Spacehamster’s Blog

It’s the weekend, and I’ve just watched bits and pieces of the Star Wars films, as well as starting to watch Lord of the Rings again. Not for the first time, I can’t believe the huge impact Star Wars has had on the filmic language that I’m accustomed to experiencing. Star Wars was perfect for a 5-year-old boy - good vs evil. It was as simple as that. Those films taught me about the clear differences between good and evil - to sort the selfless actions of good people from the self-centered destructive actions of evil ones.

Its only now, with the release of the prequels, that I sense that George Lucas was also telling a more mature and adult story that still has some resonance in my adult life. And that is how a person with the very best of intentions can use it to justify some horrifically evil acts. Its a theme that the editors and authors of the Expanded Universe have stretched even further - with a new plot twist in their latest entry in the Star Wars literary saga that repeats the events in Episode III. Talk about dipping into the well one too many times.

After watching the Star Wars films, I decided to revisit my absolute favourite film trilogy of my adult life - Lord of the Rings, as envisioned by Peter Jackson. While watching the first film, I actually felt myself subconciously relaxing, as though my mental and creative muscles were loosening themselves after watching Star Wars for a few hours. I have to admit, I’m much more mentally and creatively comfortable with LOTR nowadays than I am with SW.

Part of that is filmic memory - I watched LOTR at the perfect point in my life. I was beginning to question the direction my adult life had taken, and I was beginning to feel trapped in my current job in Melbourne. The LOTR films represented a way of releasing all of that pent-up creative repression and frustration. Of escaping to wonderous worlds of incredible beauty but also great danger. Just as Star Wars had acted as a creative release for my occasionally moody and pensive childhood, so LOTR had served to act as a pressure valve for a frustrating period in my own adult life.

There’s no point in asking me whether LOTR is “better” than Star Wars. That, to me personally, is a stupid question that I refuse to answer because I look at it as more than just films. They’re both artistic masterpieces that profoundly affected me in deeply personal ways, and helped me navigate the moral and ethical complexities of real life. Star Wars taught my five year-old self the difference between good and evil, right and wrong. That it’s okay to help others in their time of need, and that it is acceptable to selflessly help others. LOTR taught me that for an adult in a morally grey world, it takes a special sort of mature courage to stand up for what you believe in and do what’s right for your community, your family and for yourself. But such actions also come with a high price - but it’s a price worth paying.