Changes

==Origins==

==Origins==

The story of ''Star Wars'' was originally planned to be the third entry of a trilogy focusing on, or more accurately, criticizing the events of American involvement in the Vietnam War, after ''American Graffiti'' (set in 1962) and ''Apocalypse Now'', and as such was intended to initially be in our galaxy as well as take place in the thirty-third century (the implication being that after America won the war in Vietnam, it would become a fascistic dictatorship desiring to conquer the universe). However, ''Apocalypse Now'' ended up changing hands from George Lucas to Francis Ford Coppola due to Warner Bros. shutting down his studio, American Zoetrope. He then made ''American Graffiti'', which indirectly alluded to Vietnam in its plot, which was a moderate success. He eventually decided to revisit the idea of ''Apocalypse Now'' in 1973, although because America was still within the Vietnam War, he couldn't directly tie it to the Vietnam War, and upon settling on an idea for subtly pushing the anti-war agenda in the film by moving it to a galaxy far from our own and in the past, he then proceeded to get started on filming after Fox agreed to make it.<ref>http://nypost.com/2014/09/21/how-star-wars-was-secretly-george-lucas-protest-of-vietnam/</ref><ref>http://www.yomyomf.com/star-wars-is-a-metaphor-for-the-vietcong-kicking-american-ass-in-the-vietnam-war/</ref><ref>''How Star Wars Conquered the Universe: The Past, Present and Future of a Multibillion Dollar Franchise'' by Chris Taylor.</ref><ref>''The Making of Star Wars'', pages 7-8; 17<br />

The story of ''Star Wars'' was originally planned to be the third entry of a trilogy focusing on, or more accurately, criticizing the events of American involvement in the Vietnam War, after ''American Graffiti'' (set in 1962) and ''Apocalypse Now'', and as such was intended to initially be in our galaxy as well as take place in the thirty-third century (the implication being that after America won the war in Vietnam, it would become a fascistic dictatorship desiring to conquer the universe). However, ''Apocalypse Now'' ended up changing hands from George Lucas to Francis Ford Coppola due to Warner Bros. shutting down his studio, American Zoetrope. He then made ''American Graffiti'', which indirectly alluded to Vietnam in its plot, which was a moderate success. He eventually decided to revisit the idea of ''Apocalypse Now'' in 1973, although because America was still within the Vietnam War, he couldn't directly tie it to the Vietnam War, and upon settling on an idea for subtly pushing the anti-war agenda in the film by moving it to a galaxy far from our own and in the past, he then proceeded to get started on filming after Fox agreed to make it.<ref>http://nypost.com/2014/09/21/how-star-wars-was-secretly-george-lucas-protest-of-vietnam/</ref><ref>http://www.yomyomf.com/star-wars-is-a-metaphor-for-the-vietcong-kicking-american-ass-in-the-vietnam-war/</ref><ref>''How Star Wars Conquered the Universe: The Past, Present and Future of a Multibillion Dollar Franchise'' by Chris Taylor.</ref><ref>''The Making of Star Wars'', pages 7-8; 17<br />

"I started to work on Star Wars rather than continue on Apocalypse Now. I had worked on Apocalypse Now for about four years and I had very strong feelings about it. I wanted to do it, but could not get it off the ground... A lot of my interest in Apocalypse Now was carried over into Star Wars. I figured I couldn't make that film because it was about the Vietnam War, so I would essentially deal with some of the same interesting concepts that I was going to use and convert them into space fantasy, so you'd have essentially a large technological empire going after a small group of freedom fighters or human beings... a small independent country like North Vietnam threatened by a neighbor or provincial rebellion, instigated by gangsters aided by empire. [...] The empire is like America ten years from now, after Nixonian gangsters assassinated the Emperor and were elevated to power in a rigged election; created civil disorder by instigating race riots aiding rebel groups and allowing the crime rate to rise to the point where a 'total control' police state was welcomed by the people. Then the people were exploited with high taxes, utility and transport costs"</ref> During Cannes Film Festival 2005, George Lucas also implied that, in addition to the direct inspiration by Nixon and the Vietnam War (as well as the more indirect similarities in the films to the second Iraq war and George W. Bush), the Old Republic in the prequel trilogy took inspiration from the First French Republic under Robespierre, the Roman Republic under Julius Caesar, and the Weimar Republic, and the transition of power into the Empire, and in particular the implication that the people willingly turned democracy into a dictatorship, was taken from when Napoleon Bonaparte took over France, when the Roman Republic shortly after Julius Caesar's assassination turned into the Roman Empire under Augustus, and the Weimar Republic turned into Nazi Germany and brought Adolf Hitler into power.<ref>http://www.cbsnews.com/news/sith-invites-bush-comparisons/2/<br />

