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With the imminent release of the new Star Wars film, The Force Awakens, many theatergoers are re-watching the original movies to reacquaint themselves with those stories from a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. This time, however, they may find themselves surprised by how much the film's characters and themes echo the current War On Terror. According to Jonathon Last, in the Star Wars films (not the Expanded Universe) the Empire is good and is engaged in a fight for the survival of its regime against a violent group of rebels who are committed to its destruction. Now an interesting article on the Star Wars films at Decider takes the re-interpretation a step further, arguing that the films are actually the story of the radicalization of Luke Skywalker. From introducing Luke to us in A New Hope (as a simple farm boy gazing into the Tatooine sunset), to his eventual transformation into the radicalized insurgent of Return of the Jedi (as one who sets his own father's corpse on fire and celebrates the successful bombing of the Death Star), each film in the original trilogy is another step in Luke's descent into terrorism.
According to the article Luke Skywalker is just the kind of isolated disaffected young man that terror recruiters seek out. Obi Wan — a religious fanatic with a history of looking for young boys to recruit and teach an extreme interpretation of the Force — tells Luke he must abandon his family and join him, going so far as telling a shocking lie that the Empire killed Luke's father, hoping to inspire Luke to a life of jihad. In The Empire Strikes Back, Luke is ordered to travel overseas to receive training and religious instruction from Yoda, an extremist cleric who runs a Jedi madrasa on Dagobah. Yoda's push to radicalize Luke, rob him of an identity, and instill obedience are apparent when at various points he instructs Luke to "Clear your mind of questions," "Unlearn what you have learned" and, most grimly, "Do, or do not, there is no try." Armed with new combat training and cloaked in a hardline religious fervor, Luke leaves Dagobah, impatient to put his terror training to use.Finally in Return of the Jedi, we see a darker, hardened Luke, fittingly dressed in black and eager to use violence as a tool to enforce the twisted "judge, jury, executioner" value system of the Jedi. "With Darth Vader the final casualty of Luke's jihad, Obi-Wan and Yoda have succeeded in catching yet another young man in their web of Jedi extremism," concludes the article. "Star Wars is clearly a cautionary tale of the dangers of radicalization, and how even a seemingly harmless young man who kept to himself on Tattooine can become the terrorist next door."
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 15 2015, @12:51PM
The true story that tells of the dangers of religious extremism is, of course, Dune. Which Lucas originally ripps off. Why is Tatooine a desert planet? Dune. George's original premise even had "spice".
Add the narrative taken from the Samurai film Hidden Fortress (original treatment for film funding was a direct ripoff), the Metropolis aesthetic for C3P0, the space-cowboy action of Buck Rogers, etc. Lucas kept mixing and matching existing works to produce Star Wars, but never really "created". It was "his writers" that changed Vader into Luke's father -- that wasn't planned out from the beginning, nor was the princess his "sister" (hence they kiss, on the mouth).
Dune is far more planned out and well constructed. If you must watch it, the miniseries is the better version for the narrative. The book series acknowledges how Jihad is used as a political tool, and religion itself is crafted to be used against the people. The later books even tell of religion run amok and destroying the ecology and economy.
If you want a sci-fi about the true nature of Jihad (religious struggle), Dune has you covered.