I know how to do the close readings and find those parallels, but that doesn’t make something good or deep or even important. It’s cool if you see it and want to make those arguments, but that’s not going to stop some people from saying that you’re full of shit or are going way too deep into something that never had this level of thought put into it (outside of post-facto interview statements).
Actually he talks about it to the crew in The Beginning documentary, he discusses it in the commentaries of the films and even some crew members rely what George is saying including Lawerence Kasdan and Rob Coleman, and if you watch his films from the very beginning with THX 1138 and American Graffiti you can see the beginnings of playing with these concepts. THX and Curt both go through similar journeys as Luke and Anakin. It’s a matter of prospective and how you choose to watch things. For some it means a lot to be able to uncover more and more layers within these films and film in general. For others they just want to be entertained and have fun with cinema. For many that’s what Star Wars is strictly speaking. There’s nothing at all wrong with that either as they are meant to entertain but I find if you choose to understand George’s intentions and him as a person I find you gain a greater appreciation of him as an individual and artist. You begin to see a uniquely whole picture of what Star Wars means to him and why he made certain decisions. You also understand him as a person and see just how much he is Luke but also Anakin and not just Darth Vader as many claim he became.
I get why people would be disappointed by the Prequels. They appear to be vastly different from the Originals on the surface but they’re really not that different if you go into them with trying to understand what George intended and him as a person. It’s all in how you decide to see things and want to believe them to be. It’s much like faith.
Cinema as an art form is something we only touch the iceberg of what it can be. It has so many purposes that haven’t been discovered or created yet. It’s very exciting but unfortunately it’s not what sales tickets and that’s the harsh reality most studios and moviegoers judge a film by. Cinema is more than a means to only entertain. It can inform, challenge, transport you to another place, show you another culture, and change your life by giving you life.