Star Wars: The Space Western.
(Warning: The following post contains spoilers for the films: Star Wars: Episode IV: A New Hope, The Searchers, High Plains Drifter, Charro, Magnificent Seven, The Good, The Bad And The Ugly, For A Few Dollars More and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.)
Two of my most favourite genres of film are Science Fiction and Western. The other day, I was trying to think of a film which combined both elements of, for me, two of the great genres of cinema ever made. I thought of Back To The Future Part III from 1990, Serenity from 2005, Cowboys and Aliens from 2011, when it hit me. Star Wars. My most favourite film of all time is a film that encapsulates the components of both the Western and Science Fiction.
I wouldn’t call Star Wars a straight Western, nor will I call it a straight Science Fiction film, for me, Star Wars is a mixture of both genres. To be specific, I wish to focus primarily on Episode VI: A New Hope. (Although, when A New Hope was released in 1977, it wasn’t called A New Hope, rather it was known simply as Star Wars and the subtitle of A New Hope wasn’t added until 1981 after the release of Episode V: Empire Strikes Back, but, I digress.)
I, of course, am aware that the Western wasn’t the only inspiration for George Lucas when he was creating Star Wars. I mean, there are Akira Kurosawa samurai films like Seven Samurai and Rashomon, and also Frederick Stephani’s Flash Gordon Serials from 1936. But, it’s the Western genre influences that I want to talk about in this post.
A New Hope takes place in three locations within the ever expanding Star Wars Universe, and they are Luke Skywalker’s home planet of Tatooine, aboard the moon sized battle station, the Death Star and finally on and above the planet Yavin IV. Out of these three locations, it is Tatoonie that is most Western- esque. Tatooine is a desert planet that is very akin to the Old West when, perhaps, it was on it’s way out, around the 1900’s. It’s dusty, somewhat rundown, and the people are poor. The scenes that take place on Tatoonie, are the ones that I will be focusing on for this post. I could go on to include scenes from the Death Star and Yavin IV. However, I feel that would create a dissertation sized post, which nobody but me would be interested to read, so I’ve split up the scenes and I shall focus of those scenes in future posts.
Tatoonie is the planet that two droids, R2D2, played by Kenny Baker, and C-3PO, played Anthony Daniels, escape from the Galactic Empire, who took over their ship. Moments after splitting up after an argument, the two droids are captured, independently of each other, by Jawas. Jawas are small human-like aliens that are Star Wars's representative of the travelling merchants. These travelling merchants within the Old West would often sell things like Snake Oil remedies and guns. However, here, the Jawas sell Droids. This is how R2D2 and C-3PO and the audience themselves are introduced to the first resident people of Tatoonie. These people are Luke Skywalker, played by Mark Hamill, his uncle, Owen, played by Phil Brown, and his Aunt, Beru, played by Shelagh Fraser. They are moisture farmers living on the Lars homestead and surviving on crops they grow using moisture vaporators., this parallels farmers like the Starrett family in Shane, from 1953, and the Edwards family in the Searchers from 1956. In fact, Owen and Beru are quite similar to the Edwards family in the Searchers, as in the Searchers, the Comanche, which are a Native American tribe, threaten the Edwards family way of living, where as in A New Hope, a tribe of Tusken Raiders are a threat to Owen and Beru's way of living. Tusken Raiders are very much like the Comanche in behaviour as well. They are a tribe of mostly male creatures and they herd Banthas, which are meant to look similar to buffalo. It is also stated in the film by Obi Wan, played by Sir Alec Guinness, another resident of Tatooine, that the Tusken Raiders often attack in single file, this is similar to attack patterns utilised by Native Americans in the Old West.
Another parallel to the Searchers appears later in A New Hope, there is a shot seen from the point of view of R2D2, where Luke is saved from a Tusken Raider attack by Obi Wan Kenobi. This mirrors a shot in the Searchers where Ethan Edwards is reunited with his niece, Debbie, after she was taken from the farm by the Comanche.
Soon after, Luke rushes home back to the homestead to find it on fire and Owen and Beru's chard remains laying outside. It's deduced that they were killed by Stormtroopers. Luke, after realising he has nothing keeping him on Tatoonie any more, decides to join Obi Wan on his mission to save Princess Leia played by Carrie Fisher. This characterisation of Luke having nothing to lose is somewhat similar to Clint Eastwood's character, the Stranger, in High Plains Drifter from 1973. In that film, the Stranger comes to the town, Lagos, the townsfolk are not sure who he is or really why his there. He is hired by the town to protect them from three outlaws who have just been released from prison. The Stranger is similar to Luke by the fact that the Stranger is the previous mayor of Lagos, and after his run out of town, for trying to do the right thing, he has now returned to seek revenge on the town that cast him out and took everything from him. In Star Wars, Luke joins Obi Wan to help take down the Galactic Empire that has taken everything from him.
