On Star Wars Episode II and The Searchers by Mark Croft The author is not qualified to comment on the intrinsic artistic merit of Star Wars Episode II. Whatever the perceived quality of art, whether designed simply to entertain or to motivate thought, one should not turn ones back on the thought it stimulates. One should not turn ones back on the urge toward insight into the human condition or toward trying to identify patterns in the world no matter what the stimulus. The following is intended in this spirit. One of the strikingly familiar images in Sat Wars Episode II (and the seed of this essay) was that of the young and emotional Anaken Skywalker standing on a desert rock outcropping, backlit by the sun below the horizon, overlooking the village of the "savages" who had kidnapped his mother. Following this image he descends directly from the rock, with a superhuman Jedi jump. This scene is a paraphrasing of the scene from the classic Jon Ford/John Wayne movie "The Searchers". In that movie the emotional, young Martin Pawley (the co-searcher/apprentice to Wayne's character, Ethan Edwards), overlooks the village of the Comanche "savages" who had kidnapped his "sister". Martin is then lowered, and dropped a substantial distance, over this precipice (as opposed to the Jedi- bound). Skywalker's subsequent creeping from tent to tent, complete with the backdrop of the encampment's domesticated carnivores (dogs in the Ford image), and his entrance into a tent by cutting a hole in its back with his light-saber (knife) was predestined by this imagery. "The Searchers" revolves around a 5 year search, across the west, by Eathan and Martin, for the Ethan's niece who had been kidnapped by a marauding band Comanches. Indeed prior to this scene Anaken also went through a brief "search" for the savage nomads, in the desert, astride his airborne motorcycle. In "The Searchers" of course the search took years and the mounts were horses, nonetheless some of the same imagery is present. On some level the character of Anaken appears to be a blend of the main characters in "The Searchers". Wayne's character is one of the most deeply layered and complex in the western genre. Ethan Edwards is a case study in isolation, alienation and disconnection from the world and its rules. The core of his schism from the world appears to have been the terrible death of his mother (16 years before) at the hands of the Comanches, the same tribe that kidnapped his niece. [This should of course be kept in mind when thinking about the SWE II case.] Ethan's revulsion and helpless furry at the brutality in the violation/torture/slaughter of his brother's family, and the older kidnapped niece, is also emphasized. The alienation of his long years in the Civil War, culminated by the devastating defeat of the South, is also blended into his character. There is also a subtext that runs through the film's early scenes. Ethan had been in love with his brother Aaron's wife (Martha), and their interactions subtly convey that they still love each other. There are some suggestions that Martha had chosen to marry Ethan's solid family oriented brother. Thus Ethan had also lost the woman he loved twice, first to his brother, and second to the terrible end at the hands of the Comanches. He blamed himself for both losses. The first by virtue of his loner-personality, and the second by his being lured away (with the local ranger contingent) from protecting his brothers farm by a decoying cattle theft. Wayne's character is an incredibly strong one possessing: great courage; a profound/hard-won knowledge of the west/Indians; dogged perseverance (tenacity); loyalty to family and the vanquished South; a code of personal honor; and a deep sense of his own code of morality. This morality did not extend to the laws/institutions the victorious North, by which, it is implied, he may be wanted as an outlaw. Ethan is however, deeply scared by hatred, anger, and an unrequited need for vengeance. In a sense he has within him a deeply "dark" side. He has a grim respect for the shear toughness of the Indians, but there is no doubt in his abiding hatred for them. His hatred is best exemplified by the emerging clarity that he intends to kill his own niece for her forced cohabitation with her Indian captive. He is a man at war within himself. In the end the morality within him triumphs, albeit by the skin of its teeth. He spares her life and allows her to reenter his heart. In the true end however; although he has been able to regain his moral basis and partially reopen his heart, he turns away from the doorway of the home into which the rest of the reunited family enters; still in isolation. Indeed Eathan's "framing" in the doorway both at the beginning and end of the movie tends to emphasize the symmetry of his isolation both before and after. In "The Searchers" Wayne is accompanied by his half-breed nephew (Martin Pawley) who had been adopted and raised with his brothers family. Martin is young, impetuous, apt to be governed by his emotions, and always chafing under the