Star Wars - A Cold War Parody?

[Reaper-X]

I was in History the other day, doing the normal Cold War stuff that we do now when someone mentioned something about Star Wars. I don't really know what was said about it, but our History teacher defianetly said Star Wars was based on a parody of the Cold War. Anyone know anything about this? I find it hard to link the two together, although that may be because Star Wars focuses on a few star characters making it hard to show the entire conflict.

Also, the USA was planning to build a defense system nicknamed 'Star Wars' it was, in effect, a giant laser network surrounding the entire country to shoot down nuclear missiles before they could strike a target.

 

[Direwolf]

Yeah, that was the Star Wars program under Reagan.
It's not very likely that Star Wars was actually written as a parody of the Cold War, but part of the reason it was so successful was because it incorporated all kinds of ideas into it. You can easily read the Cold War into it (the giant godless evil empire), but thats only because so many of its themes are so universal.
Lucas and hist team have never said they intended to create anything other than good escapism fantasy, and I've never found any reason to disbelieve them.

 

[DeusExMachina]

I remember Mark Hamil relating Star Wars to The Wizard of Oz

 

[Septih]

I remember Mark Hamil relating Star Wars to The Wizard of Oz

i remember some random site relating the wizard of oz to both a drug trip and a sexual awakening (we were studying media in USA boom & bust period) :O

i can see differences and similarities for it being a parody though. i mean there is a death star, which could represent nuclear weaponry. but then again war never broke out from the cold war

 

[Yuri]

You can relate Star Wars to whatever the hell you want. I really don't see any linking to the Cold War other than the "evil empire," and "Star Wars," some stupid-ass campaign that wasted like a bazillion dollars because of some senile moron.

However, there are quite a few references to drugs in the Wizard of Oz, such as when they are dancing around the yellow brick road or whatever, and they go into the field and they fall asleep. The wicked witch says "Poppies" which is the plant used to make Opium (and herion). Opium makes people tired. There was also some rhyme in there, where they said "The poppy field puts you to sleep, but Old King's Snow wakes you right back up" or something to that effect. Old King's Snow would be craack.

 

[Garfield_]

Ive seen most of the George Lucas interviews but he never mentioned that Starwars saga is based on any real existing war.

 

[Reaper-X]

Looks like my teacher was wrong then. No surprise; He says he's never actually seen Star Wars (I know )
It didn't seem to me that it would be based on the Cold War, I can't find any real links unless the Empire was supposed to be Communism or something, but it still doesn't work out.
Thanks anyway guys.

 

[short recoil]

Looks like my teacher was wrong then. No surprise; He says he's never actually seen Star Wars (I know )
It didn't seem to me that it would be based on the Cold War, I can't find any real links unless the Empire was supposed to be Communism or something, but it still doesn't work out.
Thanks anyway guys.

Someone basing an opinion on a film they have never seen is crazy.

"OH bridget jones diary is just like the independance war in america a few hundred years ago"

Star wars is nothing like the cold war.

 

[Reaper-X]

Lol, tell my History teacher that. I didn't think he was gonna be right, was just makin' sure with some people who would know more about the matter than I did.