The infamous Bill Moyers Interview. The most profound aspects of the talk...

Lets call this the official Bill Moyer's Interview thread. Back in 1999 as we all know Bill Moyer's interviewed George on the mythology of Star Wars, which has become somewhat of a landmark for Star Wars fans, when looking at the myth that is Star Wars.

I would just liek this thread to be a general discussion of that that interview, and the things that they discussed.

To start off, what does everyone think is the most profound thing that GL stated in the interview that really hits home with the truest meaning of the myth?

For me it has gota be the part about making choices in life and the consequences that those choices could have and how it all relates to finding your bliss.

 

I've always liked the message that there is always hope for redemption. Even after a lifetime of evil deeds, a man can see teh error of his ways and come back to the good side. That's what has always hit home with me.

 

Is there a place I can find this interview? It sounds familiar, but my memory needs refreshing.

 

I've heard lots about the interview, but haven't found somewhere to see/read it without paying for it...

 

I have to say that both the Choices and Redemption words by George, really hit home with me.

They are so obviously profound, because in everyday life we make choices which lead us to one side or the other, and we all have the capacity to be redeemed when we have strayed from the right path.

 

I am deeply into the whole concept of Redemption, the role of someone that is basically put through a terrible experience either through accident or choice (or both) but is able to emerge a better person at the end of it.

In Anakin's case, although he will lose his life, his final acts will save the lives and personal freedoms of billions of people.

 

For those who haven't seen/ haven't read the interview:

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[b][u]Of Myth And Men[/u][/b]
[b][i]A conversation between Bill Moyers and George Lucas on the meaning of the Force and the true theology of Star Wars[/i][/b]

BY BILL MOYERS; GEORGE LUCAS

[b]MOYERS: Joseph Campbell once said all the great myths, the ancient great stories, have to be regenerated in every generation. He said that's what you are doing with Star Wars. You are taking these old stories and putting them into the most modern of idioms, the cinema. Are you conscious of doing that? Or are you just setting out to make a good action-movie adventure? [/b]

LUCAS: With Star Wars I consciously set about to re-create myths and the classic mythological motifs. I wanted to use those motifs to deal with issues that exist today. The more research I did, the more I realized that the issues are the same ones that existed 3,000 years ago. That we haven't come very far emotionally.

[b]MOYERS: The mesmerizing figure in The Phantom Menace to me is Darth Maul. When I saw him, I thought of Lucifer in Paradise Lost or the devil in Dante's Inferno. He's the Evil Other--but with powerful human traits. [/b]

LUCAS: Yes, I was trying to find somebody who could compete with Darth Vader, who is now one of the most famous evil characters. So we went back into representations of evil. Not only the Christian, but also Hindu and other religious icons, as well as the monsters in Greek mythology.

[b]MOYERS: What did you find in all these representations? [/b]

LUCAS: A lot of evil characters have horns. [Laughs.]

[b]MOYERS: And does your use of red suggest the flames of hell? [/b]

LUCAS: Yes. It's a motif that I've been using with the Emperor and the Emperor's minions. I mean, red is an aggressive colour. Evil is aggressive.

[b]MOYERS: Is Darth Maul just a composite of what you found in your research, or are we seeing something from your own imagination and experience? [/b]

LUCAS: If you're trying to build an icon of evil, you have to go down into the subconscious of the human race over a period of time and pull out the images that equate to the emotion you are trying to project.

[b]MOYERS: What emotion do you feel when you look at Darth Maul? [/b]

LUCAS: Fear. You wouldn't want to meet him in a dark alley. But he's not repulsive. He's something you should be afraid of, without [his] being a monster whose intestines have been ripped out and thrown all over the screen.

[b]MOYERS: Is the emotion you wanted from him different from the emotion you wanted from Darth Vader? [/b]

LUCAS: It's essentially the same, just in a different kind of way. Darth Vader was half machine, half man, and that's where he lost a lot of his humanity. He has mechanical legs. He has mechanical arms. He's hooked up to a breathing machine. This one is all human. I wanted him to be an alien, but I wanted him to be human enough that we could identify with him.

[b]MOYERS: He's us? [/b]

LUCAS: Yes, he's the evil within us.

[b]MOYERS: Do you know yet what, in a future episode, is going to transform Anakin Skywalker to the dark side? [/b]

LUCAS: Yes, I know what that is. The groundwork has been laid in this episode. The film is ultimately about the dark side and the light side, and those sides are designed around compassion and greed. The issue of greed, of getting things and owning things and having things and not being able to let go of things, is the opposite of compassion--of not thinking of yourself all the time. These are the two sides--the good force and the bad force. They're the simplest parts of a complex cosmic construction.

[b]MOYERS: I think it's going to be very hard for the audience to accept that this innocent boy, Anakin Skywalker, can ever be capable of the things that we know happen later on. I think about Hitler and wonder what he looked like at nine years old. [/b]

LUCAS: There are a lot of people like that. And that's what I wonder. What is it in the human brain that gives us the capacity to be as evil as human beings have be

 

Excuse me, but why did you describe it as infamous?

I saw this interview on the TV and was greatly impressed, as I often am when film directors, like Lucas and Reggio, speak.

 

Excellent article. Thanks for reprinting it.

 

Good job, Darth China!

 

Much of what Lucas talks about in this interview is discussed in Joseph Campbell's amazing Essay book "The Hero with a Thousand Faces." Lucas himself read this book a lot before embarking on writing the SW films.

It's rich w/ hero journey information and the quest of the father. Lucas wonderfully portrays the fallen hero (Anakin) and the hero son embarking on the Father quest.

It's really a must read and is a real eye opener.

Wonderful interview. Thanks for posting it Darth_China.

 

Infamous interview? IMHO, Bill Moyers did a good interview with GL, just as he did with Joseph Cambell (on "The Power of Myth" PBS series - filmed at Skywalker Ranch, no less!).

 

I taped that interview and can watch it whenever I want to! I'm happy...