Technology has a complex, two sided relationship with the story of STAR WARS.  It is on one hand the lifeblood of STAR WARS' appeal, the agent of a visual style that sets STAR WARS apart from non science fiction films.  On the other hand, STAR WARS is not really about technology, and that is precisely what gives the technological elements of STAR WARS their unique character.  The central story of STAR WARS is instead about the Force, which is spiritual, the opposite of cold technology.  In fact, I suspect that the underlying reason for STAR WARS' phenomenal success is that it presents human beings overcoming technological threats and limitations with spiritual and moral strength.  It sets STAR WARS apart from Star Trek, in which humans revere technology and conquer alien technology by suppressing emotions and becoming more like computers, and 2001, in which human progress is inspired and apparently subordinate to an austere metallic something.  In STAR WARS, by contrast, technology is morally subordinate to the human being. Technology is judged according to how it well takes on human qualities and serves human purposes.  Pure technology is always a villain in STAR WARS, and in general, the more a person or thing is dominated by technology, the more likely they are to be the enemy.  Indeed, it is impossible to detail every event in STAR WARS which bears out these statements, but I will discuss some of the most important and memorable cases.

Bad Technology

The most villainous pieces of technology in the STAR WARS Trilogy are the Death Stars.  The Death Star is the principle villain in STAR WARS: A New Hope.  What makes it a villain is its inhuman facelessness.  The only quality it has which is vaguely human is its "eye", but rather than lessen its evil, the one eye gives the Death Star the look of a cyclopean monster.  The Death Star's dull gray outer appearance gives in an inhospitable look, and it's no accident that Luke mistakes it for an inhabitable moon, rather than, say, a slightly misplaced Alderann.  The Death Star's mega-laser, its major threat, displays a cold, mathematical geometry in its operation as several different lasers form into one to destroy Alderann, a peaceful looking, green and blue Earth like planet.  The inside of the Death Star is just as bad.  Nowhere do we see even the suggestion of a comfortable living space, nor any suggestion of aesthetically interesting construction.  The most plush room we see is the meeting room where Darth Vader chokes a snotty admiral, and even that room is hardly plush.  The rest of the inside of the Death Star is as sterile and geometric as the outside.  The only exception is the garbage compactor, but that is of course yet another faceless technological villain which, along with an equally faceless tractor beam, our heroes must overcome.  Likewise, the deflector shield is a major villain in Return of the Jedi.

From the Death Stars, we move on to Darth Vader, the principle villain in The Empire Strikes Back.  We never an inch of see Darth Vader's skin until the very end of Return of the Jedi, except for one small shot in The Empire Strikes Back that reveals the scars on the back of his head.  Importantly, this brief shot foreshadows Darth Vader's underlying humanity, which is shockingly revealed at the end of the film.  Before that small shot of Vader's head, it didn't seem possible that he could be anybody's father.  And indeed, when Vader finally turns back into Anakin Skywalker at the end of the Return of the Jedi, the change is symbolized by the removal of his "mask."  The fact that he calls it a mask rather than a helmet suggests that it has all along been suppressing and hiding his true self, rather than protecting it or truly keeping it alive.  Up to that point, Darth Vader's signature character trait is his electronic sounding breathing, which along with his glass eyes and blinking control panel characterize him as a robot.  And if all that doesn't convince you, remember how Kenobi calls him "more machine than man" while trying to convince Luke that there is no good left in him.  The message is clear: Man good, machine bad.  The fact that the soul of the man eventually is freed from the machine is the most important thematic fact in all of Star Wars.

In addition to Darth Vader, the man-turned-into-evil-faceless-robot motif is repeated in Boba Fett, the Storm Troopers, the Tie fighter pilots, and the mega-laser technicians.