"I started to work on Star Wars rather than continue on Apocalypse Now. I had worked on Apocalypse Now for about four years and I had very strong feelings about it. I wanted to do it, but could not get it off the ground... A lot of my interest in Apocalypse Now was carried over into Star Wars. I figured I couldn't make that film because it was about the Vietnam War, so I would essentially deal with some of the same interesting concepts that I was going to use and convert them into space fantasy, so you'd have essentially a large technological empire going after a small group of freedom fighters or human beings... a small independent country like North Vietnam threatened by a neighbor or provincial rebellion, instigated by gangsters aided by empire. [...] The empire is like America ten years from now, after Nixonian gangsters assassinated the Emperor and were elevated to power in a rigged election; created civil disorder by instigating race riots aiding rebel groups and allowing the crime rate to rise to the point where a 'total control' police state was welcomed by the people. Then the people were exploited with high taxes, utility and transport costs"</ref> During Cannes Film Festival 2005, George Lucas also implied that, in addition to the direct inspiration by Nixon and the Vietnam War (as well as the more indirect similarities in the films to the second Iraq war and George W. Bush), the Old Republic in the prequel trilogy took inspiration from the First French Republic under Robespierre, the Roman Republic under Julius Caesar, and the Weimar Republic, and the transition of power into the Empire, and in particular the implication that the people willingly turned democracy into a dictatorship, was taken from when Napoleon Bonaparte took over France, when the Roman Republic shortly after Julius Caesar's assassination turned into the Roman Empire under Augustus, and the Weimar Republic turned into Nazi Germany and brought Adolf Hitler into power.<ref>https://www.cbsnews.com/news/sith-invites-bush-comparisons/2/<br />

"Lucas said he patterned his story after historical transformations from freedom to fascism, never figuring when he started his prequel trilogy in the late 1990s that current events might parallel his space fantasy.<br />

"Lucas said he patterned his story after historical transformations from freedom to fascism, never figuring when he started his prequel trilogy in the late 1990s that current events might parallel his space fantasy.<br />

"As you go through history, I didn't think it was going to get quite this close. So it's just one of those recurring things," Lucas said at a Cannes news conference. "I hope this doesn't come true in our country.<br />

"As you go through history, I didn't think it was going to get quite this close. So it's just one of those recurring things," Lucas said at a Cannes news conference. "I hope this doesn't come true in our country.<br />

== Portrayal of religion ==

== Portrayal of religion ==

George Lucas has stated that he came up with the idea of "The Force" as he wanted to promote a vague idea of hollow Hollywood-style spirituality without referencing any recognizable religion.<ref>https://www.dailykos.com/comments/115213/2697417#comment_2697417</ref> Despite this, the depiction of the philosophy and beliefs of the Jedi seem to be a way to promote eastern mysticism (in particular Buddhism) and undermine Christianity in the movie's western audience. This is typical of the [[new age movement|New Age movement]]'s tendency to use parts of different religions willy-nilly without any structure of sense, and shows the influence of Lucas growing up in 1960s California, which he had briefly referenced in an interview regarding his film ''Red Tails''.<ref>http://www.cbsnews.com/news/george-lucas-billionaire-down-on-capitalism/</ref> In addition, the Sith and Empire, largely due to Lucas's attempts at trying to push an anti-Vietnam War message within the movie, come across as being closer to Western religions than the Jedi.<ref>http://www.dailywire.com/news/2037/force-star-wars-stupid-and-immoral-ben-shapiro</ref> Lucas is strongly liberal and actually describes himself as a "Buddhist Methodist".<ref>http://www.adherents.com/people/pl/George_Lucas.html</ref> In large part because of the Force largely being based on new-age elements, the commentator Ben Shapiro, otherwise a massive ''Star Wars'' fan, condemns the concept of the Force as being "stupid" and "amoral" largely because of the implication that having any anger at all automatically means you are an evil person, even if the anger in question is actually directed towards something that actually is an evil act.<ref>http://www.dailywire.com/news/2037/force-star-wars-stupid-and-immoral-ben-shapiro</ref>

