'Star Wars' as Science Fiction and Fantasy

Title: Star Wars (Episodes I – VI)

Writer and Director: George Lucas

Genre: Science Fiction/ Fantasy

When I think genre, I think Star Wars.

I say this specifically because very few works seem to hold as much weight as this saga in helping to define the genre they are in. From the Phantom Menace to Return of the Jedi Lucas’ epic has done much to shape what we as an audience consider being science fiction. However, for the work Star Wars has done to codify a lot of aspects of Sci-Fi, a closer examination reveals that it actually does so while playing against type and diverging from the formula of science fiction numerous times to tell its story.

George Lucas had no hand in actually creating the genre of science fiction. That honor is more formally ascribed to Jules Verne and the concept of fantasy which sci-fi often crosses with is an even more ancient concept that has no real singular architect.

The general public often equates science fiction with visions of the future but from the outset we’re told that this story takes place “A long, long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…” It may seem that Lucas is trying to clue us into the fact that there are going to be far older themes dealt with in the story go beyond his vision of this world but exist in it.

Both trilogies in the story tell the journeys of two men Anakin and Luke Skywalker. The first tells the journey of Anakin’s “fall” from grace and how his fall ultimately creates dire consequences for the entire galaxy around him. The second is the journey of his son Luke and how he restores the light his father snuffed out and ultimately redeems Darth Vader and restores harmony.

Put together they tell the story of an age much in the same way that reading the Bible can be seen as the story of the promise of God, its loss, its restoration at the hands of the Moses and the Patriarchs, its loss again at the hands of the Romans and its second restoration at the hand of Jesus.