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Editor's note: Starting today, we're running a four-part series about the Star Wars saga as adapted from a chapter in Catching Light: Looking for God in the Movies, by Roy M. Anker. Today's first segment sets the scene as a young Luke Skywalker, looking for great adventure beyond his banal existence on Tatooine, begins what turns out to be quite the spiritual journey when he meets an eccentric old man, the former great Jedi knight, Obi-Wan Kenob.

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The Star Wars saga wraps up with this week's final installment, Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. The five previous movies, about ten hours of film story, featured three big surprises, one in each of the three original pictures, Star Wars (1977), The Empire Strikes Back (1980), and The Return of the Jedi (1983). All three of these bright and revealing moments prove to be turning points, amazing ones, on which the progress of George Lucas's whole remarkable saga depends.

The first takes place amid quiet conversation and, because the context is so unremarkable, it is easy to overlook; after all, the scene is mostly talk and, furthermore, talk of abstract forces about which the audience has no idea. Soon after the talk, though, comes the surprise that the hidden realities of which old Obi-Wan Kenobi has spoken actually shape the cosmic conflict at the center of the Star Wars chronicle. The second surprise, coming early in The Empire Strikes Back, offers even greater revelation, but this time it takes a notably comic turn, namely, the incredulity of the young hero in response to the farfetched notion that a puny, pesky, and funny-looking creature, the now legendary Yoda, trains warriors and, more than that, carries in his mind and soul the extraordinary powers of the universe.

The last glowing instant comes in the spectacular, unforeseeable, and wildly revealing climax of The Return of the Jedi. This is the conclusion nobody guessed, the full blossoming—or, more aptly, eruption—of the Force about which Obi-Wan quietly spoke to naive young Luke Skywalker long before. Two completely unexpected and stunning acts of selfless bravery, one fast upon the other, defeat the vast metaphysical evil that is a hair's breadth from completely extinguishing the slowly dimming light of human kindness.

Against all odds, then, wrapped in the pop space western that is Star Wars, lies a fetching, luminous, and finally exultant fable of holy trust, apprenticeship, and pilgrimage that culminates in a resplendent vision of servanthood, reconciliation, and a winsome portrait of the new creation that awaits the cosmos. At its core, the very heartbeat of the Star Wars saga offers a riveting melodrama of redemption by love, the unforeseen wild Force that runs all galaxies both near and "far away." To be sure, much in this saga is digressive and self-indulgent, especially chase sequences and the special effects ad infinitum; but throughout the saga Lucas deftly displays in fresh, crisp images the hidden forces whose conflict drive the story. From beginning to end, Lucas's wild and fetching claims about the supernatural spangle forth, going where few films even dream of venturing, turning the whole of his story on the lathe of intergalactic metaphysical mystery.

That first surprise comes twenty minutes into Star Wars, after an opening sequence that pumps its importance. It is clear from the story's prologue that the stakes are very high—in fact, the world depends on it—for the evil depicted is neither tepid nor readily contained. That is immediately obvious even without the graphic violence of the kind that so many films now use to get an audience. The ship of young Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher), an emissary for the besieged Republic, is taken over by the forces of the Empire's ominous Darth Vader (the acting of David Prowse and the voice of James Earl Jones), whose character, appearance, and sound comprise one of Lucas's many strokes of imaginative genius. This first glimpse of the towering Vader as he strides down the ship's corridor—large sculpted black helmet over his entire head, long black cape flowing behind, and a resonant, diction-perfect, razor-sharp voice—tells audiences all they need to know about the great measure of evil now afoot in the universe. Hardly ever has there been a classier, more striking, or more fearsome villain conjured on film.

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Star Wars: Episode III—Revenge of the Sith	Printer view

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Star Wars Spirituality: Part 2	Printer view
In his book, Catching Light: Looking for God in the Movies, author Roy M. Anker writes about finding meaning and morality in the intergalactic saga.Part 2 of 4.

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Star Wars Spirituality: Part 3	Printer view
In his book, Catching Light: Looking for God in the Movies, author Roy M. Anker writes about finding meaning and morality in the intergalactic saga. Part 3 of 4.

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Star Wars Spirituality: Part 4	Printer view
In his book, Catching Light: Looking for God in the Movies, author Roy M. Anker writes about finding meaning and morality in the intergalactic saga. Part 4 of 4.