Star Wars in a Historical Context

To put Star Wars in context, in 1977 I was 17 years old. We were living during the Cold War, when the Soviet Union could be viewed as the “Evil Empire.” The fight against the Nazis in World War II, along with the Korean War and the Vietnam War, did not feel like distant history—they were still very much present in our minds. The threat of nuclear annihilation also felt very real.

We were going through the worst economic decade of my lifetime. Some people might point to the period after 2008 as worse, but the American economy was far more robust and ultimately able to rebound. In contrast, the 1970s felt like one piece of bad news after another. The country seemed stuck in a kind of malaise.

Then Star Wars arrived in 1977, and to my 17-year-old mind it felt like a godsend. It was a metaphor for a hopeful struggle against the many evils that surrounded us.

Star Wars became an important part of my life and even influenced my interest in computers and video game development. To this day, it feels like part of my identity.

Now, at 65, I notice how violent Star Wars really is. That did not seem like much of an issue in 1977, when the characters were essentially fighting “space Nazis,” because the era itself felt like an existential struggle against evil. For example, the films describe lightsabers as elegant weapons—but how elegant is cutting people in half or decapitating them? It would be like calling a battle axe elegant.

All of this makes me wonder how relevant Star Wars is today. The 20th century was by far the most violent in history, and mechanized, large-scale killing became almost normalized. There seemed to be less regard for the individual—something we now emphasize much more strongly.

Today, I feel far less threatened by external forces than I did after 9/11 or during the 1960s, ’70s, and ’80s.

We can still imagine a struggle between good and evil, but in the modern world those lines feel far less clear.

That may mean Star Wars needs to evolve to remain relevant. The original film gave us 1970s characters in a futuristic setting, while the more recent series Andor offers characters who feel more modern—and, as a result, more relevant to the time we live in.