hard-handed supervision of Ethan. He is capable of the sort of deep love that had been killed in Ethan by loss. Ethan can, and does, love but his isolation does not allow him to express it, let alone embrace it. Martin struggles, within himself, between the love of a woman and his devotion to duty (rescuing his adopted sister from the Indians). This duty is compounded by his growing realization that he very well is the only hope of rescuing her from death at the hands of Ethan's hatred. Anaken is in many ways a blend of these two characters. Like Martin's he is headstrong, impetuous, and smitten by the love that comes in youth. He also has a deeply "dark" side like Ethan. Like Ethan he is born to leadership and eventual isolation. He has a tendency toward arrogance and a sense of greatness forestalled by his mentors. The sin of pride so to say. This is not one of the prominent elements of "The Searchers" characters. Ethan has a cold calculated confidence bred of experience. He has a courage/decisiveness-of-action grounded in this confidence, and possibly a lack of concern with dying should he miscalculate. Indeed, the inner quiet pain with which carries himself leaves one feeling that Ethan might regard death as a welcome release form that which he can not otherwise escape. The core of the dark side Anaken, and the seed from which Darth Vader grows, is the consuming need for (and act) of vengeance that follows from the terrible touture/death of is mother at the hands of the "savage" nomads. This is of course analogous to the character-defining-loss of Ethan's mother (and the woman he loved) in "he Searchers". There are at least two disparities between these two characters that lead Anakin to succumb to immorality / "darkness" and Ethan's withdraw into an inner hatred/struggle with a core of morality/honor preserved. The first is the combination of trauma and opportunity. Immediately upon the terrible trauma of his mothers death Anaken is presented with both the opportunity and the means to take revenge. He acts without time for moral consideration. In Ethan's case the acts of brutality occur in his absence ant the objects for revenge are removed in both time and space to an unknown location. It is very possible that, had Ethan seen the act and had the perpetrators at hand, his vengeance would also have been terrible. Still one has the feeling, while Ethan may have extracted a terrible vengeance, his roots would have eventually stayed his hand. That he may have crossed the line in rage and grief but, would have recognized it and stopped short of being consumed. That in short he might have stopped short of killing the women and children as he spared his neice. The second point less quantitative but is arguably much more important, namely depth of character. Ethan is very mature, having lead a long life of morality, duty and honor. He also had a background of family. He has a character with deep longstanding roots. He has undergone great hardship and loss but his roots run too deep to be toppled completely. He is a man who has lived the best part of his life, but he has lived a real life and is not prone to wringing his hands with qualms about the "slings and arrows of outrageous fortune". It could be argued that Akinen is a character in a vehicle ripe with two-dimensional cartoon –like characters, and therefore that such a questions are irrelevant. Placing this aside, Anaken is basically an unformed child. He simply hadn't had the time or opportunity to sink roots of understanding into life. He had done some things but he has not really lived. His youth and family were stolen by fate. He was drawn by destiny into a monastic-like order with a religious set of principles and duty to all of the Galaxy. He has not lived as an individual and appears to have no prospect of living like a man in the future. He is fighting feelings of bitterness at the loss of a real life. He could well complain he was robbed. It must be somewhat worse than being born heir of a kingdom with all the concomitant duties but none of the worldly conveniences/pleasures. This, compounded with his love of a woman, torments him. Anaken's sense of his mother's plight must also have played upon his sense of guilt. How, after all, could a person of such privilege and power (and his powerful associates) let his mother persist in an uncertain a state of slavery? Could he, they, not of spared some infinitesimal resources/time from saving the galaxy to raise his mother out of degradation and exposure to disaster. He had every right to feel fraught with guilt and reasonable bitterness with his mentors to let such a thing persist. Despite such things, Anakin seems to have struggled to take on his holy duties, renouncing life and family, as most mortals know it. He was inculcated in youth into a system with a mountain of ritualized duties but which provided no life-roots of character as in Ethan's case. Thus when burdened by unbearable denial-of- life, grief, guilt, anger, and finally trauma his unformed character crumbles beneath the weight.