With a combination of mythology, fairy tales, fantasy, Westerns, samurai epics, technology, and action, George Lucas has brought to the screen a new Universe. His own Universe. And he has opened the door to let us in it.
The story of Anakin Skywalker, his family, friends and enemies, moves generations. It speaks of common things such as love and betrayal and good and evil without seeming outdated, mostly due to its intimate connection with so many different cultural symbols.
The Star Wars saga reports a series of epic events that concern the heroic exploits of the Skywalker family. These events occur a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...but these exploits could be the ones of our family or the one living next door to us.
Truthfully, Star Wars is a quest of good against evil, showing the extreme points of both these antagonisms. The political scenarios between the Republic, Empire, and Rebellion lead us to despair when we realize what may happen when power lies in the hands of greedy and unscrupulous people. But Star Wars also teaches us to store some hope even in the darkest of days. There are always those who choose the Light and make us believe that better days are possible to achieve. (As the Journal of the Whills tells us: "And in the time of greatest despair there shall come a saviour...")
Star Wars also reveals the crossways through which all of us must come upon at some point in our lives. We make choices, trying to find the right way, with no signs available to show us which course to take. Anakin's character, anxious to find a good end, chooses the wrong means without truly realizing that the path of his choice will lead him the wrong way. A way with no return in the eyes of the majority, but not in his son's. Star Wars is about hope, redemption, and believing that when we repent, the door of salvation may open and reveal the ones we love, the ones that really matter, because they believed in us when everything seemed lost.
This mythology stands up, amongst all the action and technology. The belief that something stronger than any living being exists, and it moves and influences everything, every corner where life stands. The code of honour that guides the Just. Isn't this what we all look for? Guidance in the ways of life? While still knowing that we are the ones who hold the last call, through free will.
Without any specific references to any religion, Star Wars sums them up and reveals what is common in all.
