Sixty-eight years ago today, George Lucas, the creator of Star Wars was born. He grew up in California’s central valley town of Modesto. He had such a passion for cars on racing that he wanted to be a race car driver when he was young. But a near-fatal car accident at the end of his senior year in high school convinced him otherwise.
He was accepted into Modesto Junior College where he studied Anthropology. He later graduated from the University of Southern California of Cinematic Arts. Lucas had numerous successful films before his phenomenal success with the Star Wars franchise.
Star Wars quickly became the highest-grossing film of all-time. During the filming of Star Wars, Lucas waived his up-front fee as director and negotiated to own the licensing rights (for novelizations, T-shirts, toys, etc.)—rights which the studio thought were nearly worthless. This decision earned him hundreds of millions of dollars, as he was able to directly profit from all the licensed games, toys, and collectibles created for the franchise. This accumulated capital enabled him to finance the sequel himself.
Lucas was hugely influenced by Joseph John Campbell, an American mythologist best known for his work in comparative mythology and comparative religion.
Star Wars features elements such as knights, witches, and princesses that are related to archetypes of the fantasy genre. The Star Wars world, unlike fantasy and science-fiction films that featured sleek and futuristic settings, was portrayed as dirty and grimy.
The first Star Wars film was released thirty-five years ago, on May 25th, 1977 (much to my squealing ten year old joy). This is when we were first introduced to such archetypical characters Luke Skywalker (the uninitiated hero), Princess Leia (the princess), Obi-Wan Kenobi (the wise wizard), Han Solo (the self-obsessed mercenary), and Chewbacca (the loyal sidekick), Darth Vader (the evil wizard), C-3P0 and R2-D2 (the fools).
We join Luke on his journey from yearning farm boy to competent hero and the destruction of the evil empires ultimate weapon, The Death Star.
All of the elements of Star Wars have since become iconic in American society. And our world will never be the same.
Thank you, Mr. Lucas.
May the Force be with you!
