Looking back, it seems like no accident that Star Wars consumed those of us on the cusp of adolescence, as dawning self-consciousness was turning internal lives of loosely related episodes into something interconnected and epic. It was the first time I remember contemplating good and evil, vowing to do what's right. In Sunday school, as the teacher was talking about the Holy Spirit, I had what felt like a profound theological revelation: it dawned on me that he was in fact talking about The Force. Films I would later see, like The Hustler, The Grand Illusion, and The Last Temptation of Christ, would offer more complicated takes on morality and spirituality, but it was Star Wars that first called my attention to such matters.
Many of the characters were important to me, but I remember being particularly challenged by Princess Leia. She was attractive in an odd way (those buns!), yet so different from the other action movie babes (like the Bond girls) who had been fueling my preadolescent hormones. Leia did not act the way she was supposed to. I found myself identifying with her to a certain extent—it made sense she would rather pick up a blaster and do something with her life instead of waiting around for male characters to act. I have to believe that when I was first exposed to the basic tenets of feminism, they made a lot more sense because of Leia.
The unconscious impact may even have been greater. In a class I co-taught, I was lecturing about Princess Leia as a “quasi-feminist icon.” My colleague smiled and added, “Well, of course you think Leia is an interesting character—you married her.” Though I was momentarily stunned, when I quickly did the comparison between Leia and my wife, it was clear that he was right.
Not all my memories of Star Wars are positive. At the height of my fanaticism, I got the flu and had a high fever. I had a dream in which I was at the bottom of a reverse gravity tube. I knew if I jumped up into the tube I would “fall” upward and crash into the ceiling that had the Star Wars logo on it. A friend was trying to stop me, but I insisted on jumping anyway. I woke up sweating, screaming and disoriented. Apparently the images of the film had entered my psyche in ways that were not entirely uplifting.
George Lucas became an important figure for me. I don't think I'd ever really thought about the “author” of anything prior to that. Movies, books and music presented themselves in their pure form, and I either liked them or didn’t. But after reading some articles, I realized that this Lucas guy was responsible for creating a world I loved. He soon became something of a mythical figure. Like Obi-Wan, he had chosen to share his wisdom with ordinary mortals. It made me giddy to think that Star Wars was one small part of a nine-story series he would slowly reveal.1 This promise meant a continuing flow of wonder that would sustain me for the rest of my life. As time went on, of course, Lucas became less superhuman, but he has remained an interesting figure as an artist, entrepreneur and corporate leader attempting to balance family values, personal disappointments, a media empire and the Star Wars legacy.
In part my passion for Star Wars has been sustained because I am not alone in my appreciation. My story is almost a cliché for members of Generation X. When I interviewed people about movies that had a significant impact on them, Star Wars came up more often than any other film (for both men and women). In part this shared experience can be explained by the well-established themes Lucas used in the film. It did not emerge from a narrative and cinematic vacuum. The filmmakers were drawing upon techniques used in westerns, serialized cliff-hangers, and other action-adventure movies. What was innovative about the movie (its state-of-the-art special effects, funny robots, “space opera,” etc.) wasn't as crucial as the themes that had Symbolic activity in film (expanded).been working in Hollywood and on the human imagination since well before my time.
Yet Star Wars was also very much of its time. When it was released in the late 1970s, it sent a ripple through the culture, soothing an American spirit troubled by the post-Vietnam era. Star Wars signaled (caused?) a trend in which mainstream American entertainment became increasingly escapist and divorced from reality. It also set the standard for movie merchandise. Action figures, trading cards and emblems slapped on T-shirts were ways that my friends and I tried to invoke the film's mythic qualities in our everyday lives. The success of that endeavor obviously inspired the partnership between film and merchandizing that is so pervasive today.
Through the years, my Star Wars obsession cooled to an enduring appreciation. Images continue to resonate—Luke looking out at twin setting suns; the fateful light-saber confrontation between Darth Vader and Obi-Wan; Leia in a white dress wielding a blaster; and so on. As I enter middle age, it is clear that ideas about goodness, divine intervention, men and women, and many other things have become intertwined with my own personality, values, and background. In a real sense, Star Wars is part of who I am.
An Appeal for Interdisciplinarity
I have chosen to include this personal reflection on Star Wars because it contains elements of all the chapters of Psychology at the Movies. There are examples of the interpretations presented in Chapters —Star Wars as the triumph of good over evil or a salve for the cultural wounds of Vietnam. And while there are no mental health professionals in the faraway galaxy, how far is Obi-Wan's guidance of Luke from the caring counselors discussed in Chapter ? Lucas's personal values speaks to the overlap between artists and their art (Chapter ), while the success of Star Wars, both in terms of box-office and public acclaim, is an intriguing phenomenon related to audience preferences (Chapter ). Chapter explores the narrative and emotional aspect of movies, something I experienced acutely when I first saw the film in the theater. I have continued to reevaluate and reflect on Star Wars over the years (Chapter ), which has ultimately had a significant impact on my life and played a role in my personal development (Chapters and ).
