It's back and I'm giddy. And so is everybody else. "Star Wars," one of the most groundbreaking films ever made, returns to the big screen some 20 years after its debut. The country is in a frenzy.
How can this be? How many other sci-fi action pictures still remain marketable, let alone watchable 20 years after the fact? Why has "Star Wars" remained at the forefront of American pop culture? Yes, it's fun and exciting, a part of our childhood years. Something more is involved in this mystique.
Think about this idea for a minute: Who's the last big-screen villain who really made you tremble, who was the epitome of evil throughout your childhood? Right. Darth Vader.
And who held the key to defeating the evil Darth Vader and his minions of Storm Troopers? What brave souls would stand and face the Dark Side? Why Luke, Han, Leia, C-3PO, R2-D2 and Chewy, that's who!
"Star Wars" is one of the only lasting good-triumphing-over-evil stories that our generation has seen. Increasingly, the notion of good vs. evil has faded from American pop culture. Part of "Star Wars'" lasting luster is its uplifting tale of good overcoming evil.
In the past, Western culture was ripe with evil beings - dastardly villains and fire-breathing dragons. But who do we have to represent the evil in the world? And where have all the heroes gone?
The villain and the hero, as we once knew them, are dead. Occasionally a writer will offer up a brilliant evil character, or possibly, a true valiant hero, but for the most part, the villain and the hero remain tucked away in the past.
Today, we have brainless flicks like "Independence Day," where the good guys are, of course, us Americans, and the bad guys are aliens. "Independence Day" is definitely no epic struggle between good and evil.
Even intelligent films rarely pit good against evil anymore. For example, even Quentin Tarantino does not create characters who are all bad or all good. While his characters are usually fantastically fleshed out, they don't satisfy our base need to watch a good person kick a bad person's butt.
Film is not the only genre that has lost the art of a the good-vs.-evil. Contemporary literature is so devoid of villains that Sherlock Holmes would be shining shoes if he were trying to find work in today's literary scene. Nobody is writing about villains anymore. Maybe some bad-decision makers, but very few really loathsome bad guy-types.
Heroes, too, are a rarity in contemporary fiction. There's no one taking a stand against evil in these stories. Or perhaps that's because we lapsed into a world where we now hail the postmodern anti-hero: The victim of circumstance, who, despite getting slapped around by himself and everyone else, decides to endure. Deciding to endure? What? That makes a hero?
And so, with all else failing, here in 1997, we look back to "Star Wars." "Star Wars" gives us a clear-cut tale of good and evil, the story of the oppressed Rebels, held down by the heavy hands of the richer, bigger, Republican-voting Dark Side.
The "Star Wars" trilogy ends with a final act of justice, and the end of the Dark Side - which brings us to the other great appeal of the "Star Wars" trilogy to our generation. Admittedly, we, as a generation seem godless, or at least, faithless. And so, this story of Jedi Knights and "The Force" appeals to us on an even deeper level. We want so badly to believe that a supernatural force of good exists out there. Something divine is helping Luke and Leia, some silent hand of justice exists in the University.
When the Death Star blows up, and we throw our hands up in the air wildly, believing that there is a supernatural, otherwordly force that will silently help us overcome evil, and bring all the oppressed and downtrodden people to victory. Peace and justice will reign forever and ever and ... .
May The Force be with you.
- Reach Dean at deanc@umich.edu.