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CNN Sunday Morning

The Meaning Behind 'Star Wars'

Aired May 12, 2002 - 11:45   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JONATHAN KARL, CNN ANCHOR: Even if you're unplugged from popular culture, you probably know the new Star Wars movie opens this week.

In a reporter's quest for truth, CNN's Bruce Burkhardt set off in search of the soul of the new Star Wars series for the meaning behind the movies.

Here's his report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRUCE BURKHARDT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): How to explain the force of the Star Wars phenomenon? By the thousands they came to this Star Wars convention in Indianapolis. How to explain why this is a celebration of something more than a movie? It's almost religious.

JOHN NASH, STAR WARS FAN: I definitely believe in sort of this major conflict of good versus evil, so I know that there's some deeper reality to the whole thing.

BURKHARDT: In fact, George Lucas borrowed heavily from both the religious and mythical worlds, classic archetypes and ideas common to cultures across the ages.

Luke Skywalker is such an archetype, with all the ingredients, a quest for truth, learning to give in to something greater than oneself, and finally, the classical Hero's Journey.

I too went on a journey -- it wasn't all that heroic -- a few years ago when "Phantom Menace" came out, a journey to try and find out how this saga manages to be all things to all people -- a Catholic priest, a martial arts master, and a Buddhist monk.

DAIDO, BUDDHIST MONK: Inhalation is one...

BURKHARDT: His name is Daido, a Buddhist monk and the abbot of a monastery in Woodstock, New York.

DAIDO: Stop thinking, let go of your thoughts. Come back to the moment. That's what they were trying to get Skywalker to do. There's a central theme that's probably closest to the Force than any other thing, and that's called Chi. It literally means spirit or energy.

STEVE DEMASCO, BLACK BELT GRANDMASTER: Chi is the force in a Star Wars movie.

BURKHARDT: Sometimes my journey's not fun. But Steve Demasco, a martial arts grand master, was only demonstrating how Darth Vader used the Force.

DEMASCO: One, two -- Whoa!

BURKHARDT (on camera): Whoa!

DEMASCO: Everything was almost identical to the training, to the philosophy, to the way they fought and trained with the weaponry, the way they developed their energy, it was all Shaolin training.

BURKHARDT (voice-over): Father Mark Scolese, a Jesuit priest, saw "Star Wars" the first time as a child in Pennsylvania.

REV. MARK SCOLESE, JESUIT PRIEST: The movie elicits in people a connection or a hunger to be in touch with the transcendent. In the second movie, Yoda closes his eyes and lifts his hand, and the ship rises out of the muck. And Luke looks at him and says, "I don't believe it." And Yoda says...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ACTOR: That is why you fail.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCOLESE: It's another example of that, the suspension of disbelief, that is necessary, in a sense, to begin to enter into the spiritual life.

BURKHARDT: This doesn't look very spiritual, but in a sense, people here are on a quest too, trying to embrace all things Star Wars. And it's where our journey ends, for now, amidst these icons of a modern mythology.

Bruce Burkhardt, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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