CS Daily Archive > The Big Picture > 5/20/05

Ink on a Page or Magic in the Mind:
Star Wars 10,221 Days Later

by jason davis

As Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith unspools into history, Jason Davis takes a look back (and a look into George Lucas's script for the original film) to see how the mythmaker first introduced us to his universe.

A long time ago in a galaxy far far away…" With this invocation, echoing the opening of numerous flights of fancy, George Lucas ushered in a new age of cinema, forever changing the way movies were made and marketed Now, 28 years from that watershed moment in American pop cultural history, the concepts of this mythological world are ingrained icons of the cultural conscience. Five further films have refined and re-imagined these notions, while individual experiences and the inconceivable weight of Lucasfilm's commercial influence have colored the memories of what was with a haze of revisionism. So, on the eve of the saga's end (or middle, if you like), join CS Weekly in thumbing through Lucas's revised fourth draft of the Star Wars script to see where it all began and how far it's all come.

Of course, it all started with two hapless droids caught up in matters far weightier than their programming could conceive. Both described as "old and battered," the two robots would serve as the viewer's guides through the first third of the film. Artoo-Detoo (R2-D2), a "short, claw-armed tripod…His face…a mass of computer lights surrounding a radar eye" would go on to provide a sarcastic commentary on the story's events with a series of beeps and whistles, the emotional quality of which couldn't have been imagined from his appearances on the page. His counterpart, See-Threepio (C-3PO), "a tall, slender robot of human proportions" with "a gleaming bronze-like metallic surface" likened to "an Art Deco design" would similarly transcend his dialogue to become an effete commentator quick to chastise his organic masters for their ceaseless capacities for landing in trouble. From their humble descriptions, a reader would be hard pressed to imagine the character these two props would acquire as the saga expanded and their origins were explored. In a sense, Star Wars is their tale as much as anyone's and their importance to the original film is emblematic of Lucas's desire to experiment with an audience's expectations.

A mere two pages later, though his early scenes would be deleted to streamline the narrative, the reader meets "a farm boy with heroic aspirations who looks much younger than his eighteen years." Luke Skywalker, unknowingly the orphaned son of the galaxy's most infamous Jedi knight, would carry most of the dramatic burden for the original trilogy, only to find himself reduced to a catalyst for the final movement of his father's story in Return of the Jedi. In 1977, it looked like Skywalker would take up the mantle of his "slain" father, restore the Jedi Order to power, defeat the evil Empire, and win the love of a beautiful princess -- this just goes to show that some things don't go the way one plans even in a galaxy far, far away. Though he arguably restores (or, at the very least, maintains) the legacy of the Jedi, Skywalker's heroic journey remains incomplete by mythologist Joseph Campbell's standards. After ascending to knighthood after his first duel with Darth Vader, Skywalker falls to the Emperor aboard the second Death Star. Only his father's interference saves the boy's life, defeating the expectations of a generation. As to winning the Princess, once again things weren't exactly as they seemed.

On the subject of erroneous first impressions, no character could have been more vaguely defined in his initial on screen appearance than "The awesome, seven-foot-tall Dark lord of the Sith…the right hand of the Emperor," Darth Vader. "…obscured by his flowing black robes and grotesque breath mask," the fallen Jedi functions as little more than the Emperor's emissary, undertaking the vital task of recovering the designs to the Empire's horrific Death Star. While Governor Tarkin offers the official face of the fascist Galactic Empire, Vader presents a strangely unexplained theocratic aspect of the government. Outside of the chain of command, but holding seemingly undefined authority, Vader is an enigmatic figure who would go on to become the tragic centerpiece of the Star Wars saga. Only Kenobi's edited account of his pupil's betrayal offers any insight into the character whose story would slowly come into focus across the following five films. Even his title, never mentioned on screen in the original trilogy, is a mystery that is only resolved with the prequels.