Luke, Obi Wan, R2D2 and C-3PO travel to Mos Eisley, which Obi Wan describes as “You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.” Mos Eisley is the Star Wars version of a Saloon found in most Western films. The way Luke and Obi Wan enter Mos Eisley is somewhat similar to how Jess Wade, played by Elvis Presley, enters the saloon in the film, Charro from 1969. Wade walks into the saloon and all the people inside stare at him, he walks up to the bar and looks around, similarly to Luke when he first walks into Mos Eisley. Wade is then bothered by two bandits who don’t like the look of him, and everybody’s attention is drawn to this confrontation. In A New Hope, Luke is interrupted by two bandits, Cornelius Evazan and Ponda Baba who begin threaten him, he is saved by Obi Wan who takes out his Lightsaber and decapitates Ponda Baba’s arm.
Luke and Obi Wan are introduced to Han Solo, played by Harrison Ford, and Chewbacca, played by Peter Mayhew. Han Solo is the A New Hope’s version of the gun slinger. Han Solo is dressed similar and has the characteristics of the classic Western gun slinger. He wears a vest with a white shirt, and blue trousers, he even has his gun, or rather his blaster, holstered at his hip, ready to duel at a moments notice. His characteristics are moderately akin to Steven McQueen’s character, Vin Tanner, in the Magnificent Seven from 1960. Tanner is a drifter and a gambler who is completely bankrupt due to losing at poker, he joins the Seven because he can't stand the alternative of working off the debt in a store. Han Solo is a smuggler who, during a recent hire, was boarded and lost the cargo that he was hired to deliver. He is hired by Obi Wan and Luke to deliver them to the Princess and only agrees to help when the salary of the job is significantly raised. Tanner is also deadpan and snarky, two traits that Han also possesses, Tanner also has a right hand man known as Chris Larabee Adams played by Yul Brynner, whereas Han has Chewbacca, a Wookie, as his right hand man.
Han Solo is also proven to be the classic Western gun slinger through his actions, as seen when Greedo goes to confront him about the lost cargo. This scene, in particular, is where the infamous “Han Shot First” movement stems from. In the original 1977 cinema release, Han shoots Greedo without being shot upon, which is very much akin to characters in classic in Westerns, like Tuco, played by Eli Wallach, in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly when he shoots a man from underneath the bubbles in his bath, after the man confronts him, and the Stranger in High Plains Drifter, when he shoots three men when they confront him while he is having a shave. However, in the 1997 re-release of A New Hope, the director, George Lucas, re-edits the footage to make it seem like Greedo shoots Han first, and Han retaliates. Lucas has stated the reason for this change is that he wanted Han to come off as more of a hero and not a cold blooded killer. However, I feel this change isn’t needed. The original version is more like Han, and is better for his character arc as here he goes from a rogue smuggler who only cares about himself, money and Chewbacca to the hero of the Rebellion that he becomes at the end of A New Hope. Han shooting Greedo first is more like the classic Western gun slinger that could be inspired from a Sergio Leone spaghetti-western.
After the Greedo scene, Obi Wan, Luke, R2D2, C-3PO, Han and Chewbacca all convene at Docking Bay 94, where they are due to take off. Han is stopped by Jabba the Hutt, and he tells Han that he needs to pay for losing his cargo, and Han tells him that he can pay after this next job, to which Jabba responds with “I’ll put a price on your head so big, you won’t be able to go near a civilised system.” This is slightly comparable to Western such as For a Few Dollars More, from 1965, in which Clint Eastwood’s character Monco, who is a bounty killer chasing El Indio and his gang, who are wanted dead or alive. Shortly after this, Stormtroopers are alerted to R2D2 and C-3PO’s presence and behind firing upon the Millennium Falcon which Obi Wan, Luke, R2D2, C-3POand Chewbacca are boarding. Han fires back giving the other characters some cover fire, and then quickly boards the ship himself, this short gunfight resembles the closing scene of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, from 1969, in which Butch, played by Paul Newman and Sundance, played Robert Redford, are surrounded by the Bolivian Army, and to escape, Sundance lays down covering fire while Butch goes to retrieve their horses. The scene features a gunfight in which Butch and Sundance are outnumbered, and during their escape Sundance manages to take a few soldiers down, this is mirrored in A New Hope, as Han takes down a few Stormtroopers, and the Millennium Falcon is able to take off.
This is the final scene set on Tatoonie in A New Hope, and there are many different elements that make this film, and Star Wars as a whole, the creative, critical and commercial success that is.I feel that, in part, it is down to it influences. A New Hope is a film that has it’s influences rooted in many different genres, and it managed to combine them all into one to create something that, at the time, is truly unique. That combination is one of the many things that makes Star Wars such an impact and incredible piece of cinema for myself.