I return to the early scenes of A New Hope to pick up on some early ideas about freedom. C-3PO and R2-D2 are opposite extremes: 3PO totally unfree, R2 remarkably free. The desert settings of Tatooine are the perfect place to set up questions of freedom because it echoes the setting of the Western, a genre preoccupied with freedom. I then summarize the evidence that the film can be seen as an autobiography of George Lucas and connect that with Lucas's preoccupation with freedom. Finally, I briefly explain my approach to film interpretation.

For a full transcript, visit https://theforceandfreedom.libsyn.com/transcript-a-portrait-of-the-artist

Star Wars is a story about freedom and threats to freedom. You might not have thought that it has a lot to say about this, since the dialogue never poses any deep questions about it. But the dialogue isn't what's interesting about Star Wars. What's most interesting about Star Wars are the visuals, and the visuals communicate a lot about freedom and threats to it. In this episode, I run through some of what the visuals of the first two minutes of Star Wars (after the opening crawl) communicate.

For a full transcript, visit https://theforceandfreedom.libsyn.com/the-visual-storytelling-of-star-wars-transcript

Obi-wan's adventures aboard the Death Star are in stark contrast to the other heroes'. Where they narrowly escape danger after danger, desperately thinking their way out of jams, Obi-wan wanders through the Death Star unnoticed, fully in control of the situation. Obi-wan doesn't have to overcome fear because he is so good at setting the terms of engagement that no one ever threatens him. Until Vader shows up.

Vader is as cunning as Obi-wan, and their duel involves layers of strategic gambits, each aimed at controlling the conflict and its outcome. But Obi-wan has an advantage over Vader, something that gives him a kind of freedom in spite of Vader's strategic brilliance.

For a full transcript, visit https://theforceandfreedom.libsyn.com/the-freedom-of-the-jedi