Rounding out the Skywalker clan, though it would be some time before her heritage was clumsily revealed, is "a lovely young girl…Princess Leia Organa, a member of the Alderaan Senate." Quickly captured by Vader, Organa's pleading message to the long exiled General Kenobi is the incident that incites the first film's narrative. With her fairy-tale-influenced title and regal bearing, Leia's place as a secret leader of the Rebel Alliance offers that cause a just and noble heir. Her haughty dismissal of Darth Vader as Tarkin's lackey establishes a secular bias in the young senator that will eventually be revealed as a maternal influence when her long lost twin brother takes up the ways of the Jedi like their father. Leia's journey is one of growing self-confidence and deepening trust in the companions that will eventually rescue her from Vader's clutches. As she slowly builds a new republic, Leia builds a family from those who fought for her cause.

Receiving Leia's request for assistance, "a shabby old desert-rat-of-a-man" named Ben Kenobi wanders out of self-imposed exile in the wastes of Tatooine to teach Luke the ways of the nearly extinct Jedi and right the wrongs wrought by the man who he once loved as a brother. Once known as Obi-Wan Kenobi, Ben is one of two Jedi to escape the Empire's extermination of that ancient religion. Seeking redemption for past failings alluded to "from a certain point of view," Kenobi trains Luke as he trained his father. Feeling that the wise master was wasted in the final pages of his script, Lucas gave Kenobi a noble end whereby the Jedi Master shed his corporeal form at the point of Vader's lightsaber to guide Luke without the restrictions of flesh. This sacrifice would lead Lucas to conceive one of his most memorable creations in the form of Yoda, the Jedi Master responsible for the completion of Luke's training in The Empire Strikes Back. Between the two beings, Lucas offers very different notions of what the Jedi once were -- Kenobi, a lurking agent of action, and Yoda, a contemplative philosopher, illustrate the Order as it will come to be seen in the second cycle of films.

In searching for passage to Alderaan, Kenobi, Skywalker, and the droids encounter many dangers in the treacherous smuggler's cove of Mos Eisley spaceport. After a violent altercation that reveals the first use of a lightsaber by one trained since childhood to wield it, the reader is in for a large, and very hairy, surprise. While the characters thus far have all been of a humanoid model, Lucas's next introduction is a completely different make of lifeform. Chewbacca, "an eight-foot-tall-savage-looking creature" whose "large blue eyes dominate a fur-covered face and soften his otherwise awesome appearance" is more than the beast he appears. The creature is, in fact, the co-pilot and first mate of a well-regarded spaceship. Loyal to the end, this Wookie provides a perspective from outside the human point of view offered throughout the films, and his love of those he considers his family proves to be as boundless as his furry hide.

The final piece for the chessboard, "a tough, roguish starpilot…simple, sentimental, and cocksure" rounds out Lucas's collection of leads. Han Solo is undoubtedly arrogant and unquestionably mercenary. In fact, his journey is the furthest of any character in the film. From his first appearance as a cold blooded killer who preempts self-defense by blasting his opponent under the table to his last minute change of heart and unexpected alignment with a cause more important than money, Solo is an everyman. He wasn't destined to become a Jedi. He was not raised an idealistic revolutionary. He's neither programmed nor bound by duty. His character is the most significant of all those Lucas places before readers in his script. His is simply the choice to do right…because you should.

Nearly three decades have passed since the negative rolled through the camera to bring Lucas's words and worlds alive. Countless ancillary texts have procured the characters for themselves, while the movies have seen their own share of retroactive second-guessing. With the advent of the 1997 special editions, Solo's journey has been truncated, crippling the scope of his decisions and denying future audiences the lesson of choosing for the better. Three prequels have presented in fact the abstracts excitingly hinted at by Lucas's original script. The Clone Wars have come to pass. The last days of the Old Republic and its venerable Jedi Knights has been seen for the less than golden age it was. Anakin Skywalker's fall from grace has been depicted in detail, raising many philosophical arguments in its wake. For those who saw the original film upon its initial release, these things are merely veils through which to view a moment of cinematic magic that started many on their own quest to create something just as special. As it was on Lucas's page, Star Wars remains today in the hearts of those it touched.

At the age of 21, Jason Davis was hit in the face with a car. He has since devoted his life to writing. His words have appeared on TBS, MSN.com, and CS Daily, where he serves as DVD Coordinator. He lives in Burbank.

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