A Mythology from Spare Parts

Star Wars opened in 32 theaters on May 25, 1977. Nobody expected it to be a phenomenon. Twentieth Century Fox thought it was a risk. Director George Lucas had no track record with science fiction. The studio was so unconfident that it packaged the film with another release to force theaters to carry it. Within weeks, lines wrapped around city blocks. Within months, it was the highest-grossing film in history.

Lucas built Star Wars from spare parts. The plot is a monomyth -- Joseph Campbell's hero's journey, mapped onto space. The visual language borrows from Akira Kurosawa's samurai films, World War II dogfight footage, Flash Gordon serials, and Westerns. The Force is drawn from Taoism and Eastern philosophy. Nothing in Star Wars is original. Everything in Star Wars feels original. The genius was in the assembly, not the components.

george lucas at a 2009 event -- the man who retained star wars merchandising rights and changed hollywood's business model. source: wikimedia commons

The business model was as revolutionary as the film. Lucas had negotiated to retain merchandising rights -- something the studio considered worthless. Toy sales eventually generated more revenue than the box office. Star Wars invented the modern franchise: a story told not just through film but through toys, games, books, theme parks, and television. It turned narrative into platform.

Star Wars also changed how films were made. Lucas founded Industrial Light & Magic to create effects no existing studio could produce. ILM became the most important special effects company in history, pioneering techniques used in virtually every blockbuster since. Lucas did not just make a movie. He built an infrastructure for mythmaking that is still running nearly fifty years later.