4th May - Star Wars

This week we watched the original Star Wars film (1997) as we were exploring narratives, archetypes, mythologies and science fiction. In the lecture, what stood out to me most was:




David Friedman, Pareidolia: Alien Stapler
because it is a strong representation of popular science fiction in a very modern setting, it is very interesting to look at and kind of laughable when you make the connection to the stapler. It really draws the eye but mostly it makes the viewer, if they have seen the Alien films or something similar, immediately think of them.



Bill Hammond: Place Makers
because it firstly reminds me of when I was in primary school and went to an art gallery and saw one of his paintings (or it could have been a similar artist) of bird people and was told that he painted what he saw in his dreams. Things in dreams are always twisted or contorted from their real life counterparts and carry a theme of surrealism which also reminds me of Salvador Dali who is probably the most recognized artist for surrealism.




For Star Wars we had to choose a character to study, I have chosen Han Solo because he is the most interesting character to me and the most interesting archetype too. He is what you would call the Lovable Rogue: a person who breaks the law, for their own personal profit, but is nice enough or charming enough to allow the audience to like them and root for them. It helps that we, the audience, don't know the people he rips off and he makes sure to let us know that they are bad people anyway. The thing about Han is that he has his own version of a Code of Honour, he is more likely to save his own skin before anyone else's but the catch for this archetype is of coarse that he helps the protagonist which makes him, well, lovable. If you had told Han Solo in the prime of his criminal life that he would one day risk his life and ship and become a hero he would have had a witty smart remark for you. This is most of his appeal, sure he is a thief but he is funny and helpful at times. Another characteristic he has as this archetype is being brave and reckless, "I prefer a straight fight to all this sneaking around" he says, though even in the worst of situations he manages to get out without a scratch. Also it should be pointed out that he is very unpredictable which obviously is what allows him to be nice and likable.

The most obvious character I can relate the Lovable Rogue to is Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Caribbean who is actually a mixture of the Lovable Rogue and the Magnificent Bastard. Common elements are that he is generally a protagonist but is highly pragmatic and values his own life above anyone else's. Actually being a Pirate is quite appropriate for these men as they have their own code of honour and would rather adventurously pursue treasure than ambitions of heroism or love.
Another character from film could be Rick O'Connell from The Mummy, he is a reckless but highly skilled soldier who helps the woman for promise of treasure and never expects to fall in love.
Robin Hood
Dean and Sam Winchester of Supernatural who commit credit card fraud and other like crimes to fund their 'hunting'

It is good to compare Han Solo to Luke Skywalker because while they are both heroes they are very different. Skywalker is very ambitious from the get go and only agrees to go with Ben after learning of the death of his family. He is purely good and if he was a character in a modern film the hero in him would most likely be tested by his enemies, for example they would exploit his greatest weakness of being too much of a hero by capturing someone he loved whereas Solo until the very end would not have this weakness.