This week, Neil Calloway looks at the influence of Star Wars on other films, politics and daily life…
If you’re under about 40, you have no real experience of a world without Star Wars. The films, the universe, the lunch boxes, the toys have always just been there. It’s easy for people of that age – myself included – to underestimate the influence of the films on popular, and wider culture, and even politics.
It might seem like Star Wars is inescapable; even when there isn’t build up to a new film it is rare to go more than a few days without reading, or seeing or hearing some reference to the films. Unlike almost anything else from film, television or literature – certainly 20th Century culture – it has permeated into everyday life.
The first big thing that we wouldn’t have if there was no Star Wars is no Indiana Jones films; escaping the media clamour after the release of the first film, George Lucas went to Hawaii with Steven Spielberg, there they discussed what would become Harrison Ford’s other big adventure franchise.
There would also be no Battlestar Galactica; the producers of the original series were sued by 20th Century Fox for stealing elements from Star Wars, and promptly counter-sued Fox alleging that they had stolen ideas from Silent Running. The case was eventually settled out of court, but it is almost certain that if they did not directly plagiarise ideas, Star Wars created an atmosphere where a science fiction TV series would be welcomed by producers and audiences alike. John Dykstra, responsible for the special effects on Star Wars and artist Ralph McQuarrie, the man behind the concept art for the films, also worked on the TV series.
There may even have been no Star Trek movies; a second series of the show, named “Phase II”, had long been planned, but the success of George Lucas’s film convinced Gene Roddenberry and others that Star Trek could be a box office hit on the big screen, too. Star Trek: The Motion Picture was put into production and a new film franchise was created.
It’s not just science fiction where Star Wars has been an influence. In the 1980s, super producer Jerry Bruckheimer was reading a magazine article about the US Navy’s Fighter Weapons School, then based in Miramar, California. He saw a picture of an F-14, and remarked that it looked like Star Wars on Earth. Tony Scott was hired to direct the film, Tom Cruise was signed up to star and Top Gun was born.
The film’s influence has gone beyond films and television; few people would have heard of Ronald Reagan’s proposed Strategic Defense Initiative, a way of protecting the US from nuclear missiles, but when the media dubbed it “Star Wars”, it captured the imagination. More recently Barack Obama – more of a Star Trek fan by all accounts – praised George Lucas for showing that “If a kid from Tatooine moisture farm can go from bulls-eyeing womp rats in his T-16 to saving the galaxy, then maybe I can be something special too?”. Well done to whichever speechwriter came up with that to him. In Britain, the Chancellor George Osborne announced that The Force Awakens would be filmed here – obviously meaning they gave Disney huge tax breaks – by tweeting the cringe inducing “May The Force Be With Us”.
Since 2001, people have been claiming to be Jedi on their census forms. In Britain, more than 400,000 people did this, making it the fourth highest reported religion. Obviously most people did this as a joke, but it’s worth noting they did it with a religion created as part of Star Wars, rather than anywhere else. The number has since dropped, but at last count there were still almost 180,000 self-declared Jedi in England and Wales in 2010.
Perhaps the biggest clue to the influence of Star Wars is that there is no collective noun for fans of the films. Trekkies love Kirk, Spock and Co. , Whovians can’t get enough of the Doctor, and Potterheads are obsessed by the works or JK Rowling. What are fans of Star Wars called? There isn’t a name; it’s almost taken as a given that people like Star Wars. There was even a BBC series called “I’ve Never Seen Star Wars”, based around famous people doing things that were taken as given. When I made a joke about eating a Wookiee burger at work the other week (the punchline being “it’s a bit chewie”) I was shocked when a colleague didn’t get it and said he hadn’t seen Star Wars, but he was almost apologetic about it.
It’s almost a religion, it has influenced countless films, and is part of our daily lives; a world without Star Wars would be very different indeed, in a way that no other franchise can claim.
Neil Calloway is a pub quiz extraordinaire and Top Gun obsessive. Check back here every Sunday for future instalments.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PL18yMRIfoszEaHYNDTy5C-cH9Oa2gN5ng&v=jWc-DNbd-pM
Originally published December 13, 2015. Updated April 15, 2018.
