The framework of the Sith episode was right out of the Rank heroes' playbook. The hero in this case is Luke Skywalker, who was born to high-ranking parents, exiled as an infant to a wild place in the care of humble people, and who ultimately ends up killing his father.
The central myth of the Star Wars cycle, and this final episode in particular was the clash between Good and Evil, the forces of Light and Darkness (any Zoroastrians in the audience?), and particularly the theme of the Evil Empire. The Sith Lords were the bad guys in the film, the Jedi Knights the good. The central character, Anakin Skywalker, beset by Hamlet-style doubts, premonitions of his wife's death, as evil a dose of "moral equivalence" propaganda as you will ever hear outside of a "soft money" political ad, and a higher endowment of power-lust than he could handle, ended up sliding down the slippery slope, figuratively and (in the film) literally.
But wait a minute! Aren't we Americans (and of course the world-wide fans of Star Wars, who are perhaps a little more American than they want to be) too sophisticated to buy into the Evil Empire myth? We can see shades of gray, we can interpret the nuances; are we not postmodernists?
So I leave you with this question: did you or will you get a chance to vote in the last US election, or the elections in the UK, Ukraine, Iraq, Germany, Palestine, the French EU referendum, the Israeli Gaza referendum, the Netherlands referendum and so forth? (Or perhaps you were a Cardinal who got to vote for the new Pope?) If so, did you (or will you) walk into the polls knowing damn well who are the Sith Lords? And if so, didn't you (won't you) try to make damn sure that they wouldn't be voted into power?
OK, maybe you didn't. Maybe it's just me. Maybe I've been drinking too much coffee lately.—JDL
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Article comments
1 - Eric Olsen
very nice job and interesting thoughts, Jonathan, thanks and welcome!
2 - Eric Berlin
To me, one of the reasons why Sith approaches the greatness of the original three films is because it brings back a great deal of the humor and loose feel that is largely absent in the stiff, exposition-heavy I and II.
3 - E. James Lieberman
Thanks for this myth-clarifying post. Alan Dundes passed away earlier this year, sad to say. Otto Rank's "Myth of the Birth of the Hero" lives on, appearing now in its full blossom (2nd ed., 1922 expanded from 1st ed. 1909), first English ed. 2004, Johns Hopkins U. Press. More info at www.ottorank.com
4 - Jonathan David Leavitt
The Force is with us! That comment is not from any old E. James Lieberman but the E. James Lieberman who wrote the definitive biography of Otto Rank, one of my reference books. Pleased to meet you, Dr. Lieberman!