Film producer George Lucas has said that the appeal of the Star Wars franchise is rooted in its appeal to the universal hero story. He has cited Joseph Campbell’s “The Hero with a Thousand Faces” as the classic study that traces the hero’s journey through mythologies from across the world. The book, originally published in 1949, has sold nearly a million copies and has inspired and informed generations of students. It continues to be one of the essential textbooks for storytellers of all kinds. I have appreciated the reference to classical philosophy by the film maker in part because I am not a huge fan of the movies. We rarely go to the theater and we aren’t much for watching television. In contrast to our children with their collections of DVDs and Netflix memberships, we are content to stay at home and read books as our primary form of entertainment.

I do have to admit, however, that I have been a fan of the Star Wars movies. The original Star Wars movie came out in 1977. I was a seminary student at the time, immersed in my studies. It was the only summer of our seminary years that we didn’t return to Montana to work and take a break from studies. I continued my internship and my work in the Chicago area. In the midst of that summer my Uncle Ted passed away and we made a whirlwind trip to Montana to be with family for the memorial service then rushed back to Chicago for the rest of the summer. I don’t remember exactly where in the process I got to see the movie, but I remember being impressed by the special effects and saving money to buy a cassette tape of John Williams’ soundtrack. The next two movies in the original trilogy came out in 1980, when we were struggling with my father’s cancer and death and 1983, when we were adjusting to the reality of being a family with a baby and a two-year-old. Each release of the original trilogy was accompanied by events in my life that were consuming and from which I was needing a little escape from reality. In addition to watching the films in movie theaters, I had recordings of the sound tracks and played them frequently as I drove the somewhat empty roads of North Dakota.

The second wave of Star Wars movies, released between 1999 and 2005, corresponded with our son’s teenage and young young adult years. We stood in line to get into the theatre for some of the first showings of those films. The joy of the movies wasn’t in my amazement at the technical effects nor was it in my being impressed and inspired by the plot lines and classic explorations of hero’s tales. The joy was in sharing with my son a hero’s journey through the storytelling of the movies. Somewhere in the midst of the process we obtained VCR tapes of all six of the two series and watched them several more times. I’m sure our son watched them even more than I.

I’m sure that most people understand that the story was not told in chronological order. The first three films are the center of the story, followed by the second three, which are prequel to those three, so the first movie was episode four and episode on was the fourth movie released. It sounds more confusing than it is.

So, I paid attention to the release of the trailer for episode seven, which is slated for release around Christmas this year. Yes, I was one of the quarter of a million people who watched it on YouTube yesterday. You can check it out yourself, but the trailer gives little hint as to the plot of the story - just the information that there is a new generation of characters, more reasons for battle, lots of chasing and shooting with spaceships and, perhaps, more prominent roles for women in the show.

True to the philosopher’s examination of the great hero stories of the world, legacy and inheritance are important factors for both hero and villain in the Star Wars movies. The hero discovers that he has inherited a bit of the bad as well as the good and that a choice is critical to the future of the world.

The timing of the release of this new trilogy of films, with a new film each year for three years doesn’t correspond to any of the chapters of my personal hero story. In contrast to the first, when I was personally wrestling with the meaning of legacy and inheritance in the death of my namesake and then my father; and the second, when I was exploring the meaning of legacy and inheritance in passing on family stories to our son, our grandchildren are a bit too young for this new series. Like many other things in our world, the pace is accelerating and the events of our lives don’t always come out synchronized with the stories told in popular culture.

I watched the trailer on its release day. It seems unlikely that I’ll watch the movie when it is released two months from now. The weekend of the Fourth Sunday of Advent isn’t exactly “down time” in my life. I’m not much for looking for entertainment outside of the activities of the church at that time of the year.

On the other hand, our Son and his family along with our daughter and her husband will be coming to visit us around new years. Perhaps the years have mellowed our children a little bit and they won’t have lined up at the theaters to be among the first to see the new movie. If things line up, we might all go to see the movie together around New Years. I’m sure it will still be in the theaters.

Often we understand our own stories better by hearing the stories of others. Perhaps there is a bit of Star Wars in the hero journey of our family.

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