George Lucas has stated that he came up with the idea of "The Force" as he wanted to promote a vague idea of hollow Hollywood-style spirituality without referencing any recognizable religion.<ref>https://www.dailykos.com/comments/115213/2697417#comment_2697417</ref> Despite this, the depiction of the philosophy and beliefs of the Jedi seem to be a way to promote eastern mysticism (in particular Buddhism) and undermine Christianity in the movie's western audience. This is typical of the [[new age movement|New Age movement]]'s tendency to use parts of different religions willy-nilly without any structure of sense, and shows the influence of Lucas growing up in 1960s California, which he had briefly referenced in an interview regarding his film ''Red Tails''.<ref>https://www.cbsnews.com/news/george-lucas-billionaire-down-on-capitalism/</ref> In addition, the Sith and Empire, largely due to Lucas's attempts at trying to push an anti-Vietnam War message within the movie, come across as being closer to Western religions than the Jedi.<ref>http://www.dailywire.com/news/2037/force-star-wars-stupid-and-immoral-ben-shapiro</ref> Lucas is strongly liberal and actually describes himself as a "Buddhist Methodist".<ref>http://www.adherents.com/people/pl/George_Lucas.html</ref> In large part because of the Force largely being based on new-age elements, the commentator Ben Shapiro, otherwise a massive ''Star Wars'' fan, condemns the concept of the Force as being "stupid" and "amoral" largely because of the implication that having any anger at all automatically means you are an evil person, even if the anger in question is actually directed towards something that actually is an evil act.<ref>http://www.dailywire.com/news/2037/force-star-wars-stupid-and-immoral-ben-shapiro</ref>

Regarding [[moral relativity]], the franchise has generally depicted the concept in a more neutral light overall, while being a bit closer to promoting it, with ''Return of the Jedi'' and ''Revenge of the Sith'' both having the character Obi-Wan Kenobi implicitly supporting moral relativity, at least under the context of the Jedi using it. In particular, the former had Obi-Wan Kenobi, when admitting that his telling Luke that Vader killed his father was not quite true, stated that what he said was "true - from a certain point of view", he tells a dumbfounded Luke (who had already learned that Vader was in fact his biological father all along) that the latter will eventually learn that [[Subjectivism|many of the great many truths that people cling to depend greatly on that person's point of view]]; and the latter had Obi-Wan Kenobi, when confronting Vader on Mustafar just prior to the duel, saying "Only a Sith deals in Absolutes" after the latter yelled "If you are not with me, then you are my enemy!" On the other hand, Palpatine while tempting Anakin claimed that "good was a point of view", and upon stating that evil is simply a point of view, Anakin is berated by Obi-Wan and his worldview is condemned. "From my point of view," Anakin states, "the Jedi are evil." Obi-Wan responds by claiming that this means that he is "lost" to darkness, which has been interpreted as condemning moral relativity.

Regarding [[moral relativity]], the franchise has generally depicted the concept in a more neutral light overall, while being a bit closer to promoting it, with ''Return of the Jedi'' and ''Revenge of the Sith'' both having the character Obi-Wan Kenobi implicitly supporting moral relativity, at least under the context of the Jedi using it. In particular, the former had Obi-Wan Kenobi, when admitting that his telling Luke that Vader killed his father was not quite true, stated that what he said was "true - from a certain point of view", he tells a dumbfounded Luke (who had already learned that Vader was in fact his biological father all along) that the latter will eventually learn that [[Subjectivism|many of the great many truths that people cling to depend greatly on that person's point of view]]; and the latter had Obi-Wan Kenobi, when confronting Vader on Mustafar just prior to the duel, saying "Only a Sith deals in Absolutes" after the latter yelled "If you are not with me, then you are my enemy!" On the other hand, Palpatine while tempting Anakin claimed that "good was a point of view", and upon stating that evil is simply a point of view, Anakin is berated by Obi-Wan and his worldview is condemned. "From my point of view," Anakin states, "the Jedi are evil." Obi-Wan responds by claiming that this means that he is "lost" to darkness, which has been interpreted as condemning moral relativity.