Star Wars: The Legacy Revealed
Star Wars long ago evolved from a modest budgeted space story to verifiable billion dollar franchise, but as the well-aging series reaches 30 years young this year a new development is being brought to the attention of the common movie fan. For years Star Wars parallels to the classic Greek stories, Joseph Campbell’s definition of a hero, and to even the Bible have been constant fodder for film history classes around the globe. After all, how many high school students can identify Shakespeare over Lucas?
There’s so much to this franchise, from the classic archetype characters to the way even the most minor character inherits major rolls in the end that there’s no better way to celebrate the birth of the space opera than a Memorial Day special. The History Channel’s Star Wars: The Legacy Revealed brings this information to the non-film historian, and just like the series that inspired it, its an entertaining run around the galaxy.
Presented in the standard, clips & talking head format, The Legacy Revealed focuses on all six movies in the Star Wars saga via interviews with some of the biggest geeks in Hollywood (Kevin Smith), political figures (Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi), comedians (Stephen Colbert), and film experts as they talk about personal experiences relating to the events of Star Wars and its tragic hero who comes full circle to die a righteous death in the end. How the sins of the father transfer to the son and how the classics come alive with a lightsaber and a dash of influence from all over the globe.
For a viewer who has never experience a history lesson detailing how Star Wars can be interpreted so many different ways, the two hour program is an engaging, informative look at just how deep the saga truly goes. Whether Lucas intended for the series to really be analyzed so perfectly when he wrote out the movies, or whether or not the imagery used is mere coincidence or something bigger may never be known, but regardless of how it came to be, this franchise has spawned a rabid fan base and a plethora of analysis.
The special works incredibly well by breaking down each section with a great degree of focus and analyzes sidekicks, comic relief, the mentor, the hero, and the damsel as each one of these components, combined together, creates the classic story you may even realize you know.
As director Peter Jackson puts it in the program, “You don’t even have to ask, ‘Will it stand the test of time?’ It has and it will.” Who knows what we’ll be looking at in retrospect when Star Wars turns 60 as we zoom around in our flying cars and dream of Star Destroyers orbiting the planet. Did Lucas write our history and direct inventions and technological advancement for decades to come? We’ll find out over the next 30 years, but until then, the classic story of a hero is well embodied in the most popular space opera ever written.
