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From left to right: Wise beyond her years -- Queen Amidala, The new face of evil -- Darth Maul; Qui-Gon Jinn reminds us of the great powers and humility of the samurai warrior.             Ewan McGregor (who plays the young Obi-Wan Kenobi) felt it was an honor to be a part of the legend and modern myth that is Star Wars.                                                                   Anakin Skywalker (Jake Lloyd) embarks upon his journey.

by Coralee Grebe This article is edited for publication on the Internet. For the article in full, see Solimar magazine at Barnes & Noble, Borders, Crown Books, Tower Records, and Virgin Stores. On sale June 22, 1999. You can also subscribe online by clicking here or by calling toll free: 1 (877) 925-1213. With Star Wars: Episode 1 The Phantom Menace exploding on screens across the country, the phenomenon that is Star Wars returns to a galaxy near you. But what is it about Star Wars that entices viewers to watch the same movie hundreds of times? Why such a rush to buy the movies' toys, engage in Star Wars role-playing games or say in a low, scratchy voice to your friends, "I am your father, Luke"? Liam Neeson, left, as Qui-Gon Jinn, says that we've lost the oral tradition of storytelling, of myths and legends, and that Star Wars helps fill that void. Jake Lloyd, center, plays Anakin Skywalker. Ewan McGregor, right, plays the young Obi-Wan Kenobi. Would you believe our fascination with the Star Wars movies stems from our ties to cross-cultural myths? According to the mythology scholar Joseph Campbell, Star Wars movies embody the timeless tale of the hero's journey and "captured the imagination of youth in the first place, because just directly, it's a beautifully conceived adventure. And it's an adventure into this world of the unknown, to us now, of space." George Lucas has openly credited Campbell's Monomythic hero's journey with helping him write the Star Wars films. "I set out to write a children's film, and I had an idea of doing a modern fairy tale… I wrote many drafts of this work and then I stumbled across [Campbell's] The Hero with a Thousand Faces. . . . "[The book] just took what was about 500 pages and said, here is the story… It was all right there and had been there for thousands and thousands of years, as Dr. Campbell pointed out… It's possible that if I had not run across that [book], I would still be writing Star Wars today." . . . Lucas combines this ancient storytelling with ingenious special effects. Each movie begins with "A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away… " At first glance, it might seem this was identifying a time and a place, but the "long ago" looks like the future to our twentieth century eyes, and the "far away" sometimes feels as if we're at home. By mixing the comfort of the past with the hope of the future, Lucas has made a place for us in the present - a place both familiar and alien. . . . Campbell had not seen a movie for years when Lucas invited him to Skywalker Ranch to watch the movies after they had been released. Campbell said about his experience, "… the thing that appealed to me was the clear statement of the problem of the individual human being against a dehumanizing environment. . . . "[Star Wars] does the [heroic] cycle perfectly. It's not a simple morality play," said Campbell in his "Power of Myth" interviews with Bill Moyers. "One of the wonderful things, I think, about this adventure into space, is that… [Lucas] is in a field that is not covered by our own knowledge… Much of the adventure in the old stories is where they go into regions that no one's been in before. [T]hat was the first thing I felt: there's a whole new realm for the imagination to open out and live its form." The Star Wars stories have inspired those of us who love them to follow our dreams. In seeing onscreen heroes discover the Force, we have clues that it might lie within ourselves, as well. ...