Figure 10.12 captures all these important symbolic dimensions.
Figure 10.1 Symbolic activity in film (expanded).
All of these dimensions are important, and they all interconnect. While the methods of particular disciplines tend to focus on one element at a time, I hope that the interdisciplinary approach I have used in this book demonstrates the ways these pieces weave together.3
Viewers interact with films. Even though I think Star Wars is a great movie, I am aware that there are people who don't relate to it at all. Some movies speak to us at different points in life while others do not. I saw The Goodbye Girl not long after I saw Star Wars, but I don't remember anything about the film.4 It just didn't have what it takes to inspire a 10 year-old boy.
Filmmakers interact with their films. They write dialogue, they act, and they point the camera; it all adds up to a movie. Not just any filmmaker could have made Star Wars. It required George Lucas and his personal preoccupations (not to mention Harrison Ford's surliness to embody Han; James Earl Jones's authority to give voice to Vader; and the special effects team's obsessiveness to make a model of the Death Star seem the size of a moon).
Viewers interact with filmmakers. The screening of a film is the place where the filmmakers and the audience meet—not face-to-face, but symbolically. This indirect relationship is nevertheless a powerful one. I idolized Lucas, a man I had never met. Some fans would later express rage at him when he made changes to the movie franchise they loved. Lucas himself seems to have become ambivalent toward his audience: appreciative of the adoration, yet defensive toward those who would tell him what to do.
The different levels of psychological processing in the center of Figure 10.1 interact with each other. Star Wars’ theme of the superiority of intuition over rationality has been and encouragement for me to trust my gut. I see this theme manifested in the scene where Luke destroys the Death Star. Before I can make this interpretation though, I have to comprehend what is going on technically in the scene (certain camera shots are meant to simulate Luke's subjective viewpoint, and the voice about “trusting the force” does not from someone sitting behind Luke but is an internalization of Obi-Wan's voice). And of course I have to be able to see what's
on the screen.5
All the pieces and processes fit together. The more this overlap is recognized (e.g., the more experimentalists pay attention to aesthetics, and the more critics consider the actual experience of audience members), the richer any study of psychology and film will be.
Movies as Art
Along with the advantage of looking at the psychology of movies from multiple perspectives, my other take home message is that movies are powerful. They should be treated carefully, but their positive potential should be embraced. I want to create a frame for a psychological approach to film that helps readers not only understand films but embrace them.
We have seen that academic psychology has often focused on how to respond to the dangers of visual media.6 Encouraging media literacy (teaching skills on how to critically interpret and filter messages) is one of the most common reactions to these dangers and it is a compelling idea. However, sometimes it is used in a way that assumes movies are inherently toxic and that the only reason to properly read a film is to dilute its negative potency.
At other times, the motivation for media literacy goes beyond mitigating negative effects. The argument for written literacy focuses on the benefits to citizens of a democratic society (reading traffic signs, understanding laws, participating in elections, and so on). The same argument is applied to visual media that blend words, sounds and images. Media literacy advocates believe that a medium like film is a tool that modern society uses to communicate and organize itself, and that to function efficiently and productively, people should know how to accurately interpret media.
There is still something missing in this outlook. By considering the intertwined symbolic qualities of movies, filmmakers, and viewers, we can conceive of movies as more than hazards and more than cultural documents we need to be able to understand. After all, the written word allows people to do more than copy recipes and read owner's manuals; it gives us the ability to create epics, novels, and poetry. Films educate and entertain, but they are also forms of visual, narrative poetry. They can be disturbing and beautiful, and they have the capacity to enlighten and inspire. Like all art, movies can be dangerous, but they are also a gift—a dangerous gift that is potentially destructive and potentially elevating.
Appendix A
Mental Health Professionals in Top Box Office Grossing Movies, 1990–1999
Title Character
Ace Ventura: Pet Detective Dr Handley
Analyze This Dr Ben Sobel, Jr.
Analyze This Dr Sobel, Sr.
