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Though young Princess Leia Organa is feisty enough, she is hardly a match for the ruthless might of Vader. For one thing, the conspicuous difference in size between the tiny princess and the gigantic dark "Lord," as his minions call him, is striking. Furthermore, the utter darkness of Vader comes across in his clothing, and even more in the remarkable tone of his voice, full of anger and venom. And his actions speak even louder than his words when he lifts a Republic soldier off the ground by his neck with one hand (we see his feet dangling) and then crushes his throat (we hear the crunching) and throws him aside. Princess Leia, while by no means a traditional damsel in distress, given her moxie, is nonetheless in a terrible fix.

The only hope for Leia's rescue and, it seems, the survival of the old Republic now rests on the shoulders of a most unlikely person, a kind of last resort, who dwells in a remote corner of the galaxy. Before her capture, the princess has managed to launch an escape pod that carries a faithful droid who bears a plea for rescue to an elderly friend on the distant desert planet of Tatooine. The droid turns out to be the stalwart R2-D2, and the old friend is Obi-Wan Kenobi (Alec Guinness), a once famous Jedi knight who now lives, in a barren wilderness, the purposefully obscure life of a hermit and, as his attire and words suggest, a monk. Most of his few neighbors refer to him simply as "old Ben Kenobi" and think of him as a half-mad eccentric.

The unexpected begins to happen when the droid, safely landed on Tatooine, comes into the hands of young Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), who works on his uncle's hardscrabble moisture farm. When the droid escapes to look for Obi-Wan Kenobi, to whom he is to deliver the princess's message, Luke goes in search of the droid, only to be ambushed by nomadic bandits known as Sand People. Wounded and unconscious, he is rescued and magically restored, in Good Samaritan style, by old Obi-Wan. The pair take refuge in Obi-Wan's simple desert dwelling, where the old monk explains to young Luke the princess's message and the destiny that beckons Luke to join him, Obi-Wan, on what he acknowledges to be a "damn fool idealistic crusade."

And here, in this quiet moment of refuge and talk, comes the first huge—and lasting—surprise in Star Wars, the central element that transforms the epic from a dreary space-western into a tale of transcendent wonder and delight. As Obi-Wan talks to Luke Skywalker, it slowly becomes clear that there is more at stake than simply rescuing a princess or defeating the bad guys, though those are certainly conventional and worthy plots. Obi-Wan is after nothing less than the defeat of Darkness itself, the metaphysical power that seeks to destroy all that is good in the world. For this to happen, young Luke must join up with the old man, who now seems well past his prime physically and certainly no match for the fearsome Darth Vader. But joining up—and here's the rub, as Obi-Wan tells Luke—involves far more than learning to shoot a blaster or wield a light saber. To succeed in the task set forth by Obi-Wan, Luke must reckon with many difficult truths, which are at the same time, paradoxically, wonderful truths.

The first and greatest of these is Obi-Wan Kenobi's challenge to Luke's picture of himself and his world; for if Luke is to succeed in his combat with the Empire, his superficial notions of what the world is like must radically change. Luke's first substantial shock is learning the truth that he is born of a distinguished spiritual parentage. His long-dead father was not, as Luke's uncle has told him, an insignificant navigator on a spice freighter, but was, like Kenobi himself, a Jedi knight, a member of a famed brotherhood like King Arthur's Round Table or Robin Hood's Merry Men. "For a thousand generations" this brotherhood protected peace and justice in the old Republic before the tyrannical reign of the dark Empire, which "hunted down and destroyed the Jedi knights." Luke's father, Anakin Skywalker, was "the best star pilot in the galaxy" and a "cunning warrior" until he was murdered by the Emperor's agent named Darth Vader, the same man who now threatens Princess Leia. For Luke, this is jolting news: he had always seen himself as unexceptional, just an ordinary kid. Now he has more heritage and promise than he ever dreamed.

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

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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.