of “Star Wars to ‘empire and it’s ruins’” even more meta, the whole “Star Wars: the force awakens” movie itself has been regarded as a homage to the ruins of it’s past. The previous 3 installations had been regarded as so notoriously horrible that the future of the series was unknown despite there being a plan for future sequels. The franchise was passed on from a crippled studio to a more capable studio and was given new life. From that point on, the studios main concern was to actively avoid the mistakes of the previous horrendous installations. Instead of repeating destructive mistakes of the more recent, the creators of “The Force Awakens” (2015) decided to take many elements of the very first “Star Wars” (1977) and implement them into the rebirth of the franchise. As Jason Kottke put in his brief post on the matter: “One of the things that a number of people commented on after seeing The Force Awakens (including me) was that the movie seemed to be a remix or an homage to the original Star Wars.” (kottke.org) This homage signified a return to form for the franchise, a return to what made it great when it first came out and therefore shows how on multiple levels how this multi-billion dollar franchise has many more characteristics of “empire and it’s ruins” than initially portrayed in just the one clip that Dr. Lazo showed the class. They too have well studied the ruins of their past and turned it into something for the betterment of the future which we now see as prosperous again.
Citations:
- Kottke, Jason. “Visual Evidence That The Force Awakens Is an Homage to Star Wars.”Kottke.org, 25 Mar. 2016, kottke.org/16/03/visual-evidence-that-the-force-awakens-is-an-homage-to-star-wars.
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