Now we come to a sensitive subject for yours truly: Han Solo's freezing in carbonite.  I was so scared of this spectacle as a six year old that I never saw Empire in the theater during it's original release.  (I missed the Special Edition too because I couldn't fit it into my schedule.  Your condolences are most welcome.) I almost cried as a child when I was at a friends house and he brought out the toy of the frozen Han Solo that came with Boba Fett's starship.  And I still cried the first time I saw the scene on video, at age fifteen.  Anyway, the point is that the carbon freezing facility is another faceless technological villain, rather like the garbage compactor in the first film but a lot worse.  It robs Solo of his strong, quirky, disarming, human character. 

A few last things before I move on: All of the torture in the films is done with machines, the dark cave on Dagobah is the only place on that planet we see anything man-made (the cave has cement walls), Cloud City's ventilation system is very unkind to Luke, and the Emperor's throne is a plain, cold, metal box.  All of these things suggest that man made things are bad, whether because they are made for evil purpose, like the torture droid, or because they are stupid and careless, like the garbage compactor and ventilation system.

The More Human the Better

So far I have discussed cases in which technology undoubtedly symbolizes the villain.  Now I will turn to cases in which both sides use similar technology.  I will discuss in particular starships and droids.  As I mentioned at the beginning, there is a consistent pattern here in which the more human qualities a ship or droid has, the more likely it is for this ship or droid to be on the good side.

The starships of the Galactic Empire are markedly different from those of the rebel alliance.  The most tangible difference is that they don't have curves.  Almost all the starships of the Rebel Alliance have curved structures in more or less prominent positions.  The Rebel Mon Calamari ships have almost no straight lines or symmetry, and the blockade runner has that round hammerhead thing.  An Imperial Star destroyer, on the other hand, is entirely straight edged, triangular and quadrilateral, except for a small round bulge on its underside.  Its engines are round, too, but they are arranged very symmetrically and rectangularly.  In general, Rebel ships are much more organic and less mathematical than Imperial ships.  Rebel ships are often unique or have only a few sister ships, unlike the mass of star destroyers and TIE fighters.  Moreover, in The Empire Strikes Back the Millennium Falcon is a very model of cranky inconsistency, proving that Rebel ships have a lot more personality. After all, it's really just "a piece of junk."

It should be now clear that the droids follow a similar pattern.  Of all the machines in the films, R2D2 and C-3PO are the most easily confused with actual people.  They have personalities, make mistakes, crack jokes and express joy and sadness.  On the other end of the scale is the Imperial probe droid at the beginning of The Empire Strikes Back, and the bounty hunter droid in the middle of the that film.  Both these droids have no personality besides cold efficiency.  Furthermore, the medical droid who talks to Luke on Hoth has a nice baritone, in contrast to the electronic voice of the droid who oversees Jabba the Hutt's electronic slaves (you-are-a-pro-to-col-droid-are-you-not?).

And then there is technology that is generally good: the lightsaber.

The lightsaber, of course, is the least futuristic of any piece of technology in STAR WARS.  Let's face it folks; it's a sword.  It's a throwback to samurai honour and medieval chivalry, as is the reference to Jedi "Knights."  The fact that Jedis use swords and not mega-lasers should tip you off that the more advanced technology is, the worse it is.  Jedis use an inferior weapon, but being such great people, they use it to better advantage.  Note that the Emperor never uses a lightsaber, and Vader, who still has some good in him, uses a red one.  Han, a good guy, uses Luke's lightsaber for a brief utilitarian purpose at the beginning of The Empire Strikes Back.

The Meaning of It All

The purpose of this portrayal of technology is principally this: to show that goodness is a very human quality, and that possessing machines or being like a machine does not make one great.  When something is good in STAR WARS, it is always good by virtue of its humanity, especially that particular quality of human beings which makes them work together and feel for one another.  Technological contraptions like the Death Star ultimately fail, while a father's love and young man's faith in friends prevails.

Coming later: Technology in the Making of STAR WARS, including discussion about whether George Lucas practices what STAR WARS preaches, and whether we can expect the same kind of message about technology from the prequels.

This page written by Joel Frangquist.