Star Wars sources and analogues
Star Wars, the popular science fantasy saga, has been acknowledged to have been inspired by many sources. These may include Qigong, Greek Philosophy, Greek mythology, Roman History, Roman Mythology, parts of the Bible, Confucianism, Islam, Shintoism and Taoism.
Many speculate that chivalry, knighthood, paladinism and such things in feudal societies inspiried some concepts in the Star Wars movies, most notably the Jedi Knights. The work of the mythologist Joseph Campbell, most notably his book The Hero with a Thousand Faces, was also an influence on George Lucas, and was what drove him to create the 'modern myth' of Star Wars. The supernatural flow of energy known as The Force is believed to have originated from the concept of prana, or qi, "the all-pervading vital energy of the universe".
However, more sinister claims of plagiarism have been levelled at Lucas. The science fiction writer Isaac Asimov stated on several occasions that George Lucas's galaxy-wide Empire bore a close resemblance to the Galaxy depicted in Asimov's Foundation Series. The greatest differences are that Asimov's Galaxy contains no robots or non-human aliens; Asimov addressed both issues directly in the saga's later volumes, most notably Foundation's Edge and Foundation and Earth. Since Asimov's death in 1992, the Star Wars cinematic universe has gained new Asimov-esque elements: Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace introduced the planet Coruscant, which bears a close resemblance to Asimov's Trantor (Coruscant technically originated in a book from the Star Wars Expanded Universe released in 1991). Furthermore, most of the dialog and many of the shot angles used in the scences portraying the attack upon the original Death Star were lifted almost intact from the 1954 British film, The Dam Busters.
It has been suggested (though not confirmed) that Anakin/Darth Vader was modeled off of the Pasha/Strelnikov character in the book and (more specifically) the movie Doctor Zhivago, a young idealist who later becomes a merciless military leader in the Galactic Empire/Soviet government (the destruction of Alderaan in A New Hope presumably mirroring Strelnikov's destruction of a Siberian village suspected of being loyal to the White Army in Zhivago). Interestingly, both characters also "die" (Anakin in the lava pit in Revenge of the Sith, Pasha during World War I in Zhivago) before being "reborn" as a more evil character.
Other influences may include Frank Herbert's Dune for the desert planet Tatooine and the spice mines of Kessel. In addition, the Jedi Order of the first three episodes bears a close resemblance to the Bene Gesserit of Herbert's novels. Star Wars is known to be heavily inspired by Kurosawa's films The Hidden Fortress and Yojimbo. Lucas has also cited The Searchers and Lawrence of Arabia as references for the style (if not the story) used in the films. (A more direct homage to Lawrence occurs in Attack of the Clones, as Padme and Anakin talk while walking around the Theed palace on Naboo; it was filmed at the Palaçio Español in Seville, Spain, and was shot in the exact manner as the scene in Lawrence where Allenby (Jack Hawkins and Dryden (Claude Rains) discuss whether or not to give artillery to Lawrence's Arab troops.)
Lucas is also a fan of Sergio Leone's film Once Upon a Time in the West (1968), and according to Leone's biographer, Christopher Frayling, he listened to the score from Leone's film while editing The Empire Strikes Back. Many have considered Vader's first appearance in A New Hope as being an homage to the introduction of Henry Fonda's villainous Frank in the Leone film.
A scene where Emperor Palpatine, dressed in dark, cowled monkish robes emerges from among white clad storm troopers looks remarkably like something from Alexander Nevsky By Sergei Eisenstein.
Historical similarities
George Lucas has stated that many historical events have been used in the Star Wars saga. For example, the Empire was based on Hitler's Third Reich, while the space battles in A New Hope were based on World War I dogfights. In addition, some World War II terms may have been used for names in Star Wars; examples include the planets Kessel (a term that refers to a group of encircled forces) and Hoth (Hermann Hoth was a German general).
Other possible historical analogies include:
- The Battle of Hoth and the Winter War in Finland: the approach of the AT-ATs resembles that of Soviet tanks.
- The Battle of Endor and the Vietnam War, where a primitive society was able to overcome one that was more advanced technologically. It can also be said that the Ewoks are based on the ancient Hebrew warriors called the Maccabees.
- The Clone Wars and the American Civil War or other civil wars.
- The Death Star and the development of the nuclear bomb.
- Chancellor Palpatine's capture at the beginning of Episode III and the kidnapping operation of Mussolini after the Allies captured him in the invasion of Italy.
- Order 66 in Revenge of the Sith, the order used to exterminate all Jedi, bears a heavy likeness to Executive Order #9066, used to detain and imprison Japanese-Americans living on the West coast during WWII.
- In the bonus section of ROTJ citzens no longer under the rule of Palpatine drag down his statue like that of Lenin's after the fall of Communism.
- The storm troopers from the movies share a name with the Nazi storm troopers (see also Sturmabteilung). The imperial officers' uniforms also resemble Nazi officers' uniforms.
- The poem Der Vater, by Albrecht Haushofer during WWII reads like it could have been written by Luke Skywalker. There are other similarities between Karl Haushofer (Albrecht's father, an early supporter of Hitler) and Anakin Skywalker.
- The poem refers to an evil that shows itself once in a thousand years. The Sith had not been seen for that long in the movie story.
- The poem tells the story of how Albrecht's father had the power to stop the evil, but chose to unleash it. Luke's father Anakin had that same power and made that same choice.
- Darth Vader's name means "father" in English and "Vater" in German.
- Karl's travels to Japan greatly influenced his life and way of thinking. Even his suicide was by the traditional Samurai method. The similarities between the Samurai and Jedi in the movies are well established.
- A geopolitical contemporary of Karl's was named Maull. Darth Maul was a Sith from just a few years before Vader.
