Culture, Identities, and Technology in the Star Wars Films: Essays on the Two Trilogies (review)

For the third instalment in McFarland's Critical Explorations in Science Fiction and Fantasy, series editors Donald E. Palumbo and C. W. Sullivan III hand the editorial reins to Carl Silvio and Tony M. Vinci for a serious cultural studies collection on the Star Wars films. Silvio and Vinci's intentions are clearly stated in their introduction: 'to move away from myth-based criticism of Star Wars and adopt a cultural studies model that analyzes it as a culturally and historical specific phenomenon, that is, as a site of ideological investment that both reflects and shapes late twentieth and early twenty-first century global culture' (3). Silvio and Vinci have done an outstanding job in collecting and editing these essays into a bright argumentative web that hums with vital disagreements. In the era of flimsy research and quick-to-press mentality in the publishing houses, reading a book to which you can give an unconditionally favourable review is very welcome.

The essays in Part I address the intersection of the films with their cultural contexts either as commentary on cultural formations or as sites of ideology production. In 'The Fall of the Rebellion; or, Defiant and Obedient Heroes in a Galaxy Far, Far Away: Individualism and Intertextuality in the Star Wars Trilogies', co-editor Vinci extends arguments proposed in the introduction and convincingly demonstrates that the prequel trilogy (1999–2005) subverts the importance of individual choice and action in affecting the social and political changes evidenced in the original trilogy (1977–1983). And while readers may be tempted to make the counter-argument that such an understanding depends upon reading the films in the order produced, Vinci is quick to remind the reader that that, after all, is the point of this collection: to read the films as a product of their moment (Lucas's possible intentions for his productions notwithstanding). John Lydon's 'Apocalyptic Determinism and Star Wars' is slightly more difficult to navigate because his arguments are dependent upon a multi-layered historicity in which the prequel trilogy must be read as being historically and culturally 'after' the original trilogy (i.e. produced at a later moment in our history) and simultaneously within the context of the events the original trilogy which 'will happen afterwards' so to speak. To wit, since we know what will happen to cute little Anakin Skywalker (Jake Lloyd) and this knowledge inevitably changes the Star Wars universe to one driven by fate and destiny on every level, this deterministic plot mirrors our own feelings of powerlessness.

In 'The Star Wars Trilogies and Global Capitalism', co-editor Silvio examines 'how the two trilogies that comprise this saga both express and diffuse latent cultural anxieties about the emergence of late capitalism while neutralizing the fundamental logic and assumptions that underpin this system' (53). Silvio effectively argues that each film reflects the viewers' (then current) unstated concerns about their place in the capitalistic structure of society and thereby provides a highly effective outlet for resolving those anxieties. Which, of course, is a bad thing, right? Seriously, however, Silvio's logic is hard to ignore as he explores the 'machine aesthetic' of the series and the 'scopophilic pleasure and fascination that we feel when we gaze upon the images of technological sublimity that pack these films' (59). Silvio's essay is by no means light reading as it is highly dependent upon a strong knowledge of critical theory, but the result is well worth the effort.

Part II focuses on identity politics, beginning with Christopher Deis's 'May the Force (Not) Be with You: "Race Critical" Readings and the Star Wars Universe'. While it has become popular to take shots at the Star Wars films for invoking racial stereotypes (particularly in regard to Jar Jar Binks), Deis lucidly argues that while individual characters and incidents may be read as racially insensitive...