Star Wars is an unique institution that has made its way from being merely a movie in the 70’s to a full on saga that reaches its grasp to the current day youth. You can see fans rocking the Dark Vader masks and here the popular words “Luke I am your father” as the punch line to many jokes. However, tying the creation of this movie saga to Cesar Chavez and farm workers as in the Cesar Chavez, the UFW and Star Wars article just seems a little farfetched. Well, it did at first.
Curtis Marez actually makes some very valid points that connect this mass popular media of Star Wars to a racial and worker conflict. Being that George Lucas grew as a director right beside the Chavez protests and worker union drama, it was clearly reflected in his early work. Marez seems to make an argument that recognizes this connection and asks why Lucas would not continue this trend of integrating the social issues as themes into his movies when he began to make Star Wars. Honestly, my once cynical perspective began to open up to the possibility off his argument bearing truth.
Marez continues on to site more thorough connections between the film and the “white farm worker” struggle through symbolism such as the big black villain who could represent the thuggish blacks and Hispanics Lucas had seen around him. However, this is where I begin to see wiggle room in Marez’s argument. Though the colors of Dark Vader may be some symbolic representation of the “Hispanic thugs”, I think of how villains tend to be represented as dark figures in general. There had always been a trend in film for light to equal good and dark to equal evil. You can look at nearly every Disney movie and instantly point out who is evil and who is good based on the dark versus light colors. However, Vader has had such a positive backlash similar to the way that Chavez and UFW experienced. There are parallels between Dark Vader and Chavez as well as his interactions with what represents the poor white farm boy, but I do think these connections are assumed more strong and conscious than they should be.
My perspective hinges on the fact that often times film makers and artist draw from their surroundings, both consciously and subconsciously, to create the world in their art. When it comes to George Lucas and his creation of Star Wars, I believe that a lot of the associations made by Marez are good at their base, but he extends the argument to a point that forces the legitimacy of his statements to suffer. Maybe Lucas was making racialized connections between Dark Vader, white farm boys, and the reality of Chavez protests surrounding him during his film education, but I do not think that this was purposeful in any way. Like any artist Lucas was inspired by his surroundings which may have been the story of Chavez and his personal connections, but anything more purposeful than that is doubtful.
Curtis Marez actually makes some very valid points that connect this mass popular media of Star Wars to a racial and worker conflict. Being that George Lucas grew as a director right beside the Chavez protests and worker union drama, it was clearly reflected in his early work. Marez seems to make an argument that recognizes this connection and asks why Lucas would not continue this trend of integrating the social issues as themes into his movies when he began to make Star Wars. Honestly, my once cynical perspective began to open up to the possibility off his argument bearing truth.
Marez continues on to site more thorough connections between the film and the “white farm worker” struggle through symbolism such as the big black villain who could represent the thuggish blacks and Hispanics Lucas had seen around him. However, this is where I begin to see wiggle room in Marez’s argument. Though the colors of Dark Vader may be some symbolic representation of the “Hispanic thugs”, I think of how villains tend to be represented as dark figures in general. There had always been a trend in film for light to equal good and dark to equal evil. You can look at nearly every Disney movie and instantly point out who is evil and who is good based on the dark versus light colors. However, Vader has had such a positive backlash similar to the way that Chavez and UFW experienced. There are parallels between Dark Vader and Chavez as well as his interactions with what represents the poor white farm boy, but I do think these connections are assumed more strong and conscious than they should be.
My perspective hinges on the fact that often times film makers and artist draw from their surroundings, both consciously and subconsciously, to create the world in their art. When it comes to George Lucas and his creation of Star Wars, I believe that a lot of the associations made by Marez are good at their base, but he extends the argument to a point that forces the legitimacy of his statements to suffer. Maybe Lucas was making racialized connections between Dark Vader, white farm boys, and the reality of Chavez protests surrounding him during his film education, but I do not think that this was purposeful in any way. Like any artist Lucas was inspired by his surroundings which may have been the story of Chavez and his personal connections, but anything more purposeful than that is doubtful.