Armageddon Psychologist
As Good As It Gets Dr Green
Awakenings Dr Malcolm Sayer
Awakenings Dr Copeland
Awakenings Nurse Costello
Awakenings Dr Peter Ingham
Awakenings Anthony
Awakenings Hospital Director
Basic Instinct Dr Elizabeth Garner
Basic Instinct Dr Lamott
Basic Instinct Dr Myron
Basic Instinct Dr McElwain
Batman Forever Dr Chase Meridian
Batman Forever Dr Burton
Casper Dr James Harvey
Conspiracy Theory Dr Jonas
Die Hard with a Vengeance Dr Fred Shiller
Dr. Doolittle Dr Blayne
First Wives Club Dr Leslie Rosen
Fried Green Tomatoes Group Therapist
Fried Green Tomatoes Assertiveness Trainer
The General's Daughter Elisabeth Campbell
The General's Daughter Sarah Sunhill
The General's Daughter Dr Slezinger
The General's Daughter Dr Robert Moore
Goldeneye Psychologist
Good Will Hunting Dr Sean Maguire
Good Will Hunting Hypnotist
Good Will Hunting Dr Henry
Groundhog Day Psychologist
Hot Shots Dr Ramada Thompson
Lethal Weapon 3 Dr Stephanie Wood
Lethal Weapon 4 Dr Stephanie Wood
Mrs. Doubtfire Ms Selner
Nine Months Samuel Faulkner
Phenomenon Dr Nierdorf
The Santa Clause Dr Neil Miller
The Silence of the Lambs Dr Hannibal Lecter
The Silence of the Lambs Dr Frederick Chilton
The Silence of the Lambs Clarice Starling
The Silence of the Lambs Jack Crawford
The Sixth Sense Dr Malcolm Crowe
The Sixth Sense Dr Hill
Sleepless in Seattle Dr Marsha Fieldstone
Space Jam Doc
Star Trek: Generations Deanna Troi
Terminator 2 Dr Silverman
Terminator 2 Douglas
A Time to Kill Dr Willard Bass
A Time to Kill Dr Rodeheaver
There's Something About Mary Therapist
Twister Dr Melissa Reeves
What About Bob? Dr Leo Marvin
What About Bob? Dr Carswill
What About Bob? Dr Tomsky
Note: These films were each among the top 20 box office grossing films for the year of its theatrical release.
* The Prince of Tides (1991) was a highly successful film with a mental health professional, Dr Susan Lowenstein, as a main character. It was not included in this list because it was one of those rare movies that made a significant portion of its box-office gross in two different years and subsequently did not appear in the Top 20 in either year. It therefore fell through the cracks of the sampling method, even though it is clearly related to the other films on the list.
Adapted from Dine Young, S., Boester, A., Whitt, M.T., and Stevens, M. (2008). Character motivation in the representations of mental health professionals in popular film. Mass Communication and Society, 11(1), 82–99.
Appendix B
Three Top 50 Lists of Acclaimed Movies
Top Box Office Films* (Adjusted for Inflation) AFI's Greatest American Films** IMBD.com Users Top Rated Films***
1. Gone With the Wind (1939)
2. Star Wars: Episode IV-A New Hope (1977)
3. The Sound of Music (1965)
4. E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
5. The Ten Commandments (1956)
6. Titanic (1997)
7. Jaws (1975)
8. Doctor Zhivago (1965)
9. The Exorcist (1973)
10. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
11. 101 Dalmatians (1961)
1. Citizen Kane (1941)
2. The Godfather (1972)
3. Casablanca (1942)
4. Raging Bull (1980)
5. Singin’ in the Rain (1952)
6. Gone with the Wind (1939)
7. Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
8. Schindler's List (1993)
9. Vertigo (1958)
10. The Wizard of Oz (1939)
11. City Lights (1931)
1. The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
2. The Godfather (1972)
3. The Godfather: Part II (1974)
4. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)
5. Pulp Fiction (1994)
6. Schindler's List (1993)
7. 12 Angry Men (1957)
8. Inception (2010)
9. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
10. The Dark Knight (2008)
11. Star Wars: Episode V-The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
12. Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
13. Ben-Hur (1959)
14. Avatar (2009)
15. Star Wars: Episode VI-Return of the Jedi (1983)
16. The Sting (1973)
17. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
18. Jurassic Park (1993)
19. The Graduate (1967)
20. Star Wars: Episode I-The Phantom Menace (1999)
21. Fantasia (1940)
22. The Godfather (1972)
23. Forrest Gump (1994)
24. Mary Poppins (1964)
25. The Lion King (1994)
26. Grease (1978)
27. Thunderball (1965)
28. The Dark Knight (2008)
29. The Jungle Book (1967)
30. Sleeping Beauty (1959)
31. Shrek 2 (2004)
32. Ghostbusters (1984)
33. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
34. Love Story (1970)
35. Spider-Man (2002)
36. Independence Day (1996)
37. Home Alone (1990)
12. The Searchers (1956)
13. Star Wars (1977)
14. Psycho (1960)
15. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
16. Sunset Blvd. (1950)
17. The Graduate (1967)
18. The General (1927)
19. On the Waterfront (1954)
20. It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
21. Chinatown (1974)
22. Some Like It Hot (1959)
23. The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
24. E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
25. To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
26. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
27. High Noon (1952)
28. All About Eve (1950)
29. Double Indemnity (1944)
30. Apocalypse (1979)
31. The Maltese Falcon (1941)
32. The Godfather Part II (1974)
33. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
34. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
35. Annie Hall (1977)
36. The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
37. The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
12. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
13. Seven Samurai (1954)
14. Fight Club (1999)
15. Goodfellas (1990)
16. Star Wars: Episode IV-A New Hope (1977)
17. Casablanca (1942)
18. City of God (2002)
19. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
20. Once Upon a Time in the West (1969)
21. Rear Window (1954)
22. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
23. The Matrix (1999)
24. Psycho (1960)
Psychology at the Movies Page 21