5 questions with a ‘Star Wars’ scholar

May 4, 2015

Andrew Gordon, a retired University of Florida English professor, was one of the first film scholars to regard the original “Star Wars” trilogy as worthy of academic study. For Star Wars Day (May the Fourth…get it?), he reflects on the perils of prequels, meeting George Lucas and his hopes for the franchise’s new installment.

Do you do anything special to mark Star Wars Day?

No, but I typically get requests for interviews. I haven’t written about “Star Wars” in years, and I don’t think it was the best thing I’ve ever written about movies, but the interest in it has lasted. That’s a tribute to the films and how they have endured.

Do you think you’ll write about the new “Star Wars” movie coming out in December?

If it inspires me. I have high hopes for this one. I like what J. J. Abrams did rebooting the Star Trek movies, so I'm optimistic, but like many, I was very disappointed by the latest trilogy.

As a fan, or as a scholar?

On both levels. I think it’s a mistake to do prequels: We already know what's going to happen. Also, the hero was unpleasant. We watch him turn from a nice little boy into a rather whiny adolescent into an adult monster. There's no fun in watching that. 

Your analysis of “Star Wars” puts the movies in a whole new light – like the parallels you drew to “The Wizard of Oz.”

I'm not the only one who has pointed that out. It’s unmistakable. Like Dorothy, Luke is a nice kid living on the farm who dreams of adventure and magically gets his wish granted. Obi-Wan is the wizard, R2-D2 is Toto, C-3PO is the Tin Man, Chewbacca is the Cowardly Lion. The Munchkins are the Jawas. Darth Vader is the Wicked Witch, and Leia is the Good Witch. The castle Dorothy has to invade is the Death Star. In the end, the heroes get medals, the same as at the end of “Star Wars.” (Editor’s note: For more on this and Gordon’s other “Star Wars” theories, check out our BuzzFeed story.)

Has George Lucas ever weighed in on your interpretations?

Not directly. I was the first critic to point out the influence of Joseph Campbell, and later on Lucas talked about his admiration for Campbell and the profound influence of Campbell’s work on the trilogy. I did meet Lucas once in 1972, years before he did Star Wars. I was a graduate student at Berkeley, visiting the studio he had with Francis Coppola called American Zoetrope. He was very approachable, very modest, easy to talk to. He was working on “American Graffiti.” He told me about it, and I thought it sounded terrific. I went to the offices of Rolling Stone magazine and suggested they should do a feature on it. They said, “Who’s the director? George Lucas? Never heard of him.” They passed on it.